I consider this to be the most important song I've ever written. My hope is that it inspires people to learn the history of the United States of America. All too often the real facts are ommited from the history books, just as the indigenous people of these lands were omitted from white society.
The world is a savage place at times. As members of the human race, it is our responsibility to take care of each other. It is our mission to love each other. All too often, we tragically fail our mission. We forget to care. We forget to protect our brothers and sisters. We're ALL family here. Remember that. Embrace it.
This is a song is I wrote about the Cherokee Removal Act, which was authorized by US President, Andrew Jackson, in 1830. As a result of this cruelty, more than 4,000 people died from disease, weather, starvation, sheer exhaustion and broken hearts.
It never should have happened.Selfish hearts breed infinite pain and sadness. We can never allow this to happen again. I beg of you to pay attention. Never turn your back on humanity. We're all we've got.
I could explain the Trail of Tears to you myself, but when I speak about it, my anger falls out and facts are left out because I wander from the main topic. So, here is an excerpt directly from The Cherokee Nation.
You may not have time to read it all now, but I do ask the favor that you might come back and read it later. It's critical to recognize historical tragedies for what they were. We all know about being doomed to repeat the past. It's a bit cliche to say anymore, but it's true.
Painting depicting the Native American forced migration to the West in 1838. "THE TRAIL OF TEARS 1838" Oil on canvas, 1942, by Robert Lindneux.
A Brief History of the Trail of Tears
Migration from the original Cherokee Nation began in the early 1800’s. Some Cherokees, wary of white encroachment, moved west on their own and settled in other areas of the country. A group known as the Old Settlers previously had voluntarily moved in 1817 to lands given them in Arkansas where they established a government and a peaceful way of life. Later, however, they were forced to migrate to Indian Territory.
White resentment of the Cherokee had been building and reached a pinnacle following the discovery of gold in northern Georgia. This discovery was made just after the the creation and passage of the original Cherokee Nation constitution and establishment of a Cherokee Supreme Court. Possessed by "gold fever" and a thirst for expansion, many white communities turned on their Cherokee neighbors. The U.S. government ultimately decided it was time for the Cherokees to be "removed"; leaving behind their farms, their land and their homes.
President Andrew Jackson's military command and almost certainly his life were saved thanks to the aid of 500 Cherokee allies at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Unbelievably, it was Jackson who authorized the Indian Removal Act of 1830 following the recommendation of President James Monroe in his final address to Congress in 1825.
Jackson, as president, sanctioned an attitude that had persisted for many years among many white immigrants. Even Thomas Jefferson, who often cited the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Confederacy as the model for the U.S. Constitution, supported Indian Removal as early as 1802.The displacement of native people was not wanting for eloquent opposition. Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay spoke out against removal. The Reverend Samuel Worcester, missionary to the Cherokees, challenged Georgia’s attempt to estinguish Indian title to land in the state, actually winning his case before the Supreme Court.
Worcester vs. Georgia, 1832 and Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia, 1831 are considered the two most influential legal decisions in Indian law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for Georgia in the 1831 case, but in Worcester vs. Georgia, the court affirmed Cherokee sovereignty. President Andrew Jackson arrogantly defied the decision of the court and ordered the removal, an act that established the U.S. government’s precedent for the future removal of many Native Americans from their ancestral homelands.
The U.S. government used the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 to justify the removal. The treaty, signed by about 100 Cherokees known as the Treaty Party, relinquished all lands east of the Mississippi River in exchange for land in Indian Territory and the promise of money, livestock, various provisions, tools and other benefits.
When these pro-removal Cherokee leaders signed the Treaty of New Echota, they also signed their own death warrants, since the Cherokee Nation Council had earlier passed a law calling for the death of anyone agreeing to give up tribal land. The signing and the removal led to bitter factionalism and ultimately to the deaths of most of the Treaty Party leaders once the Cherokee arrived in Indian Territory.
Opposition to the removal was led by Chief John Ross, a mixed-blood of Scottish and one-eighth Cherokee descent. The Ross party and most Cherokees opposed the New Echota Treaty, but Georgia and the U.S. government prevailed and used it as justification to force almost all of the 17,000 Cherokees from their southeastern homeland.
Under orders from President Jackson the U.S. Army began enforcement of the Removal Act. The Cherokee were rounded up in the summer of 1838 and loaded onto boats that traveled the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers into Indian Territory. Many were held in prison camps awaiting their fate.
An estimated 4,000 died from hunger, exposure and disease. The journey became a cultural memory as the "trail where they cried" for the Cherokees and other removed tribes. Today it is widely remembered by the general public as the "Trail of Tears". The Oklahoma chapter of the Trail of Tears Association has begun the task of marking the graves of Trail survivors with bronze memorials.
THIS PAINTING DEPICTS THE EMOTION AND PREVALENCE OF LOSS ON THE TRAIL OF TEARS. SOURCE: DUANE H. KING, THE CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS, (GRAPHIC ART BOOKS: PORTLLAND, 2007)
Savage Land (Trail of Tears)
Dark wind blowing on me tonight.
My feet are broken and my baby just died.
Jackson said we're not civilized,
so we're moving west he said that's best
for a savage land, for a savage land.
Cold snow falling on me today
my horse is tired but still she carries me
I want to go back home, but they burned it down.
I want to go back home, but there's no room
for a savage town, for a savage town
Not so many moons ago I watched the Red bird fly,
floating circles round and round beneath a hazeless sky.
Floating round and round
and round in a hazeless sky
above a free land
above a free land.
Hard rage burning my heart tonight.
My horse broke down, she died
and I'm not going to make it.
My blood falls out of me.
It's red, just like the president's,
but all he sees is red skin
from a savage land.
Not so many moons ago,
I watched the Red bird fly.
Floating circles round and round
beneath a hazeless sky.
Floating cirlcles round and round
beneath a hazeless sky
above a free land.
A free land.
Words & music © Serena Matthews
EXTRA CREDITS:
Historical information is provided by the Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center. For information regarding culture and language, please contact: cultural@cherokee.org.
(cover photo) Standley, M. (1995). The teardrop is the essence of the Trail of Tears [Painting].
I know that this is not a "polished" song. I grow tired of hearing that word. My recording is raw, my guitar was cheap and had old strings and never stayed in tune. I get that my voice is strange to many people, I am constantly reminded... but my heart is there.
I pride myself in being able to pound my heart into my songs in such a way that it's clearly evident. To my fellow musicians and artists, I encourage you to embrace your strengths more than you ever allow yourself to feel inadequate for any reason. (I constantly am working to master this skill. I'm almost there. I know I'll get there one day.)
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