The 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 Mothers spirits to give them strength. The next day, a beautiful rose began to grow where each mothers tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; a gold center represents the gold taken from the 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. I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west.... On the morning of November the 17th we encountered a terrific sleet and snow storm with freezing temperatures and from that day until we reached the end of the fateful journey on March the 26th 1839, the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons and on the ground without fire. And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold and exposure... Private John G. Burnett Captain Abraham McClellans Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:30:48 +0000
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