LOCAL HISTORIANS JOIN TRAIL OF TEARS EFFORT

Local historians are joining an effort to memorialize native Americans forced to endure a black mark in the nation's history: the infamous forced removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi.

The National Park Service has joined with local historical groups to research and mark the National Historic Trail of Tears.

The trail is the 1,000-mile route 16,000 Cherokee and other native Americans traversed in the winter of 1838-39 when they were forcibly removed from their ancestral home in the southeastern United States to Indian territory in what is now Oklahoma.

It is estimated that 4,000 Cherokees died in the ordeal, which was the last large Indian removal east of the Mississippi. The trail bisected Southern Illinois and went through Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Riley Bock of New Madrid is a representative of the Historical Society of Missouri and a member of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Advisory Council.

He said Tuesday that state efforts to designate and memorialize the route are appropriate.

"The trail represents a sad but very realistic part of western expansion," Bock said. "The forces that brought it to be, essentially under Andrew Jackson, were political, and although the Cherokees were adept at politics, they were outmaneuvered. The story of how they were, and their removal, is the story of the trail."

Bock said the Cherokee and other tribes included in the march were civilized Indians who had largely assimilated into white society.

"These tribes weren't out there scalping people," he said. "They were civilized; they owned businesses, farmed, were involved in politics, and owned slaves.

"But we wanted their land. As a nation we did some things in retrospect we shouldn't have done," he said. "Certainly, it is a proper memorial and a proper project."

Bock said the native Americans crossed the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau and near East Prairie. Others traveled along the Ohio River to the Mississippi and passed by New Madrid on their way to Arkansas and farther west.

The national trail effort will include designation of sites along the route. The commission formed to organize the trail will conduct a meeting here next month to solicit local comments.

In Southern Illinois, a 10-day wagon train along the trail is planned next month to commemorate the trail. The dedication of the Illinois portion of the Historic Trail of Tears will be held in Golconda Oct. 17, said Ray Morris of the Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.

He said the 75-mile Illinois segment of the trail goes from Golconda on the Ohio River to Thebes on the Mississippi.

The wagon train will start Oct. 16 and riders will camp in Grantsburg, Vienna, Lick Creek, Anna and Ware before a closing ceremony Oct. 25 in Thebes. All the communities were along the Indian trek of 1838-39.

Cherokee and other native Americans will present cultural demonstrations, dances and tell stores at the camp sites, Morris said.

The Illinois trail was the site of hundreds of deaths, and the severe winter caused some groups to camp in Illinois for two months before they could cross the ice-filled Mississippi River.

Bob Friedrich of Jackson said that when the Indians finally were able to ferry across the Mississippi they came in large groups, including a group of 1,000 and, a couple of days later, one of 1,800.

Friedrich, a member of a local Trail of Tears historical group, said the Indians traveled from what is now Trail of Tears State Park through Oriole and Jackson along what is now Greensferry Road.

"There's nowhere in Cape County where they were more than 100 yards off the existing road," he said.

Through research, Friedrich said he's found strong evidence that at least one group of Indians camped near the Old McKendree Chapel and came through Jackson on Bainbridge Road before taking a trail northwest to Oak Ridge.

He said the National Park Service plans to place historical markers along main highways that follow the general path of the trail Highways 61 and 72 in Cape Girardeau County. But Friedrich wants some type of marker for local roads that follow the route more precisely.