Many people, institutions, and agencies are researching the history of the Trail of Tears. Through the Challenge Cost Share Program, the National Park Service forms partnerships with many different groups to encourage research activities along the trail, and achieve our collective goals to protect, preserve, and commemorate the history, and properties associated with, the Trail of Tears.

A broad range of research topics are eligible for cost share funding. They could include documenting a structure’s history and architectural fabric and design in anticipation of stabilization or preservation actions; studies of trail sites that may be eligible for certification or nomination to the National Register of Historic Places; general research into the trail’s history in a particular area that will contribute to an interpretive program there; and many others.

Examples of completed or ongoing research projects include:

Major Ridge Home

Major Ridge was a leading figure of the Cherokee Nation during the time of Cherokee removal. Eventually, Major Ridge along with a minority of others that later came to be known as the "Treaty Party," began to advocate removal as the only option to preserve the Cherokee people and were leaders in the signing in 1835 of the Treaty of New Echota that resulted in Cherokee removal. The historic home of Major Ridge although greatly altered from the time Major Ridge and his family occupied the house, survived and is preserved and managed by the Chieftains Museum Inc., in Rome, Georgia.

The modified Major Ridge Home became the Chieftains Museum in 1971. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and since 1973 has been further honored as a National Historic Landmark. Chieftains Museum, Inc. operates as a private, non-profit organization committed to telling the story of the house while preserving the site for future generations.

On October 29, 2002, Chieftains Museum announced its participation with the National Park Service as a certified site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. An NPS Challenge Cost Share project was funded in 2003 to complete a combined historic structure report and cultural landscape report to document the history of the house and farm of Major Ridge and to provide for the future plan for preservation and treatment of the property.

Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home Historic Structure and Cultural Landscape Report  2007

North Little Rock

The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole all passed through North Little Rock during the Indian Removal period, making the city one of the most important sites on the Trail of Tears. The city’s Riverside Park is a certified site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. In discussions between the City of North Little Rock, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, other associated groups, and the National Park Service, we identified the need to document the story and provide historic context as the first step towards developing a comprehensive plan for interpretation, preservation, and commemoration of Indian Removal there.

In 2003, through a cost share agreement between the National Park Service and the University of Arkansas Little Rock, Prof. Dan Littlefield and a team of researchers developed a historic context report on Indian Removal through North Little Rock. This report will provide interpreters and park developers with the historical background necessary to develop a noteworthy Trail of Tears experience in downtown North Little Rock and preserve extant sites.

The North Little Rock Site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: Historic Contexts Report, 2003