HISTORICAL CONTEXT Throughout history there have been various explorations, encounters, and exchanges. The Trail of Tears covers all the three aspects of exploration, encounter, and exchange, and is only one of the many examples there are in the history of the United States. Cherokee Indians along with find themselves forcibly exploring lands west of the Mississippi River after President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act in 1830. ("Trail of Tears"). The United States encounter a resistance amongst Indians to travel towards western Indian designated land; through the Trail of Tears Native Americans were actually being exchanged for their land, "by the 1920's many Cherokees had