Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal policy had gone into effect in 1830 and would tragically intersect with the cholera pandemic. The Choctaws, whose nation included millions of acres in what are today the states of Mississippi and Alabama, were coerced into signing a treaty giving up their land. Their first deportations in 1831 were a disaster, and the second deportations occurred right at the time that Vibrio descended the Mississippi River. Choctaws became infected in collection points in Memphis and Vicksburg, aboard steamboats that carried them into Arkansas, and in camps along the way to Indian Territory. Hundreds perished. Government agents overseeing the operation actively tried to cover up the deaths, and Andrew Jackson described removal as highly successful, without mentioning any suffering. The Choctaws called the experience the “Trail of Tears and Death.”</jats:p>