"We are now about to take our leave and bid a kind farewell to our native land, the land that The Great Spirit gave our Fathers; we are on the eve of leaving that country that gave us birth. It is with sorrow that we are forced by the authority of the white man to quit the scenes of our childhood ... we bid a final farewell to it and all we hold dear."

George Hicks,
Cherokee leader on the Trail of Tears
November4, 1838