Editing Trail of Tears (section)

=== Landmarks and commemorations ===
[[File:Cherokee Removal Map.jpg|thumb|Walkway map at the [[Cherokee Removal Memorial Park]] in Tennessee depicting the routes of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, June 2020]]
[[File:Trail of tears map NPS.jpg|thumb|upright=1.55|Map of National Historic trails]]

In 1987, about {{convert|2200|miles|km}} of trails were authorized by federal law to mark the removal of 17 detachments of the Cherokee people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trail of Tears: History & Culture |url=https://www.nps.gov/trte/learn/historyculture/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150227093703/http://www.nps.gov/trte/learn/historyculture/index.htm |archive-date=February 27, 2015 |access-date=July 8, 2012 |publisher=National Park Service |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Called the '''Trail of Tears [[National Historic Trail]]''', it traverses portions of nine states and includes land and water routes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Geographic Resources Division |url=http://imgis.nps.gov/#Trails |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018192020/https://imgis.nps.gov/#Trails |archive-date=October 18, 2017 |access-date=October 18, 2017 |publisher=National Park Service |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

==== Trail of Tears outdoor historical drama, ''Unto These Hills'' ====
A historical drama based on the Trail of Tears, ''[[Unto These Hills]]'' written by [[Kermit Hunter]], has sold over five million tickets for its performances since its opening on July 1, 1950, both touring and at the outdoor Mountainside Theater of the Cherokee Historical Association in [[Cherokee, North Carolina]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unto These Hills Drama - Cherokee Historical Association |url=http://www.cherokeehistorical.org/unto-these-hills/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018071833/http://www.cherokeehistorical.org/unto-these-hills/ |archive-date=October 18, 2017 |access-date=October 18, 2017 |publisher=www.cherokeehistorical.org |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cherokee Ancestry |url=http://www.aboutcherokee.com/trail-of-tears.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018071659/http://www.aboutcherokee.com/trail-of-tears.html |archive-date=October 18, 2017 |access-date=October 18, 2017 |publisher=www.aboutcherokee.com |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

==== Remember the Removal bike ride ====
A regular event, the "Remember the Removal Bike Ride," entails six cyclists from the Cherokee Nation to ride over 950 miles while retracing the same path that their ancestors took. The cyclists, who average about 60 miles a day, start their journey in the former capital of the Cherokee Nation, [[New Echota]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], and finish in [[Tahlequah]], [[Oklahoma]].<ref>{{Cite web |author=Staff reports |title=Cherokee Nation announces 2022 'Remember the Removal' bike ride participants |url=https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/education/cherokee-nation-announces-2022-remember-the-removal-bike-ride-participants/article_2172c55a-bb3e-11ec-bcba-5fc8aaed04be.html |access-date=June 10, 2022 |website=cherokeephoenix.org |date=April 13, 2022 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505105524/https://www.cherokeephoenix.org/education/cherokee-nation-announces-2022-remember-the-removal-bike-ride-participants/article_2172c55a-bb3e-11ec-bcba-5fc8aaed04be.html |archive-date=May 5, 2022}}</ref> In June 2024, [[Shawna Baker]], justice of the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court was a mentor cyclist on the 40th commemorative ride.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 9, 2024 |title=Clary, Felix. Cyclists Take on Trail (pt. 1) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tulsa-world-clary-felix-cyclists-take/153899023/ |access-date=August 26, 2024 |work=Tulsa World |pages=A15}}</ref>

==== Commemorative medallion ====
[[Cherokee]] artist Troy Anderson was commissioned to design the ''Cherokee Trail of Tears Sesquicentennial Commemorative Medallion''. The falling-tear medallion shows a seven-pointed star, the symbol of the seven clans of the Cherokees.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cherokees to Mark Anniversary of "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma |url=http://newsok.com/cherokees-to-mark-anniversary-of-trail-of-tears-to-oklahoma/article/2257412 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402091804/http://newsok.com/cherokees-to-mark-anniversary-of-trail-of-tears-to-oklahoma/article/2257412 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |access-date=March 11, 2015 |publisher=News OK |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

==== In literature and oral history ====
* ''Family Stories From the Trail of Tears'' is a collection edited by Lorrie Montiero and transcribed by [[Grant Foreman]], taken from the Indian-Pioneer History Collection<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.ualr.edu/sequoyah/uploads/2011/11/Family%20Stories%20from%20the%20Trail%20of%20Tears.htm |title=Family Stories From the Trail of Tears |publisher=American Native Press Archives and Sequoyah Research Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703182314/http://www.ualr.edu/sequoyah/uploads/2011/11/Family%20Stories%20from%20the%20Trail%20of%20Tears.htm |archive-date=July 3, 2015 |last1=Montiero |first1=Lorrie |last2=Foreman |first2=Grant |df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[Johnny Cash]] played in the 1970 [[NET Playhouse]] dramatization of ''The Trail of Tears''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_512-ht2g73818t |website=American Archive of Public Broadcasting |title=NET Playhouse; The Trail of Tears: John Ross |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240827190022/https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_512-ht2g73818t |archive-date=August 27, 2024}}</ref> He also recorded the reminiscences of a participant in the removal of the Cherokee.<ref>{{cite web |website=creoliste.fr |title=Birthday Story of Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan's Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal, 1838-39. |url=https://www.creoliste.fr/docs/essays/Trail_of_Tears.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123051046/https://www.creoliste.fr/docs/essays/Trail_of_Tears.html |archive-date=January 23, 2022}}</ref>
* ''[[Walking the Trail]]'' (1991) is a book by [[Jerry Ellis (author)|Jerry Ellis]] describing his 900-mile walk retracing of the Trail of Tears in reverse
* [[Ruth Muskrat Bronson]], a Cherokee scholar and poet, was a more contemporary figure who wrote a poem titled "Trail of Tears" that enshrined the devastation faced by the Cherokee nation that still permeates Indigenous conscience today:
<blockquote>From the homes their fathers made // From the graves the tall trees shade // For the sake of greed and gold, // The Cherokees were forced to go // To a land they did not know; // And Father Time or wisdom old // Cannot erase, through endless years // The memory of the trail of tears.</blockquote>