The Trail of Tears: Context and Perspectives

FAIN: BH-272357-20

Reinhardt University (Waleska, GA 30183-2981)
William Jeff Bishop (Project Director: February 2020 to present)

Two one-week workshops for 72 school teachers about the history and culture of the Cherokee people.

The Funk Heritage Center of Reinhardt University, located in the town of Waleska in northwestern Georgia, proposes a new National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop for K-12 teachers, especially grades 3 through 12, titled The Trail of Tears: Context and Perspectives. The goals of the workshop are to (1) heighten awareness of 19th-century Cherokee removal from the Southeastern U.S.; (2) give K-12 teachers the tools they need to teach this portion of their social studies and/or history curricula effectively; and (3) highlight voices and perspectives from the period – particularly Cherokee voices – to tell the story. Participants will visit several key Cherokee landmarks and engage with a wide range of museum artifacts, Native American art, claims for damages filed by the Cherokees, newspapers from the time period, recorded eyewitness testimony, Cherokee myths and stories, and other resources.

Associated Products

Teaching with 50 Core American Docs : John Ross' Address (Blog Post)
Title: Teaching with 50 Core American Docs : John Ross' Address
Author: Adena Barnette-Miller
Abstract: West Virginia educator Adena Barnette takes a deep dive into the history surrounding John Ross’ “Address to the People of the United States by the General Council of the Cherokee Nation,” Document 13 in 50 Core American Documents. "One of the highlights of a history teacher’s summer vacation is attending high-quality professional development that allows a teacher to deep dive into subjects of interest. This summer, I traveled to Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia for an NEH Landmarks of American History Workshop entitled “Trail of Tears Context and Perspectives.” Throughout the week, our group visited ancestral Cherokee sites such as the Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home and the New Echota State Historic Site. This week long study with anthropologists, historians, and Cherokee elders emphasized the key ideas in Cherokee Principal Chief John Ross’s 1830 “Address to the People of the United States by the General Council of the Cherokee Nation” from the 50 Core American Documents published by Teaching American History (TAH) at Ashland University.
Date: 08/30/2022
Primary URL: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/blog/teaching-with-50-core-american-docs-john-ross-address/
Primary URL Description: Teaching American History support teachers of American history, government and civics, believing they do the most important work in America. TAH help them bring the documents and debates of America’s past into the present through free document-based seminars, document collections both online and in print, and other resources. TAH is dedicated to making every American history, government, and civics class in America its best.
Secondary URL: https://www.facebook.com/teachamhistory/
Secondary URL Description: A social media link to Teaching American History
Blog Title: Teaching with 50 Core American Docs : John Ross' Address
Website: TeachingAmericanHistory.org

The Return of Standing Wolf (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Return of Standing Wolf
Author: Brett Riggs
Abstract: This presentation, made as part of the 2022 NEH Landmarks Trail of Tears workshop at Reinhardt University, was presented at the Trail of Tears Association National Symposium in Cherokee, NC in September of 2022. It is being prepared by the author for submission as a journal article. The presentation and article examine how the process of Cherokee Removal and a desire to hold onto important tribal sites led to the establishment of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Date: 09/25/2022
Primary URL: https://catamountwcu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/bhriggs_wcu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fbhriggs%5Fwcu%5Fedu%2FDocuments%2FThe%20Return%20of%20Standing%20Wolf%5F07%5F22%5F22%2Epdf&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fbhriggs%5Fwcu%5Fedu%2FDocumen

The Trail of Tears: Indian Removal in Georgia (Web Resource)
Title: The Trail of Tears: Indian Removal in Georgia
Author: W. Jeff Bishop
Author: Josiah Wolff
Author: Kip Ryle
Abstract: The government-led process that came to be known as "Indian Removal" occurred over a period of many years and involved numerous tribes of Native people. Georgians were singularly aggressive in their resolve to remove their Native populations, primarily Muscogee and Cherokee, and had secured what they believed was a firm promise from the U.S. government to do so when they surrendered the part of their claimed territory in 1802 which eventually became the states of Alabama and Mississippi. These long-simmering tensions finally came to a boil with the election of populist U.S. President Andrew Jackson in 1828, leading to the Indian Removal Act and the eventual forced removal of tribes in the Southeast. This series of events later came to be known as the Trail of Tears, and for the Cherokee Nation it dealt a devastating challenge to their long struggle to maintain sovereignty in their Appalachian homeland. The Trail of Tears is now a federally recognized National Historic Trail administered by the National Park Service, covering over 5,045 miles across nine states, interpreting what has long been recognized as a pivotal event in the history of our nation. This driving tour focuses on the military round-up that occurred in the spring of 1838 in Northwest Georgia. This tour, developed by the Funk Heritage Center with funding from the Georgia Humanities and in partnership with the Georgia chapter of the Trail of Tears Association and an NEH Landmarks teacher workshop, will give you a better understanding of the circumstances leading up to the Cherokee Removal, the initial round-up of the Cherokee by government troops, and the effect of these horrifying events on the Cherokee who lived in present-day Georgia. While some of the stops on this tour have only a historic marker to indicate the events that happened there, others are fully-developed interpretive sites and museums that grapple with the effects of the Trail of Tears historically, individually, and collectively.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://georgia-humanities.opentour.site/trail-of-tears-indian-removal-in-georgia
Primary URL Description: OpenTour Builder is an open source software platform for building geospatial tours that are optimized for mobile devices. OpenTour Builder continues to be developed by the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, who began development of the web app in 2014 in its first iteration. The current version of OpenTour Builder, v. 3.0, was launched in March of 2019, and continues to be improved. With this tool, tour builders can easily create interactive, attractive tours that guide users from stop to stop using their smartphone's GPS and OpenTour Builder's native Google Maps instructions. At each location, the designer can include images, video, text, and external links to provide historical and cultural context, tying that information to the physical space. An Emory-supported instance of OpenTour is now available for those who intend to use the technology for educational purposes or the exhibition of research. Tours need to fit within the ECDS and Emory mission. The Emory Center for Digital

Realms exhibition (Exhibition)
Title: Realms exhibition
Curator: W. Jeff Bishop
Abstract: During the course of the workshop it became apparent when interacting with Cherokee participants that some of the items on display in our museum were inappropriate for display, and we moved to immediately remedy the situation with the development of an entirely new exhibit consisting of six banners. All funerary objects were removed, as well as photos of funerary objects. We will soon post PDFs of the banners on the website.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: http://www.funkheritagecenter.org
Primary URL Description: An educational website to enhance the museum experience.

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