Week 6 – #38. Powerful

Construction began in 1969 on the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, a nuclear power plant located 20 miles north of Chattanooga, abutting Chickamauga Lake, on the Tennessee River. The facility is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). It is the most productive of TVA’s four nuclear plants and the second most powerful electric plant in the entire TVA system.

Sequoyah was Cherokee, reportedly born in Tuskegee, a town at the confluence of the Tellico River and Little Tennessee River, upriver of the nuclear power plant. He is known for creating the Cherokee syllabary circa 1820. Many Cherokee sites were flooded during the TVA’s construction of Tellico Dam (1967-1979). Naming the site after a local Native American Indian was considered a small political token to the Cherokee in compensation for the dam-flooding and destruction of their historic sites that TVA required to control flooding on the Tennessee River. REF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah_Nuclear_Generating_Station

Week 17 – #16. History

On October 26, 2013, I attended the Brown’s Ferry Federal Road Dedication at the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This wasn’t just any dedication but rather a dedication of what once was a public road crossing Moccasin Bend, a road which headed west towards Brown’s Ferry and the Tennessee River. When it was established early in the 19th century, it’s primary purpose was for the transportation of individuals and trade goods being moved from the east to the west and vice versa. For decades, it was used in this fashion. Unfortunately, this road that was designed to bring prosperity to the people in the surrounding land was destined to bring hardship and heartache to a people and a nation. In 1838, over 2,000 members of the Cherokee Nation, enslaved Africans, and others were ripped from their homes, many at the point of the bayonet, and were forced west along this very road, taking what little physical possessions they could muster to carry. One of my grandmothers, a Cherokee Indian, was one of them.

In 1820, it was surveyed as part of John Brown’s 640 acre reservation, a road that led to his home and his ferry beyond. It was a road that led to his prosperity and the prosperity of others in and around Ross’ Landing. Less than two decades later, this road became part of a trail, a trail flooded with the tears of those forced to leave everything behind and move to an unfamiliar land. This road corridor has a lot of history and ultimately became known as The Trail of Tears.

As ominous and dire a situation as the removal became for all those involved, this was not to be the end of a people. Even as removal took place 175 years ago, this road was not the end; it was not the final chapter. The dedication of this road is not about an ominous road but about who the people who traveled it were and who we are as a result of the suffering of those who travelled this road. This road is a connection to our ancestors, to those who suffered there, to those who suffered in the mountains and in countryside eluding the forced removal, to those who sat by and watched as it occurred around them. This site is significant to our national story – the story of who WE ARE as a people and as a country. That is why this place deserves to be preserved and protected in perpetuity.

My thanks goes to Chris Young, Park Ranger, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Park. Much of the above information came from a talk he gave at the dedication.

35. Not My Mother Tongue

This photograph is part of the Chattanooga Art Project at the Tennessee Aquarium in celebration of the Cherokee Culture. Although the Cherokee language is not my mother tongue, my ancestry on my father’s side dates back to the Cherokees as my great, great grandmother was Cherokee and was a part of the forced removal of the Cherokees from Chattanooga. The removal of the Cherokees is known as the Trail of Tears and is said to be the greatest tragedy of the Cherokee Indians and a disgraceful act by our government at the time. Her son-in-law (my great grandfather) was successful in returning her to Chattanooga and thus saving her from the perils some of the other Cherokee Indians suffered. Once the forced evacuation was launched in 1838, some 4,000 Cherokees died in stockades or on the trail.

The scene in this photograph depicts a portion of the 14-foot tall stainless steel sculptures of stickball players which grace a wall alongside the Tennessee River near the Aquarium. The game was an important part of the Cherokee culture.