Indian Territory

Recently the trip has become even more spontaneous.  Arkansas was a last minute choice, as I had heard that it is a pretty pretty place.  Yes it was.

The next choice was Oklahoma.  My only venture there was in the 70's, in January on I-40 in a snowstorm.  Coming from SoCal I remember being surprised that  the the trees had no leaves and the sky was gray-that is when it was even visible.

I picked a destination in the NE  of Oklahoma called The Grand Lake of the Cherokees.   That reminded me that, among other things, the state has important Indian history.  Because the trip to the lake was along the eastern edge of the state, it consisted of rolling hills, trees and creeks, I believe the western edge of the Ozark's.  The RV park was lovely and spacious, looking straight onto the lake over a wonderful dog walking field.

View of the Lake from the Campsite

BD was a good sport about backtracking to the town of Tahlequah, the headquarters of the Cherokee Nation for a visit to the Cherokee Heritage Center.  Included was an exhibit about the Trail of Tears.
While we now all recognize that booting people from their ancestral home was a tragedy, even then there were those who strongly objected.  The Supreme Court found the removal unconstitutional and the first military officer charged with executing the removal, horrified at his assignment, protested and was replaced with a more compliant commander.  A small number of Indians signed the treaty moving them west (only 300 were at the meeting).  They had no authority and despite a petition in opposition presented by the Chief with 15,000 signatures, the Senate approved the Treaty by one vote.  Even former President John Quincy Adams said the Treaty, "brings its eternal disgrace upon the country."  President Andrew Jackson is said to have commented that the Chief Justice could enforce his finding if he wanted (knowing of course that the court has no such mechanism).

Haunting Statues Depicting the Trail of Tears

A little bit of Oklahoma Indian history as found at the museum.

Original Lands and Routes of Removal for SE Indian Tribes

Chief Ross was the highly respected Cherokee Chief despite being only 1/8th Cherokee.  He had blue eyes, was well educated and a successful merchant and planter.  He also had slaves.

Reverend Worcester was very active in the protest of the removal, imprisoned for his efforts.  He translated the bible from Greek to Cherokee and was instrumental in establishing the Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper (still published) as well as school texts and institutions of higher learning.  When the Cherokee were removed to Oklahoma their literacy was greater than that of the local population in Oklahoma.

By 1840 about 100,000 Indians from different tribes had been removed from the Southeast.  The number of deaths from disease, exhaustion and starvation is unknown but among the Cherokees alone it is estimated to be 4,000.

After the Civil War former slaves of the Cherokee became Cherokee Freedmen and were granted citizenship in the nation despite having no Cherokee blood.  Today there is a controversy regarding the continuation of such membership by direct descendants of those former slaves.  There are currently about 25,000 descendants.


The Cherokee Heritage Center also has wonderful displays of life before removal from very early times as well as an area depicting post removal life.

These structures recreate Cherokee life in the SE in very early times

This is the way Cherokees lived in Oklahoma in the 1800's 

Today the Cherokee presence is apparent including many Cherokee nation license plates.