Local Environmental Action Demanded
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Tar Creek Conferences
    • 2020 Conference >
      • 2020 Speakers and Panelists
    • 2019 Conference >
      • Poetry Slam and Cartoon Contest
    • 2018 Conference >
      • Registration
      • Science & the Arts
      • Lodging & Accommodations
    • 2017 Conference >
      • Speakers & Agenda
      • Science & the Arts
      • Lodging & Accommodations
    • 2016 Conference >
      • Speakers & Agenda
    • 2015 Conference
  • Grand Riverkeeper
  • Tar Creekkeeper
  • Partners
  • Contact Us

Trails Take Us Home

9/27/2015

1 Comment

 
I met a young man who was one of the Cherokee Trail of Tears riders this year. He has had to endure his own set of forced removals. He was not moved like our ancestors by government troops  ordered by then President Andrew Jackson who forcibly removed many of the Cherokees from their homes  to what is currently known as Oklahoma.  No, he was moved by water.

There are still parts of Miami subject to flooding, but there is flooding and then there is flooding.
This week it rained at my house in sheets of rain and by doing so began sending loads of rain onto my screened in porch. Out of a sense of desperation, to keep water from entering my house, I began baling water out at the same time and enlisted help to sweep repeatedly with a broom simply sweeping rainwater back through the doorway. I could only envision what my friends and their neighbors must have tried to hold the waters back from entering their homes time after time.

He and other families in his neighborhood were familiar to me, because I had been in that neighborhood and seen it being inundated with flood water, then seen it as the waters receded finding their homes in sad shape. I am really pleased that many of his formerly flooded neighbors had been bought out and their homes demolished to keep other families from EVER moving back in. What an honorable thing to do for the residents, to give them a way to start over on higher ground. These buyouts didn't get much attention compared to the buyouts of homes in Picher and Cardin, but all these families left precious memories and contaminated homes to start over.

This summer he and several others rode a 1,000 mile bike ride. Each summer this ride retraces the steps our Cherokee ancestors who were forced away from their homelands. They had to start over in a land new to them after one/fourth of the tribe perished along the way due to the conditions they had to endure.

He waits now for the notice to come for his family to be allowed to be removed from the home they live but must watch and listen for the rains as they come and wonder if water will force them to endure removal by flood. Just as his neighbors to the north waited and wondered if their world would collapse beneath them as they waited for approval to move.

The Cherokee Trail of Tears riders moved me to tears this year as never before. I watched them daily on Facebook as they traveled the 1,000 miles to reach Tahlequah, OK across the same route many of our ancestors took in 1839. There was said to have been a drought that year so when the wild rhododendrons were blooming, their blossoms fell along the trail, making it look like blood, a sign predicting death to come.

I didn't think I would get to meet any of the riders this year. I missed the Cherokee National Holiday, and the parade that surely would have brought them all back together again;  then there I was talking to this young man who so very humbly told me he had been able to be one of the riders this year.

This NEO student and Rachel Lloyd spoke about AICE students volunteering at the Tar Creek Conference.  After the conference is over they may walk with me in that neighborhood knocking on doors  of homes which could have been flooded with Tar Creek or yards where it had creeped out of its banks. We can alert the owners to call EPA to have their yards sampled for lead since each day 13 tons of heavy metals flow down it to Grand Lake. Some metals from Tar Creek could be deposited in yards along the way during floods. We are downstream people after all. Water may not cause another family to be removed. But contaminated yards can be removed to better protect children and grandchildren.

NEO Phi Theta Kappa student advisors are encouraging their students to volunteer with the LEAD Agency Conference. You can learn about yard removal, contaminants in Tar Creek, water quality in Grand Lake and more at the 17th National Environmental Tar Creek Conference September 29 & 30. Register Early by calling 918-542-9399 and we will have your conference materials ready for you.

1 Comment
Mike Lee link
9/26/2019 02:45:38 am

Mr <a href="https://mrmovermcr.uk/">Mover Manchester Man & Van </a> Our part removal service is ideal for individuals who need their things to be treated with consideration and expertly shipped however need more to fill an entire van.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Rebecca Jim

    Rebecca is the Executive Director of LEAD Agency and one of its founding members. She also serves as the Tar Creekkeeper with the Waterkeeper Alliance.

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Built Environments
    Children
    Gardening
    Other Endangered Waters
    Tar Creek Conference
    Toxic Tour
    Yard Remediation

Local Environmental Action Demanded Agency, Inc.
Miami Office:                                Vinita Office:
223 A Street SE                             19289 South 4403 Drive
Miami, Oklahoma 74354             Vinita, Oklahoma 74301
(918) 542-9399
Follow us on Facebook