On March 15th, Ian Finch and I embarked on an 81 day journey to retrace the steps taken by the Cherokee people in 1838, during the forced relocations of indigenous people from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States of America.

This journey took us from the Cherokee’s ancestral homelands in the Great Smoky Mountains all the way to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the home of today’s Cherokee Nation. In total we travelled approximately 1300 miles; 400 miles walked and 900 paddled.

With three phases of the trip, this was an extremely varied expedition. The first phase had us crossing the Great Smoky Mountains on foot, which took approximately five days. Then, 42 days were spent paddling 900 miles of the Little Tennessee, Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi river. Finally we had to walk approximately 400 miles west from Memphis, in an almost straight line across Arkansas.

After the physical side of our journey was complete we spent a week in Tahlequah, the home of the Cherokee Nation, to learn about the culture today and what it is being done to sustain and preserve their traditions.

Find the full story written by Ian Finch in Volume 16 of Sidetracked Magazine.