EDUCATION: TAIL GROUP PLANS MEETING

An organization dedicated to preserving the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail will hold its national conference in Cape Girardeau in the spring.

The group, the Trail of Tears Association, researches the infamous removal of Indian tribes from the Southeast in the mid-19th century.

The group will meet April 25 to 27 at the Drury Lodge.

From 120 to 150 people representing various state chapters are expected to attend.

Hershel Price, superintendent of Trail of Tears State Park, is the president of the 2-year-old Missouri chapter of the Trail of Tears Association.

He is organizing the national conference, which is expected to attract scholars, Native Americans and researchers interested in the trail.

Much research is still to be done about the events surrounding the winter of 1838 and 1839, when an estimated 4,000 Cherokee Indians died along the trail.

"We have barely scratched the surface," Price says.

Among members of the chapter's board of directors are Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast, and Dr. Donald M. Lance, professor emeritus of English and linguistics at the University of Missouri.

The national association is headquartered in Little Rock, Ark.

The Trail of Tears followed different routes, one of which is known to have crossed the Mississippi River where the Trail of Tears State Park is.

The triangular markers of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail can be found along highways from the eastern states to Oklahoma, giving a general guide to the auto tour of the trail.

The auto tour crosses the Mississippi River Bridge and continues through Jackson, Mo., but because Trail of Tears State Park north of Cape Girardeau is known as an actual site on the trail, two miles of the park are designated as part of the national historic trail.

Trail of Tears State Park has the only visitor's center along the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

It was the trail's northernmost crossing point.

"We know there was some loss of life here and we think there might be lots of graves," Price said. He expects some of the graves may be "on the bluffs that have not been located."

The chapter is looking for graduate students to research some of the local stories.

One of the group's goals is to educate the public about the trail "so that it never happens again," Price said.