Study: Ignored parts of Trail of Tears deserve acclaim
Posted on Tuesday, October 16, 2007
WASHINGTON — Twenty years ago, when Congress designated two main routes of the Trail of Tears as historic trails, it left out two routes that cut across Arkansas. A National Park Service draft study confirms what many researchers believe — that the two routes have a place in history.
“They only told half the story,” said Mark Christ, a spokesman for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
A park-service report up for public comment through Thursday calls the routes “historically significant” and finds that they meet all the necessary criteria to be incorporated into the National Historic Trail System.
The trails commemorate the forced evacuation by the U. S. government of Cherokee Indians from their settlements in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee in 1838-39. About 15, 000 Cherokee completed the trip into in modern-day Oklahoma. An estimated 1, 000 died along the way, and perhaps thousands more died as a result of their relocation.
In 1987, the park service designated the two primary routes of the Trail of Tears as national historic trails. One route traveled north, through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri, before dipping across Northwest Arkansas and into Oklahoma. The other, a water route, followed the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers, crossing westward through Arkansas toward Oklahoma.
But the legislation that created the trail did not confer historic status on the trails taken by the Cherokees after they got off the Arkansas River and walked from western Arkansas into Oklahoma. Likewise, it did not recognize two trails, known as the Bell and Benge routes, that cut across Arkansas.
In the years since, research- ers delved into the lesser-known routes, led by John Benge and John Bell.
Bell led a detachment of 660 Cherokees through southern Tennessee to Little Rock and north to Van Buren. Benge led 1, 079 Cherokees from Lebanon, Ala., north to Tennessee. His group cut across southern Kentucky and Missouri before entering Arkansas, where it passed the sites of the modern towns of Harrison, Huntsville and Fayetteville before dipping south to Evansville.
“The initial legislation spurred a good deal of research and public interest,” said Troy Wayne Poteete, a justice on the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court and vice president of the Trail of Tears Association, a nonprofit group that supports extending the historic trail.
The law directing the study stemmed from legislation in the 109 th Congress offered by Rep. Zach Wamp, a Tennessee Republican. Arkansas’ House members voted for the bill, except for Rep. John Boozman, who did not vote. The legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent.
Under the law, the study was supposed to be completed by June 2, but the deadline was pushed back to give the park service more time. In July, a total of 424 people attended meetings held by the service on the additional routes, a number that exceeded attendance at similar meetings in the past, “reflecting unusually high interest,” the study notes.
By early September, the service had received 197 written or e-mailed comments — “all favorable” — about the proposed additions.
If the new routes are added, the trail’s current length of about 2, 200 miles would more than double to 4, 784 miles. In Arkansas, 88 percent of the proposed trails are under private ownership, but the study predicted that “little or no federal land acquisition is anticipated,” because the trail segments could be incorporated under the federal historic designation through partnerships with property owners.
The current annual park service budget for the trail is $ 358, 000. The park service did not estimate the cost of adding routes in its study.
Of the two proposed routes, more is known about the Bell route. Christ said about 50 percent to 60 percent of it follows modern roads. This winter, Christ and workers at the state’s preservation program will go into the field and compare historical documents, satellite photos and the current environment to get a better idea of the Benge route’s precise path.
Poteete said commemoration of the trail wasn’t being done to “appropriate victim status” for the Cherokee nation. Rather, it is a source of inspiration.
Poteete said modern-day members of the tribe are encouraged by the resilience of their ancestors, who made it through the march and set up a new life in Oklahoma.
“Whatever happens,” he said, “we’ll get through it.”
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