Monday, September 12, 2011 2:02 pm

September is American Indian Heritage Month in Tennessee!
 
Commemorative "Trail of Tears" Walk
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 6:30 pm
meet at the gazebo on Waters Street next to the Cannon county Court House in Woodbury, TN.  Walk to Woodbury First United Methodist Church.
 
Memorial Service at 7:00 PM
Woodbury First United Methodist Church
 
The Trail of Tears came through 39 counties in Tennessee alone. One of the routes passed right down the middle of woodbury on waters Street.
 
The Commemorative Trail of Tears Walk and Memorial recognizes the hardships suffered by the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeast (the Cherokee, the Muscogee "Creek", the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Seminole) who walked their own "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma Indian Territory.
 
The Five Civilized Tribes were removed by force after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 enacted by President Andrew Jackson. The removal of all tribes east of the Mississippi River to the lands west of the Mississippi River is one of the most hurtful images in the history of the United State. Over 46,000 people were forced off their lands and taken under armed guard or forced onto ships, many of them in chains.

They were taken to land promised to them in Oklahoma Indian Territory. Broken treaties and land grabs were common in lands wracked with war and forced removals. Lands in the states of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee were all cleansed of the "Indian problem" and the lands taken and sold in lotteries.

The last resistance in the southeast was the with the Creek Wars of 1836 when Secretary of War Lewis Cass dispatched General Winfield Scott to end the violence by forcibly removing all the Creeks to Indian Territory in the lands known as Oklahoma.
 
On Friday evening at 6:30 PM you are invited to walk in commemoration and in memorial starting from the gazebo next to Cannon County court House and walk to Woodbury First United Methodist Church where a memorial will be held at 7:00 pm. The memorial will include guest speakers from the Muscogee "Creek" Nation of Oklahoma. They will share a word of reconciliation in the hope of better understanding between our American Indian people and non-Indian peoples. There will be tribal singing by the Muscogee Singers from Okmulgee, Oklahoma.
 
The walk is also collecting shoes and outer ware in the Soles-4-Souls project. These shoes will be sent to tribal areas in need. Girl Scout Service Unite 158 will be helping with this collection and are encouraged to bring old shoes that will be cleaned and sent to Indian Reservations. You may bring any outer ware hats, scarf's, gloves, and coats along with shoes.
 
For information call Melba Checote-Eads 615 765-5854.