FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Native American students, faculty and the student community gathered on Oct. 9 to celebrate Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Day on the campus of the University of Arkansas.
Events took place in the student union where Native students and others gathered for drinks and food and to speak during an open mic session. After the gathering ended, the group walked from the student union to the Trail of Tears historic marker on the campus less than a mile away to listen to flute music and speakers to commemorate the day.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians citizen Gaby Nagel performed songs on her flutes and information about the “Remember the Removal” bicycle ride was shared at the marker site. Also, Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan read a proclamation and said Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been recognized in the city since 2004.
“Each year, we meet at the Trail of Tears Memorial Marker in Fayetteville to commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day and remember the Trial of Tears,” Jordan said. “Thousands of people died during this … journey over the Trail of Tears, a collaborative reference to the many paths used by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole nations when they were forced west. The forced removal of American Indians over the Trail of Tears is one of America’s greatest tragedies.”
Jordan added Cherokee leader John Benge led 1,100 Cherokees from their homelands in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee to the “frontier village” of Fayetteville in 1839 as they made their way to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma.
“This group of weary, homeless Cherokees camped on the hillside north and east of the historic federal marker securing supplies and repairing wagons before heading west to Cane Hill the next day and on to Indian Territory, arriving there on Jan. 17, 1839,” Jordan said as he read from…
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