Editorial: The tracks of their tears

Monday, Feb. 20, 2006 | 12:31 p.m.

In the winter of 1838-39, some 16,000 Cherokee Indians were forced to leave their homes in Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia and walk to an Oklahoma reservation the federal government had set aside for them.

The 800-mile journey, called the Trail of Tears, claimed the lives of more than 4,000 Cherokee tribe members and stole from them ancestral lands they can never reclaim. Part of the trek is memorialized by the 2,200-mile Trail of Tears National Historic Trail that traverses nine states. Last week the National Park Service endorsed a proposal that's currently before Congress that would allow the service to study adding another 2,000 miles of trails to the national Trail of Tears system. In speaking before the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks, a Park Service official said the Department of the Interior "recognizes the importance of telling the complete story of the Trail of Tears."

If approved, the study would cost about $175,000. It would cost about $300,000 annually to maintain the additional 2,000 miles of trail. But it's the least America can do to accurately reflect what Cherokee Nation Chief Chadwick Smith told senators is "one of the darkest chapters of American history."

The United States "must honor its word and forever remember the inspiring story of the Cherokee spirit. At stake is the integrity of the United States and its word," Smith said.

In Cherokee, the trail is called "Nunna daul Tsuny," or "The Trail Where They Cried." The U.S. government, which broke so many agreements with native tribes, should mark not only our nation's victories, but also its mistaken, unsettling steps.