The trail of tears and creating a National historic Trial

with Dr Brett Riggs

Monday February 16th at 6:30 PM

For more than forty years researchers have worked to find and document remnants of landscapes associated with the 1838 deportations of Cherokee peoples from their Southeastern homelands. Here in North Carolina, we’ve used detailed survey records to find remains of Cherokee homes, trails and roads, and the federal military infrastructure used to dispossess and displace Cherokee families. These archaeological landscapes are now under protections and interpretive development as part of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, a National Park Service administered network that stretches from North Carolina to Oklahoma.

Brett High Riggs (Ph.D., University of Tennessee) is Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University. Prior to joining Western Carolina University, Riggs was a research archaeologist and assistant professor in the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina. He previously served as deputy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and archaeologist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and serves on the executive committee of the National Trail of Tears Association. Riggs specializes in the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Cherokee and Catawba peoples; his studies of Removal-era Cherokee archaeology and documentary sources guided expansion and interpretation of the NPS Trail of Tears National Historic Trail in North Carolina and Tennessee. His current work focuses on Cherokee traditional landscapes and restoration of form and meanings of traditional geographies.