Was the Trail of Tears "payback" for the Cherokee Nation in supporting the Confederates?
If so, it was a payment considerably in advance.
I recall going to a fire dance in 1964 somewhere around Drumright, OK.
I remember seeing the Cherokee warriors dancing around the fires with their long hair gong all the way down their backs in their deerkins.
I can still recall the loud chanting and beating of drums and seeing the bright colors painted on their faces and the feathered head oranments they wore.
I was introduced to Jim Thorpe, a national hero at that time for his Olympic Gold Medal.
I asked my grandmother to interpret for me what the men were saying as they danced.
Here is what she said:
"Son. This is something you must always remember about the Cherokee. Until we learned to speak the white man's language, our language was pure and we did not curse each other with our tongues."
No it was long before that. I think they came from Alabama, Georgia, Tennasee, South Carolina and maybe Virgina as well as North Carolina. I think people are confusing this because the present Cherokee reservation is in North Carolina. A cousin of mine did a genological study of our family and he sent me a book of the family history. An old map of Alabama and Georgia had much of the eastern part of Alabama and western part of Georgia as Cherokee and Creek indian country.
No, but there were consequences. The western half of the "Indian Territory" was removed from tribal control and became a virtual no-man's land until Oklahoma statehood in 1905. An act of cutting off the nose to spite the face, it exacerbated lawlessness in that part of the country for decades.