Trail of Tears Conference to Meet in Little Rock
The National Trail of Tears Association will hold its 2027 national conference in Little Rock, returning to Arkansas for the first time in a decade.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Native American
The National Trail of Tears Association will host its national conference in Little Rock from September 27 to 29, 2027. The three-day event returns to Arkansas, which last hosted the conference in 2017.
Why it matters
The conference rotates among the nine states associated with the removal routes, and the 2027 program will focus on Arkansas' role in the forced displacement. Little Rock residents and visitors will have an opportunity to learn about the state's part in this history.
Roughly 60,000 Indigenous people from the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes were forcibly displaced from 1830 to 1850. The conference is projected to draw around 150 attendees over its three days.
The players
National Trail of Tears Association
The national organization dedicated to preserving and commemorating the routes and history of the forced removal of Indigenous peoples in the 1830s and 1840s.
Arkansas Department of Transportation
The state agency responsible for transportation infrastructure, which has partnered with the Arkansas chapter to identify and mark historic removal routes.
National Park Service
The federal agency that manages national parks and historic sites, which has partnered with the Arkansas chapter on identifying historic routes.
The details
Cherokee detachments traveled by water along the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi rivers before reaching Arkansas, where they disembarked near Little Rock and Dardanelle to regroup before continuing toward Indian Territory. The Arkansas chapter has worked with the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the National Park Service to identify historic routes and has installed hundreds of Trail of Tears signs along them. The 2027 conference theme is "TOTA Homecoming."
Timeline
1830-1850: Government forcibly displaces roughly 60,000 Indigenous people from the Southeast.
1996: The association holds its first conference in North Little Rock.
2017: Arkansas hosts the national conference for the last time.
September 27-29, 2027: The national conference convenes in Little Rock.
Legal Context
The 2027 conference continues commemoration of the Indian Removal Act's forced displacement of roughly 60,000 people between 1830 and 1850. Its focus on Arkansas water routes extends documentation of the removal beyond the overland paths most often discussed.
Little Rock residents may encounter visitors from the nine removal states during the conference's three days. The event offers a public chance to learn about Arkansas' role in the removal and the historic routes marked across the state.
The takeaway
The removal moved thousands of people along Arkansas waterways, and recognizing those routes keeps the history visible in the places where it happened. Readers interested in the subject can follow the conference's focus on those water paths.
What happens next
The national conference runs September 27 to 29, 2027, in Little Rock, with the theme "TOTA Homecoming."
Further reading
Explore more Native American coverage for background on the removal and the communities it affected.
Source note: This article includes information reported by ArkansasOnline.
