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European Diseases
Seventeen thousand Cherokee started west on the Trail of Tears in 1938.  One in four died from exhaustion, freezing weather or intense heat (due to the time of year), and diseases before it was over.  That was more than one-fourth of the Cherokee nation. More than 3,000 Cherokee died on the Trail of Tears, 16,000 died in stockades or prisons, and about the same amount on the Trail itself.