'The trail where we cried...'
Region plays major role in tragic history of Trail of Tears

By Adam Testa, The Southern

 

Rain poured from the sky, and winds blew with tremendous force as the congregation huddled together on an unseasonably warm day in January.

Such were the conditions as a mass of Cherokee tribe members waited for weather to subside and allow continuation of their forced migration to land west of the Mississippi River in the winter of 1838-39.

Mother Nature displayed the same temperament 169 years later as a group of about 75 gathered at a Pope County farm to remember the tragedies on the Trail of Tears. The National Park Service dedicated the first Illinois site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail at the Crabb Abbott Farm near the Pope-Johnson county line Tuesday.

Sandra Boaz, president of the Illinois chapter of the Trail of Tears Association, discovered the atmospheric anomaly upon comparing the dedication date to a 19th century journal. The historic log belonged to a minister who accompanied more than 10,000 Cherokees to Indian Territory in what later became Oklahoma.

'Dumping ground'

Students learn about 1803's Louisiana Purchase and its effect on the expansion of the United States early in elementary school, but historians note other impacts of the $20 million transaction.

Rowena McClinton, associate history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, said the new land became a "dumping ground for Indians America didn't want" and ensured that slavery and racism crossed the Mighty Mississippi.

In 1830, U.S. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which exchanged land inhabited by American Indians in the east for the uninhabited lands west of the Mississippi. Chiefs of the five primary tribes never agreed to the act passed by the U.S. Congress.

President Martin van Buren enacted Jackson's law in 1838 and called for the mobilization and exile of American Indian tribes. More than 17,000 Cherokees were forced to endure the 800-mile trek from Georgia and other southern locales to their new land.

"It's important that our story be told, so that America can be aware of what happens when greed combines with prejudice," said Jack Baker, president of the national Trail of Tears Association and Cherokee Nation Tribal Council member.

'...Where we cried'

Exiled Cherokees followed at least three different paths on their westbound journey, with one crossing Pope, Johnson and Union counties in Southern Illinois, where they suffered their greatest losses.

The stretch of Illinois from Golconda, where they ported the Ohio River, to two crossing points on the Mississippi proved to be the shortest portion of the trail in length but the most costly in terms of time and life. Both rivers froze during the winter months, essentially trapping the Cherokees in the 65-mile span between the rivers.

Death and racial prejudice continued to take their toll, said McClinton, who serves on the board of directors for both the Illinois chapter and national Trail of Tears Association.

Landowners would scornfully send away those Cherokee who set up tents on their land, forcing them to find another place to sleep at night, she said.

Cheryl Jett, secretary of the association's Illinois chapter, estimated 3,000 Cherokee fatalities in Southern Illinois. Estimates for the total number of lives lost on the trail, known to Cherokee as Nunna daul Isunyi or "the Trail Where We Cried," range from 4,000 to 6,000 deaths.

Lasting legacy

  While many Cherokee lost their lives on the journey, most believes it's important to note that several thousand members of the tribe survived the journey, and the Cherokee Nation continues to thrive today.----------------

                                                                                                                              

The Cherokee Nation has 170,000 members worldwide, with many of them residing in designated territory in northeast Oklahoma. The organization's Tribal Council consists of 17 members, 15 representing those Cherokee living in the designated land and two, including Baker, representing the outside population.

A  small number of members of the Cherokee Nation live in Southern Illinois, Indiana or Kentucky, he said. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears Association continue to work together on many projects preserving the history of the Trail of Tears and its significance to American history.

While other portions of the trail still exist, Boaz said the Southern Illinois area offers accessible authenticity many places cannot anymore. A portion of the trail near Nashville, Tenn., some in Ky and even part now sits beneath an airport, and many other sites have met the same fate, she said.

"People can't go there and just stand in the place where it happened like they can in Southern Illinois," Boaz said. "Once you take a bulldozer to something, you can't ever restore it to the way it was."