Tears Trail cyclists on road again
A group of cyclists will be following the path of their ancestors as they pedal through Arkansas later this week.
The annual Remember the Removal Ride enters Northwest Arkansas on Wednesday as riders retrace the northern route of the Trail of Tears in memory of those who were part of the forced relocation of about 46,000 members of Native American tribes to Indian Territory in the 1830s.
The riders and their support crew were taking a rest day in Cape Girardeau, Mo., last week and were preparing to pedal over some pretty hilly roads in the Show Me State.
“I’m not as tired as I expected to be,” said Cherokee Nation member Kenzie Snell, 19, of Tahlequah, Okla. “That’s a good sign.”
Snell was joined by fellow Cherokee Nation members Amaiya Bearpaw, 22, Samantha Cavin, 18, Faith Springwater, 19, and Mattie Berry, 18, who are all from Oklahoma. Also on the ride are members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians — Nelson Lambert, 35, Destiny Mills, 20, Rae Queen, 42, Sunshine Parker, 40 and Venita Wolfe, 47, all of North Carolina.
The 950-mile ride began on June 5 in New Echota, Ga., the former capital of the Cherokee Nation, and has taken the cyclists through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri. They will finish on June 23 in Tahlequah. Along the way they are visiting historic landmarks and grave sites along the Trail of Tears, and Pea Ridge in Benton County will be among those stops. It’s been estimated that about one in four of the 16,000 Cherokee forced to relocate in the 1830s died on the trail due to exposure, starvation and disease.
Seeing landmarks along the route “has been a lot more moving for me than I expected,” Snell says. “At Blythe Ferry [Tennessee] they have a monument that has names of the people who went through Blythe Ferry, and all of us have ancestors on that wall. That was the most emotional for me, knowing that my family had been there.”
Remember the Removal started in 1984 as a way for Cherokee youth to get in touch with their history, and it has taken place annually since 2009. The Cherokee Nation members started training on their Fuji gravel bikes in December to prepare for the physical part of the ride, but they also learned about their history and the story of the removal.
“Classwork is a big part of it,” says Cherokee Phoenix journalist and ride coordinator Will Chavez. “They learn why the Trail of Tears occurred, how people fought to stay on their land, what happened during the removal and how they survived and rebuilt after they got to Indian Territory.”
Along they way, the riders have forged a bond on the road.
“We’ve definitely made friendships that will last our whole lives,” Snell says.