Trail of Tears

One step. Then another and another. They have to keep walking through the snow, the rain, the mud, and the bitterly cold winds that blow. No one has a choice. Not Nita’s father or mother, nor her younger sister, Taloa, nor her cousins and friends. A man named Jackson said they had to move, and so they did. Their chief urges them forward, saying that once they reach their new home, the children will play again. The men and boys will spend their days hunting and fishing, and the mothers and girls will tend to the homes. Each evening, they will gather beneath the stars. Warmed by their campfires, they will once again tell the stories of their ancestors. And so Nita keeps walking. One step. And then another.