Trail of Tears

From 4 to 5 o'clock tonight visitors to Trail of Tears State Park are invited to join in a walk commemorating the 19th century removal of more than 17,000 Cherokee Indians from their homelands in the East to reservations in the West. Disease and exposure to the elements claimed the lives of more than 4,000 Indians who walked along the infamous Trail of Tears.

During the brutally cold winter of 1838, about 9,000 American Indians crossed the Mississippi River by ferry and passed through Cape Girardeau County on their way west to Oklahoma. Nancy Bushyhead Walker Hilderbrand -- believed to have been the sister of a Baptist minister, the Rev. Jesse Bushyhead -- was one of the many who died during the march and was buried in an area now encompassed by state park on the Missouri side of the river. A memorial plaque incorrectly honoring her as a princess -- the Cherokee had no royalty -- was erected in the park in the 1960s. The marker was rededicated as the Bushyhead Memorial in 2001.

Tonight's commemorative walk will begin at the Westcoat Shelter in the park and continue a half-mile to the Bushyhead Memorial, returning along Moccasin Springs Road.

The walk sponsored by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is a reminder of the national disgrace that was America's treatment of American Indians.

The natural beauty of Trail of Tears State Park, with its forested hills and bluffs along the Mississippi River, is a popular place for visitors who enjoy the outdoors. Tonight's walk draws attention to the reality of a piece of our nation's history that we can hope will never be repeated.