Trail of Tears - Sallisaw, OK
N 35° 27.654 W 094° 47.177
15S E 337909 N 3925623
A striking and evocative mural of the Cherokee Indian's removal from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern US to the Oklahoma Indian Territory decorates a wall near the local 14 Flags History Museum
Waymark Code: WMN7GB
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 01/12/2015
Views: 10
James Frasier's striking End of the Trail sculpture, perhaps the most iconic image of the Trail of Tears, is reproduced in this mural, towering over the smaller figures of individual Cherokees making their difficult way overland to their newly-set-aside lands homes in Indian Territory between 1839-1842. After being forced from their homes in the warmer climates of GA and TN by the US Government, many members of the Five Civilized Tribes were forced to walk to their new homes during the winter. Thousands died of disease, exposure, and starvation. One solider who participated in the removal of the Indians wrote later, "I fought through the War Between the States and have seen many men shot, but the Cherokee Removal was the cruelest work I ever knew." Source: (
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The left side of the mural is painted with large scenes of the warm, lush Cherokee and Choctaw homelands in AL and GA. Waterfalls, pine trees, and vegetation not found in OK give the clue that this is what the tribes were forced to leave behind.
In the center is the large figure of the iconic End of the Trail exhausted warrior and spent pony. They are painted facing westward, the direction of travel for the Cherokees. As you approach the mural, what had seemed to be rocks or plants in the snow under the warrior are revealed to be human figures of women and children, draped in thin shawls that offer little warmth in the snow. They walk in a straggling line behind wagons of possessions, their great suffering plain to see. They walk singly or in small groups through deep snow, bent against the cold wind and sometimes aided by walking poles. A horse pulling a few possessions on a sled is stuck in the snow.
The make their way to a new land, painted on the right side of the mural, which is very different from the lands they knew.