Trail of tears

Our first stop enroute was New Echota, now a National Historic site, just a short drive north of Atlanta, then a few miles further north we visited Chief Vann's house. All on old Cherokee lands. The day was sunny with a lovely nip in the air. The sites we set out to explore looked peaceful, but their history was anything but. We were the only visitors and were given what could only be described as a tour for history buffs by one of the most interesting park rangers we have come across. She really knew her subject matter and we lapped it up. 

As early America grew large numbers of newly arriving white settlers landing along the east coast sought to move further and further inland. The lands of the native Indian population came increasingly under threat. To protect themselves, a group of Cherokees banded together in 1825 and built themselves a town which they named New Echota. It was to be the Capital for the Cherokee nation. Their community was on Indian territory. Land they had lived in for as long as the longest memory. This was their home. They were long accustomed to white man's ways given some three hundred years of interaction with them. They built their own printery, smoke houses, cribs for corn and barns for protection for their crops and animals. The townsfolk built their own Council House and Supreme Court House to uphold the rules of their community. 

Earlier, one of the Cherokee tribal members, Sequoyah, seeing the way of the world, had set himself the task of creating an alphabet in order to capture the oral history of the Cherokees in print form. This was the first written alphabet for any Indian nation. Their printery at New Echota made use of these symbols and published papers in English and Cherokee. 

They went about their daily lives much as they had ever done, planting peas and corn, trading, adding a few frills and touches they learned from the white man. Cherokees were not tepee dwellers. They constructed their homes and public buildings of timber planks, hand hewn and notched together during construction for strength and stability. 

Chief Vann built a tavern in the town, with rooms atop for board and lodging for travellers. Vann, the son of a Scots man and an Indian woman, came to own some 14 taverns in and around Georgia in his lifetime, and became wealthier than many white settlers. The Vann home, amazingly prosperous and just a short distance from here, was one of the finest in the land and coveted by many wealthy whites. 

A major concern continued to be the increasing encroachment of the white settlers. Each year there seemed to be more and more tension where Cherokee livelihood was concerned. Once in a while an important event on the calendar would bring Cherokees from other areas to gather at New Echota. Most would arrive on foot, though some would be on horseback, and one or two had even acquired fine carriages like the settlers, which were no doubt shown off and taken for a ride. 

White settlers kept coming. Tensions mounted. Laws were proposed, then, in 1832, under the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Congress approved what was the Indian Removal Act which appropriated these Indian lands of New Echota—and many other such Indian communities throughout the territory. 

Indians, by law, had now to be relocated to an assigned Indian-only territory set aside for them in Oklahoma. There had been no discussion. There had been no treaty. Cherokee rights were instantly nullified. Cherokees were not even allowed to testify in their own defence. Removal from their homelands was forced on them. 

But, some 16,000 of them, across the land refused to leave. Declaring the laws invalid. So the army was called in. Sometimes smoking them out. Forts were built every so often, just like concentration camps, and the proud, obstinate Cherokees were herded into these barricades, under guard, until they were released to trek. Like animals.  Into the cold, icy and deathly grasp of a vicious winter.

Many had no shoes. Few even had a blanket. Their belongings had been ripped from them as they were forced from their homes and lands, which were now being sold in ballots to the white settlers. Four thousand Cherokees died on this terrible forced trek to Oklahoma. A trail of tears. 

Interior of a smoke house

Hand cut lumber for homes

Wood was interlocked and notched together for strength

Inside the tavern

The exterior of Joseph Vann's house

The dining room of Joseph Vann's house

A burning log from the fireplace was thrown onto the landing of the stairs to the second floor attempting to smoke out the Vann family from their home.

Walking 800 miles to Tennessee