by Rick Brown
Tsa-la-gi! Tsa-la-gi!
by the Great Mystery kissed!
Listen! Hear them sing
their songs!
In drums, in mourning's midst!
At a river's crossing,
through forests,
seen by those who care to look,
spirits from days long ago wait
near the blood-soaked path they took.
That cold, cold trail of
sorrow,
damped by tears as scattered corn;
a witness to lost horizons
but a return to freedoms born.
Along that trail so many
stayed,
trusting souls hard spurned;
though frozen was this liars way,
deep were heart-prints burned.
Like rain, the tears of
anguish fell,
sad moments locked in time;
hoped for sounds from a Mission's bell,
were hidden with the promised sign.
As wagons, weighted, marked
their way,
from new Echota to where they close;
where each tear fell, as some will tell,
will be seen a Cherokee rose.
THE CHEROKEE ROSE
Symbol of The Trail of Tears
"We are now about to take our leave and kind
farewell to our native land, the country that the
Great Spirit gave our Fathers, we are on the
eve of leaving that country that gave us birth...
it is with sorrow we are forced by the white
man to quit the scenes of our childhood...
we bid farewell to it and all we hold dear."
- Charles Hicks, Tsalagi Chief
The Cedar Tree
Cherokee Links Home Wildlife Parks
The Cherokee Rose