Tribe marks Trail of Tears

U.S. forced 16,000 Cherokees to uproot 175 years ago

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

PARK HILL, Okla. - The strength of 16,000 Cherokee men, women and children who traveled 1,000 miles on the Trail of Tears lives on in Cherokee Nation, Bill John Baker, the nation’s principal chief, told a crowd Monday.

Baker was one of several speakers during a ceremony to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Trail of Tears at the Cherokee Heritage Center near Tahlequah, Okla. The last group of Cherokees arrived in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, on March 24, 1839.

“I can imagine them crossing the river,” Baker said. “On a day like this. The harshest of the harshest winter is over. ‘We made it. We survived it.’”

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed that year by President Andrew Jackson. It authorized discussion with American Indians about their removal from their homelands to Indian Territory.

The Treaty of New Echota was signed by Cherokee representatives and U.S. government officials in 1836. The treaty, while never approved by the Cherokee National Council, was used to remove Cherokee people. A large portion of the Cherokee population was living in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina at the time.

“This is 175 years ago,” Baker said at the ceremony. “That is not that long ago. Can you imagine the United States putting educated people in stockades and then shipping them away?”

It is estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000Cherokee people died while traveling the Trail of Tears, according to the Cherokee Heritage Center. The average number of days spent on the trails to make the journey was 157. Many of the people were underdressed and not prepared for the migration, partly because of the forceful eviction from their homes, according to the center.

“This is our legacy,” Baker said. “Our legacy is the spirit of our ancestors, coming here with only what was on their back.”

Arkansas was a sparsely populated frontier at the time, said John McLarty, president of the Arkansas chapter of the Trail of Tears Association. Lone homesteaders and tiny towns made up a majority of the landscape in the state. He said early settlers witnessed the movement of Cherokee families across the state between 1838 and 1839.

All four of the major routes for the Cherokee Trail of Tears cross the state, McLarty said.

McLarty said there were 16 Cherokee detachments that traveled the trail. Each detachment averaged 1,000 people.

Three detachments traveled the Water Route, which followed the Arkansas River into Fort Smith, McLarty said. Eleven detachments took the northern route which dropped into the state from Missouri near Pea Ridge Military Park. The Benge and Bell routes, which crossed the state, each had one detachment.

Receipts from merchants helped historians tell the story of the Trail of Tears, McLarty said. For instance, there are receipts north of Springdale for corn and salt pork. Another in Northwest Arkansas was for a child’scoffin, he said.

Daniel Littlefield, director of the Sequoyah National Research Center, spoke during the event Monday. He said there is still much to learn about the Trail of Tears.

“The more we study the more we realize how little we actually know,” Littlefield said. “One thing we don’t know is the daily activities of people along these routes. We don’t know about the rations of food on the roads.”

Littlefield said it is important to learn more about this historic event. He said receipts from the time give some idea of what happened, but there are no names.

“The story has not been humanized,” Littlefield said. “We are not going to be able to humanize the story until we can tell individuals’ stories.”

Research in Arkansas could play an important role in telling that story, Littlefield said. He said every Cherokee on the trail crossed through Arkansas at some point, meaning some of the history lies in the state.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/25/2014