CHEROKEE LEADER KEYNOTES OPENING OF VISITOR CENTER (10 YEARS AGO)

Tuesday, May 31, 1988

Reprinted from The Southeast Missourian.

The deputy chief of the Cherokee nation will be the featured speaker during dedication ceremonies this weekend for the new visitor and interpretive center at Trail of Tears State Park, north of Cape Girardeau.

The park is named as a memorial to the Cherokee Indians who suffered and died along a nine-state "Trail of Tears" during the tribe's forced migration in 1838-39 westward from their tribal homelands in the Southeastern United States to a reservation in northeast Oklahoma.

The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday at the park visitor center, located a short distance from the main park entrance, near the intersection of Highway 177 (Big Bend Road) and Route W.

John A. Ketcher was elected to the Cherokee Tribal Council in June 1983, and before his first term was complete, had been elected to preside over that body as its president and deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

In December 1985, Ketcher was elected by his fellow councilmen to succeed Wilma Mankiller as deputy chief. Mankiller became principal chief of the nearly 75,000-member Indian tribe when Ross O. Swimmer resigned to become Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.

An 11/16 bilingual Cherokee, Ketcher was born in southern Mayes County in Oklahoma and attended Sequoyah Indian High School in Tahlequah, Okla.

He served in the Navy in World War II. After returning home to Tahlequah, Ketcher attended Northeastern (Oklahoma) State University, receiving a bachelor's degree in education in 1952. He later earned his master's in education.

After graduating from NSU, Ketcher worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an arts and crafts specialist at the Choctaw Agency in Philadelphia, Miss., as well as other BIA agencies.

He also served as a guidance counselor for 10 years at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kan.; and director of students at Concho Indian School in El Reno, Okla.

From 1967 to 1974, he was an arts and crafts specialist with the BIA Tahlequah Agency, then transferred to the area office in Muskogee to serve the Five Civilized Tribes in the same capacity until his retirement in 1979.

Other speakers at the dedication will include State Sen. John Dennis of Benton, and State Rep. Marvin Proffer of Jackson. Wayne E. Gross, director of the Department of Natural Resources' Division of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, will serve as master of ceremonies.

The 5,200-square-foot structure -- which was opened earlier this month -- will serve as the main orientation center for visitors coming to Trail of Tears State Park.

The stone and wood building contains a lobby area, an area for interpretive displays of the park's natural and cultural history, park administrative offices, an audio-visual room, and restrooms.

"The park commemorates the tragic march of thousands of Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homeland to reservation in Oklahoma during the 1800's," explained Dr. Frederick A. Brunner, director of the Department of Natural Resources.

The route taken by the Indians -- who were forced from their lands by the administration of President Andrew Jackson -- is called the Trail of Tears because of the hardship and loss of life associated with it.

A contingent of Cherokee and their then-Chief Jessie Bushyhead spent the winter of 1838-39 on the banks of the Mississippi River in what is now Trail of Tears State Park.

According to local legend, Chief Bushyhead's daughter, Princess Otahki, died as a result of the hardships of the forced trek, and is buried somewhere in the vicinity of the river. A monument erected a short distance from the river by the citizens of Cape Girardeau County is a memorial to Princess Otahki and other members of her tribe who died here.

Displays in the visitor center will explain the reason why the Cherokee -- an independent nation -- and one of five civilized Indian tribes with its own written language and newspaper -- were forced from their homelands.

In addition to its cultural history, the park has intriguing natural features that will be highlighted in the natural heritage displays.

The park is the only state park in Missouri that borders on the Mississippi River. Its rich soil supports mature hardwood forests of white oak, black oak, and hickory covering the rugged hillsides.

Construction of the $501,000 visitor center was financed by funds from a statewide bond issue approved by voters in 1982; displays within the center were financed mainly through the parks-and-soils sales tax approved in 1984.

The visitor center was constructed by Sides Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau, with Sorkin Ginsberg & Associates of St. Louis as architects. The displays were designed by DisplayMasters Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn.

Trail of Tears State Park is located 10 miles east of Fruitland off Interstate 55 and Missouri Highway 177 in Cape Girardeau County.

Visitors from Illinois, and points east can reach the park by turning onto Highway 177 as they come off the Mississippi River Bridge at Cape Girardeau.

The 3,307-acre-park offers camping, hiking, picnicking, boating, and swimming.

The land on which the park is located was purchased by the citizens of Cape County in the mid-1950's with proceeds from a special bond issue. After the bonds were paid off, the land was given to the state of Missouri with the provision that it be used for a state park, and named as a memorial to the Cherokee Indians.