The winds were howling more frequently as the days and nights passed. The Cherokee travelers were stranded between the banks of the frozen Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. With nowhere to go, no game to hunt, and the dead of the winter arriving sooner than expected, bringing forth the inevitable long stretch of graveyards that would extend miles on end, west of the Georgian lands, where it all began. Georgia had been home to the Cherokee Nation since the day of creation. It had been viciously robbed from them by means of betrayal and deceit. It was not long after Jackson’s Native American Policy, which instituted the removal of all Native Americans from the Southeast to the new Indian Territory in the Midwest that the Cherokee tribal leaders fought against the law by taking it up to the supreme courts. Even though the Supreme Court favored the natives and sustained the rights to retain their land, they were no match for the greed and impertinence of the law the white people possessed. It was in a desperate attempt to save the Cherokee people that through secrecy Major Ridge, one of the tribal leaders, signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which guaranteed a payment of nine million dollars to the natives. The money was supposed to help the natives rebuild life in the west, but instead six million was deducted from the costs of the removal process, leaving three million to be shared between fifteen thousand Cherokees. They were given two years to abandon their lands and move some 850 miles west, to what is now known as Oklahoma. However, many still hopeful, decided to stay behind tending to their normal everyday life; farming, cooking, even continuing the civilized ways of white men and allowing their children to be taught Christianity. The Cherokee had become quite civilized in trying to become equals to the white men, some owning slaves to grow crops and tend to the home. Unfortunately, the whites never considered them equals, always searching for ways to rid of them, and almost succeeding in ethnic cleansing with the anti-Indian laws imposed by the Jackson Administration, and continued through the new presidency of Thomas Jefferson; the very same man, who while running for office, had filled them with hopes of having all the same rights and freedoms of the white people, “You will unite yourselves with us, join our great councils and form one people with us. And we shall all be Americans. You will mix with us by marriage. Your blood will run within our veins and will spread with us over this great continent.” -Thomas Jefferson.
It was in the summer of 1825, when Emily Polson, a young Cherokee woman, met a charming, young, intellectual white man, Daniel Watie. Daniel was studying Law at Cornwall with John Ridge, son of Major Ridge. The winters had been extremely uneasy for John and his health became frail. As the schools steward’s daughter, Sarah Bird Northrup, aided to John, Daniel also visited daily to make sure he did not fall back on his studies. There bed stricken, laid John while Daniel read to him about constitutional rights, and the 1823 ruling of Johnson & Graham’s Lessee v. William McIntosh, where the courts recognized tribal sovereignty and the tribe’s right to their lands.
Major Ridge worried about his son, and waited in the summers for a visit from his nephew, Elias Boudinot, in hopes of good news that John was recovering well. But, on this occasion, Major Ridge received a letter from Elias that he would not be able to make the trip back home due to extra studies at Cornwall. As a result, Major Ridge sent his trusted friend, Adam Polson, to check on his son’s well being. To accompany Adam Polson on his journey was his daughter, Emily Polson. Emily was a vibrant young woman with many dreams. She was at an age where most women would have been wed and bared a couple of children by now. But there was not one Cherokee male that met Emily’s interest.
Emily was full Cherokee; with a dark complexion, dark almond eyes, lean face and chin, and a lovely pronounced nose. She was considered a beautiful woman in her culture. She spent many days sewing with Susannah Ridge, wife of Major Ridge. She learned to read and write the Cherokee language written by Chief John Ross years before, at a time where he himself did not know how to read or write any languages. She also studied the bible, and in turn learned how to read and write English. Christianity was becoming prominent in the Cherokee community. Missionaries had come to live with them throughout the years to show them the way of true civilized beings and the word of God. However inviting the ways of the white people were, the Cherokee people remained true to their roots. They incorporated Christianity with their own beliefs. They continued to chant and embraced their own religious practices, which tended to anger the missionaries. Still, the Cherokee people distinguished themselves from other Native American tribes, as they became a Nation in themselves and conformed to the ways of white civilization more than anyone thought a culture of savages could ever conquer.
As soon as Emily and Adam Polson walked into the house where John Ridge was found, the sound of soft, delicate music filled the air. Emily had never heard the piano before. She closed her eyes for a moment, as her father spoke to the help. She caressed the walls with her fingertips to feel the vibration of the sounds, and for a moment it was as if she were walking upon the clouds. Emily could not contain herself from dancing. It was a blissful moment.
In the room where John resided, Daniel was playing on a small piano. Adam Polson had great esteem for John, “Dear John, how do we find you on this lovely summer day?” John Ridge attempted to sit up being pleased to see his old friend, “How good to see you, Mr. Polson. What brings you to Cornwall?” Soon after Daniel stopped playing the piano to be introduced to Adam Polson there was a sudden silence in the room when Emily entered the room. From that moment on, there would be no other eyes Daniel met that would take his breath away like Emily Polson had. And Emily would always see Daniel’s face whenever she closed her eyes and replay the beautiful song she heard just moments before.
Adam Polson extended his arm toward his daughter, “Ah… and here is my lovely young daughter, Emily.” Emily’s gaze was struck on Daniel, but she quickly composed herself and turned her attention to John. “We come to see you are well and in good spirits, John,” she ran to him. For as much as she practiced the life of a lady, her true nature was the reason for her Cherokee given name, Avasa, meaning independent. As a child, she wondered the meadows, chasing butterflies, and fantasizing with the shapes of the clouds. She would sing to show her appreciation of nature. Her voice would send waves of enchanting melodies vibrating through the fields to be heard by many. And a lovely voice it was.
On the trip to Cornwall, all Emily could think of was how much she wished she had stayed behind. Although, she missed her dear friend John, she dreaded the long trip. Adam Polson had smiled at his beloved daughter, and wondered when she would settle with a husband. The warm breeze would come through the window, brushing against Emily’s face, putting a stop to her tapping off the wagon’s ridges. She would open her eyes and smile at her father. He smiled back attempting to hide his concerns. She knew all too well what her father had in mind. Her days were limited. Soon she would have to wed, and have to tend to a husband, a home, and children. Things a normal young woman dreamt of, but Emily had lost her mother shortly after giving birth. Her father had taken great care of her and never found another mate. She felt guilty at the thought of leaving his side.
The moment Emily and Daniel’s eyes met, was the moment it all changed. After the quick visit to John, she was headed back home again, and she could think of nothing more than Daniel and his beautiful music. She sat extremely still and quiet. Her father had not noticed her change of demeanor, until they were half way home when Emily began her restless tapping against the wagon. This time she was trying to simulate Daniel’s playing of the piano.
Adam Polson noticed Emily’s uneasiness “Is everything ok, Emily?”
“Just tired father,” Emily responded quickly in anticipation of her father’s question. She had been anything but herself since they left. She couldn’t quite get herself together to act normal. She tapped more frequently, and then suddenly stopped when she realized she probably looked like a mad woman going across the corners of the wagon. But her father was fast asleep.
Daniel was smitten with Emily. He bored John going on and on about her. He wanted to know everything about her. As soon as classes were over, John brought Daniel back to his home. This would be Daniel’s first visit to the Cherokee lands, for he was the son of a wealthy white plantation owner. His friendship with John alone had been kept a secret from Daniel’s family. But he studied endlessly to become a lawyer and someday fight for the rights of the Native American people. He was a good honest man, tormented by the thought of the day his true ambitions would come to light. Surely, it would bring sorrow and disappointment to his family. But his will and faith assured him of what was right in his heart.
John’s return home was received with festivities. It had been two weeks since Daniel and Emily had locked eyes. Emily searched across the field for Daniel. Beyond the chanting and dancing, beyond the fire pits with the roasting hogs, at the end of the footsteps of the Ridges home was a group of men hauling a grand piano through the front door and into the family room. She felt her heart pause when she found his gaze. He had been searching for her amongst the crowd as well. She walked over to greet him, when he started playing a beautiful lullaby. She listened intensely, once again mesmerized by his playing.
That summer was the beginning of a love affair that would last until the end of their days. Adam Polson had accepted Daniel to court his daughter, seeing that it had made her so happy. It reminded him of the love he shared with Emily’s mother. The two grew madly in love. Soon after Daniel finished his studies they wed in the fall of 1827. Daniel had gone to share the news with his family, and just as he feared, he was quickly disowned.
However, he had come to his own wealth through his work in law, and had obtained some Cherokee land through Emily, as a gift from her father. They had become quite prosperous, owning about twenty slaves to crop tobacco and cotton.
For years, Daniel and Emily tried to have children, but had not succeeded. Although it brought great sadness in their inability to start a family, Daniel and Emily loved each other very much. Emily spent her time educating the Cherokee children, and Daniel practiced law and tended to their plantation. In early March of 1838, Emily and Daniel received a pleasant surprise. They would be expecting a child that winter.
This was during the time the Treaty of Enoch was enacted. The Ridges had given up dreams of becoming equals to the whites. They had packed and moved out west the prior year. Daniel worked together with Elias to get a petition signed that would put a stop to the removal of Indians. The days were filled with anguish and aggressive motions against the state. Daniel had barely spent any time at home that fall. Emily grew worried and afraid.
The night Emily gave birth she mailed a letter to Daniel letting him know their daughter had arrived. Two weeks later U.S. troops marched in and ransacked the Cherokee community. They rounded up the occupying natives, and sent them away like cattle, with nothing but the clothes on their back. The long journey west was an inevitable doom.
Daniel was away submitting a petition to congress that had been signed by every remaining member of the Cherokee Nation to put a stop to the removal. As a last result, Daniel had gone to plead his father for help, who had many close friends in congress. It had been four days of begging for his life and the life of his growing family when Daniel found a letter hidden in his father’s belongings.
It was a letter from Emily telling him about their daughter’s birth. Daniel was enraged, as the letter had been intercepted from its original destination where Daniel was staying in town. He could not understand the extent of his father’s cruelty that he would go to such measures to hide news from him. To make matters worse, his father cold-heartedly added to the news with a smirk on his face that it was too late to save his savages. The U.S. troops had arrived a week earlier and wiped away all of the Indians.
Daniel lost control and any sense of rationality. He rushed toward his father and killed him with a swift move from his father’s own sword, which hung over the fireplace of his study. No one else was home at the time. Only the slaves on the field could be heard hauling, and the random sway of a slave driver’s whip against the backs of those who disobeyed.
He hurried out in a crazed frame of mind, covered in his father’s blood. He would have to make the trip by foot or by hiding on the backs of traveling carriages.
At last, Daniel made it home, fatigued, drenched in sweat, and still covered in his father’s dried up blood. He looked nothing short of a Wanted man. He rushed towards his home only to find a white family living in it. As he burst through the front door, yelling for Emily’s name, he was shot in the back by a traveling soldier in response to the new family’s claim of a trespasser. Daniel died on the footsteps of his once beloved home, where he last kissed Emily and his unborn child farewell.
It was the dead of the winter, and Emily and her daughter, along with thousands of others, were stranded between the frozen lakes. Many have died along the way, and many more continue to die, as they sit and wait for the moment to continue on their trail of tears. Emily had hoped to see Daniel one last time to introduce him to their daughter, Bakula, a Cherokee name meaning flower. She wished her daughter would grow up to be as beautiful as the Cherokee Roses she had planted in her garden.
Some of the natives sang Christian hymns to help them forget about the cold and hunger. Emily sat away from the group near a bark of a tree, where she had dug a small hole to bury Bakula in. She was only a few weeks old, and had not survived past the first night of the cold. Emily had been carrying Bakula for many days now, not having the courage to let her go. She sat motionless staring ahead, wondering where Daniel had been. She closed her eyes and remembered the song Daniel played the first time she heard the piano. She imagined the three of them dancing to the lullaby above the clouds.
A fellow Cherokee approached Emily to offer her some comfort. He looked at her with her closed almond shaped eyes, cracked purplish skin, and a single frozen tear fallen halfway down her cheek. He kneeled down to talk to her. As he put his hand upon her bare shoulder, afraid he could not offer her a coat, as he had none himself, it became clear that she had passed. He could not let out a cry, for he had become accustomed to such tragedy. He lost his own wife and four children. His parents had died of blows to the head the night the soldiers came. He stood up and returned to the others.
There waist deep in the snow, sat Emily. The cool, icy winds brushed fiercely against her face breaking away the tear from her cheek, and adding to a small rip on her blouse, revealing Bakula’s small hand lying above her bosom. Faint chants, the roaring lakes echoing from afar, memories of happier times…all ended there, one night in December; Forever frozen in time.