Program Description

TRAIL OF TEARS is a small audience participation show in which the audience members are treated as if they are the Cherokees, undergoing the experience of “ethnic cleansing,” and of being removed to a territory 1000 miles away from their homeland.  Through a series of 40 broken treaties, including the Holston and concluding with the Treaty of New Echota, the audience will experience the facts leading up to the decision to round up the Cherokees and remove them from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina, to Oklahoma, where the new Cherokee nation would be established. The Cherokees, their only crime being they owned land that others coveted, numbered 16,000 at the beginning of the march.  By the end, when the last group reached the Oklahoma territory, 4000 Cherokees had perished.  Through a series of “stops” and “events”, the audience will undertake a dramatic re-creation of the trail of tears.
  
Artist Bio
Cathy Kaemmerlen, professional actress, dancer, and storyteller, is known for her variety of characters, one-woman shows, and for her rapport with audiences.  A performer and “creator of shows” since she can remember, she has toured in schools coast to coast, since receiving a BA in English/elementary education from UNC-Charlotte, and a MFA in dance performance/choreography/theatre at the University of Wisconsin.  She tours through Young Audiences of Atlanta, the Georgia and South Carolina Touring Arts Rosters, Fulton County SAP, and has received numerous grants and honors, including Outstanding New Interpreter for her region with the National Association of Interpreters.

    Background on Art Form
Telling stories is an oral tradition, dating back to when mankind first developed a language or form of communication.  Storytelling is a universal way of passing down information to be saved and remembered for generations to come.  It is an interactive art form in which the storytellers’ passion for the story, material, and information, is passed on to the audience, who sorts through, interprets, stores, and synthesizes what is heard.

Prepare:

Teachers, please read this to your students.

Today we are going to have a program by actress storyteller Cathy Kaemmerlen in which she portrays

Warm Up Questions to set the stage for engaging students:

These are some of the characters in today's show.  Who were these people and why were they so important in Cherokee and United States history: Sequoyah, George Washington, Elias Boudinot, Andrew Jackson, Junalaska, Treaty Party members, Nationalist Party members, Major Ridge, John Ross, Chief Justice John Marshall, Rev. Schmerhorn, John Gunter, General Wool, General Scott, Soldiers, Rev. Jesse Bushyhead, Light Horse Police Force?
Why were the Cherokees forced from their land?

Vocabulary to look at before and after:

Treaty: document or agreement made between two nations
Tsaligi:  Cherokee name for their tribe
Yo nig a we:  Cherokee name for white men
Phoenix:  legendary bird that supposedly rose from the ashes
Land lottery:  a land grab in which settlers bought tickets for pieces of property, which they won if their ticket was chosen in the draw
Treaty Party:  Cherokees responsible for creating and signing the Treaty of New Echota led by Major Ridge
Nationalist Party:  Cherokees opposed to the Treaty of New Echota lead by John Ross
Broken peace pipes:  broken treaties with the Indians
Nu No Du Tlo Hi Lu:  literally translated from the Cherokee to mean the trail where they cried
Talking Leaves: what the Cherokee called their written language developed by Sequoyah
Grist mill:  water powered mill that grinds grains like corn
Uktena:  Cherokee water monster
Bird, blue, deer, longhair, paint, wolf, wild potato:  the seven Cherokee clans
Conductor:  one who leads the group on the trail
Tah le quah:  Cherokee for their new capital in Oklahoma, meaning this place will do

Warm Up Questions for meeting the Georgia Performance Standards for "Listening/Speaking/Viewing":
Describe the perfect audience.
What are some of our class rules for being good listeners?
How do we show someone we appreciater their visit to our school or classroom?
How does being part of an audience help make you a good citizen?
What are some examples of bad audience behavior or attitudes?
How does a negative audience member effect your enjoyment of a show or performance?
How would this make the performer feel?
How do we want the performer to feel when they leave our school or classroom?

Reflect:

Do you think our government fairly treated the Cherokees?  Why or why not?
How would you have prepared to go on the Trail of Tears?
What character/s would you like to find out more information about?
Prepare a monologue about your character for your class.  Come in costume if you like.
What can we do to learn to respect other cultures different from our own? 
Talk about the historic events that led to the Cherokee removal and to the Trail of Tears.
Talk about some of the problems the Cherokees would have faced on their long journey.
Map the routes the Cherokees took.  What dangers might they have faced on the routes?
Pick sides:  The Treaty Party versus the Nationalist Party and debate the Treaty of New Echota.
Talk about why Andrew Jackson, Major Ridge, and John Ross made their decisions that affected the plight of the Cherokees.
Can you think of similar situations today where one group of people is removed from their land because another group wants that land?
Find out other Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Seminole legends, particularly ones about animals and plants.

Resources:                                              

www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/indians/cherokee/trail_of_tears
www.trailoftears.org
www.rosecity.net/tears/trail/retrace
www.chieftainstrail.com/trail_of_tears
-THE CHEROKEE REMOVAL:  A BRIEF HISTORY WITH DOCUMENTS
-VOICES FROM THE TRAIL OF TEARS by Vicki Rozema
-PUSHING THE BEAR by Diane Glancy
-THE CHEROKEES by Grace Steele Woodward
-NIGHT OF THE CRUEL MOON by Stanley Hoig
-THE JOURNAL OF JESSE SMOKE: A CHEROKEE BOY:  A DEAR AMERICA BOOK by Joseph Bruchac
-SOFT RAIN:  A STORY OF THE CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS by Cornelia Cornelissen
-CHEROKEE LEGENDS AND THE TRAIL OF TEARS  by Thomas Bryan Underwoods
-WE THE PEOPLE:  THE TRAIL OF TEARS by Michael Burgan
-PICTURE THE PAST:  LIFE ON THE TRAIL OF TEARS by Laura Fischer
-THE TRAIL ON WHICH THEY WEPT:  THE STORY OF A CHEROKEE GIRL by Dorothy and Thomas Hobbler
-THE TRAIL OF TEARS (STEP INTO READING) by Joseph Bruchac
-THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CHEROKEE NATION by John Ehle

UNTO THESE HILLS: an outdoor drama about the Eastern Cherokees in Cherokee, NC

Trail of Tears State Park       New Echota Historic Site        Trail of Tears Assoc    
429 Moccasins Springs        1211 Chatsworth Hwy NE       1100 N. University
Jackson, MO 63755             Calhoun, GA 30701                  Suite 133
573-334-1711                      706-624-1321                            Little Rock, ARK 72207
                                                

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS:
1783:  NC grants Cherokee land to its citizens; Cherokees cede land to GA
1783:  Peace of Paris ends American Revolution
1785:  Treaty of Hopewell, first treaty between Cherokees and US, established peaceful relations
1788:  US Constitution ratified
1789:  George Washington inaugurated 
1791:  Treaty of Holston proposes the “civilization” program 
1793:  invention of cotton gin makes cotton a more popular export than deerskins 
1796:  Washington initiates “civilization” program among Cherokees
1796:  John Adams elected president
1800:  Thomas Jefferson elected president 
1800: Moravian missions established among Cherokees
1802:  US and GA enter into a compact regarding future Indian land cessions
1803:  LA Purchase
1808:  Cherokees first recorded laws 
1808: James Madison elected president
1808-10: First Cherokee migrations West
1813-1814: Creek War in which Cherokees fought with US soldiers and “friendly Creeks” against Red Stick Creeks; Junalaska saves Andrew Jackson’s life
1816:  James Monroe elected president 
1821:  Sequoyah introduces Cherokee syllabary 
1822:  Cherokees establish Supreme Court 
1824:  John  Quincy Adams elected president 
1826-27:  Creeks cede their last land in GA; GA asserts state sovereignty over Cherokee nation
1827:  Cherokees create Constitution asserting national sovereignty and three branch  government
1828:  Cherokee PHOENIX begins publishing
1828:  Andrew Jackson elected president
1828-29:  state of GA nullifies Cherokee law
1829:  Jackson announces his Indian removal policy
1830:  Indian Removal Act authorizes president to negotiate removal treaty; GA requires loyalty oath for white citizens living within the Cherokee nation
1831:  In Cherokee Nation VS Georgia, Supreme Court declares the Cherokee Nation a,  “domestic dependent nation”
1832:  In Worcester VS Georgia, US Supreme Court upholds Cherokee sovereignty in GA
1835:  Treaty of New Echota negotiated between Treaty Party and US government, provides for removal of Cherokees to Oklahoma Territory
1836:  US Senate ratifies Treaty of New Echota
1836:  Martin Van Buren elected president
May 23, 1838—deadline for voluntary removal
June 1838—John Ross capitulates and negotiates for Cherokee removal self management
1838-39:  Removal of Cherokees
March 24, 1839—last group arrives in OK