Our group at Old Baptist Mission Church.
The purpose of this year’s pilgrimage was to trace and understand the historic forced relocations (1831-1839) of the Five Civilized Tribes. Thirty-three people participated. Nine of these are members of Broadway Christian Church. We travelled through eight states in eight days.
Our thanks go out to Larry Brown for lining up the sites we visited. He also prepared a Travel Guidebook for us. This gave us scriptures related to what we would see each day and questions to ponder as we travelled.
From the time Europeans arrived in the new world, they struggled with how to live near native people. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to support removal of native people. Congress passed the Indian Removal act in 1830. Even though the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee had sovereign land rights, Andrew Jackson dismissed the ruling, leading to removal of the tribes to Indian country along what is known as the Trails of Tears.
Broadway group at Chickasaw Cultural Center.
On our pilgrimage, we learned of what the Indians experienced as they were forced to walk from their native lands to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. They walked about ten miles per day, often in terrible conditions without adequate protection from the weather. Many died along the way.
There is no substitute for seeing sites where these events took place. We were greeted by wonderful people along the way. On Sunday, July 16, we worshipped in the Old Baptist Mission Church near Westville, OK. They treated us to a meal of Indian tacos and desserts.
Our pilgrims have many stories to tell and we will be scheduling educational events to tell those stories. We will be looking at current events affecting Native Americans.
Race Onward sponsored the pilgrimage. They are also looking at other activities to help heal the racial divides many people still face. Watch for these events. Events will include book studies and local events like setting a marker at the courthouse to commemorate the lynching of George Bush in 1889.
Thank you to Broadway CC’s Don Day for this information and photos.