The Steelville Trail of Tears Remembrance Committee had a big impact at the 28th National Trail of Tears Conference and Symposium in Springfield Missouri this past weekend. There are nine states in which the Cherokee walked, suffered and died along what is called the Trail of Tears.

Missouri is considered on the northern route. The other states include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Each year a different chapter from one of the nine states hosts the conference.

Jennifer Whitson of Steelville was recognized as a member of the conference planning committee. In addition, Jennifer's daughter Erin Whitson, M.S.. was among the presenters.

Featured in the conference booklet, it mentions the following interesting aspects of Erin's vocation. Erin is a historical archaeologist and PhD candidate in Anthropology at Binghamton University (SUNY). She serves as an Intermediate Historic Preservation Specialist with the Missouri Department of Transportation, where she advances cultural-resource compliance, public interpretation and community partnerships statewide. Erin's scholarship focuses on the Cherokee Removal (1837-1839), commonly called the Trail of Tears, with particular attention to encampments that crossed south-central Missouri.

In her research, Erin works with tribal nations, federal land managers, state historical societies and university-based remote-sensing labs. Erin regularly shares her findings through talks, museum programs, local libraries and media, encouraging Missourians to recognize the routes and living legacies of the removal in their own communities. In her slideshow presentation; as Erin described her fieldwork, she quietly expressed a simple goal, “these are stories that we can help with, we can connect Cherokee people with these places.”

Jennifer Whitson has put her whole heart into recognizing the sufferings and losses of the Cherokee people who passed through our community long before any of us ever lived here.

The Steelville Trail of Tears Remembrance Committee is currently raising funds to build a memorial monument in the Steelville City Park to honor the Cherokee who walked through our area when they were forced out of their homeland. Research from a missionary along with an 1837 journal from B.B. Cannon's detachment notes that 365 men, women and children walked through the area on December 4, 1837. They were accompanied by an Army unit. Some had slaves, but those were usually counted as property. Whitson acknowledges a written account that between the first detachment (Cannon's) and the last detachment (Taylor's) it is known that as many as a dozen Cherokee died in Crawford County.

“We know there were undoubtedly many others who are buried in this county, but we may never know numbers or names of those who perished on the Trail of Tears near Steelville, Missouri. We will make sure we list the names of those we do know on the base of the monument; they will be remembered,” said Erin Whitson.

Please join the Trail of Tears group at the city park on Saturday December 6 for the third annual five mile 'Remember the Removal Walk, Ride and Bike' event along the same path the Cherokee took in 1837.

To learn more or to get involved with fundraising events, visit www.TrailofTears.SteelvilleHistoricalSociety.com or follow the Steelville Trail of Tears Remembrance Committee on Facebook.