Published: December 24, 2008 05:09 pm            

Trail of Tears Association meeting in Waleska

Submitted by the Trail of Tears Association



The Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association will hold its first membership meeting of 2009 at the Funk Heritage Center on Jan. 10.

Meetings are free and open to the public. The meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. with a presentation by Erin L. Andrews. The Funk Heritage Center is on the campus of Reinhardt College in Waleska. It is “Georgia’s Official Frontier and Southeastern Indian Interpretive Center."

Andrews is a second-year graduate student in anthropology currently working with the Funk Heritage Center. Her research interests include public outreach archaeological programs, visual culture, museology, material culture, ceramic technology and archaeology of the prehistoric Southeast. A magna cum laude undergraduate in anthropology from the University of Georgia, Andrews possesses a wide range of field experience in both private and nonprofit undertakings throughout the Southeastern U.S. For the past four years, she has worked as a staff archaeologist for Terracon Consultants Inc. conducting archaeological site assessments, related laboratory analysis and report writing.

The Trail of Tears Association was created to support the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail established by an act of Congress in 1987. The TOTA is dedicated to identifying and preserving sites associated with the removal of Native Americans from the Southeast. The association consists of nine state chapters representing the nine states that the Cherokees and other tribes traveled through on their way to Arkansas and Oklahoma. The forced removal of the Cherokees was completed in 1838.

You need not have Native American ancestry to attend meetings, just an interest and desire to learn more about this fascinating and tragic period in our country’s history. For more information about the TOTA, visit the National TOTA Web site at www.nationaltota.org and the Georgia Chapter Web site at www.gatrailoftears.org. For questions about the January meeting, contact Linda Baker at (770) 704-6338 or at [email protected]. For information about or directions to the Funk Heritage Center, call (770) 720-5967 or visit www.reinhardt.edu.

        

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