Trail of Tears ride to stop in Hot Springs

Motorcyclists trace routes of Native Americans who were removed to Oklahoma

HOT SPRINGS — The 29th annual Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride will include a stop in Hot Springs later this month.

The event honors Native Americans with a scenic ride from Bridgeport, Ala., to Broken Bow, Okla. Motorcyclists will depart at 8 a.m. Sept. 20 from the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on Central Avenue in Hot Springs.

“The ride was initially started back in 1994 to raise public awareness to the Trail of Tears,” Ike Moore, president of the AL-TN Trail of Tears Corridor Association, Inc., told The Sentinel-Record.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 called for the voluntary or forcible removal of all Native Americans from the eastern United States to the state of Oklahoma.

“We wanted to raise awareness and mark a particular route, because there were many routes.” Moore said, noting the first part of the route is a “specific route … an overland route that goes from Ross Landing in Chattanooga, Tenn., to the northwestern corner of Alabama, to a little town called Waterloo.

“It’s called an overland route because they were moving (Native Americans) by flatboats down the Tennessee River over to the Arkansas River, but due to drought they weren’t able to move them by water, so they marched them across this Drane/Hood route,” he said.

As many as 4,000 deaths occurred because of the forced removal of civilized Native Americans from their rightful homes, he said. In the end, members of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole nations suffered the same fate as the Cherokees.

According to Moore, the ride has expanded to much more than that one route, “continuing on west through Hot Springs, into Oklahoma, on to all five nations that are located on reservations.”

The association raises funds to provide scholarships to Native Americans and to build historical markers along the route. They also have built the Sacred Tears Monument in Spring Park in Tuscumbia, Ala., with plans to build a river walk project and statue in Waterloo, Ala.

Several festivities will commence throughout the ride.

Anyone is welcome to participate, and there is no registration or fee to ride. Riders may join the ride at any of the stops.

More information on the Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride is available at al-tn-trailoftears.net or by calling (678) 7433868.