The removal of the Cherokees from Georgia took several years. Some people
left voluntarily for Indian Territory, which is now the state of Oklahoma, but
most Cherokees waited, hoping somehow to keep possession of their land. What
happened to them is one of the darkest chapters in the history of Georgia. It is
called the Trail of Tears.
In 1838, United States soldiers were sent to round up
the Cherokees and move them across the Mississippi River to Indian Territory.
General Winfield Scott was in command.
Cherokees, the President of the United
States has sent me with a powerful army to cause you, in obedience, to join that
part of your people who are already established in prosperity on the other
side of the Mississippi.
And to those who might fight back, he warned:
Think of this,
my Cherokee brethren. I am an old warrior and have been present at many a scene of
slaughter but spare me, I beseech you, the horror of witnessing the destruction of
the Cherokees.
When the soldiers arrived, Mavis Deering's grandmother was there
and told her what happened.
She said that the soldiers came and said it's time for
you to go. So they were only allowed to leave with the clothing they had on
their backs. They couldn't take anything with them on this trip and she said that
after they had walked a good part of the day, they were going up hill, that they
looked back and they could see their homes down in the valley and she said
that they could see their animals standing in the yard, see their homes, so
it was a sad experience, a traumatic experience, for all of them.
For Ramona Bear Taylor the words to describe that time come slowly and painfully.
There was so much I guess harsh treatment that was oh
done to our people when they, when they were forced out of their homelands and
put into stockades.
After they were rounded up the Cherokees were held in
stockades that were like concentration camps and then they began to march west.
Some took a River route, but most traveled by land, almost a thousand miles
to Indian Territory to what we now call Oklahoma. It was a long difficult journey
especially for the very old and the very young.
If there was a woman that had a
baby that she was carrying, a baby that died, there was illness along the way, and
if the baby died, she would have to carry it the rest of the day. They didn't allow
her to stop to bury it but at night, my grandmother said, that you could hear
people digging graves every night and they would bury the people that had died
along the way and then they would get to bury those babies and that since it was
October when they started, and it got to be winter along the way, that their feet,
the moccasins wore out and then because of the ice on the ground and snow that
their feet would freeze and burst and leave bloody footprints all along the way.
As the journey continued, there were a number of people who died from
exposure, from starvation from, lack of medical attention. Just a miserable time
to be alive there. The people were completely without hope but it was also
said that the medicine people were the people who were able to keep the spirit
up of the people as they moved along.
*Singing in Cherokee*
They sang this song on the journey West, asking for God's protection through the
dark days and long nights. In English it's called Guide Me Jehovah or simply
the Trail of Tears song. It took nearly four months to reach Indian Territory,
fifteen thousand people started out, four thousand, over one quarter, died on the
trail. They died of the cold, of starvation, of disease, and perhaps some
died of a broken heart but they're not forgotten and in Oklahoma
both the Cherokee and the Creek nations survive.
To find that it was only four
generations ago and that we remember their names, that we honor them, and that
we named our children names that these people had when they were still here in
Georgia and Alabama so those names live on. We never forgot any of that.
They say that, that the eternal flame or the sacred fire that
our people have. As long as the fire burns the Cherokee people will survive
and their fire is still burning today.
*Fire Crackling*
*End Screen Music*
Well there are still a lot of places left to see in this state and there are
still a lot of people I'd like you to meet. This is Georgia stories,
I'm Colin Seedor, thanks.