CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Cherokee Nation citizen and Tahlequah native Andrew Taylor will be the featured speaker at the Museum and Cultural Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland, Tennessee, at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 21.
In his presentation titled, “One Man’s Experience with the Cherokee Nation,” Taylor shares his life’s journey from Oklahoma to the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area, a reversal of the path taken by Cherokee people during their 1838 forced relocation known as “The Trail of Tears.”
He describes his family’s ties with the Cherokee Nation over the past 200 years including Taylor family mysteries from the 19th Century, and some ancestors unknown to his Oklahoma family before he moved to Tennessee in 2016. He also will share “some crazy things” he learned from his research with a warning to beware of what you may learn about your family history and the reality of life in Oklahoma in the 21st century.
“I started life in Tahlequah, and it was never my life’s plan to move eastward along the geography of the Trail of Tears,” he said. “After travelling for school and with the U.S. Navy, and then years of living near Lake Dardanelle on the Arkansas River with signs marking the Trail of Tears going right down Main Street, followed by these past eight years in the Chattanooga area, I have realized that’s exactly what I’ve done (moved east). And since I came to this area, I’ve learned a lot about my ancestors and their experiences with the Trail of Tears, with the Oconaluftee Cherokee, and with the Cherokee Nation going back to 1802 and then up to the present day.”
For History Happy Hour – “One Man’s Experience with the Cherokee Nation,” doors at 6 p.m. with the presentation beginning at 6:30 p.m. General Admission is $5. https://museumcenter.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/history happy-hour-one-mans-experience-with-the-cherokee
For more information, visit info@museumcenter.org.