QUOTE
Dig uncovers past of Cherokee in North Carolina
Evidence grows that Trail of Tears extends into western counties
Published: Oct 16, 2005
By CATHERINE CLABBY, Staff Writer
In a place where their people lived for generations, a man named Artowee and his family once raised corn, apples and peaches.
Full-blooded Cherokees, they bunked in two log cabins they built by hand. A smaller shelter shielded them from the worst of mountain cold.
All that changed in the spring of 1838. Eager to seize the land, the United States evicted 3,000 Cherokees from southwestern North Carolina. Artowee had died, but his family was among thousands of men, women and children ordered to leave for unknown lands to the west. Many people died along the way. The dark chapter in U.S. history came to be known as the Trail of Tears.
Scant trace of Artowee or his home survived.
But now a UNC-Chapel Hill archaeologist, using shovels and aged government ledgers, is piecing together the lost history of Cherokees forcibly removed from North Carolina 167 years ago.
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What was found will be offered as evidence to the case that North Carolina roads should be part of the commemorative Trail of Tears that the National Park Service is developing. Congress created the trail in 1987 with the stated purpose of remembering a tragic period of U.S. history. Only recently, however, has its development picked up steam.
Covering portions of about 2,200 miles, the routes pass through eight states, but the easternmost route starts at the historic site of an emigration center near Fort Cass, northeast of Chattanooga, Tenn. A bill before Congress, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, among others, asks the Secretary of the Interior to certify more stretches, including routes in southwestern North Carolina.
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Evidence grows that Trail of Tears extends into western counties
Published: Oct 16, 2005
By CATHERINE CLABBY, Staff Writer
In a place where their people lived for generations, a man named Artowee and his family once raised corn, apples and peaches.
Full-blooded Cherokees, they bunked in two log cabins they built by hand. A smaller shelter shielded them from the worst of mountain cold.
All that changed in the spring of 1838. Eager to seize the land, the United States evicted 3,000 Cherokees from southwestern North Carolina. Artowee had died, but his family was among thousands of men, women and children ordered to leave for unknown lands to the west. Many people died along the way. The dark chapter in U.S. history came to be known as the Trail of Tears.
Scant trace of Artowee or his home survived.
But now a UNC-Chapel Hill archaeologist, using shovels and aged government ledgers, is piecing together the lost history of Cherokees forcibly removed from North Carolina 167 years ago.
snipped
What was found will be offered as evidence to the case that North Carolina roads should be part of the commemorative Trail of Tears that the National Park Service is developing. Congress created the trail in 1987 with the stated purpose of remembering a tragic period of U.S. history. Only recently, however, has its development picked up steam.
Covering portions of about 2,200 miles, the routes pass through eight states, but the easternmost route starts at the historic site of an emigration center near Fort Cass, northeast of Chattanooga, Tenn. A bill before Congress, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, among others, asks the Secretary of the Interior to certify more stretches, including routes in southwestern North Carolina.
LINK