The uniqueness and spirit of Cherokee culture was evident in their daily life. A game akin to lacrosse was fiercely played. However, this was not all in the name of sport and vanity. It was a sacred ritual, a reenactment of the constant struggle between opposing forces of the universe. Here, a team gets ready for competition. The seven women, representing the seven Cherokee clans, chant to the beat of the seated drummer while the players circle a sacred fire.
The Cherokees faced many conflicts dating back to the first European contact, not the least of which came in the early 1800s when they chose to stay in the areas around Georgia and remain true to their culture instead of migrating west. They would simply adopt an outwardly European style while preserving the most important aspects of Cherokee culture.
Sequoyah was one of the Cherokee fighters who defended the United States against the British in the War of 1812. In the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, he fought under Andrew Jackson, the man who would become president and force the removal of the Cherokee people. Later, Sequoyah became a leader and fervent supporter of Cherokee sovereignty in the face of the removal effort.
The syllabary Sequoyah devised and presented to the National Council empowered Cherokees to read and write in their own language.
There were many positive consequences of having their own formal language. The Cherokees were able to adopt a written constitution; establish a Supreme Court; and publish this newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix.
As editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, Elias Boudinot often defended the Cherokee Nation with editorials against Indian Removal.
Another one of the men who fought for General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 was John Ross who, as Principal Chief, later encouraged the Cherokees to resist removal through the courts. Then, along the Trail of Tears, Chief Ross took responsibility for the health and welfare of the thousands of Cherokees who suffered through horrid conditions.
Major Ridge, the third of the major Cherokee leaders to have served at Horseshoe Bend, at first defended the Cherokee Nation’s right to remain in the Southeast. He even participated in the execution of Chief Doublehead, killed because he had leased land to white settlers.
The tragedy of this infamous time in American history deepened when Major Ridge, Boudinot, and a handful of other influential Cherokees concluded further resistance was futile and agreed to removal by illegally signing the Treaty of New Echota. Thus began the Trail of Tears. At least four thousand Cherokees, nearly a quarter of their nation, died during the forced journey to the West.
John Ross, Principal Chief of the New Cherokee Nation, convened the council at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where the Cherokees finally settled. Seventeen tribes sent delegates, and Tahlequah became a place of commerce and culture.
Mission schools (above) that originated in North Carolina were deemed necessary to the New Cherokee Nation. So that education would continue to be an integral part of Cherokee life, these schools were re-established in their new community in the West. In the rebuilding of the Cherokee Nation, Reverend Jesse Bushyhead (below) put up the first church with materials that made the treacherous journey all the way from Georgia. That church still stands.
This modern map of the continental United States shows the area of the Cherokee Nation in 1837.
This historical detail shows the land and water routes of the Trail of Tears.
Of writing On This Long Journey, Joseph Bruchac says, “One of the heroes of my childhood was Sequoyah, the Cherokee man whose syllabary enabled the Cherokees to write their own langauge in a truly Indian way. I cannot remember a time when I was not fascinated by the history and the stories of those who call themselves Ani-yunwiya, the Principal People. Part of it, I suppose, is my own American Indian ancestry. However, my Indian blood is Abenaki, a Native nation far to the north of the Cherokees. Though our people have many things in common with the Cherokees, including being driven from much of our original homeland, to do justice to this story I had to spend years in the process of learning with the help of many Cherokee people. That kind of learning teaches you patience. I would not have been able to write this story twenty years ago, even though I thought of doing such a novel more than once. I am glad that I waited.
“More than virtually any other Native nation, the Cherokee have long been writing and publishing their own stories, both in Sequoyah’s syllabary and in English. A number of journals that actually were kept by Cherokees on the Trail of Tears are in collections, and I have been told that even more such journals are kept in the possession of Cherokee families whose ancestors were on the Trail. Reading what was written along the Trail by Cherokees and some of the white people who accompanied them meant even more to me, though, when I walked the Trail myself. I began at the place called Kituwa, an ancient mound in North Carolina where many Cherokees say their people first came into the world. Later that day, standing on top of Clingman’s Dome, a tall mountain sacred to the Cherokees, my friend Tom Belt, a Cherokee language teacher, pointed out to me the route the trail followed and the places in the valleys below where the stockades were built to hold the Cherokees after they were rounded up by the army. I am not ashamed to say that tears came to my eyes more than once that day.
“If there is anything in this journal that is moving or memorable, that strength comes from the Cherokee people. I am grateful for the generosity they have always shown me. If there are any mistakes, they are my own and I apologize for them. I am only one small voice between Earth and Sky. Like the Cherokees, Earth and Sky will be here long after I am gone.”
Joseph Bruchac is the author of numerous books for children, many of which concern Cherokee history and culture. He is the author of Code Talker, Night Wings, Dragon Castle, and Wolf Mark, among many others. He also coauthored the bestselling Keepers of the Earth series, with Michael Caduto. Mr. Bruchac’s many honors and awards include the American Book Award for Breaking Silence; the 1986 Cherokee Nation Prose Award; and Yaddo Residency Fellowships in 1984 and 1985; and The Heart of a Chief, which was named a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Book. He lives in the foothills of the Adirondacks. To learn more about Joseph Bruchac and his books, please visit his website at www.josephbruchac.com.
Although I began writing this book in 1998, this story is really the result of many years of learning about Cherokee history and culture. It is impossible for me to fully acknowledge the generosity that has been shown to me over the past four decades by so many Cherokee people whose words and work have helped me better understand the many meanings of “the Trail Where the People Cried.”
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my Cherokee friends Gayle Ross, Robert and Evelyn Conley, Tom Belt, Murv Jacob, Rayna Green, and Geary Hobson. Not only have they read my work and helped me correct my mistakes (on this and other projects), they have always reminded me that Cherokee history neither begins nor ends with the Trail. And then there is my late friend Carroll Arnett, whose poems and stories first led me to start walking the Trail. Brother, I remember the paths we walked and the day we stood together to place flowers on the grave of John Ross. We miss you.
I also need to express my gratitude to the National Geographic Society for commissioning me to write a book about the Trail of Tears of the Cherokees and the Long Walk of the Navajos. The travel and research I did for that book, Trail of Tears, Paths of Beauty, helped prepare me for this project.
In terms of scholarship, my entry into the study of Cherokee history was the work of James Mooney. His two volumes, The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1891) and Myths of the Cherokee (1900), are still vital and important. In many ways, in the care and respect he showed with the Cherokees and other native Nations, Mooney transcended his era. But, good as Mooney was for his time, his work is only a point of departure. Today, anyone interested in the history and culture of the Cherokee owes a deep debt of gratitude to the work being done by modern Cherokee scholars. Here again, there are far too many people for me to name them all,
but I have to mention the incredible work of Duane H. King and Rennard Strickland and the marvelous Journal of Cherokee Studies published by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in cooperation with the Cherokee Historical Association. All that I can say is that I am continuing to read and to listen and I am in awe of their brilliance and devotion. And I wholeheartedly agree with Rennard Strickland that when you get to know the Cherokees, you cannot help but love them.
More than anyone else, though, I have to thank Louis Littlecoon Oliver, a Creek Indian elder whose deep knowledge of the Muskogee, Yuchi, and Cherokee cultures was only matched by his humility and his gentle sense of humor. I will never forget the times we spent together in Tahlequah. It was Grandfather Louis who placed a Cherokee Rose in my hand and then burned cedar for me on the mountaintop. Wado, wado.
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use the following:
Cover art by Mike Heath | Magnus Creative.
Stickball players, the Smithsonian Institution/National Anthropological Archives, GN 1044b.
Two Cherokee chiefs, collection of the New-York Historical Society, 1872.23.72.
Sequoyah, Library of Congress.
Cherokee syllabary, North Wind Picture Archives.
Cherokee Phoenix, Library of Congress.
Elias Boudinot, Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Detail of Cherokee Chief John Ross, ibid.
Major Ridge, Library of Congress.
Trail of Tears, by Robert Lindneux, the Granger Collection.
Meeting of Council at Tahlequah, the Smithsonian Institution/National Anthropological Archives, 1063-W.
Mission School, ibid, 996-C-4.
Reverend Bushyhead, Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Map by Heather Saunders.
Map by Jim McMahon.
While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Jesse Smoke is a fictional character, created by the author, and his journal and its epilogue are works of fiction.
Copyright © 2001 by Joseph Bruchac
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
eISBN 978-0-545-63381-9
This edition first printing, September 2013
The display type was set in Wells Grotesque Medium.
Cover design by Steve Scott
This edition photo research by Amla Sanghvi
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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