Official Publication of the Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association Moccasin Track News Volume 1 Issue 18 Jan. -Feb.2014

Transcription

1 Happy New Year! First up -- we won't be having our regular membership meeting in January. Instead we will have a board meeting, where we will be welcoming some new Georgia Board Members. More about that soon. Alabama Chapter President Sharon Freeman and I just got back from an interpretation workshop sponsored by the National Park Service Intermountain Region Trails Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We gained a lot of insights into ways we might interpret the Trail of Tears, including some exciting new methods like online audio tours. Since we're supposed to share some of what we learned, I'll take a moment to do that here! One of the folks we learned about was Freeman Tilden, ( ) a newspaper columnist and author who decided he needed a change in his life at age 58. When his friend National Park Service Director Newton Drury invited him to work with the National Park Service, he entered the field of interpretation and forever changed the profession. In traveling to various parks to write books about the national park system he became concerned about the quality of interpretive programs in parks. This concern eventually led him to write his foundational book, Interpreting Our Heritage, published in It is in Interpreting Our Heritage that Tilden outlines his enduring principles of interpretation: 1. Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile. 2. Information, as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. But they are entirely different things. However, all interpretation includes information. 3. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts, whether the materials presented are scientific, historical or architectural. Any art is in some degree teachable. 4. The chief aim of Interpretation is not instruction, but provocation. 5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must address itself to the whole man rather than any phase. 6. Interpretation addressed to children (say, up to the age of twelve) should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach. To be at its best, it will require a separate program. (Freeman Tilden, 1957) You can learn more about the kinds of things we talked about at the NPS workshop by following this link: 1 P a g e

2 One of the items they featured at the workshop was our new Georgia Trail of Tears brochure! I was proud to see our chapter used as an example of the types of good interpretation folks are doing on the Trail. In some other news, I am putting the finishing touches on a project I'm doing for the NPS through the University of West GA Center for Public History -- an inventory of Trail of Tearsrelated structures in Northwest Georgia. This has been in the works for some time, and I'm excited to finally share the results with everyone. This will complement the Trail-wide inventory being conducted by Amy Kostine of Middle Tennessee State University. A new year means new signs! New signs have been delivered to the Funk Heritage Center and Chattooga County. We'll have unveiling ceremonies soon, so watch your for an announcement. I look forward to an exciting new year. I'll see everyone in March, 2014! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. Thank you for being a part of the Trail of Tears Association's Georgia chapter! Jeff Bishop President, GA TOTA Christmas in the Old Cherokee Nation of Georgia Vann Tavern, New Echota Historic State Park, Calhoun, GA. from the Friends of New Echota Facebook Group Timeline 2 P a g e

3 Christmas in the Old Cherokee Nation of Georgia Vann Dining Room at Christmas from Friends of Vann House Facebook Group Timeline. Location: Vann House Historic State Park, Chatsworth, Georgia Samuel Worcester House at New Echota. Location: New Echota Historic State Park, Calhoun, GA from the Friends of New Echota Facebook Group Timeline 3 P a g e

4 Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association Minutes November 9, 2013 Funk Heritage Center, Waleska, Georgia The meeting was called to order at 10:20 AM by Vice-President Leslie Thomas who welcomed the attendees and thanked the Funk Heritage Center (FHC) for hosting our meeting. There were 20 attendees. Leslie introduced our speaker, Dr. Joseph H. Kitchens, Executive Director of the FHC. Dr. Kitchens presentation was called History Beneath Our Feet: Preserving the Hickory Log Collection. In 1995, excavation began on a site in Canton, GA to make way for a Wal-Mart Superstore. Development stopped when artifacts and human remains were found. Approximately 100,000 artifacts were found from different time periods prior to and including Cherokee Indian habitation. The artifacts were taken to North Carolina to be classified and described archaeologically. Dr. Kitchens and others felt that the artifacts needed to be returned to Georgia, the result being that they are going to be stored and preserved at the University of Georgia s archaeology laboratory. The FHC will put an addition onto the current building to house rotating exhibits of the artifacts and also to expand interpretation of the history of the forced removal of the southeastern Indians. The Funk Heritage Center is now an interpretive site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (TOTNHT). The business meeting began at 11:06 AM. Jeff Bishop and Leslie Thomas were elected to serve another 2-year term as President and Vice- President respectively. The minutes of the September 2013 meeting were approved as written in the November 2013 GA TOTA newsletter. Unfortunately, the National Park Service certified site signs were not delivered in time to have an unveiling ceremony at this meeting. However, Dr. Kitchens introduced Waleska Mayor Doris Jones. Mayor Jones welcomed us to Waleska and said she is honored and excited to have the FHC on the TOTNHT. We will have an unveiling ceremony after the signs are installed on the grounds of the FHC. Long-time board member Peggy Stanfield resigned from the GA TOTA board. She will be moving to Florida early next year. Peggy was our fundraising chair for several years and also did research on Floyd County sites. Thank you to all who contributed a total of $12.00 to the Sunshine Fund. The meeting adjourned at 11:20 AM. Our meeting coincided with Native American Day at the FHC. We all were invited to stay and enjoy the activities planned in and on the grounds of the museum. Leslie gave a PowerPoint presentation at 1:00 PM about archaeology at the removal forts in Georgia. Respectfully submitted, Linda Baker, Secretary 4 P a g e

5 Good News.The Blackburn Cemetery has been donated to Forsyth County and currently there are plans for the cemetery to become a part of the future Eagle s Beak Passive Recreational Park along the Old Federal Road. This cemetery is a unique historical site. It is truly an early community graveyard with over 200 plus graves and two mass gravesites. White, Indian, and African American are buried in this cemetery. History really comes alive when you step onto this holy ground. It is located not far from the Etowah River. To the north on the Old Federal Road, an Indian Settlement could be found and to the south, one of the first white settlements by the name of Hightower/Frogtown in what was to become Forsyth County, GA. Much thanks to the Advanced Disposal, the Forsyth County Government, and the Historical Society of Forsyth County, GA. This is a dream in the making. This winter, plan an outing to one of our local state parks. They have much to offer you and your family in the way of activities. For more information, visit No Meeting This January There will be NO January general meeting. The GA TOTA Board will be meeting in January. If anyone has topics they want the board to discuss, please contact Jeff Bishop at wjeffbishop@yahoo.com or contact Linda Baker at badnil@windstream.net or at The next GA TOTA general meeting will be on March 8, 2014 at a location to be announced. Thank you! Membership Renewal for 2014 All GA TOTA members will soon be receiving membership renewal reminders for Please remember that if you want to make a donation to the GA chapter, above and beyond the basic membership dues, you must specify on the renewal form that the donation go to the GA chapter, otherwise it stays with National TOTA and does not come back to us. Thank you to all who have made donations in 2013! Georgia Chapter TOTA Officers 2014 Jeff Bishop, President, National Director, Webmaster Dola Davis, National Director Leslie Thomas, Vice-President and Communication Chair Linda Baker, Secretary and Publicity Linda Fletcher, Treasurer If you have received a paper copy of this newsletter, then you are not on the distribution for this publication. If you would like to be added to this list, please contact the newsletter editor, Myra Reidy, at myrareidy@live.com. Or, you are welcome to phone call or text her at P a g e

6 From: Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears P.O. Box 91 Cumming, GA To: 6 P a g e