A Cherokee finds herself in Oklahoma
I am a Cherokee woman my name is Lily, my family and I lived in harmony and peace with the white settlers. Some of them want to live in peace and some just do not accept us. There are White settlers that want to steal our land. My ancestors have been here for many years. Long before these white men ever came over to this land, so why are they trying to take our land away from us?
In my land of what they call the State of Georgia, their government refused to accept our Cherokee government. They think there is something they call gold on our land, and that Georgia passed a law to make us give up our land so they could have all the gold in the rivers. It seems that the gold was more desirable to the white settlers than our lives. Mr. Jackson wanted to remove us off the land because he says it’s highly valuable. Maybe, if they had asked we could have shared it. We are not the savages they think we are.
Our people did not want to lose this land! We took our case to the government and their court and fought for our land. It did not do much as there were only white people there and most of them will not let us keep our land or they would not have the power to help us. We have our own government so John Ridge and Andrew Jackson had to both make a deal for our land, but it did not go exactly as they said it would. This gave Americans exactly what they had wanted from the Indians. Because they didn’t really have a say over the authority for the Indians, Mr. Ridge was smart and he asked for five million dollars for our land. Later the United States Army came in and made us leave our homes and land; they stated that because of the treaty the time was up. Two thousand had died on the Cherokee land, because they didn’t have food or water.
We made the trip up west through snowy and icy weather; we were in charge of planning our whole entire journey. We did whatever it took to stay warm we would huddle together to stay warm, and also walk closer together throughout the cold climate. It was an 850 miles march here where we are now in the state of Oklahoma. More than 4,000 of my family and tribe members died on the long journey, which we are calling “nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i”, or trail where they cried or the trail of tears. Because Americans had gotten all that they wanted from us, but for us it was horrible, because we lost our land, and some families died during the journey, it was terrifying.
We just really wanted to live in peace and harmony; our hearts are very heavy after all we have been through. Because all Andrew Jackson and the white people had wanted was stuff for them, if they ever took the moment, to help someone else, maybe our story would have a better. Our families’ lives that were lost are now on their minds and people’s homes that were stolen right away from us, Mr. Ridge was not in charge he is an Indian himself. He did what he thought was the right thing; it just did not turn out that way. Maybe if Mr. Jackson could go back and change things, he would have made our travel better and what happened on the trail never would have happened.
We are now settling here in Oklahoma and trying to rebuild our civilization and life. We are doing well and have even done better than the life back in Georgia. We were one of the five “Civilized Tribes” along with the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminoles. We have re-established ourselves in our new land with communities, churches, schools, businesses and newspapers. We soon became the hub of regional activity for business and the center for cultural activity. Our new capital Tahlequah and Park Hill are the center for these happenings. We have implemented a new constitution and the Cherokee Advocate has become the first newspaper in Indian Territory. It is written in both Cherokee and English and is the first time a Native American language has ever been published. We even have the first periodical/magazine published called The Cherokee Messenger.
We are survivors and will continue on for years to come. We have been through many hardships and will, I am sure, have more. We are a strong people and I wish only the greatest life for my children, my great grandchildren and beyond.

Lilly Timberlake - 1839

Reference
Cherokee Nation - The Official Site of the Cherokee Nation. (n.d.). Our History. Retrieved from http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/Facts/2449/Information/aspx Hudson, C. “The Ante-Bellum Elite”. Red, White, and Black; Symposium on Indians in the Old
South. (1971). [University of Georgia Press. p. 80 SBN 820303089]. Copy in possession of Hudson, Charles.
Mann, C. C. (2006, c2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_States#cite_note-9 http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays/Web_Cherokee.pdf Gascoigne, Bamber (2001). History of the American Indians. History World. Retrieved from http://www.historyworld.net The Trail Where They Cried nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i Retrieved from http://www.ani-
kutani.com/nativeamericanfacts/trail_where_they_cried_nu_na_hi_.htm