The Official History of The Trail Where They Cried

Between 1790 and 1830 the population of Georgia increased six-fold. The western push of the settlers created a problem. Georgians continued to take Native American lands and force them into the frontier. By 1825 the Lower Creek had been completely removed from the state under provisions of the Treaty of Indian Springs. By 1827 the Creek were gone.

Cherokee had long called western Georgia home. The Cherokee Nation continued in
their enchanted land until 1828. It was then that the rumored gold, for which De Soto had relentlessly searched, was discovered in the North Georgia mountains.

In his book Don't Know Much About History, Kenneth C. Davis writes:
Hollywood has left the impression that the great Indian wars came in the Old
West during the late 1800's, a period that many think of simplistically as the
"cowboy and Indian" days. But in fact that was a "mopping up" effort. By that
time the Indians were nearly finished, their subjugation complete, their numbers
decimated. The killing, enslavement, and land theft had begun with the arrival
of the Europeans. But it may have reached its nadir when it became federal
policy under President (Andrew) Jackson.

The Cherokees in 1828 were not nomadic savages. In fact, they had assimilated many European-style customs, including the wearing of gowns by Cherokee women. They
built roads, schools and churches, had a system of representational government, and were farmers and cattle ranchers. A Cherokee alphabet, the "Talking Leaves" was
perfected by Sequoyah.

In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an independent Cherokee Nation. At first the court seemed to rule against the Indians. In Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia, the Court refused to hear a case extending Georgia's laws on the Cherokee because they did not represent a sovereign nation. In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee on the same issue in Worcester vs. Georgia. In this case Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, making the removal laws invalid. The Cherokee would have to agree to removal in a treaty. The treaty then would have to be ratified by the Senate.

By 1835 the Cherokee were divided and despondent. Most supported Principal
Chief John Ross, who fought the encroachment of whites starting with the 1832
land lottery. However, a minority less than 500 out of 17,000 Cherokee in North
Georgia) followed Major Ridge, his son John, and Elias Boudinot, who advocated
removal. The Treaty of New Echota, signed by Ridge and members of the Treaty
Party in 1835, gave Jackson the legal document he needed to remove the First
Americans. Ratification of the treaty by the United States Senate sealed the
fate of the Cherokee. Among the few who spoke out against the ratification
were Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, but it passed by a single vote. In 1838
the United States began the removal to Oklahoma, fulfilling a promise the
government made to Georgia in 1802. Ordered to move on the Cherokee, U. S.
General Wool resigned his command in protest, delaying the action. His
replacement, General Winfield Scott, arrived at New Echota on May 17, 1838 with 7000 men. Early that summer General Scott and the United States Army began the
invasion of the Cherokee Nation.

In one of the saddest episodes of our brief history, men, women, and children
were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities
and food, then forced to march a thousand miles Some made part of the trip by boat in equally horrible conditions). Under the generally indifferent army commanders,
human losses for the first groups of Cherokee removed were extremely high. John
Ross made an urgent appeal to Scott, requesting that the general let his people
lead the tribe west. General Scott agreed. Ross organized the Cherokee into
smaller groups and let them move separately through the wilderness so they could
forage for food. Although the parties under Ross left in early fall and arrived in
Oklahoma during the brutal winter of 1838-39, he significantly reduced the loss of life among his people. About 4000 Cherokee died as a result of the removal. The route they traversed and the journey itself became known as "The Trail of Tears" or, as a direct translation from Cherokee, "The Trail Where They Cried" ("Nunna daul Tsuny").

Ironically, just as the Creeks had murdered Chief McIntosh for signing the Treaty of
Indian Springs, the Cherokee murdered Major Ridge, his son and Elias Boudinot for
signing the Treaty of New Echota. Chief John Ross, who valiantly resisted the forced
removal of the Cherokee, lost his wife Quatie in the march. And so a country formed fifty years earlier on the premise "...that all men are created equal, and that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these the right to life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness.." brutally closed the curtain on a culture that had done no wrong.

Legend of the Cherokee Rose (nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i)

When gold was found in Georgia, the government forgot its treaties and drove the Cherokees to Oklahoma. One fourth of them died on the journey west. When the Trail of Tears started in 1838, the mothers of the Cherokee were grieving and crying so much, they were unable to help their children survive the journey. The elders prayed for a sign that would lift the mother's spirits to give them strength. God, looking down from heaven, decided to commemorate the brave Cherokees and so, as the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens dropped to the ground, he turned them into stone in the shape of a Cherokee Rose. The next day a beautiful rose began to grow where each of the mother's tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; a gold center represents the gold taken from Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem for the seven Cherokee clans. No better symbol exists of the pain and suffering of the "Trail Where They Cried" than the Cherokee Rose The wild Cherokee Rose grows along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma today.

The Legend of the Cherokee Rose

More than 100 years ago, the Cherokee people were driven from their home mountains when the white men discovered gold in the mountains of Tears. Some of the people came across Marengo County in West Alabama. It seems that after they had left the mountains, they came this far south so not have to climb more mountains. It was early summer and very hot, and most of the time the people had to walk. Tempers were short and many times the soldiers were more like animal drivers than guides for the people. The men were so frustrated with the treatment of their women and children, and the soldiers were so harsh and frustrated that bad things often happened. When two men get angry they fight and once in a while men were killed on the trip. Many people died of much hardship. Much of the time the trip was hard and sad and the women wept for losing their homes and their dignity. The old men knew that they must do something to help the women not to lose their strength in weeping. They knew the women would have to be very strong if they were to help the children survive. So one night after they had made camp along the Trail of Tears, the old men sitting around the dying campfire called up to the Great One in Galunati (heaven) to help the people in their trouble. They told Him that the people were suffering and feared that the little ones would not survive to rebuild the Cherokee Nation. The Great One said, "Yes, I have seen the sorrows of the women and I can help them to keep their strength to help the children. Tell the women in the morning to look back where their tears have fallen to the ground. I will cause to grow quickly a plant. They will see a little green plant at first with a stem growing up. It will grow up and up and fall back down to touch the ground where another stem will begin to grow. I’ll make the plant grow so fast at first that by afternoon they’ll see a white rose, a beautiful blossom with five petals. In the center of the rose, I will put a pile of gold to remind them of the gold which the white man wanted when his greed drove the Cherokee from their ancestral home." The Great One said that the green leaves will have seven leaflets, one for each of the seven clans of the Cherokee. The plant will begin to spread out all over, a very strong plant, a plant which will grow in large, strong clumps and it will take back some of the land they had lost. It will have stickers on every stem to protect it from anything that tries to move it away. The next morning the old men told the women to look back for the sign from the Great One. The women saw the plant beginning as a tiny shoot and growing up and up until it spread out over the land. They watched as a blossom formed, so beautiful they forgot to weep and they felt beautiful and strong. By the afternoon they saw many white blossoms as far as they could see. The women began to think about their strength given them to bring up their children as the new Cherokee Nation. They knew the plant marked the path of the brutal Trail of Tears. The Cherokee women saw that the Cherokee Rose was strong enough to take back much of the land of their people.

0, soft fills the dew, on the twilight descending,
            And night over the distant forest is bending,
         And night over the distant forest is bending,
            Like the storm spirit, dark, o'er the tremulous main.

         But midnight enshrouded my lone heart in its dwelling,
            A tumult of woe in my bosom is swelling,
         And a tear unbefitting the warrior is telling,
            That hope has abandoned the brave Cherokee.

         Can a tree that is torn from its root by the fountain,
            The pride of the valley; green, spreading and fair,
         Can it flourish, removed to the rock of the mountain,
            Unwarmed by the sun and unwatered by care?

        Though vesper be kind, her sweet dews in bestowing,
            No life giving brook in its shadows is flowing,
        And when the chill winds of the desert are blowing,
            So droops the transplanted and lone Cherokee.

        Sacred graves of my sires, and I left you forever,
            How melted my heart when I bade you adieu,
        Shall joy light the face of the Indian?  Ah, never,
            While memory sad has the power to renew.

        As flies the fleet deer when the blood hound is started,
            So fled winged hope from the poor broken hearted,
        Oh, could she have turned ere forever departing,
            And beckoned with smiles to her sad Cherokee.

        Is it the low wind through the wet willows rushing,
            That fills with wild numbers my listening ear?
       Or is it some hermit rill in the solitude gushing,
            The strange playing minstrel, whose music I hear?

        'Tis the voice of my father, slow, solemnly stealing,
            I see his dim form by yon meteor, kneeling,
        To the God of the White Man, the Christian, appealing,
            He prays for the foe of the dark Cherokee.

        Great Spirit of Good, whose abode is in Heaven,
            Whose wampum of peace is the bow in the sky,
        Wilt thou give to the wants of the clamorous ravens,
            Yet turn a deaf ear to my piteous cry?

        O'er the ruins of home, o'er my heart's desolation,
            No more salt thou hear my unblest lamentation,
         For death's dark encounter, I make preparation,
            He hears the last groan of the wild Cherokee. 

By John Howard Payne, author of Home, Sweet Home.