‘Remember The Removal’ Trek Challenges Cyclists

PRAIRIE GROVE — Last week 11 Cherokee cyclists retracing the northern route of the “Trail of Tears” stopped at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park en route from Georgia to Oklahoma.

Participants in the 2022 “Remember the Removal Bike Ride” seek to learn lessons from a history they don’t want to repeat. The Cherokee Nation endured not one, but two government enforced redistribution’s of wealth, with a second round occurring because some of its warriors sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War.

After the Union victory, Cherokee Nation signed its last treaty with the U.S., the Treaty of 1866. Article 2 of that treaty states in part, “the Cherokee Nation stipulate and agree to deliver up to the United States … any or all public property, particularly ordnance, ordnance stores, arms of all kinds, and quartermaster’s stores, in their possession or control, which belonged to the United States or the so-called Confederate States, without any reservation.”

The memorial ride originated from New Echota, Geo., capital in the traditional Cherokee homeland, featuring Cherokee Nation cyclists, Emily Christie, 24, of Stilwell, Okla., Kayce O’Field, 24, of Tahlequah, Okla., Jeanetta Leach, 23, of Rocky Mountain, Okla., Madison Whitekiller, 23, of Verdigris, Okla., and Desiree Matthews, 18, of Watts, Okla.

They trained with Eastern Band cyclists from North Carolina, Amy West, 25, of the Big Cove Community, Adrian “Bubba” Aguilera, 32, of the Painttown Community, Emra Arkansas, 39, of the Wolftown Community, Ethan Ledford, 56, of the Birdtown Community, Justin Lambert, 34, of the Birdtown Community, and Larry Blythe, 67, of the Birdtown Community. before commencing the 950-mile trek through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma on May 30.

Speaking during a ceremony welcoming them back at the tribal “Peace Pavilion” in Tahlequah, Okla., the modern Cherokee capital, on Friday, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. described the plight of a people made destitute through a forerunner of “Identity Politics,” which deemed the Cherokee expendable and awarded their accumulated wealth to others through a lottery system.

“Two centuries ago, the Cherokee people were facing tremendous obstacles, erosion of our way of life, threats to our land and resources and things we held dear. But the Cherokee people did not simply go away. We resisted mightily, we joined together as a people, but ultimately, we were removed in a manner that was quite simply, brutal,” Hoskin said.

Lee Sultzman’s Cherokee History revised on Feb. 28, 1996, published online at tolatsga.org, shows an inventory of Cherokee property in 1826 of 22,000 cattle, 7,600 horses, 46,000 swine, 2,500 sheep, 762 looms, 2,488 spinning wheels, 172 wagons, 2,942 plows, 10 sawmills, 31 grist mills, 62 blacksmith shops, 8 cotton machines, 18 schools, and 18 ferries.

All of that was taken away by the stroke of Democratic President Andrew Jackson’s pen when he signed the “Forced Removal Act” into law on May 28, 1830. The Cherokee were not considered citizens of the United States at the time and Jackson perceived he could benefit politically from the transfer of wealth in the 1832 election.

“Along the Trail of Tears, we lost a quarter of our population because the government of the United States thought the answer was to wipe us away. And yet, in the wake of that we came here and we rebuilt the great Cherokee democracy, our great institutions. We had a rebirth of the Cherokee people right here,” Hoskin said.

Historical sites along the “Trail of Tears” northern route confronted the emotions of the cyclists as they imagined their ancestors arriving at Blythe Ferry in Tennessee, which marked the western boundary of the old Cherokee Nation. Cherokee no longer operated nor profited from ferries they once owned and their forced exodus was only going to get worse.

Mantle Rock in Kentucky stood out like an unwelcome stopping place for the Cherokee desperately trying to make use of whatever shelter they could find while waiting for the Ohio River to thaw during a bitterly cold winter.

“It’s been a really challenging thing, which we all knew it was going to be, but physically it wasn’t too bad. It was more the mental and emotional toll that was rough. And getting homesick or not always knowing what lies ahead. That was more the tough part than anything,” Whitekiller said.

In 1838-1839 the Cherokee weren’t just homesick, they were heart sick and many succumbed to exposure.

According to a tribal press release, the government removed an estimated 16,000 Cherokees from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina in the spring of 1838 with nearly 4,000 dying during a horrible extrication process that began with Gen. Winfield Scott and the U.S. Army forcibly taking Cherokee families out of their homes and imprisoning them in stockades without shelter.

“This ride has been very challenging and tiring,” O’Field said. “I don’t think I have been this physically challenged in this short of a time, but it’s been an amazing experience being able to see the sites we read about and actually being on the places our ancestors stood. That part took an emotional toll, and I feel like I am still processing that. But this ride has been a humbling and very gratifying experience.”

About Cherokee Nation

The Cherokee Nation is the federally recognized government of the Cherokee people and has inherent sovereign status recognized by treaty and law. The seat of tribal government is the W.W. Keeler Complex near Tahlequah, Okla., the capital of the Cherokee Nation. With more than 400,000 citizens, 11,000 employees and a variety of tribal enterprises ranging from aerospace and defense contracts to entertainment venues, Cherokee Nation is one of the largest employers in northeastern Oklahoma and is the largest tribal nation in the United States.

To learn more, visit www. cherokee.org.