This Cherokee Removal Memorial is dedicated to those Cherokees that died and those that cried in what has become known as The Trail of Tears. The names of the head of each of the 2,537 households and the number of family members from the 1835 Census taken in preparation for the removal are inscribed on panels arranged by the State of their residence. Panels representing the seven Cherokee clans are superimposed on central part of the Cherokee Nation seal.
Today we are champions of human rights and have gone to war to oppose ethnic cleansing. This has not been the case in dealing with Native Americans in general and southeastern tribes in particular. President Thomas Jefferson made an agreement with the state of Georgia to extinguish Indian land claims as soon as it could be peaceably accomplished.