And the man who once lived there -

But, that leader of our Nation

Was cruel, unjust, unfair -

 

He ordered the removal

Of the Cherokee from their land

And forced them on a trek

That the Devil must have planned -

 

One thousand miles of misery -

Of pain and suffering -

Because greed of the white man

Could not even wait till spring -

 

We should bow our heads in shame

Even unto this day

About "The Trail Of Tears"

And those who died along the way.

 

It was October, eighteen thirty-eight

When seven thousand troops in blue

Began the story of the "Trail"

Which, so sadly, is so true -

 

Jackson ordered General Scott

To rout the Indian from their home -

The "Center Of The World" they loved -

The only one they'd known -

 

The Braves working in the fields

Arrested, placed in a stockade -

Women and children dragged from home

In the bluecoats shameful raid -

 

Some were prodded with bayonets

When, they were deemed to move too slow

To where the Sky was their blanket

And the cold Earth, their pillow -

 

In one home a Babe had died

Sometime in the night before -

And women mourning, planning burial

Were cruelly herded out the door -

 

In another, a frail Mother -

Papoose on back and two in tow

Was told she must leave her home

Was told that she must go -

 

She uttered a quiet prayer -

Told the old family dog good-bye -

Then, her broken heart gave out

And she sank slowly down to die ---

 

Chief Junaluska witnessed this -

Tears streaming down his face -

Said if he could have known this

It would have never taken place -

 

For, at the battle of Horse Shoe

With five hundred Warriors, his best -

Helped Andrew Jackson win that battle

And lay thirty-three Braves to rest -

 

But, Jackson was cold, indifferent

To the one he owed his life to

Said, "The Cherokee's fate is sealed -

There's nothing, I can do."

 

Washington, D.C. had decreed

They must be moved Westward -

And all their pleas and protest

To this day still go unheard.

 

On November, the seventeenth

Old Man Winter reared his head -

And freezing cold, sleet and snow

Littered that trail with the dead

 

On one night, at least twenty-two

Were released from their torment

To join that Great Spirit in the Sky

Where all good souls are sent -

 

Many humane, heroic stories

Were written 'long the way -

A monument, for one of them -

Still stands until this day -

 

It seems one noble woman

It was Chief Ross' wife -

Gave her blanket to a sick child

And in so doing, gave her life -

 

She is buried in an unmarked grave -

Dug shallow near the "Trail" -

Just one more tragic ending

In this tragic, shameful tale -

 

Mother Nature showed no mercy

Till they reached the end of the line

When that fateful journey ended
On March twenty-sixth, eighteen thirty-nine.

 

Each mile of this infamous "Trail"

Marks the graves of four who died -

Four thousand poor souls in all

Marks the shame we try to hide -

 

You still can hear them crying

Along "The Trail Of Tears"

If you listen with your heart

And not with just your ears.