Garrett's Trail of Tears story

Journey on the Trail of Tears
By Garrett, 7th grade

January 12, 1838
Splat! I have learned that it is very hard to write while flies are swarming around your head, every time you kill one another takes its place. I am traveling on what many of us call the trail of tears. This is the second journal I’ve had, my other one got so wet and muddy that it was unreadable and I had to replace the pages. I wish that I could remember what all was in it so that I could rewrite it. Oh well, this has probably happened to a lot of people before… I wish we had Samuel back. I have nothing to do but walk, eat, and sleep now that he is gone. He died shortly after he turned three, the whooping cough took him. Mother is missed greatly in this time of sadness too. She died when I was 12, before we were forced to go on this horrid march.


January 13, 1838
Emily and Sarah are doing well. A few days ago they were coughing. We thought that they had the whooping cough too, but it was only the dust. They are twins but they don’t look alike at all. Emily has pitch black hair and really tan skin, she likes to play outside and doesn’t mind getting dirty. Sarah has brownish hair and paler skin. She likes to cook and sew and likes to keep clean. They get along finely, despite their differences. Sarah is cooking the rabbit that I shot this morning on a short hunt. Food is very scarce now and don’t see how the later groups are going to make it.


January 14, 1838
We are one of the first few groups, that is a blessing because we get the little game that the groups in front of us missed. Our leader is Reverend Bushyhead. I think we will cross a big river tomorrow. We have crossed several rivers already but I think this will be the largest by far. Emily is coughing again today I am hoping that it is just the dust again. We will see. Every day at least one person doesn’t get wake up and we have to dig graves. Sometimes the ground is too frozen so we will put them in what little hole we have and cover them with rocks and sticks. The whiskey sellers were here again today. They are like the flies, always buzzing around trying to sell whiskey. Some of the men have completely given up to drink. One night some of them were so drunk that they were singing through the night and we had to bind and gag them so that we could go to sleep.


January 16, 1838
We crossed the river today, it took all day and I am writing by firelight. We didn’t cross on the fifteenth like I thought we would because the river was frozen and the flatboat owners didn’t want to risk it. The water thawed today so the flatboat owners decided to take us across. Emily was better, luckily. It was a rough trip and almost half of the people closed thier eyes the whole time. I know Sarah and Emily did, they were also afraid of the Uktena. The Uktena is like a water monster. Dad said that it likes to dwell in more shallow waters, but they were still afraid.


January 17, 1838
Today was a very sad day, eleven people died. Three of those deaths were caused by alcohol. We ended up digging a mass grave and everyone with shovels had tons of blisters. One of the dead was a chief and his grave was separate. We put a white flag over his grave to let everyone know that a great chief had died there. I hope we are almost done with our journey, but I doubt that we are. We are so tired that the leaders let us rest a few days. That is good news. Maybe we will be able to move faster, but only barely if that is true.


January 18, 1838
Today one of the leaders died. I am not sure what took him, he was old and this whole trip might have just tired him till he went to sleep forever. He was replaced with another man who yelled all of the time. I don’t think I have heard him speak a word yet. Everyone is already tired of him. A very wise quote that I heard a few years ago but still remember is this “The only thing that yelling at people ever did was make them angry”. I think that someone should tell him that or at least hint it to him. Game is getting so scarce that when the hunters go out only half of them return with game. What little game they have is enough to feed just about three families. We still divide it out fairly though.


January 19,1838
We have received news today that the end of the trail is only two or three weeks away. Everyone’s spirits have been lifted and everyone walked a little brisker today. The hunters even came back with more game, I believe that is because we ventured off course a little and there were more animals. This is probably the happiest day yet on this whole trip. We even had a little celebration or at least as close as you can get to a celebration on the trail of tears. I cannot wait until we get there!