Seminole Trail of Tears - Wewoka, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 09.239 W 096° 29.472
14S E 728527 N 3893001
This is one of those unique and unexpected encounters with the Woodmen of the World.
Waymark Code: WMX6NM
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 12/04/2017
Views: 14
After visiting so many Woodmen of the World headstones in cemeteries throughout Oklahoma, it was with delight that we found this historical marker sponsored by Woodmen of the World Insurance Association.
This Trail of Tears marker is located on the grounds of the Seminole Nation Museum, north of the museum building. It is a metal marker erected by the efforts of the Woodmen of the World Insurance Association and the Trail of Tears Remembrance Motorcycle Ride.
The marker reads: SEMINOLE TRAIL OF TEARS / The Seminole, like their five civilized tribes brethren, were victims of a calculated purge of Native Americans throughout the United States in the 19th Century. Through coercion, deceit, and ultimately force, the U.S. Government relocated southeastern tribes west of the Mississippi River. While many were forced on arduous and ignoble marches to their new lands, the Seminole withdrew into the Florida Everglades and resisted relocation through three great Seminole Wars. Lasting over a decade, these engagements were the longest, costliest, and most bitter wars of removal fought by the U.S. government. In the aftermath, less than three thousand Seminoles were left in the swamps of central Florida. Upon arrival in the Indian Territory, however, self-determination would be denied them as they were confined to the Creek Nation and its laws. Only after a decade of struggle and political upheaval of the Civil War was the tribe able to form a sovereign Seminole Nation in 1866 with Wewoka as its chosen capital. / This marker made possible by Woodmen of the World Insurance Association - "with you through life" and the Trail of Tears Remembrance Motorcycle Ride.