Wichita’s Trail of Tears Memorial Walk commemorates dark chapter in U.S. history

Wichita’s Trail of Tears Memorial Walk will be held Saturday afternoon from 1-3 p.m. at the Mid America All-Indian Museum.

The walk, put on by the Native American Community Resource Coalition, will commemorate the roughly 60,000 indigenous people who were forcibly relocated from their ancestral homelands between 1830 and 1850 due to the U.S. Government’s Indian Removal Act.

Thousands of indigenous people died of cold, hunger and disease on the trail.

Five nations, the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw, were taken from their land in the Southeastern United States and forced to march to “Indian Territory” west of the Mississippi River.

The Trail of Tears is over 5,043 miles long and covers nine states, according to History.com.

Dal Domebo, Native American Program Lead at Wichita Public Schools and an event organizer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple delivered a proclamation at Tuesday’s city council meeting recognizing Monday, Oct. 11 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.