I will draw thorns from your feet.

We will walk the White Path of Life together.

Like a brother of my own blood,

I will love you.

I will wipe tears from your eyes.

When you are sad,

I will put your aching heart to rest.

"There is no such thing as 'part-Cherokee.' Either you're Cherokee or you’re not.

It isn't the quantity of Cherokee blood in your veins that is important, but the quality of it . . . your pride in it. I have seen full-bloods who have virtually no idea of the great legacy entrusted to their care. Yet, I have seen people with as little as 1/500th blood quantum who inspire the spirits of their ancestors because they make being Cherokee a proud part of a their everyday life."

Jim Pell: Principal Chief of the North Alabama Cherokee Tribe

"I have Indian Blood in me. I have just enough white blood for you to question my honesty!" Will Rogers aka "The Cherokee Kid"

The forced removal of the Cherokee in 1838-39 from their homelands in the east to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) is known as the "Trail of Tears" or "The Trail Where They Cried". Of the 16,000 Cherokees who were herded into stockades and marched west by U.S. troops, about 4,000 died of disease, exposure, or fatigue. A U.S. soldier, John Burnett, recalled in later years, "I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven by bayonet into 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" Copyright ©1996 Ken Martin
martikw@tca.net