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Red Clay        Red Clay State historic Park, located on the Tennessee- Georgia border served as the Council Seat for the Cherokee Indians from 1832- 1838 at which time they were forced to leave their native land and begin their long and painful march westward to Oklahoma that is now known as the Trail of Tears. The first seat of the Cherokee government was originally in New Echota, Georgia. In 1832 the State of Georgia stripped the Cherokee of all their political powers and banned them from all of their political activities in that state therefore prompting them to move their council seat to Red Clay, Tennessee.        During the next six (6) years, the Cherokee’s continued to adapt to the white man’s ways of life, intermingling them with their own. Located in the middle of the land at Red Clay is a replica of the Council House where the tribal leaders and seven (7) clan leaders held their governmental meetings. These meetings were crucial to their community life as it is here that they tried desperately to save their ancestral land from being treaties away. It is sadly from this location that the “ Trail of Tears” began when the Cherokee were forced to give up their homes and move westward to Indian Territory now known as Oklahoma.        Although in 1837 the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee’s could remain on their ancestral land at Red Clay, President Andrew Jackson still forced their removal to Oklahoma. It is estimated that approximately 17,000 Cherokee were rounded up in settlement camps there where they faced many hardships, sickness and even death. It is estimated that over 4,000 died in these camps and on their journey. During their removal from Red Clay, the Cherokees carried hot coals from the Council fires along the trail to their new home in Oklahoma. During the 1950’s they transported this flame to Cherokee, North Carolina and then in April 1984 ten (10) Cherokee runners carried this flame back to their ancestral land where it still burns today at the Eternal Flame Monument at Red Clay State Historical Park ,showing us today that the Cherokee’s spirit is still unquenchable.        Another historical and sacred place located at Red Clay is the sacred spring called the Blue Hole which serves as a natural landmark as well. During their occupancy here this spring provided water for the people. The spring rises from an underground cave below the rock ledge visible and produces over 500,000 gallons of water a day at a rate of 350 gallons per minute. Legend has it that beneath the water is another world that has seasons opposite ours, and to reach that world you have to fast and pray for a guide from the underworld to help you swim to the entrance of their world.      Red Clay is soaked in the history and culture of the Cherokee and is dedicated to the preservation of their past, present and future.   Information obtained from the following sources: Personal interview with Carol Crabtree, Park Manager on January 20, 2008 History, Myths and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, James Mooney author , published June 1992 The Councils At Red Clay Council Ground, William R. Snell, 1977

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