NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Melba Checote-Eads calls it an emotional time. She was among those at the the fourth annual Trail of Tears Commemorative Walk.
"I'm Muscogee Creek nation of Oklahoma," said Checote-Eads.
Her ancestors arrived in Oklahoma by way of the Trail of Tears. "My family was removed from Fort Mitchell Alabama," she said.
The trail's northern route runs through present-day Nashville into Kentucky.
"When you come to Whites Creek you feel like you're really in the cradle of the history of Nashville," said Secretary of Friends of Whites Creek, Helen Tarleton. She said the walk is an opportunity for education and reconciliation.
"And we stop at each of the cardinal direction points because those are significant to the people who were here," Tarleton said.
At each stop, organizers shared songs, poems and readings about the trail.
Nearly 200 years since people were forced to walk through Nashville on the Trail of Tears, residents at the commemorative walk honored their journey and remembered their loss.
"I hope that they see that there is a way for us to understand our history and to embrace it and to learn from it and to develop conversations that allow for transformation in the way that we are with each other and community," said Tarleton.
It's estimated more than 4,000 people died along the Trail of Tears.
