Long Creek – It was a nippy morning as hikers hit the trail early Saturday for the annual Trail of Tears Walk, which commemorates the Cherokee Nation’s journey from the mountains they called home to resettle in Oklahoma during one of the darkest times in American History.
The walk honors the ancestor’s time on “the trail where they cried,” known as the Trail of Tears.
Participants met at Robbinsville High School around 8 a.m. and were shuttled to the trail site on Tatham Gap Road. This is the site of the old Army roadbed built by North Carolina troops in May of 1838 to connect the Cheoah Valley and Fort Montgomery. Fort Montgomery (located on Fort Hill) served as a base for the Cherokee prisoners before they began their journey west.
The hikers were taken to the trail site and hiked six miles down the mountain toward Long Creek. They were later picked up and taken back to the high school, where they enjoyed lunch and entertainment by Kathi Littlejohn, a storyteller from Cherokee.
Littlejohn engaged the smaller hikers in helping her tell stories about the animals found in the forests.
The annual event is a fundraiser for the Snowbird NEST (Native Educational Snowbird Traditions) Afterschool Language Program.
For more information, contact Erik Oswalt at 828-735-4563.