Kevin, the Trail of Tears was not entirely a Southern blemish on our history. The Cherokee won their suit in the Supreme Court, and should have been allowed to stay in their homes. They had acclimated themselves to our culture. They even had a language and newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. Some owned slaves. Their capitol was New Echota, in what is now Bartow County. My family moved into Cobb County and settled in 1838. Maybe they could be blamed for taking advantage, but they had taken part in the land lotteries from the Revolutionary War. When Chief Justice Marshall announced the decision, President Andrew Jackson said, "John Marshall has made his decision, let him enforce it!" That was not a Southern response, that was Old Hickory, the Indian fighter and hero of New Orleans, who had threatened the South over Nullification, speaking. The Cherokee Removal was accomplished by the US Army. The descendants of those Cherokee who resisted and hid in the mountains are now living on their reservation in North Carolina and Tennessee, adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the establishment of which displaced many Southern descendants of the Scots Irish who first settled the area. Many things are not cut and dried. Stan