1830 Tuscumbia Alabama was the site of the first railroad west of the Appalachian Mountains. The two mile rail connected town with the Tennessee River at Tuscumbia Landing and utilized a horse-drawn car. Back then the Tennessee River in our area was not nice to navigation as it was mostly shoals and rapids. To take a keelboat through the shoals required a lot of muscle, hence the name of one of the cities in the area known as Muscle Shoals. A means of getting around the bad stretch of river from Tuscumbia to Decatur was needed and a forty one mile railroad was built. The first steam engine was used in 1834 and horses were phased out. This route was a major route of the Trail of Tears
The tenth annual Walk to Tuscumbia from Tuscumbia Landing along the Tennessee River in Sheffield to Spring Park took place Saturday September 8, 2012. It is part of the Oka Kapassa Festival which commemorates the kindness of the citizens of Tuscumbia while the Indians were forced to relocate to Oklahoma. Along the way they had encountered hardships, beating, starvation and theft of their property along the Trail of Tears corridor except in the city of Tuscumbia. Here they were given food, clothes shelter and a doctor before living the area through Tuscumbia Landing.
The tenth annual Walk to Tuscumbia from Tuscumbia Landing along the Tennessee River in Sheffield to Spring Park took place Saturday September 8, 2012. It is part of the Oka Kapassa Festival which commemorates the kindness of the citizens of Tuscumbia while the Indians were forced to relocate to Oklahoma. Along the way they had encountered hardships, beating, starvation and theft of their property along the Trail of Tears corridor except in the city of Tuscumbia. Here they were given food, clothes shelter and a doctor before living the area through Tuscumbia Landing.
I was honored to be invited to the Colbert reunion potluck dinner the night before and met several of the descendants of Chief George Colbert, who my home country is named after, and some of those who would be participating in the walk the next morning. I was treated to some of the best chicken stew I’ve ever put in my mouth.
I ventured down to Spring Park a little early before catching the trolley to Tuscumbia Landing The day was overcast and the clouds threatened rain again. A generous rain had occurred during the morning hours and combined with the abundance of geese made walking using the cowboy step (as my Dad called it on our dairy farm) necessary. The empty rocks of the waterfall added to the dreary feeling. The silence in the park was interrupted by a gaggle of Canadian geese flying into the park and landing in the pond near the bridge.
The walk from Tuscumbia Landing to Spring Park would take place even if it rained. After all those coming through Tuscumbia from as far away as Georgia suffered a lot more misery going to Oklahoma Annie Cooper pitched the idea of the walk to Tribal Council and the annual ‘homecoming’ walk was born. Instead of walking from Spring Park to Tuscumbia Landing, the walk commemorates the return home. Back to Oka Kapassa, meaning Cold Water, the name given to Spring Creek by the Chickasaws. The first walk had twenty participants. This year the trolley was packed and several walkers followed the trolley to the Landing in their cars. I didn’t do a head count, but this year’s walk had a lot more walkers than the first walk even with rain threatening.
Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830 which forced approximately 100,000 Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles to move from their homeland in the South to Oklahoma from 1830 to 1850. Approximately 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama during the removal.
My most emotional moment was watching those who came from out of state and made the walk for the first time. Watching them put their hands on the Tuscumbia Landing historical sign and realizing that this was the site that their ancestors left on their forced removal in 1830 to Oklahoma.
We took the trail from the parking lot down to the site of Tuscumbia Landing. All that is left of the building blown up by Union forces during the war is the foundation. The path of the railroad bed can still be seen, the tracks are long gone along with the oxen, horses and mules that pulled the first train. As I walked around the foundation and looked down the site of the track, I imagined what history this site saw, and what the Indians felt as they were removed from their homeland forever. A light rain started falling. I pulled out a plastic bag to wrap my camera in to protect it. After a couple of minutes, the rain went away.
The time came and everyone formed a circle. Robert Thrower was at the head of the circle started talking about his feelings and thoughts about what happened during the removal and the connections he had to Tuscumbia. Next representatives of each Tribe present shared their thoughts. A prayer was said at the end and it was time to start The Walk to Tuscumbia. The two mile walk started in silence by all for the first mile of our journey. The trolley followed behind for any who grew weary and couldn’t continue. The lead walker would rotate as we walked along. As we neared the city limits of Tuscumbia a buzzard circled. Then some one started singing in the native tongue. The chant continued until Oka Kapassa was reached. The walk finished as it had started, in prayer
The second year of the walk, a Native American Festival called Oka Kapassa (Return to Coldwater) was started at Spring Park. It is a Native American gathering of the Alabama, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Coushatta, Creek, Euchee, Miami, Muscogee, Navajo, Seminole and Sioux tribes.
Nine years later the first day of the festival on Friday is dedicated solely as an education project for the schools of the area. Activities such as arrowhead making, dancers, hoop dancers, basket making, dug out canoe demonstrations, stick ball, beadwork, potter, native foods, language and storytelling are demonstrated for the young and old alike. The second day is The Return Walk to Tuscumbia with dancers, Native American crafts and music and demonstrations.
On the home front, the air is filled with aroma of cotton defoliant. It’s almost cotton picking time. I think about ‘Agent Orange’ each time I smell that stuff. The hooligans are still busy chasing the rabbit that is staying in the flower bed along the under ground fence. Every so often, I’ll see it run by me with the hooligans in hot pursuit. Sometimes it’s hard to get the girls to come and eat. I’ll put up the pan I use to measure out the dog food and see the panic on Levi’s face when he realizes he’s not getting fed right now. I’ll come back later to feed. Levi is not going to miss a meal. With all the festivals I’ve been attending, my flower beds are really looking abandoned.
