Two days ago, I went to New Echota in northern Georgia. This site is very important in the history of the Cherokee people. Some beautiful things happened there and some heartbreaking things. I went to offer prayers for the heartbreaking things.
It had once been the capital of the Cherokee Nation. There had been a council house there and a printing house where they published a newspaper, etc. Sadly, some infamous things happened there, too, one of which was the Treaty of New Echota in which some Cherokee men brokered a deal with the U.S. government behind the back of the chief who was the official liaison of the Cherokee at the time. This action led directly to the horror we now know as the Trail of Tears.
New Echota was a transit camp, where Cherokee were forced at gunpoint to leave their homes and wait until enough were gathered to be forced to walk the 600 or so miles to Oklahoma, known then as Indian Territory.
Up until a few days ago, I didn’t know there had been transit camps. I heard this phrase recently in reference to Jewish people who were held in various places before being transported to the death camps in Auschwitz and elsewhere.
Sadly, evil appears to repeat itself.
Banner image: New Echota plaque at the site of New Echota in northern Georgia.
