Ripple Productions will present a concert version of The Trail was a Circle, Thursday, Nov. 7 at
7 p.m. The Play will be performed in Founders Hall, Collegedale Commons, 4950 Swinyar Dr. in Collegedale.
There will be no admission charge; however, donations will be accepted. Dramatic direction will be handled by author and scriptwriter, D. Daisy Pratt. Musical direction will be under Lee University Professor Dr. Jim Burns, who composed the lyrics and music.
About the play:
Historians have recorded the slaughter of thousands of Native American people with whom government treaties were repeatedly broken, lands seized, Creek and Cherokee men and women killed, scalped and women taken into slavery as early as 1654. Southern soil was saturated with blood in the territory now known as Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina. White soldiers and unauthorized encroachers burned Indian towns to the ground, including Echota, the national capital. Crops and orchards were destroyed. Smallpox epidemics claimed numerous lives. By 1761, many Cherokees were reduced to starvation.
At the end of the 18th century, Cherokees were willing to take up so called arts of civilization. In the spring of 1816, Colonel Return J. Meigs visited Washington, and negotiated treaties that established boundaries between the Creeks and Cherokees in Alabama. That Fall, chiefs of Cherokee and Creek nations met in general council in Turkeytown, near Center, Al., to ratify boundaries, and yet another treaty with the United States government. At that meeting, General Andrew Jackson introduced the subject of schools. Cyrus Kingsbury made a proposition to establish a mission and school in Cherokee country, which later became known as Brainerd.
Cultivating land, growing crops, weaving fabric, cooking and manufacturing would be taught as well as reading, duty to their parents, to fellow creatures and to the Great Spirit. In October 1816, the Cherokee full council agreed. They appointed The Glass, one of the Cherokee head men, to help select a suitable place. President James Madison approved and instructed the Agent of Indian Affairs to provide a school building and a house for a teacher. The Secretary of War promised two plows and axes, then when girls were received, they would furnish looms, spinning wheels and other tools for spinning and weaving. Twent-five acres was purchased from "an old Scotch gentleman" across the Creek from the Cherokee town, Chickamauga. Colonel Meigs, the Indian Agent, had the building erected. Cyrus Kingsbury was assigned under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and employed by the Connecticut Missionary Society. The Society furnished horses, tools, missionaries and teachers. Vermont native Samuel Austin Worcester arrived to work in the Brainerd Mission in October 1825. Worchester first used the new Cherokee alphabet invented by Sequoya. [Earlier, Rev. Gideon Blackburn had taught 400 to 500 Cherokee youths to read the English Bible.]
"The Trail was a Circle" tells the story of the courageous missionaries and educators who founded the Brainerd Mission in 1816 at the request of Principal Chief Pathkiller and Chief Little Turkey of Turkey Town, Al. The school modeled and advocated full civil rights and dignity among the three red, white and black people groups who attended.
This heroic drama of the founding of the mission and the subsequent removal of the Cherokee is documented in the book by late naturalist and writer, Robert Sparks Walker, in "Torchlights to the Cherokees," which was published in 1931 and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Walker used the original hand-written letters and journals to document his story.
The original documents that Walker used can be found in the Harvard-Andover Theological Library at Cambridge, Ma.
Many have heard of the Trail of Tears, but few today know that two missionaries were beaten and imprisoned for their stand against the removal. From their prison in Georgia, they wrote asking Chief Justice John Marshal to expose this unlawful removal act. In addition, Davy Crockett traveled to Washington, D.C. to personally confront Andrew Jackson with his illegal stand. Yet the tragic removal act remained. However, many are unaware that the Cherokees were later
accompanied by several missionaries from the Brainerd Mission to Tahlequah, a city in Cherokee County, Ok.
This historical project was launched by retired educators and librarians with startup help of a local
theatre group called Ripple Productions, the historic Trail of Tears site, the Audubon Society of Chattanooga and others who are passionate that the Brainerd Mission be remembered.
Today, only the Brainerd Mission Cemetery remains. It is located on the Eastgate Loop off 5700 Brainerd Road in Chattanooga, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Brainerd Mission Cemetery is owned, operated and maintained by the five Chattanooga Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and one Chapter of the Sons of the Revolution (SAR).
The Brainerd Mission Project is a 501C3 non-profit recognized by the State of Tennessee. All donations are tax deductible. For further information go to the website: https://brainerdmissionproject.com
The Society of United Brethren, known as Moravians, dispatched missionaries to the Cherokee, as early as 1799. The hospitable Moravians established a mission at Spring Place, Ga., near John Vann’s home, and aided the other missionaries. Additional history may be found in the Record of the Moravians Among the Cherokee, Provincial Elders Conference of the Moravian Church, Southern Province, Winston Salem, NC, J. Eric Elliott, archivist.