March 25 – President Barack Obama is soon expected to sign the Trail of Tears Documentation Act and the Green McAdoo National History Study Act into law. U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Congressman Zach Wamp (R-Tenn. 3) have worked for several years to move these measures through Congress, and both were included in the Public Lands Bill (H.R. 146) that passed the U.S. House of Representatives today. The bill passed the Senate last week.

“These two measures bring us one step closer to officially recognizing these important historical sites in Tennessee,” Alexander said. “Now that the Lands bill has passed through the Senate, I hope it will move quickly to the president’s desk so that we can appropriately honor the Clinton 12 and the Cherokee.”

“I’m very pleased Congress has passed these provisions to appropriately recognize two important pieces of our Tennessee and American history,” Corker said. “The Green McAdoo and Trail of Tears bills help ensure these sites will be preserved for future generations to experience and appreciate.”

Congressman Wamp, who authored both the Trail of Tears and Green McAdoo measures in the U.S. House of Representatives, said, “While the Cherokee removal is only one tribe’s story of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, it is the most visible in American history. Completing the story of the Cherokee removal is personal for me because of my own Cherokee heritage and I’ve been honored to shepherd it through Congress. The Green McAdoo site is important to the Clinton community, but also to the cause of justice and equality in America for its vital role in the school desegregation crisis in the 1950s. Finishing the work and rewriting the National Trail of Tears legislation to accurately tell the story of one of the seminal injustices in history and giving national status to the brave people of Green McAdoo in Clinton, Tenn., are two important bills I am proud to have sponsored and look forward to their enactment.”

The Trail of Tears Documentation Act calls for the inclusion of two primary westward trails-the Benge and Bell routes, as well as water routes through the Tennessee and Arkansas Rivers and the so-called “round up routes” from Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama where the Cherokee were sought out, gathered and subsequently forced on the long journey by foot, horseback, boat and wagon to the new “Indian Territory.” The designation and interpretation of the additional sites and trails associated with the Cherokee Removal will enhance public understanding of American history.

The Green McAdoo National Historic Site Study Act would direct the Secretary of the Interior to study the feasibility of designating the Green McAdoo School in Clinton, Tennessee, which successfully integrated without federal intervention one year before Little Rock Central, as a unit of the National Park System. Upon receiving the designation, the site would become part of the 391-unit National Park System and receive federal funding for operational costs.  It also would earn national recognition as part of the Park System’s mission to preserve and protect the natural and cultural history of America.