n 1540, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's enteredy the Cherokee
territory and changed forever the way the Cherokee lived. His
quest for gold, silver and other forms of wealth in the name
of Spain brought disease, death and misery to Native Americans.
Believing the Indians were withholding information about Cherokee
wealth and location of mines, de Soto's men killed some Indians
and enslaved others. Diseases carried by the foreigners brought
about the demise of about 95 percent of the native population
during the first 200 years of European presence that means that
for every one hundred Native Americans who lived in 1492, there
were only five in 1692.
Volumes have been written about the Cherokee
people and their known struggles since the first encounters
with the white man. Today, they continue to struggle in a non-Indian
society while attempting to avoid severance of their unique
and often tragic past. As tourism grows, so does the prosperity
and future of the Cherokee people.
It was the designation of the Smokies as
a National Park and the development of the Blue Ridge Parkway
that caused Cherokee to become tourism-minded in the late 1940s.
As visitors came to enjoy the Park and the unique Parkway, services
were needed for the visitors who arrived via two highways--US
441 and US 19. Nearly 50 years later, tourism is still the economic
lifeblood of the Cherokee people.
All business locations within the Qualla
Boundary are Indian-owned but, by the authority of the Tribal
Council, Indians can lease their buildings or businesses to
non-Indians. Even as the Reservation continues to grow and develop,
the Cherokee people rightfully can continue to claim the status
of "original inhabitants" of the vast and beautiful
Smoky Mountains.
Beginning in the spring of 1837 and continuing
through the fall of the following year, approximately 16,000
Cherokees were corralled into a dozen hastily constructed stockades
in groups of 1,000. They were transported by a fleet of over
600 wagons, steamers, and keel boats to the west by 7,000 soldiers
and volunteers under the command of General Winfield Scott.
It took nearly 200 days to complete the journey, and an estimated
4,000 Cherokees died before reaching their destination from
exposure to the torrential rains and ice storms, malnutrition,
and disease.
American history is filled with stories
of how the Cherokees were mistreated, maligned and tricked out
of their homeland through treaty after treaty (about 30 total),
beginning in 1684 and culminating with an agreement between
a small faction of Cherokee leaders and U.S. Government in 1835
that led to the Removal.
The Treaty of Removal promised tribal members
13 million acres of land in Oklahoma and $5 million in compensation.
Many were tricked out of their money or had to leave so hastily
that they were never able to claim it. In the West they were
again "persuaded" to sign away their lands, and in
1898 the U.S. Government pressured the tribe to divide remaining
tracts among individual tribe members. The Cherokee question
was a hotly debated issue in Congress for many years. Sadly,
speeches by Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Daniel Webster, and other
prominent statesmen on behalf of the Cherokees fell on deaf
ears, including those of President Andrew Jackson, who signed
the Removal. Pressed by while settlers who wanted more land
in the Appalachian mountains, the U.S. Government had been successful
in persuading some tribesmen to move voluntarily prior to the
treaty of 1833. A number of Cherokee contingents settled in
Arkansas between 1819 and 1828, only to be uprooted later by
whites in that area. Others agreed to accept 160 acres of land
and become "useful" U.S. citizens in order to remain
in their homeland. The majority, however, felt they should not
be conciliatory or uprooted for any reason, and they were subsequently
victimized. About 1,000 hid out in the mountains during the
round-up and were allowed to remain only after the execution
of Tsali and his two sons, who had killed a U.S. soldier for
mistreating his wife, their mother. Will Thomas, an adopted
Cherokee, was able to buy up 56,000 acres of land for them in
Western North Carolina--lands which were eventually designated
as the Qualla Boundary.
The Removal might have been avoided, according
to many historians, if the U.S. Government had dealt fairly
with the tribe, and if white settlers had tried to live peaceably
with the Indians. After all, by the early 1800s the Cherokees,
whose presence in North America dates to before the time of
Christ. were enjoying a high quality of life in established
communities and taking care of their own affairs through a republican
form of government. Sequoyah, one of their prominent leaders,
had spent 12 years developing the Cherokee Alphabet--the only
in history to accomplish this feat without being able to read
or write another language. And Elias Boudinot, an educated Cherokee,
was publishing a newspaper, The Phoenix, in both English and
Cherokee in the Cherokee Nation as early as 1828.
The story of the Removal his been passed
down through generations of Cherokees. It is the subject of
numerous books. as well as two outdoor dramas-"Unto These
Hills," which has played to four decades of audiences in
Cherokee. and "Trail of Tears," which is performed
annually in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The designation of the Trail
of Tears as a national landmark, no doubt, will enhance awareness
of the tragedy. The trail designation culminated four years
of planning on the part of the National Park Service, the Eastern
and Western Cherokee Tribes, and several states "to identify
and protect the historic route, remnants, and artifacts for
public use and enjoyment." A comprehensive management plan
by a 35-member advisory council was developed. A trail logo
would be adopted and placed along the land and water route extending
from Cherokee, NC, to Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Interpretative centers
would be planned in each of the states through which the trail
passes--North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri,
Illinois, Arkansas, and Oklahoma--with federal. state, and local
governments participating.
Efforts would be made to identify sites
and artifacts along the trail, such as Tsali's Rock in the Deep
Creek area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the
site of Fort Butler in Cherokee County, North Carolina.
In observance of the anniversary of the
Trail of Tears, the Eastern Band of Cherokee and The Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma have met every two years since October, 1988.
Just as the return of Chief Junaluska to Cherokee in 1842, the
designation of the Trail of Tears marks the beginning of another
era in the history of these Native Americans.
