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Feature - Historic Trail of Tears
Updated
07/14/2008
HISTORIC TRAIL OF TEARS CORN GROWN AT THE JIMMY CARTER PLANT MATERIALS
CENTER
In
1830 the Congress of the United States passed a bill called the “Indian Removal
Act”. The Cherokee fought removal legally by challenging the removal law in the
Supreme Court of the United States. The Cherokee challenged the law as an
independent Cherokee Nation. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia the Court refused to
hear a case extending Georgia’s laws concerning the Cherokee because they did
not represent a sovereign nation. However, in 1832 the United States Supreme
Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee on the same issue in Worcester v. Georgia.
In this case Chief Justice John Marshall ruled the Cherokee Nation was
sovereign. This ruling made the removal law invalid. Due to many factors the
Cherokee Nation in 1835 was politically divided. A minority of Cherokee
supported the removal and signed the Treaty of New Echota. This treaty validated the removal act. Therefore, in 1838 the United States
government forcibly removed more than 16,000 Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek Indians
from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia. They
were sent during the severe winter of 1838-1839 to Indian Territory in present
day Oklahoma. Hundreds of Indians died during their trip west, and thousands
perished from relocation. This tragic chapter in American history was known as
the Trail of Tears.
The Cherokee brought provisions to sustain them during the
relocation. These included corn for planting in Oklahoma. Some of the corn
survived and was given the name ‘White Eagle’. This corn is highly revered by
descendents of the Trail of Tears March.
Debbie
Henry of the NRCS is the American Indian/ Alaskan Native Special Emphasis
Program Manager and American Indian Tribal Liaison for Georgia. In 2007, she
requested the Jimmy Carter Plant Materials Center (PMC) grow production seed of
‘White Eagle’ for education and remembrance of the Trail of Tears March to
Oklahoma. Debbie provided the corn to the PMC for spring 2007 planting. Personnel from Area 3 of the NRCS and PMC harvested 1,100 pounds of clean high
quality corn on August 23, 2007. Packets of this corn are being sent to
interested parties in the Southeastern United States.
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