Day 20 - Tuesday, June 8

Today began the next leg of RAAm with the completion of the little Appalachian Trail section and now getting into The Trail of Tears which will go 600 miles through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and finally Missouri where we will head north. Before we set out, Chris and I snuck back into Natural Wellness with Jennifer and Liz for one final body tune up….they also wanted to meet Lucky! I offered Jennifer a spot on the team heading west but she turned me down - she is incredible nonetheless - thank you for your help!

After sending the CBC blood panel to our home town vet Dr. Walker, I was told that his white blood cells are great and the blood is probably the chemo affecting his stomach and since he hasn’t been eating his hard dog food, his stomach wasn’t full. Today we fed him as good as we ate and voila, no more blood! We have his next treatment schedule for upcoming Monday in Chatanooga where we get our next data point. In the meantime, Lucky is happy and energetic to get out with me and run.

The run today was not the “trail” I had expected, rather a 2 lane country road with no shoulder that was busily travelled. A woman who drove by me honked her horn. Then she was going the other way and honked. Then she stopped, pulling into a dirt driveway cutting me off asking if I needed help! She told me she had gone to pick up her son Jay and noticed me on the road. I chatted with her and Jay for a bit before getting back to it. I was touched by her humanity and that she was really worried about a stranger walking the road.

Onto The Trail of Tears which represents a dark period in American History. The more I research, the more I can’t believe what we did. For background from National Park Service:

In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which required the various Indian tribes in today’s southeastern United States to give up their lands in exchange for federal territory which was located west of the Mississippi River. Most Indians fiercely resisted this policy, but as the 1830s wore on, most of the major tribes – the Choctaws, Muscogee Creeks, Seminoles, and Chickasaws – agreed to be relocated to Indian Territory (in present-day Oklahoma). The Cherokee were forced to move because a small, rump faction of the tribe signed the Treaty of New Echota in late 1835, a treaty that the U.S. Senate ratified in May 1836. This action – the treaty signing and its subsequent Senate approval – tore the Cherokee into two implacable factions: a minority of those who were allied with the “treaty party,” and the vast majority that bitterly opposed the treaty signing.

In May 1838, the Cherokee removal process began. U.S. Army troops, along with various state militia, moved into the tribe’s homelands and forcibly evicted more than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia. They were first sent to so-called “round up camps,” and soon afterward to one of three emigration camps. Once there, the U.S. Army gave orders to move the Cherokee west. In June 1838, three detachments left southeastern Tennessee and were sent to Indian Territory by water. Difficulties with those moves, however, led to negotiations between Principal Chief John Ross and U.S. Army General Winfield Scott, and later that summer, Scott issued an order stating that Ross would be in charge of all future detachment movements. Ross, honoring that pledge, orchestrated the migration of fourteen detachments, most of which traveled over existing roads, between August and December 1838.

The impact of the resulting Cherokee “Trail of Tears” was devastating. More than a thousand Cherokee – particularly the old, the young, and the infirm – died during their trip west, hundreds more deserted from the detachments, and an unknown number – perhaps several thousand – perished from the consequences of the forced migration. The tragic relocation was completed by the end of March 1839, and resettlement of tribal members in Oklahoma began soon afterward. The Cherokee, in the years that followed, struggled to reassert themselves in the new, unfamiliar land. Today, they are a proud, independent tribe, and its members recognize that despite the adversity they have endured, they are resilient and invest in their future.

Tomorrow we run to Chief Vann House and do a tour. The background from Georgia State Parks:

During the 1790s, James Vann became a Cherokee Indian leader and wealthy businessman. He established the largest and most prosperous plantation in the Cherokee Nation, covering 1,000 acres of what is now Murray County. In 1804 he completed construction of a beautiful 2 ½ story brick home that was the most elegant in the Cherokee Nation. After Vann was murdered in 1809, his son Joseph inherited the mansion and plantation. Joseph was also a Cherokee leader and became even more wealthy than his father.

In the 1830s almost the entire Cherokee Nation was forced west by state and federal troops on the infamous Trail of Tears. The Vann family lost their elegant home, rebuilding in the Cherokee Territory of Oklahoma. Today the Vann House survives as Georgia’s best-preserved historic Cherokee Indian home. A guided tour allows visitors to see the house which features beautiful hand carvings, a remarkable “floating” staircase, a 12-foot mantle and fine antiques.

After the tour we will close out the day running to Dalton, GA and a Walmart parking lot that is waiting for us.

Thanks for the support!

Cheers,

David.