Cherokee Nation, Remember the Removal Bike Ride

The Cherokee Nation, Remember the Removal Bike Ride is stopping at the Steelville City Park on June 15th.

The city park was the location of a camp site of about 10 groups of Cherokee that were being forcibly removed from their homes and moved to Oklahoma.

The Remember the Removal Bike Ride was started by the Cherokee Nation in 1984 for Cherokee youth to retrace the Trail of Tears and get a glimpse of the hardships their ancestors faced when they made the same trek on foot years before.

The ride became an annual event starting in 2009 and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians joined the ride in 2011. Today, the riders are selected based on an interview process. Then, the riders will complete a physical test and train for six months.

During the bike ride, cyclists visit the Kituwah Mound in the original Cherokee homeland. They stop at unmarked graves of their ancestors; visit New Echota, the former Cherokee capital in Georgia; stop at Blythe Ferry along the Tennessee River, where Cherokees gathered during their forced removal; and take time to reflect on their ancestors at Mantle Rock and other historic sites historic to the Cherokee people.

More information on the Remember The Removal bike ride can be found here; https://www.cherokee.org/about-the-nation/remember-the-removal/