The fog curls from the river. Slowly enveloping the tents, campers, and cars, the mist turns everything into a ghostly panorama as thoughts pass to two-century old events.
Somewhere plays Native American music. The chants, the flute, the sounds, all enhance the feel one is standing among a great nation silently watching as we sleep. On the windward end of the encampment, the breeze is weighed with burning sage. Is it real? Is it 21st century? Or is it a signal from the ancestors to remember this is sacred ground?
Alejandra and I are part of the celebration of the Native Cultural Circle -- a 'powwow' -- to take place along the Red River in north-central Tennessee.
The Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears is the route Native Americans traveled in 1838 and 1839 when thousands were forcibly removed from ancestral lands in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Port Royal, a state historic site, is the last post before leaving Tennessee.
Soon they would turn westward and settle in and around Oklahoma Territory. After the Native Americans left, Port Royal became little more than a ghost town, and a road now splits the field where capitalism and greed sacrificed thousands of humans on the altar of purported progress.
Port Royal
A Longhunter camp as early as 1775, Port Royal was first settled in the early 1780s. Established, as a town in 1797, Port Royal rose to prominence in the early 1800s owing to the strategic location on the Red River. Port Royal is the second Tennessee State Park named an official site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. The other: Red Clay State Historic Park. In 1977, Tennessee obtained the deed to 26 acres at Port Royal, and the site was designated a Tennessee State Park a year later.
Documents in the archives mention Port Royal and the link to the Cherokee removal. The remnants of foundations of stores, homes, and warehouses, some dating to the 1700s, can still be seen and explored. Existent in the park are several old roadbeds including the certified Trail of Tears Site.
Modern Day Challenge
The open field of Port Royal is split in two. One part falls under the protection of the state historical society and the Trail of Tears Foundation in New Mexico. The other is privately owned. Situated on the other half is an abandoned restaurant, a house from the tk and an open field situated at a junction of roads and rivers The owner died early in 2017. His daughter inherited the land and is interested in selling. But she can't unload. No one can build on the property. It's in the floodplain and several times a year the rivers overflow and wander over the acreage. A battered Texaco sign hangs from one end of the abandoned store and restaurant.
The pumps are still there, but the underground tank remains. Before any improvements can be made, the tank has to be pulled. This could run into thousands of dollars, so it is cheaper to leave it in place. Cheaper, but illegal.
As the present owner is unable to do anything productive with the land, there is speculation she will refuse to pay taxes and let it be seized by the state. What the state will do with the property is, at the moment, anyone's guess.
The Native Americans who have celebrated their history and culture here for almost two decades are hoping the state will include the land in the historic designation. What the government does is anyone's guess. The Native Cultural Circle could buy the property; if the owner wasn't asking for a quarter-million dollars — for land that is all but useless for anything Euros may want to do.
More Information To help preserve the land for the future contact the Tennessee Historical Society.
Jerry Nelson is an American freelance writer now living the expat life in South America. His work has appeared in some of the planet's largest -- and most respected -- media outlets, both under his own name and others' as he frequently ghost writes.Never far from his coffee and Marlboros, Jerry is always interested in discussing future work opportunities. Email him at jandrewnelson2@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter.
Check out Jerry's latest writing gigs on FiverrPro.