Trail of Tears Traditional Cache
Sugar-and-Spice: The sign is gone where this cache was located.
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You are looking for a magnetic bison tube on a roadside sign of historical significance.
Some of the best things about caching is the people you meet and places you find. History is a passion of ours, and every once in a while it can be important to stop and appreciate a place for the role it has played in the larger part of history.
The Trail of Tears crossed over many of highways we drive over every day in this region. Hwy 288, 64, 22, and 352 are just a few of the roads we cache from frequently, but they have a history that extends beyond today's transportation. Below is a brief history of the Trail of Tears in Arkansas.
The Trail of Tears History
Following the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, long-held desires for the lands of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole Indians came to fruition with the federal Indian Removal Act of 1830. This act allowed the forcible removal of the five tribes to new lands in the Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma). All five tribes passed through Arkansas, and many of the territory's most prominent figures made substantial fortunes from removal.
In 1830, the Choctaw were the first of the five major Southeast tribes to agree to a removal treaty, emigrating in three official waves in 1831, 1832, and 1833. Fraud involved in Choctaw allotments resulted in the issuance in 1842 of so-called Choctaw Scrip, which speculators could trade to buy land in Arkansas and three other states.
Some Muscogee (Creek) bands began moving west in 1827 after the tribe was forced out of Georgia. Those emigrating after an 1832 treaty ceded Creek land in Alabama were among the most destitute and most numerous traveling through Arkansas. Most had to walk, some in chains as prisoners of war, and their journeys in 1834, 1836, and 1837 were made more miserable by the negligence of private contractors.
After agreeing to a final session in 1832, the Chickasaw Nation negotiated its own removal in 1837–38, hoping to avoid the problems suffered by earlier emigrants. A small group of Florida Indians signed a removal treaty in 1833, but most resisted emigration, sparking the so-called Second Seminole War (1835–1842), one of the most expensive in U.S. history. Cherokee leaders fought removal in the courts and in Congress, contesting Georgia laws and an unauthorized 1835 treaty. Unable to elude expulsion, the Cherokee Nation organized its own removal in 1838–39.
Hundreds of members of each of the tribes died of hardship and disease on the long trek to Indian Territory, and many more died of hardship in their new land. The removal of the southeastern tribes is memorialized as the "Trail of Tears."
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Genvy bs Grnef
Ybbx Uvtu
Treasures
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