American Woodhenge

I knew it was going to be depressing when we headed out to the Trail of Tears State Park in Jackson, MO, about 20 miles from where we are camped. In the spring and summer of 1838, more than 15,000 Cherokee Indians were removed by the U.S. Army from their ancestral homelands in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Held in concentration camps through the summer, they were then forced to travel over 1,000 miles, under adverse conditions, to Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. Thousands died. The Cherokee came to call the event "Trail Where They Cried."

This catastrophic journey, one of the darker events in American history, not only affected the Cherokee, but has symbolized the removal of the other Southeastern and Eastern Indian tribes, specifically the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole tribes. The grim result of the U.S. Government American Indian Removal Policy, the forced relocations, devastated American Indian cultures.

These events were told in greater detail at the Visitor Center as well as some feel-good exhibits about how the Cherokees have overcome these travails to become a "Nation renewed." In Oklahoma they rebuilt their nation, established their own government and capital, at Tahlequah, OK, and built their own schools and language. Here is how it is presented - "the Cherokee proved resilient in the ensuing years. Today the Cherokee and other removed tribes endure as vigorous Indian nations. The Trail of Tears story is one of racial injustice, intolerance, and suffering. But this is also a story of survival of a people thriving in the present while remembering the past...."

The federal government has also established the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail that is maintained by the National Park Service. The state park that we went to today, in Missouri, is the location on the northern route where the Cherokee crossed the Mississippi River.

The map above shows the extent of Cherokee lands at first contact with Europeans, in yellow. By the time of the American Revolution, their lands had shrunk, to blue. By the time of removal, they were living on about 1/10 of their original lands, in red. The state of Georgia is not depicted in a very positive light, nor President Andrew Jackson.

Diorama of a camp along the journey. They often had only the clothes on their backs and one blanket to keep warm during the winter of 1883 which was unusually severe.

At the edge of the park was this lovely overlook of the Mississippi river. That's Illinois on the other side.

Looking south.

And north.

Nice bluff on the Missouri side.

On a slightly happier note, here is a little more on the Cahokia culture. 

Thousands of structures like these,with thatched roofs on pole frames set in wall trenches, served as permanent dwellings at Cahokia. House sizes varied but construction techniques were similar.

Cahokians acquired status and privilege by birth or by achievement. While this sub-chief, on the left, trading salt for a knife, was born into the noble class, the flintknapper has raised his status by making superior implements.

Flintknappers used very hard rock or antler tools to hammer and chip rough stone into desired shapes. They would sometimes grind the flint edges with sandstone before hammering to better control the flakes removed in the thinning process.

A stockade, nearly two miles long around the central ceremonial area, including the Monks Mound, served as a social barrier segregating the more sacred area and the elite who lived within and for defense. A section of the stacked wall would have looked something like this reconstruction. 

A huge circle of wooden poles was discovered at Cahokia in 1961. Pits were unearthed that had once held red cedar posts arranged in a circle to form a solar horizon calendar. It was named "American Woodhenge" to distinguish it from similar structures in England. Solar horizon calendars keep track of the seasonal movements of the sun as it seems to travel north and south during the year. 

I was delighted to learn that Chunkey was played in Cahokia! It was considered a serious contest of strength and skill. Chucky was often the focus of a community. Chunky stones were sometimes held as community possessions, kept in special locations.

How to play Chunkey: 1. Two players stood abreast at one end of a long, smooth playing field. Players and spectators made bets. 2. Play began when one athlete rolled, or "bowled" a polished concave stone disc toward the other end of the field. 3. Both players then cast javelin-like spears or poles after the stone. 4. Often players raced along after a throw, using body language to try to guide or influence the path of a spear. 5. The spear which landed closest to the chunky stone scored a victory. 6. Fans cheered the winner and bettors settled up. New contestants would begin a game, and sometimes play continued, round after round, all day.