Forced Removal of the Civilized Tribes - Lawrenceburg, TN - Civil Rights Memorials on Waymarking.com

County of mural: Lawrence County
Location of mural: Pulaski St. & Public Square, Lawrenceburg
Artist: Bernice Davidson
Date erected: September 12, 2008

Text on Mural:

SURVIVING
the
TRAIL of TEARS
Trail of Tears Memorial700 members of the Cherokee Tribe passed through downtown Lawrenceburg on November 5th, 1838 during the forced relocation known as the "Trail of Tears".
Erected September 12th, 2008
Bernice Davidson

This mural is a life size image of a Cherokee man, woman and baby, the baby wrapped in a light blanket, man and women in wedding garb standing before an Oak Tree.

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"At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk thousands of miles to a specially designated “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River. This difficult and sometimes deadly journey is known as the Trail of Tears.

"White Americans, particularly those who lived on the western frontier, often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered: To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted (and believed they deserved). Some officials in the early years of the American republic, such as President George Washington, believed that the best way to solve this “Indian problem” was simply to “civilize” the Native Americans. The goal of this civilization campaign was to make Native Americans as much like white Americans as possible by encouraging them convert to Christianity, learn to speak and read English and adopt European-style economic practices such as the individual ownership of land and other property (including, in some instances in the South, African slaves). In the southeastern United States, many Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek and Cherokee people embraced these customs and became known as the “Five Civilized Tribes.”' ~ History Channel

Civil Right Type: Class Equality

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