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While
looking at their site to see what the park offered, what really
intriqued me enough to stay here is that one of the park's trails
is actually a preserved portion of the Trail of Tears. After visiting
the Cherokee
Heritage Center while in Oklahoma, I couldn't pass up a chance
to see more of this piece of history, tragic though it was.
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Illustration
by Cherokee artist Sam Watts-Scott, 2005 |
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The
Memphis to Little Rock Road was constructed in the 1820's - 1830's
with Indian removal in mind. Now part of the park's Old Military
Road Trail, this 1-1/2 mile segment is the longest and best preserved
surviving portion of the historic Trail of Tears.
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The
main trail begins here at the earthen dam. It's a loop that's a
little over 2 miles long.
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I
was fortunate to have Buford Horne, Asst. Park Superintendent, show
me the road as we talked about the history of it along the way.
After its more infamous purpose in 1838, other settlers used this
road. In fact, Buford's ancestors came down this very road in the
late 1860's in their move to Paris, Arkansas from the Eastern states.
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The
peace and beauty found on the trail today is in stark contrast to
how the Indians must have perceived it as they were forced down
this road after being removed from their homes and forced into a
new land.
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day before, I watched a 2 hour documentary the park featured entitled
"Trail of
Tears: Cherokee Legacy" - a powerfully moving account of
this period. I highly recommend a viewing of this before walking the
trail and just try to imagine the heartbreak of these people whose
hopes of keeping their own nation intact were crushed by our own nation's
broken promises and lust for Indian territory and its riches. So many
of the children and the elderly died along the way that it was said
that they arrived as a people with no past and no future. As the film
says at the end, "The promised Indian Sovereign Nation came to
nothing in the face of greed. Their survival is not a tribute to the
United States, but to the Cherokee nation." |
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