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Most Americans are familiar with the “Trail of Tears” and the relocation of the Cherokee Indians.

But, many don’t realize that thousands of Creek Indians were forced from Alabama and Georgia to Indian territory west of the Mississippi.

On Sunday afternoon, the Main Street area of the Pioneer Museum of Alabama was filled with those who wanted to know more about the Creek Indian Removal and the role it played in American history.

Dr. Christopher Haveman, associate professor of history at the University of West Alabama, was a guest speaker at the Pioneer Museum of Alabama Sunday afternoon.

Haveman is also the author of “Rivers on Sand: Creek Indian Emigration, Relocation and Ethnic Cleansing in the American South and Bending Their Way Onward.”

Haveman said few know that about 23,000 Creek Indians were also removed from Alabama and Georgia to Indian territory, west of the Mississippi Rivers between 1827 and 1829.

Federal officials relocated the Creek people and shared the Creeks’ experience as they traveled over dusty roads and along frozen rivers to present-day Oklahoma.

Haveman used maps to further tell the story of the Indian removal and how it shaped America then and today.

The program was co-sponsored by the Southeastern Mvskoke Nation and the Pike County Historical, Genealogical, and Preservation Society and hosted by the Pioneer Museum of Alabama.