SHEFFIELD – In the 1830’s, when the United States’ appetite for more territory seemed unbounded, the Government in Washington passed the Indian Removal Act. This law provided for the general resettlement of Native Americans from east of the Mississippi River to lands west (Indian Territory). Modern day nomenclature refers to the forced removal of the Indians, the “Trail of Tears”.
A tradition began here in the Shoals 15 years ago when the first “Oka Kapassa” festival of remembrance was held. It is a little known fact outside our part of America, that in the midst of the hardships suffered by the Tribes at the hands of the Federal Government at the behest of President Andrew Jackson, the people of Tuscumbia extended kindness and sustenance to the beleaguered wayfarers on their forced migration to the West.
This Saturday, a cotillion of about 200 people met at the site of Tuscumbia Landing in Sheffield. They held a ceremony to memorialize the people who embarked across the river on boats to Waterloo, where their forced migration continued.
Once the ceremony concluded there on the bluffs overlooking the river, the group walked to Big Spring in Tuscumbia as a symbolic return to their homelands from the West. It was quite moving. There were tears in the eyes of many people.
In this first of several stories about the event, the Quad-Cities Daily presents a gallery of photos from the Tuscumbia Landing ceremony. The event at Spring Park will be covered in a later article.
Photos by Sheri Wiggins and Steve Wiggins
