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TAHLEQUAH, Okla.
– Fifteen Cherokee students will spend the next three weeks retracing
their ancestors’ footsteps along the Trail of Tears, which this
year marks the 175th anniversary.
Thursday, the Cherokee
Nation will host a send off for the 2013 Remember the Removal Bike Ride
participants. The students will ride more than 950 miles on bicycles,
beginning in New Echota, Ga., and follow the northern route Trail of
Tears through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas,
ending June 21 in Oklahoma. The ride was started at the Cherokee Nation
in 1984 so Cherokee youth would never forget the hardships of their
Cherokee ancestors who made the same trek on foot. Of the estimated
16,000 Cherokees forced to make the journey to Indian Territory, an
estimated 4,000 died due to exposure, starvation and disease. The Cherokee
Nation also joins others riders from the Eastern Band of Cherokees for
the ride. Follow the journey on https://www.facebook.com/removal.ride
The
2013 riders include the following:
Claremore
Benjamin
Keener, Rogers State University
Joseph Keener,
Northeastern State University
Lillie Keener,
Abilene Christian University
Noah Collins,
Verdigris High
Fort Gibson
Blake
Henson, Fort Gibson High
Hulbert
Marshall
Smith, Tahlequah High
Stilwell
Haydn Comingdeer,
Sequoyah High
Robert Ketcher,
Eastern Mennonite University
Tahlequah
Hestin
Lamons, Tahlequah High
Paige Carnes,
Tahlequah High
Jon Ross,
NSU
Latasha Atcity,
NSU
Tulsa
Carter
Copeland, Jenks High
Vian
Lane Holcomb,
Sequoyah High
Sarah Holcomb,
Carl Albert State College
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