The Trail of Tears

Captain John Smith

Winter (VanDevelder), 1838 (VanDevelder)

They walk along the path worn by thousands.  I glance over at them and am instantly met with the downfall of their people.  16 thousand walk away from Georgia towards their new life, their new destiny (VanDevelder) (The "Indian Problem").  Small children stumble along in failing efforts to keep up with the steady pace the captain enforces with the point of his bayonet.  Every once in a while one of them looks up at me and am tortured by their dark sad eyes.  What have we done? I question myself daily.  First, we tell them to be Christians and buy land (The "Indian Problem").  We tell them to have proper English names (The "Indian Problem").  Then, their efforts are met with this.  They were here first, yet they bent and changed their lives because we have forced them to.  This is wrong.  They went to the supreme court.  They won their case (Darrenkamp).   Yet, here we are, 7,000 soldiers, forcing them to walk thousands of miles to Oklahoma to a land they know nothing about (The "Indian Problem") (VanDevelder). 

Chief William

Winter, 1838

We walk along the Trail of Tears (Trail of Tears Association).  Trail where many cried.  Children cry.  Women cry.  Some men cry.  Cry because they are tired and they are hungry.  Most of all cry because we have to leave.  Leave our homes.  Land where our tribes have thrived  for hundreds of years.  Leave our memories.  Things that tie our souls there.  Leave our lives.  Place where we had homes and friends.  Sick have suffered.  Thousands have died (VanDevelder).  Never stop.  Never look back.  Air gets colder.  We walk further.  Sun is fading and light is leaving us.  We walk away from the homes that we knew.  Raven follow us.  They caw mournfully with the screams of my people’s hearts.  Green grass leaves.  Is replaced by crisp gray brush of the plains.  Dead plains.  Empty plains.  Foreign land.  Land of our enemies.  This is our new home.  Our new life.  Our new beginning.  New beginning feels like end. 

Bibliography

A&E Television Networks. "The "Indian Problem"." 1996. History.com (http://www.history.com/topics/trail-of-tears). 27 February 2013.

Darrenkamp, Angela. "The Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears: Cause, Effect and Justification." n.d. History Matters. 28 February 2013.

Trail of Tears Association. "Trail of Tears National Historic Trail." 1996. North Carolina Office of State Archaeology. 27 February 2013.

VanDevelder, Paul. "1838 - Cherokee Trail of Tears." 2012. Savages and Scoundrels. 28 February 2013.