[Trail of Tears]

Painting by Robert Lindneux
Woolaroc Museum
Bartlesville, Oklahoma

In Georgia, during the summer of 1838,
the United States Army rounded up about 3,000
Cherokee people and planned to load them onto
boats to be moved further west;
in the winter of 1838-1839,
14,000 more Cherokees were forced to
march from their homes into territories
further west.

Gold had been discovered on Cherokee land in
northern Georgia and President Andrew Jackson
moved quickly to enforce the Indian Removal
Act of 1830.

It is estimated that 4,000 of these people,
driven from their homes at gunpoint, died of hunger,
exposure and disease on their journey along the
"trail where they cried", now referred to as the
Trail of Tears.

[Bar]

[Cherokee Rose]Legend of the Cherokee Rose


When the Trail of Tears started
in 1838, the mothers of the Cherokee were
grieving and crying so much, they were unable to
help their children survive the journey.
The elders prayed for a sign that would
lift the mother?s spirits to give them strength.
The next day a beautiful rose began to grow
where each of the mother?s tears fell.
The rose is white for their tears; a gold center
represents the gold taken from Cherokee lands,
and seven leaves on each stem for the seven
Cherokee clans. The wild Cherokee Rose grows
along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern
Oklahoma today.

Source: The Cherokee 1994 Heritage Calendar
by Dorothy Sullivan,
Memoray Circle Studio, Norman, Ok.

[Bar]

State Flower

In 1916, with the support of the Georgia
Federation of Women's Clubs, the Cherokee rose
was named the state floral emblem. The name
"Cherokee Rose" is a local designation derived
from the Cherokee Indians who widely
distributed the plant.

The rose is excessively thorny and generously
supplied with leaves of a vivid green. In color,
it is waxy white with a large golden center.
Blooming time is in the early spring,
but favorable conditions will produce,
in the fall of the year, a second flowering
of this hardy plant.





[Home Page Banner]


[Fanny's Banner]


NEXT FUN PAGE


Page design and contents Copyright 2001 by Fanny,
unless stated otherwise.
All rights reserved.
[Piano Keys]Music "Earth and Sky"
Page hosted by Yahoo!GeoCities




Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1