When the Trail of Tears started in 1838, the mothers of the Cherokee were grieving and crying so much, they were unable to help their children survive the journey. The elders prayed for a sign that would lift the mother’s spirits to give them strength. The next day a beautiful rose began to grow where each of the mother’s tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; a gold center represents the gold taken from Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem for the seven Cherokee clans. The wild Cherokee Rose grows along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma today.
Source: The Cherokee 1994 Heritage Calendar by Dorothy Sullivan, Memoray Circle Studio, Norman, Ok.
Cherokee Messenger: Legend of the Cherokee Rose
There's more to the story with some major irony since the Cherokee Rose is an invasive plant, originally from China. (WIKI: Rosa laevigata)
Maybe that says some of the invaders understood and empathized even while the ones who forced them onto the Trail obviously didn't.
The Cherokee Trail of Tears is one of many reasons Andrew Jackson is so loathed by the Rockhouse. His appearance on the twenty-dollar bill disgraces America when few have ever attended so diligently to ethnic cleansing. Hitler's NAZIs got strung from ropes for it but Jackson was put on the currency and called a hero.
There is a bright side since Jackson doesn't have that much longer to run because he will be replaced by Harriet Tubman and it's a pure pleasure to think how much that must make him spin in his racist grave. (New York Times: Harriet Tubman Ousts Andrew Jackson in Change for a $20)
I'm minimally apologetic about flogging this but some don't know and it scorches my soul that this ever happened. The Cherokee were living in peaceful coexistence with their white neighbors in Tennessee and surrounding states. They were forced off their land for no more reason than the white men thought they had more right to it and that's what started the Cherokee Trail of Tears.
The next day a beautiful rose began to grow where each of the mother’s tears fell.
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