INDIAN WARS: WHAT WAS THE TRAIL OF TEARS? WHAT WAS CUSTER’S LAST STAND? For much of the 19th century, especially between 1860 and 1890, a tragic conflict took place in the United States. Settlers and soldiers fought against American Indians. They seized their lands and herded the American Indians onto parcels of land known as reservations. WHAT WAS THE TRAIL OF TEARS? In the 1830s, gold was found in Cherokee territory in the southeastern US. About 16,000 Cherokees from the region were rounded up by the US army and forced to travel west in 1838 on a “Trail of Tears.” Over 4,000 Cherokees died on the journey. WHAT WAS CUSTER’S LAST STAND? In 1876, General George Custer led the United States Seventh Cavalry into the prairie lands around the Little Bighorn River in Montana. Stumbling upon a big assembly of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, Custer’s force was defeated and killed. It was the last American Indian victory.