Many books have been written about the so-called "Trail of Tears," the forced removal of the Cherokee people from their homeland in the American Southeast nearly 180 years ago, but they contain precious little testimony from the Cherokee people themselves. When they do include those voices, they typically are those of the political elites such as John Ross, Elias Boudinot, and John Ridge. Where are the voices of the Cherokee subsistence farmer? The widow with young children? The toll collector? The student? The orphan? This book is an attempt to restore those lost voices, using testimony taken from the Cherokee people themselves, and other sources.