Cherokee County: A Short Story

I still recall my wife’s shattered cries on the cursed night, as it rewinds itself in my sleep night after night. To grasp that the angel girl I flew in the air days ago may not even recognize me as her father anymore is truly devastating. However, Miss Sullivan, who I expected to be an ill-mannered, vigorous Yankee, conducted a miracle before of my very eyes.

The narrator sets the scene; the cold kitchen of the farmhouse the day after John Wright was found murdered in his own bed with a rope around his neck. Nothing has been touched except a fire has been started on the stove to warm the place a bit for when the sheriff and the county attorney would arrive to access the situation and look for a motive. Mrs. Wright who had been found the morning before just rocking back and forth in the kitchen rocker and pleating her apron that lay on her lap, over and over

Removed Cherokees initially settled near Tahlequah, Oklahoma. When signing the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 Major Ridge said "I have signed my death warrant." The resulting political turmoil led to the killings of Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot; of the leaders of the Treaty Party, only Stand Watie escaped death.[47][48][49] The population of the Cherokee Nation eventually rebounded, and today the Cherokees are the largest American Indian group in the United States.[50]

During the time of the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia case, the United States was very focused on expanding, especially to the South and West. The country had already started removing and relocating Indian Tribes (Indian Removal Act). The Cherokee were a self-sustaining tribe that remodeled their government and way of life off the US. When they refused to sell their land to the country, the US called for their lands to be seized and ordered state sovereignty to control them. Including the land, gold discovered on the lands made it more appealing for the country. Angry with this treatment, the Cherokee went to the Supreme Court to get the USA to back off and let them own their lands in peace.

The Cherokee nation has been entwined in American history since the discovery of Columbus. From fighting against the Americans in the Revolutionary War to being forced onto the Trail of Tears in the 1800s, from fighting for their land to their large growth in Oklahoma, the Cherokee has had a long and hard existence. They have influenced American politics and culture for many years. Throughout their vast history, the Cherokee have been a great point of culture and tradition in America.

Most of us have learnt about the Trail of Tears as an event in American history, but not many of us have ever explored why the removal of the Indians to the West was more than an issue of mere land ownership. Here, the meaning and importance of land to the original Cherokee Nation of the Southeastern United States is investigated. American land was seen as a way for white settlers to profit, but the Cherokee held the land within their hearts. Their removal meant much more to them than just the loss of a material world. Historical events, documentations by the Cherokee, and maps showing the loss of Cherokee land work together to give a true Cherokee

The opening paragraph of the story describes how peaceful the dead woman looked in her bed before her children could say the final goodbye to their loving mother. Her facial features looked calm, and her long white hair was carefully arranged as though she wanted to leave this world as beautiful and blameless as her life was. At the beginning of the story her character was introduced as a "sweet soul that lived in that body," who managed to raise two successful children alone by "arming them with a strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise."

As I enter Cherokee Trail High School, I see myself going out as a graduate and a person more than ready for the challenges the world will throw at me. I believe that the IB program here at Cherokee Trail will help me pursue that vision and even more. I want to be in the IB program at Cherokee Trail because the IB program builds many opportunities for students. Also, students who enter the IB program are usually more successful. I want to be an IB student at Cherokee Trail High School because the IB program creates many opportunities for students and students, and it creates an international understanding through academics.

The further I went back in the cabin, the worst I began to feel. It was like I was a chicken with no head; there were no lights, but the moon had a sparkle and every now and then, it would glitch, flickering on its last breath. The floors were ice cold; every step taken was another frost bite on my foot. Next stop, the bathroom. All of the showers were rusted and had dead bugs scattered throughout them. The sink had every color embedded in it, almost like dirty snow. I was determined this cabin was the youngest sister who got everyone’s hand-me-downs.

Crystal watched as Molly set the food down beside her bed. She stared at the everyday meal with a burst of disgust. Not by the food, but from the thought there was no news about leaving the small white room she lied in everyday.

“The story was handed down to me by my grandfather.” Kele, who was Native American by descent, saw Sally sitting under one of the trees in the front yard. Sally found out Abraham was a doctor who was married to Victoria and had three kids. The bodies of his family were discovered a month after they died when they have been reported missing. The authorities found them lying neatly on their beds either strangled or smothered with a pillow…except for Joseph. The youngest child was found inside the broom closet under the stairs with a broken neck. It seemed he woke up in the middle of the night, saw what was happening and ran to the closet to hide. Abraham found him when he heard a whimper coming from under the stairs. He forced it open and broke his neck. No one knows what happened to Abraham, a few believe he went in hiding, still, others think he killed himself somewhere in the house…his body was never found.

Her Papa was always careful to keep the door leading to the reconstructed barn closed firmly closed, knowing Elaine was prone to explore and get into things not meant for her. However, he was in a rush to deliver to an important customer, and the thought of closing the door slipped his mind; he was completely right, and the sight of the ajar door sparked Elaine’s curiosity. The first thing Elaine noticed was the overwhelming smell of wood. The second was the shavings all over the ground. Stepping further into the room, she found and turned on the lights. An involuntary gasp escaped her. Everywhere she looked there were beautiful creations made entirely out of wood. One of the walls, completely covered in all types of lumber, shelves upon shelves. Immediately Elaine was in love. Shapes jumped out at her in the wood, and she knew exactly what to

Rebecca slowly left Matt’s blue Porsche with white racing stripes and slowly walked back to her fancy hotel. She walks in the main entrance and rides the elevator with bad music all the way up to the fourth floor. After she gets off, she walks to door labeled 200; Rebecca puts her colorful keycard in the scanner and open the door to her luxurious room.She all thought that her hotel was the best with it’s bleach white furniture, see blue drapes,and the amazing artwork,but her favorite part was the dark brown mahogany hardwood floors. As usually Rebecca puts her keycard on the granite kitchen counter and she heads for the bathroom,but something stops her, in her tracks. This pungent, lung penetrating smell hit her hard in her nose. “What would be making this horrible smell”,she thought. Holding her nose she plunged right in the heart of it, which was her bathroom. As she walked through the oak wood door the smell only intensified,this did not stop her. Her eyes could not believe what they saw, a man was lying dead with a bag that was duct tape around his head. “The expression only his face was pure terror and I will never forget it”,

The barn was lit only by a single red candle on an overturned crate. Next to the candle was an opened red pack of cigarettes and a dirty brass lighter. Fresh hay was scattered around the cold floor, a job unfinished. In the corner of the shadowed barn, a spider clung to its web as it slowly devoured a helpless fly. Curley’s wife lay still, untouched, the sight almost had a natural feeling about it, as though this was all her life was ever to amount to, she lay dead amongst the hay; it was as thought the others had forgotten about her and merely continued with their dreary lives. A rusted shovel leaned against the wall, next to a freshly dug mound of earth, covering Candy’s lifeless dog. Lastly, spread across the floor, was a ragged length of cold consuming rope, with a noose tied in one frayed end.

The funeral and reception had been over for only a few hours, but Joyce found that she couldn’t sleep and would rather be productive than stare at the water stain on the corner of her ceiling that her grandmother had always hated. Her grandfather, Randall, wasn’t able to sleep either after a late night shared over stale and bitter tea. To help grieve, they decided they should sort through Annabelle’s things to