INA, Ill. (Nov. 8, 2023)—Join Rend Lake College in celebrating Native American Heritage Month this November with guest speaker Dr. Mark J. Wagner.
Next Wednesday, November 15, Wagner will be visiting RLC’s campus to share with the community his knowledge on Native American history in a presentation titled: The Cherokee Trail of Tears in Southern Illinois.
Between 1837-139 thousands of Cherokee Indians were forcibly removed from their homes in Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and forced to relocate to new homes in Oklahoma. Many of these emigrants traveled through Southern Illinois on a dirt road now known as the “Trail of Tears.”
Sections of this trail still exist on the landscape and Cherokee youth come back to visit it virtually every year as part of the “Remember the Removal” bike ride across America. Cherokee youth bike the entire length of the trail from North Carolina to Oklahoma to reconnect them with their heritage and remind them of what their ancestors experienced along the “Trail of Tears”. The Cherokee Tribe of North Carolina also are engaged in buying back many of their traditional villages where they lived before the Removal. In Illinois, our local state chapter works to preserve the remaining sections of the Trail of Tears in our state as well as meeting with the Cherokee each year to inform them of the current state of preservation of the trail in Illinois and our efforts to educate the public regarding it and the Cherokee people.
Join us Wednesday, November 15 from 11:00 am to Noon in the Student Center Room 110.
For more information, contact Sarah Draper at drapers@rlc.edu or call 618-437-5321, ext. 1264.