People will fight over the origin of a name. History records the stories of the winners. In the Tennessee Valley, the Yuchi lost, and their story was pounded underfoot during the Trail of Tears.
Water laps through rock and tickles my toes. It carries the stories of those who came before me.
I can’t stand on the shore of the Tennessee River
without thinking of the Yuchi.
Like many Native American tribes, no one knows the origin of the Yuchi. Nomads, they wandered from the shores of Carolina, across Georgia swamps and into the Tennessee River Valley. Centuries ago, they fought Hernando De Soto and his conquistadors along the Natchez Trace. They sided with the British in most conflicts, a loyalty that cost them their land.
President Andrew Jackson never forgot
whose side the Yuchi took.
He ordered John Coffee, one of his ablest generals from the Battle of New Orleans, to eradicate the natives from the Natchez Trace region. Thousands of people packed what they could carry and left the land of their ancestors. Destination: Oklahoma. Tears singed a gouge in the landscape, as they looked back and longed for home.
Under threat of execution,
the Yuchi could never return.
Forever, they were banished from the land they named. Is it ironic that the word Tennessee is Yuchi for
the people who lived here before we came?
***************
Colbert Ferry is located near milepost 327.3 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Follow the signs to the bicycle-only camping area with picnic tables, grills and fire rings, plus enjoy the new restroom facility.
“I highly recommend that no one travel
the venerable Natchez Trace
without reading this first!” – Carla, Amazon Reviewer
Get your copies of To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis and Not Without My Father: One Woman’s 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace by heading to my
22 Comments
Native Americans never stood a chance when this country was invaded by our ancestors. Even if the Yuchi had chosen the right side, I bet they still would have been tossed from the region. Thanks for the history lesson about another piece of the Natchez Trace.
Land ownership versus nomadic existence. You’re right. They never stood a chance. All the peoples along the Trace were evacuated during the Trail of Tears.
Sad. Just sad.
Yes.
If we study history and remember, maybe we won’t make the same mistakes. The really sad part is: some people just don’t get that and never will.
We keep making the same mistakes over and over, Jim. We can look back and see specific examples of past mistakes being made today, but some people always think they’re immune to consequences.
One cannot understand the behavior of former Europeans who came here to escape persecution only to persecute those born here originally. (not to mention enslaving millions) This is something to remember.
I recently read a book called Mississippi in Africa by Alan Huffman. It was about a slave holder in 1830s Mississippi who died and freed his slaves in his will, provided they vacate to Liberia in Africa. He didn’t want them to be re-enslaved, which would most likely have happened had they stayed.
Many of those people went to Liberia and recreated the plantation society, complete with plantation houses and slavery…….only they enslaved the native peoples. I still don’t understand why they thought that was okay, especially after having lived that life themselves.
Another sad part? Much of “history” depends on who’s doing the telling. I trust what I read here, because I know you’ve done more than just surface-scratching for the facts, Andra.
History is recorded by the winners. You’re right.
Of course, I just got a delicious edition of We Proceeded On, the journal of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. I won’t be able to help but write about it………
The need for dominance and control of resources is one aspect of humanity which I don’t like. How I wish people were all kind and life was always lived in cooperation with others. And I also want to win the kagillion dollar lottery too.
Maybe it’s the survival instinct that causes some people to want to dominate. Still, it sucks.
A sad reminder.
I learned of the Yuchi on my Trace visit in January.
Very sad one today. I’m hoping my footprint isn’t as deep with sorrow as theirs.
I hope not, too.
sad. and ironic doesn’t even begin to describe how sad –
It always makes me sad that the Lewis and Clark expedition really started the process of divesting the peoples of the west of their land. Clark oversaw that process from St Louis upon his return, paying pennies for lands occupied for thousands of years.
Trail of tears indeed, this piece of our history makes me sad every time I read something new.
I have a more uplifting Yuchi story for next week. 🙂
So sad, The Brit betrayal was despicable, and the Jackson/Coffee action did not exactly reflect any glory on them.
The Yuchi should visit South Africa for a course on how to claim their land back regardless of who is living on it now or how they came by it.
All US Presidents leading up to Jackson thought the Native Americans needed to be displaced. It took seven administrations to make it happen.
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