The Trail of Tears at Pea Ridge, 1837–1839

Image from the National Park Service's page.

Over two years, an estimated 10,370 Cherokee traveled the Trail of Tears across land in northwest Arkansas that later became Pea Ridge National Military Park. Two journals kept by people in these groups describe the last stretch of their forced journey west.

A supply stop at Sugar Creek

In the late 1830s, William Reddick (also spelled Ruddick) had a farm on one of the main roads between St. Louis and Fort Smith. When the Cherokee came through, it served as a supply station. Its receipts record what was bought, at what price, and the place as Sugar Creek, Benton County, Arkansas. Reddick was also paid for lodging and meals for some of the people traveling with the Cherokee detachments. The Cherokee themselves camped on the surrounding ground — a thousand men, women and children around their supper fires, close to their destination but spending a night much like the many they had already spent over hundreds of miles.

The Cannon party, 1837

The detachment led by B.B. Cannon was made up of Cherokee who had agreed in 1837 to move west with government help. It was one of the few groups that kept a journal, and the journal holds rare, if limited, details about enslaved people going west with the Cherokee.

Near the end of its journey of almost 900 miles to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), the party camped in Reddick's field. Cannon wrote on December 23, 1837:

Buried Rainfrogs daughter (Lucy Redstick's child). Marched 8 o'c. A. M. halted at Reddix, encamped and issued corn & fodder & beef. 16 miles.

The Ross detachments, 1838–1839

The Cherokee who left their homeland in 1838 went under the direction of Chief John Ross, in 11 detachments, each with an assigned conductor. Few records of these groups survive. The first reached Reddick's supply station around December 28, 1838, and the last passed through Pea Ridge around March 20, 1839.

The Reverend Daniel S. Butrick, a missionary with Richard Taylor's detachment, wrote in his journal that "Arkansas [was] the land of spiritual darkness." That line may reflect the worries Christian Cherokee had about northwest Arkansas and the new home ahead of them. Butrick and other missionaries had started mission schools among the Cherokee in the East and moved west with them. By his account, bad weather kept the Taylor group camped at Reddick's field for two days.

Enslaved people on the trail

Many Cherokee owned slaves and took them to Indian Territory. Little is known about these enslaved people, but the 1835 Cherokee census shows slaves living among the Cherokee in the East, and nine of the eleven leaders of the detachments that passed through Pea Ridge are listed on it as slave owners. With few muster rolls for the detachments, the number of enslaved people who made the journey cannot be fully worked out.

Cannon's journal does record them. In Missouri, it notes:

Dec 4, 1837 - Left Mr. Wells to bury a waggoner (a black boy) who died this morning.
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Dec 5, 1837- Left two waggoners (black boys) at Mr. Davis sick.

The Cherokee suffered the same illness. Dr. G. S. Townsend, the detachment's physician, blamed stagnant drinking water and fruit eaten along the way, mostly wild grapes. Government rations — cornmeal or dried corn, with bacon, pork or beef — were limited, so people foraged for more, and the men were sometimes allowed to hunt. Even so, the food was very monotonous.

Visiting

Pea Ridge is a stop on the Old Wire Road itinerary, one of the National Park Service's guides to Trail of Tears sites in northwest Arkansas. Each stop tells one part of the Cherokee experience as the detachments neared the end of the trail and entered Indian Territory. More is on the pages for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and Pea Ridge National Military Park.

Sources

• National Park Service, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: "Trail of Tears at Pea Ridge National Military Park." The source spells the missionary's name both Butrick and Buttrick; this page uses Butrick. The journal quotations are reproduced as written.