Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears. . Form the late 1700's to 1807 a Cherokee Chief named Doublehead guarded this area, that was claimed by both the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations as sacred hunting grounds against encroachment of white settlers., Chief Doublehead had the reputation of eating flesh from his victims and was a fierce warrior. Greed for land by the states and encroachment of the early European settlers led to dissention between the Native Americans and U.S. Government. This led to President Andrew Jackson's the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and what was later known as Trail of Tears. The Act called for all of the Five Civilized tribes of the Southeast to be relocated to west of the Mississippi River. , In 1837 and 1838 over 4,000 mostly Cherokee were moved west from Ross' Landing in Chattanooga, TN. Down the Tennessee River to the Ohio River, then down the Mississippi to the Arkansas River then west to Oklahoma. Because of the Muscle Shoals being so shallow in this section of the Tennessee River the native Americans were placed on a train in Decatur, AL and traveled to Tuscumbia, AL by railroad to avoid the Muscle Shoals. This section of the Tennessee River between Decatur and Tuscumbia is the only section of the river from Chattanooga to where the Tennessee River empties into the Ohio that is not a part of the National Trail of Tears Route. However, the only railroad that is recognized as a Trail of Tears route is less that 2 miles south of Doublehead Resort. There were thousands of deaths and many escapes on this forced removal. Many people in Alabama are descendants of these escapees and still reside in Alabama today. , Funded by Harvey Robbins , Sponsored by: Alabama Waterfowl Association