Our First Field Trip of the Year

Last weekend our family visited the Etowah Indian Mounds and the New Enchota Historic Site. I thought these two places would be perfect to visit to gather needed information for the Native American notebook, Jamie will be working on this year.

When I was in high school, we visited the Indian mounds. I'm not sure why we visited and I honestly can't remember anything other than walking beside the river. The trip must have been taken before my love of history days. Truthfully, between the two sites we visited this weekend, it was not my favorite.

The New Enchota Historic Site was a great learning place. It was definitely my favorite place to visit. In the collage below, the book is the New Testament that was printed in the Cherokee language at the print shop at New Enchota. The one original building in the left is of the mission house. Over the years, there had been some damage and remodeling done to it. But it is now as it was during the 1800's other than the indoor staircase. The two cabins (beside each other)are similar to what would have been found at that time.

A lot people in this area profess to have Cherokee blood running through them. While some only have stories backing up this claim, there are many with legal documentation. After visiting New Enchota, I learned there were many intermarried families who lived on the Cherokee land at one time. So, many of the undocumented stories are possible. I also learned that on this historical site began The Trail of Tears. Reading how the people were snatched from their homes, jobs, families and safety was disheartening. Innocent people were taken and put in a "holding camp" until all the details of the removal were in place.

There was one plaque in the museum that told a tiny bit of what happened. The placement on the plaque is in an odd place, and I could not get a good picture of the whole thing but this is what it said-

"When the soldiers came to our house my father wanted to fight, but my mother told him that the soldiers would kill him if he did and we surrendered without a fight. They drove us out of our house to join other prisoners in a stockade. After they took us away, my mother begged them to let her go back and get some bedding. So they let her go back and she brought what bedding and a few cooking utensils she could carry and had to leave behind all of our other household possessions." ~ Rebecca Neugin, 1932

I did a little research on this Rebecca Neugin and found THIS wonderful page of history.

While we were walking to the mission house, we crossed over the creek that leads down to a pond. We paused for a moment and saw a snake. Once he saw us, he quickly took cover under a rock.(Actually, the poor thing was hiding from the rocks someone was throwing at him.)