Evicted from their Southeastern homeland by the federal government in the 1830s, Native Americans were sent on forced marches to eastern Oklahoma that became known as the Trail of Tears, an ordeal of disease, starvation and death. Now a study of Cherokee remains suggests that the stress interfered with the normal growth of their skulls.

“It is a sign that something was going on in the environment that was hindering growth,” said Ann H. Ross, an anthropologist at North Carolina State University and an author of the study, which appears in Annals of Human Biology.

Previous studies have shown that cranial length is affected by stress. For the new research, the authors looked at the skull measurements of adult Cherokees born between 1783 and 1874, data collected in the late 19th century by the anthropologist Franz Boas and his students. The skulls of those born later in the period were significantly shorter than those born earlier.

Some Cherokees were able to avoid the forced march by hiding in the Smoky Mountains; skull measurements from that group indicated that their cranial lengths also shrank, but not as much.