Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Trail of Tears

Choctaw Trail of Tears

I received this postcard yesterday from the Choctaw Nation, of which I am a member, to announce the annual Trail of Tears Walk commemorating the destructive and dehumanizing journey of our Choctaw ancestors.

Choctaws were removed from Mississippi to what is now Oklahoma in 1831, 1832, and 1833. With little time to prepare, they had to leave many possessions and animals, not to mention the land itself. The journey was fraught with illness and death in large part due to the poor planning, insufficient ratios and equipment, and cold weather.

The sculpture, The End of the Trail, by James Earle Fraser (displayed at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art) so aptly captures the exhaustion and defeat of the removal.

Rockwell Museum of Western Art Trail of Tears on the Choctaw Nation Website

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It's a sad story, a black page in history. I'm glad it is still being commemorated.

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