Trail of Tears meeting will be in Ellijay

The next meeting of the Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association will take place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 10, at the Cartecay United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 7629 state Route 52, East Ellijay.

The speaker will be Don Wells, president of Mountain Stewards. Wells will talk about the Indian Trails Project that was initiated in 2009. You may have heard Wells talk in the past about the Trail Trees Project. You can read more about the work of Mountain Stewards at www.mountainstewards. org.

The Trail of Tears Association was created to support the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail established by an act of Congress in 1987 and administered by the National Park Service. The Trail of Tears Association is dedicated to identifying and preserving sites associated with the removal of Native Americans from the Southeast. The association consists of nine state chapters representing the nine states that the Cherokee and other tribes traveled through on their way to Indian Territory.

The meetings are free and open to the public. You don’t need to have Native American ancestry to attend our meetings, just an interest and desire to learn more about this fascinating and tragic period in the country’s history.

For more information about the Trail of Tears Association, visit the National Trail of Tears Association website at www.nationaltota.org and the Georgia Chapter websites at www.gatrailoftears. org and www.trailofthetrail.com.

For more information about the May meeting, contact Leslie Thomas at aeriehollow@ellijay.com.