Only the Names Remain

The Cherokees and the Trail of Tears

     Only the Names Remain is by Alex W. Bealer and illustrated by William Sauts Bock.  The book has 84 pages and was published by Little, Brown, and Company in 1972.  This is a true story about what happened to the Cherokees when they were forced to leave Georgia and go to Arkansas.  After the Revolutionary War, the Cherokees were learning the white man's ways and had become friendly with them.  Some of them even became very welathy, they had inherited land and money from their white fathers.  Then one day, a Cherokee Indian found a gold nugget on Cherokee land.  That caused Georgia to make unofficial laws to allow white men to kick Cherokees out of their homes and lands.  Then the Trail of Tears started, the long journey that forced the Cherokees from Georgia to Arkansas.  Some of the Cherokee families escaped to the Smoky Mountains.  On the way to Arkansas, about one fourth of the Cherokees died.  The Cherokees are no longer found in the mountains of Georgia... only the names remain.

     One part of the book that I enjoyed the most was when the Cherokees were on the Trail of Tears.  One of the Indian's wives was mistreated by a soldier.  Her husband, named Tsalis, killed the soldier and the family managed to escape to the Smoky Mountains.  I thought it was exciting how that family escaped.  I also enjoyed many of the illustrations.

     Alex Bealer did a great job telling me about how the Cherokees suffered on the Trail of Tears.  Before I read this book, I didn't really know what the Trail of Tears was about.  I am glad that Indians are no longer treated this way.

Book Review by Jon, age 11.