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How many Cherokee people died during the Trail of Tears?

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Map of the southeastern United States showing the historical locations of various Indigenous peoples, with tribal names such as Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, Natchez, Catawba, and Calusa labeled across the region. A red outline marks the general boundary of the Southeast cultural area, extending from eastern Texas and Louisiana through the Gulf Coast, up to the Atlantic coast and into parts of the Carolinas and Virginia. Major bodies of water like the Gulf of Mexico and the Atla
Indigenous peoples of the American Southeast

During the forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears, it is estimated that approximately 4,000 Cherokee people died.1234

This tragic loss of life resulted from the U.S. government's forced removal of the Cherokee from their ancestral lands in the Southeast to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) during the late 1830s. The high mortality rate was primarily caused by exposure, malnutrition, exhaustion, and disease, exacerbated by inadequate supplies, poor management, and the harsh conditions of the journey, which included travel during the frigid winter of 1838–39. Many of these deaths occurred in internment camps prior to the journey, during the arduous trek itself, or shortly after arriving in their new territory.123