SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The 18 cyclists of the “Remember the Removal” ride each had their own ideas about the three-week ride and what they might experience. Now that’s it’s nearly over, some shared their thoughts about the journey through seven states.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians rider Tosh Welch, of the Wolfetown Community in North Carolina, said he knew it would be difficult but he never expected such a strong bond would form between the EBCI and Cherokee Nation cyclists.

“We just refer to ourselves as Cherokee now,” he said. “The weakest person can pick up the strongest person at the strangest time or the quietest person can tell the funniest joke, and that kind of gets us through our day.”

Welch said he also didn’t realize there would be so many emotional moments, especially when the cyclists knew they were traveling where their ancestors are buried in unmarked graves or where their ancestors suffered while waiting to cross the Mississippi River.

“Sometimes white people were kind enough or courteous enough to let them be buried in their cemeteries,” he said. “A lot of people are walking around with a card in their pocket and they can claim to be Cherokee, but I think until you connect with your history, you connect with your culture and the things that took place, which is what we’re doing here...it gives you a better perspective on what it means to carry that (Cherokee citizen) title with your name.”

Cherokee rider Stacy Leeds, of Muskogee, Oklahoma, said before the ride she thought the two groups would gel.

“I think what has been true for me is that it’s almost like a family member or a partner or a spouse and you think, ‘I couldn’t love this person any more than I do right now,’ and then you spend more time with that person and you know that bond keeps growing and growing. That’s how I feel about the other riders,” she said.

Along with strong bonds between the riders, Leeds also said she felt strong emotions visiting sites where Cherokees were held prisoner or walked and stopped for a time.

“Nothing prepares you for how emotional and how spiritually impactful those places are going to be. At a few of those places you could literally feel the spirits of people. It was pretty powerful, and I don’t think anything can prepare you for that moment,” she said. “Being with that many Cherokees together at a place like that was pretty profound. I think that grew with each place.”

As she was riding on June 18 to Springfield, she said she was thinking about her Cherokee ancestors and knew some of them had an idea about where they were going thanks to communication with family referred to as “Old Settlers” who had earlier moved to Indian Territory.

“But to be on this journey and really not know what lies at the end and how that was going to play out has been on my mind a lot today,” she said.

She said the Springfield ride was good for the group and the Oklahoma cyclists could feel they were getting close to home, but for her Cherokee ancestors “every day would have been more exhaustion and more dread from not knowing what lies ahead.”

Cherokee Nation rider Nikki Lewis, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, said she had mixed emotions as the ride winds down.

“It’s been good. It’s been bad. I’ve been angry. It (emotions) is just like the hills (the cyclists rode), up and down, up and down,” she said. “Walking the actual trail they were on, that changed my whole perspective. I was like ‘wow.’ Hearing us walk was loud, but hundreds of them walking must have been loud with kids crying and not knowing where their next stop was going to be.

“We know we’re going to get to stop. We know we’re going to get food. We know there’s going to be an end, but they didn’t know that,” she added.

Hearing about what to expect on the ride from friends and his daughter Corlee, who rode the trek in 2015, helped EBCI rider Tom Hill, of the Yellowhill Community in North Carolina, but he said he now understands people have to experience it for themselves.

“You can’t really explain it to somebody who hasn’t been on the ride, and I’m starting to feel that, especially the closeness we are creating here,” he said. “I think it’s important that people do this so that they understand these kinds of relationships can develop.”

He said the bond the cyclists created is the ride’s most special aspect. As a therapist, he said he understands the historical trauma many tribal people suffer from, but he wants to see a change.

“I want to walk away from the historical grief and trauma part where we say, ‘oh, poor me.’ We have to focus on the strength. The fact that these folks walked across this country to Oklahoma, that’s where we build from,” he said. “They didn’t know where they were going, but they created homes for their families, same for the families in western North Carolina. The folks that stayed there created homes for us. It’s those strengths that we need to build on.”

Lewis said it’s difficult to explain the ride to those who haven’t made the journey and that they would have to experience it themselves to truly understand what it means and how it changes a person.

“I can tell them everything I felt, and they might be like, ‘oh, that’s neat,’ but it’s not going to be the same without them doing it themselves. Whether it’s in car or you’re actually riding it (trail), it will change their whole mindset of really what our ancestors went through.”

– Republished with kind permission of the Cherokee Phoenix, www.cherokeephoenix.org