Continuing on the trek, I couldn’t help thinking of the forests in a new light, populated by the Cherokee nation. Whilst vacillating on this dilemma over a beer, I fell into conversation with a Cherokee lady who entranced me with a brief history of nearby Cherokee and the tragic history of The Trail of Tears. As an Englishman alone, I was spoilt for choice between the Dollyworld theme park and the World of Magnets emporium.

In the summer of 2008 I found myself dirty and exhausted in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, taking a day off whilst re-supplying on a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. Regardless what you call yourself, we are all human and we all have them.

But lets me honest those skeletons don't just belong on one side of the fence. The book takes us far beyond the journey itself and begins early on during the colonization of America by the whites, so we are given the big picture of the overall history that led up to the cruel exodus that took the Cherokee's land as well as many of their lives.Īs our nation ages and grows more humble and open, I am appreciative of truth that is revealed, of skeletons that are let out of the closet. Trail of Tears is a well documented story of the relocation of the Cherokee Nation from their ancestral lands in the east, to new lands further west. As is the case most of the time, what I thought I knew based on hear-say and Hollywood romanticizing, is much shallower than the facts of the actual event. But what it lacked in personality, it delivered in information. This book was not written in a voice that delivers a dramatic or emotional punch so I felt it lacked a personal touch, a personal touch that would have affected the Cherokee side of me a little deeper.

government used the treaty to justify the eviction of the Cherokee nation in an exodus that the Cherokee will forever remember as the “trail where they cried.” The heroism and nobility of the Cherokee shine through this intricate story of American politics, ambition, and greed.Considering I am part Cherokee, I have been curious about the details of this event for a long time. Those chiefs sealed the fate of their tribes in 1875 when they signed a treaty relinquishing their land east of the Mississippi in return for promises of wealth and better land. But by the 18th century, some of their leaders believed it was necessary to adapt to European ways in order to survive. For hundreds of years they believed themselves to be the 'Principle People' residing at the center of the earth. The Cherokee are a proud, ancient civilization. His experience as an accomplished novelist, combined with his extensive, meticulous research, culminates in this moving tragedy rich with historical detail. Synopsis: A sixth-generation North Carolinian, highly-acclaimed author John Ehle grew up on former Cherokee hunting grounds.

Trail of tears ehle