What did I know about the Trail of Tears before today? I knew it had to do in part with the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from the Appalachain Mountains to Oklahoma and that Andrew Jackson was involved. I pictured Andrew Jackson himself leading an army bringing this about. Not quite. This happened way later than when Jackson was in the military. Legislation passed to make this happen during Jackson’s Presidency, but the reality of the forced removal didn’t happen until Van Buren was President. General Winfield Scott was in command of the removal, but those who took the overland route rather than the river route traveled without any U.S. military escort at all.
Trail of Tears Park in Hopkinsville, KY is located at the site of one of the encampments along the exodus route. Part of U. S. 41 is concurrent with the trail. Before it was a highway, U. S. 41 was a bison trail. Each fall, Trail of Tears Park sponsors an intertribal pow pow open to the general public. Today was the first time my wife and I have attended. Tomorrow, Sunday September 8 is the final day for this year’s pow wow.
We weren’t sure what we were looking for other than seeing interesting people dressed in interesting clothes. We got that in spades, plus we learned a little history, plus we each got a little teary eyed as the drum beat at about the pace of a heat beat and the vocals kept building up a steady, ever escalating tension during the extended processional of people of native descent dressed in all kinds of beautiful ceremonial regalia.
I took all these pictures today with a Canon PowerShot sx-160. I mulled for a while over whether it was okay to share them here without specific permission from the subjects. Got 2 opinions out of an open thread comment in support of sharing them and decided to run with that before getting any negative opinions.
Editing note — A commenter pointed out my incorrect use of the word costume in reference to the clothes the pow wow participants were wearing. I’ve substituted a different word in each spot.