'My Family Was Removed': Communities Reflect On Trail Of Tears

Almost 200 years ago, Native Americans went through Middle Tennessee on the Trail of Tears to Indian territory in Oklahoma.

As Olivia Michael reported, people gathered at a Greenway in Nashville on Saturday to remember them.

Melba Checote-Eads called it an emotional time. She was among those at the the fourth annual "Trail of Tears Commemorative Walk."

"My family was removed from Fort Mitchell Alabama," said Checote-Eads, a member of Muscogee Creek nation.

Her ancestors arrived in Oklahoma by way of the Trail of Tears.

"The Cherokees and some about 500 Muscogee people came this way, down this road on their removal," said Checote-Eads.

The trail's northern route runs through present-day Nashville.

"When you come to Whites Creek, you feel like you're really in the cradle of the history of Nashville," said Helen Tarleton, Secretary of Friends of Whites Creek.

Helen Tarleton with the organization 'Friends of Whites Creek' 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 today are honoring their journey and remembering 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," Tarleton said.