|
HOME - PJCLEMENTS
MARCH 30
*HighTstown
*PHILADELPHIA
*LANCASTER
*GETTYSURG
*wINCHESTER
*rOANOKE
*CUMBERLAND GAP
*BARBOURVILLE
*PALL MALL
*MURFREESBORO
*NASHVILLE
*HOPKINSVILLE
*CAPE GIRARDEAU
*SPRINGFIELD
*fAYETTEVILLE
*TALHEQUAH
*sALLISAW
*oKLAHOMA CITY
*AMARAILLO
*TUCUMCARI
*SANTA FE
*ALBUQUERQUE
*GALLUP
*WINSLOW
*FLAGSTAFF
*NEEDLES
*BARSTOW
*BAKERSFIELD
*FRESNO
*SALINAS
*CARMEL
JULY 15
CONTACT PJC
peddie
Home site
|
Trailing Dreams of America:
Conversations down the road
| Home | Idea | Route | Reports | Images |
Gear |
Literature of Travel
and Adventure: The Journey of the Self
(Spring, 2004) The Trail
of Tears The Idea
As part of our countrys Indian Removal Policy, in
1838 the Cherokee Indians were removed from their southern mountain homes in Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama and
relocated to the Indian Territories, now Oklahoma.
Juniors in this course will study the Cherokee removal, research the journey
known as the Trail of Tears, map the most important route, and then retrace
the path of the journey by bicycle.
Though directed by Peddie English
teacher Pat Clements, this is a student driven research project. Students
will gather the general historical record; accumulate journals, land records,
and newspaper accounts, gather and compare 19th century and modern
maps, and then, using topographic software, lay out the best approximation of
the actual route the Cherokee took on the Northern
Route. In June 2004, students in the project
headed to North Carolina and Tennessee
to begin to test their work and retrace, on bicycle, the first section of the
Trail of Tears.
PICTURES
In 1838, The US Army began to implement a federal
government policy to remove the Cherokee Indians from their homelands in the
Southeast. They were driven from their home into stockades throughout Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and then moved to interment
camps in Southeastern
Tennessee
and Alabama. From there, detachments were forcible moved over land
and water routes to Indian Territory in what would one day be Oklahoma. Approximately 16,000 men, women,
and children made this arduous journey under adverse conditions with much
sickness and death. No one knows for sure, but it is estimated that up to one
fourth of the Cherokee nation perished in the interment camps and on this
trail. (source).
This
journey, in Cherokee called the "trail where they cried," is today
remembered as the "Trail of Tears." During the summer of 1838
several groups of Cherokee were led to the Indian Territories, some overland, several via river
routes. However, the
most commonly used overland route followed a northern alignment,
while other detachments (notably those led by John Benge and John Bell)
followed more southern routes, and some followed slight variations. The
northern route started at Calhoun, Tennessee, and crossed central Tennessee, southwestern Kentucky, and southern Illinois. After crossing the Mississippi River north of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, these detachments trekked across
southern Missouri and the northwest corner of Arkansas.
Road conditions, illness, and
the distress of winter, particularly in southern Illinois
while detachments waited to cross the ice-choked Mississippi,
made death a daily occurrence. (source)
According to one set of records,
13,149 Cherokee departed from near Charleston,
Tennessee to walk a five month, 900 mile
journey during the winter of 1838-29. This Northern
Route, will be our route.
April, 2004
|