"TRAIL OF TEARS" SURVIVOR.

Nancy Sixkiller, née Dry, a full-blood Cherokee, was a recipient of a bronze plaque from The Trail of Tears Association, Oklahoma Chapter. The plaque was placed on the lower right corner of her headstone; it reads: "In honor of one who endured the forced removal of the Cherokees in 1838-1839." The plaque also includes the Trail of Tears Association and Cherokee Nation seals.

PLEASE NOTE: The 1925 year of death on Nancy's headstone is in error; her year of death was 1924.

The "Cherokee Removal Trail" has been referred to on the internet as "THE TRAIL WHERE THEY CRIED"; my Cherokee family has always spoken of it as "THE TRAIL WHERE WE CRIED" meaning also "THE TRAIL WHERE THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE CRIED."

Nancy Sixkiller, née Dry, a full-blood Cherokee citizen of the Cherokee Nation, was born circa 1817-1819 in northwestern Georgia, Old Cherokee Nation East. Her father, who died in 1853 in the Going Snake District, Cherokee Nation West, Indian Territory, was Oo-kah-yo-teh (his name is spelled here as it is on the Cherokee Drennen Roll of 1851, transcribed and indexed by Marybelle W. Chase (1994), page 127, Group 211 in the Going Snake District.) On the Guion Miller application, a.k.a. No. 16583 Eastern Cherokee Application of Nancy Sixkiller, his name was spelled Oo-gah-yo-dah on line 7 and as Oo-gah-yoh-doh on line 10); he also used the English name of "Ned Dry". Some of the spellings of her mother's name have been Chi-wah-noh, Che-woh-noh, and Chewaue Dry; Nancy's mother died on the Trail of Tears circa 1838-1839.

If you are wondering why there were so many different spellings of the names in Nancy's family, it is because they were Cherokee Indians and the people asking for the information and recording it were non-Indians who did not know the Cherokee language and syllabary. Interpreters were usually used but if they were non-Cherokee they were not fluent in the Cherokee language, and if they were Cherokee, they were not fluent in the English language. Besides the verbal barriers there were education barriers; Cherokees did not know the English alphabet so they could not help with the spelling, and the English consonant sounds used by the non-Cherokees were not all present in the Cherokee language (such as R, C, P, F, B and V). Despite these consonant sounds being absent from the Cherokee language, they were still used in the English records by the non-Cherokees to record Cherokee names instead of the common syllables actually used in the Cherokee language (Example: The Cherokee name of Ka-nu-na, pronounced kah-NOON-ah, was recorded in English records as Cah-noo-noo and as Ca-noo-nuh; "Ka-nu-na" means "Bullfrog" in English). Compounding the problem of misspelt names as well as other types of recorded information was the limited education of this era which resulted in the misspelling of words by several of the non-Cherokees employed to collect and record information. Also, most records in the past were handwritten and the often poor penmanship of the written words and the variations in writing styles contributes to the difficulty of correctly deciphering what was recorded.

The names you find in these early Native American records are often names spelled phonetically using the English alphabet and syllables and this can result in variations in spelling based on how the person hearing the name interprets what they think they heard. Nancy Sixkiller has several spellings of her Native American name. The spellings encountered most often are: Chah-wah-you-gah, Cha-wa-yu-kee and Cha-wa-youke; shorter versions of her name were Chy-u-ke and Chow-yuke. Wash Lee and his son Felix's branch of the family and their descendants lovingly called her "Aunt Chin."

Nancy's life took a heartbreaking turn in 1838. She and her husband were living in northwestern Georgia in the Cherokee Nation East with their three small children. They had settled into a log cabin, were farming the land, and raising some livestock. Their family was thriving and they were happy. Like most young couples they were looking forward to their lives together but their dreams and hopes would never have the chance to be realized.

During early June of 1838 their family was confronted with Federal Troops bursting through their front door into their home. The troops were armed with rifles and bayonets ordering the family at gunpoint to leave the premises or they would be killed. The couple held their crying children tightly in their arms fearing the troops would take their babies from them. Orders were shouted for the family to get out! They were prevented from taking even one blanket for the children then they were pushed across the road to the back of a wagon and shoved in it while threats were being shouted at them. As the team of horses hitched to the wagon started down the road, Nancy, holding her fear-filled crying children close, turned to take one last look at what had been their home. She saw a broken front door wide open leaving the house vulnerable to the elements, her window curtains blowing in the wind, and a dark house emptied of its once happy family; that image stayed with her for the rest of her life seared into her memory by events that followed.

The forced removal of Nancy's family from their home was due to how the U. S. Government's 1830 Indian Removal Act was being executed. The act provided for negotiations with the eastern tribes where the U. S. Government would offer an exchange of unsettled land west of the Mississippi River (known as Indian Territory) for each tribe's land east of the Mississippi River; these westerns lands had previously been deemed undesirable for settlement by white settlers. Each relocated tribe was to receive a permanent title to their new land so they would never have to leave their homes and cultivated lands ever again. Instead of mutual negotiations, the Jackson administration and later Van Buren's resorted to seizing the eastern Native American's homes and desirable lands (some land with new discoveries of gold; causing the first gold rush) through coercion, brute force, and deaths to Native Americans.

This initial roundup of Cherokees, in preparation for "The Removal," was conducted by federal troops and state militias throughout the Cherokee lands in northwestern Georgia, northeastern Alabama, southwestern North Carolina, and southeastern Tennessee. Cherokee families, like Nancy's, were taken and interned within stockades scattered throughout their homeland while their personal property and the Cherokee Tribe's communal real estate was seized. From the stockades, they were transferred to one of the eleven internment camps that were more centrally located -- ten in Tennessee and one in Alabama. Nancy and her family were held at a camp in Tennessee.

The conditions of the stockades and internment camps were inhumane; they were overcrowded, and had insufficient shelters, inadequate supplies of edible food and clean water, poor sanitation, and callous treatment. Cholera, measles, typhus, and whooping cough, among other illnesses, spread rapidly among the confined Cherokees and deaths began occurring nearly every day especially as the days turned into weeks then months of imprisonment.

By mid-June 1838, three detachments totaling about 2,800 had left for Indian Territory under military escort. Word was received back that heat, drought, and disease had taken many lives and delayed travel for two of the three detachments. Due to the worsening heat and drought, the remaining thirteen detachments totaling about 13,000 were delayed from leaving until late August into November; this delay added to their suffering by keeping them in ever worsening living conditions and by placing the majority of their forced march on foot over land during the late fall and winter months when weather conditions could become more deadly. By the time their detachment was ready to leave, Nancy's young husband was too ill to continue on The Removal and he died at the beginning of the arduous journey. She was faced with trying to ensure their three children survived without her husband at their side.

The children were so young and had suffered through the horrible conditions at the internment camp; Nancy's fears of losing them plagued her thoughts. With an old tattered shawl she tied the baby on her back, the next youngest child she cradled in one arm and the oldest child she held his tiny hand as they continued on "The Trail Where We Cried."

This Trail of Tears that they were forced on was a trail of dehydration, starvation, exhaustion, disease, and exposure to severe weather without adequate shelter, clothing, and shoes. The Trail Where We Cried was so named because the Cherokees cried in grief and sorrow for the loss of their loved ones and their people who were dying from a forced removal from their homeland that relentlessly brought suffering, death, and tears daily.

Nancy's start on the Trail had begun with tears for the loss of her husband. Soon followed was the death of her oldest child, she ached for the touch of her child's hand again. Her second child died a short time after her first child; she longed to embrace them both. She desperately tried to care for her baby but the infant grew weaker with each day due to the thirst and hunger they shared. Many were dying on the trail and the bodies of the dead were loaded onto a wagon and taken for burial but rumors began to indicate that the wagon just dumped most bodies in the wilderness.

Some families were complaining their ill loved ones were being pickup and thrown on the death wagon before they died. The day came when a soldier tried to take Nancy's baby from her. She managed to hold on to her baby and get away but she could hear the sound of his horse approaching and there was no route for escape. Nancy saw an old log on the ground and discovered it was hollow enough for her to crawl into with the baby in her arms. Just as she managed to be concealed within the log the horse hooves struck the log as the soldier rode over. The soldier was determined to find Nancy, and in his search, he repeatedly rode back and forth over the log with the horse's hooves striking the log with every crossing; she was terrified that the log would break and reveal them to the soldier with his next crossing. As night fell, he finally gave up and rode away. She and the baby were both exhausted -- so much so that she stayed under a tree just off The Trail with her baby in her arms under the night sky with only the soothing sounds of the night.

That was the last night that she had with her beloved child. All she had to dig a grave the next morning was a broken case knife. Nancy carefully wrapped her baby in the shawl she had used to carry her on her back and proceeded to dig a grave near the tree where they had spent their final night together. She held her child close and gently rocked back and forth as she sung a mother's prayer to delivery the soul of their precious child to the waiting arms of the little one's father and siblings. With one last kiss she cradled the tiny body and placed it ever so gently in the grave. She carefully placed the soil around and over the shawl that enfolded the baby. She then covered the grave with leaves and dry grass, and with the largest rock she could carry, Nancy positioned the stone over the grave and softly set it down to protect the spot from being found and disturbed. Her thoughts were to stay with her child and rejoin her husband and children. She missed them so and wanted to hold them in her arms but her parents and siblings that were trying to survive The Trail needed her help, and they would likely be punished by the soldiers if she didn't return. She had to find the strength to go on. Nancy had never before experienced an all engulfing grief and loneliness that took her breath away and shattered her heart. She tried to summon the strength to walk to her family awaiting her return. She focused on her love for them and her desire to be there for them with each step she took. The experience of the soldier trying to pull her baby from her and his efforts to find them never faded from memory; until her death she relived the day over and over again in vivid dreams where the sounds of the horse hooves would continually get louder and louder as the soldier repeatedly rode over her and her baby cradled in her arms as they lay hidden within the log.

The hardships of "The Trail Where The Cherokee People Cried" claimed the lives of other members of Nancy's family. In addition to her mother, it is known that a sister and brother-in-law, plus the couple's oldest child, a daughter, perished on the trail; the only surviving member of this young family of four was a son, Wash. He was orphaned at the tender age of three to five years; he may have been a little older since he could recall some events which occurred on the trail. Wash was too young to survive on his own so his Aunt Nancy took care of him and saw to his survival. He lovingly called Nancy, "Aunt Chin."

Which detachment Aunt Chin, Wash, and other family members were part of is not known, but the Trail of Tears route they were on was the northern route which began in Tennessee and went through southwestern Kentucky, southern Illinois, across Missouri, then down into the northwest corner of Arkansas and across to Fort Wayne in Indian Territory. The fort overlooked the Illinois River and was located near present-day Watts, Adair County, Oklahoma. The last detachment did not arrive in Indian Territory until March 24, 1839. The Trail Where The Cherokee People Cried had been harsh with a bitterly cold winter of snow and ice. Reports described the winter as being the hardest in memory. Many Cherokees removed over the Trail of Tears died due to exposure and pneumonia.

The Trail had taken the lives of many; Cherokee families were decimated leaving many children without their parents. Walter Lee, a possible uncle of Wash, adopted the boy in Indian Territory. Ned Dry and his family, per the 1851 Drennen Roll, adopted four orphans: Che-gen-a-lah; Keh-la-wee-skee; Yeh-we-gah-noo-go-gee; and Susan. Walter Lee settled in the area which eventually became known as the Sequoyah District, and Ned Dry and his family settled in the Going Snake District of the Cherokee Nation West, Indian Territory. As Wash grew up, he never failed to keep in touch with and visit Aunt Chin. Present-day, portions of three Oklahoma counties comprise the former Going Snake District: the northern part of Adair, southern part of Delaware, and an eastern portion of Cherokee. Sequoyah County, Oklahoma comprises the former Sequoyah District (originally known as the Skin Bayou District) and part of the Illinois District.

On March 8, 1856 Possom [correct spelling: Opossum] Sixkiller and Nancy Dry were married in the Going Snake District by Reverend William Upshaw, a Baptist Missionary, at the Reverend's home. A daughter was born to the couple on March 12, 1862 and they chose Catherine as her name, a.k.a. "Cattie, Caty, and Katy" Sixkiller.

During the United States Civil War, Opossum, a farmer, enrolled July 11, 1862 at Flat Rock as a Union soldier. He served as a Private in Company L, 3rd Regiment, Indian Home Guards Volunteers, Kansas Infantry. On July 16, 1862 he was taken prisoner by the enemy near the Verdigris River and was later released at Fort Washita on April 4, 1863. He rejoined his regiment April 23, 1863 and was mustered back into service on May 29, 1863.

While stationed in a military camp near Fort Gibson during March 1864 Private Opossum Sixkiller was wounded. He requested and received permission to have a 10 day furlough to go home in the hope his wife could help him get well but he died shortly after his arrival. His death was due to wounds received accidentally, exposure, and "winter fever" (also known as pneumonia). His wife Nancy and Lieutenant Redbird Sixkiller were with him when he died. Lt. Redbird and his nephew Abraham Sixkiller buried Private Opossum Sixkiller who, according to his Civil War papers, had been a good soldier who performed full military duties until accidentally wounded. As a child, Opossum had been orphaned and a Cherokee named "Old Soldier Sixkiller," chose to raise the young boy along with his own biological children.

"Old Soldier Sixkiller" was the father of Redbird and the paternal grandfather of Abraham (whose father was Redbird's brother, Soldier Sixkiller). Abraham Sixkiller stated in an April 26, 1907 deposition, that as far as he knew, Opossum was not a relation to the Sixkiller family but had been raised by Abraham's grandfather Sixkiller (this deposition was given during a review process of Nancy Sixkiller's application for a reinstatement of her Civil War Widow's Pension, filed May 27, 1907 under the remarried name: Nancy S. [sic; SIXKILLER] BULLFROG, widow). In Nancy Sixkiller's deposition of April 25, 1907, she stated that "Opossum got the name Sixkiller from the man that raised him; that was not his father's name."

After returning in 1865 from his service as a Private with Co. L, 3rd Regt., Home Guards, Wash Lee lived for awhile with his Aunt Chin while he built a cabin and began a farm about a quarter mile from her home. He wanted to be near his recently widowed aunt to be available to help her and her three-year-old daughter, Catherine. Aunt Chin and Wash remained close during his life. Throughout her life, she helped him, his family, and his grandchildren with her knowledge and use of healing herbs for illnesses and injuries; she had become a noted medicine woman in Indian Territory.

In the remainder of her lifetime, Nancy married twice more. Nearly everything of the Cherokee tribe's former homeland, laws and customs had been taken from them due to modified and broken treaties as well as the European laws imposed upon them in place of their own laws. Nancy chose to join with several other Cherokees in trying to take control of a portion of their personal lives by returning to the Cherokee custom of marriage. The tribe was not allowed to restore their former laws and customs but several Cherokee individuals within the tribe agreed upon what would be accepted by them as marriage and divorce; then they followed through in trying to conduct their lives under the modified customs as best as they could.

Historically the Cherokee tribe had been a matrilineal society composed of seven clans where elder women known as "Clan Grandmothers" served as the leaders of their own clan. When it came to marriage, it was forbidden to marry within your father's clan (basically composed of uncles, aunts, and first cousins) or the clan of your mother (in addition to basically being uncles, aunts and cousins, it also included brothers and sisters); this Cherokee law wisely served to prevent marriages between close relatives.

If a suitor sought to begin courting, he had to consult with his Clan Grandmother(s) for their approval of the potential female he was considering. The Clan Grandmothers of the prospective couple would then meet to affirm both clans approved prior to any courtship beginning. The suitor could only court one female throughout the courtship, and the ages for a young couple to begin courting was usually seventeen for boys and fifteen for girls.

If the suitor decided that he desired to marry, he would kill wild game (usually a deer) and bring some of the meat to offer to the home of the female. If she accepted the meat, then cooked it and offered it to him, she was choosing to marry him. If she rejected the offering he had brought, her refusal indicated she did not wish to marry him.

Prior to their marriage, the couple still needed to obtain approval of the groom's Clan Grandmother and her relatives and the bride had to obtain approval from her mother's sister, if not present, a grandmother or great aunt could approve. Upon receiving approval the two could marry. Once married the couple lived with the wife's clan, and all children born to them were members of the same clan as their mother.

As a matrilineal society, a Cherokee wife was head of the household and in the event of a divorce, the home and the children belonged to her and were raised as members of her clan. A husband was required to obtain his wife's approval on family and clan matters and she in turn was required to obtain her husband's approval on family and clan matters; it was essential for the couple to work together as partners in their personal lives as well as members of their tribe. Divorce was allowed but not for frivolous reasons, and to end a relationship, the approval of the Clan leaders was typically needed to ensure the couple's differences couldn't be resolved. After a divorce, the former husband could choose to return to his own clan or move in with the unmarried men of the clan of his former wife.

Europeans did not like the matrilineal society and insisted the Cherokees accept the laws developed by the Europeans regarding all aspects of a person's life when it came to property, individual rights, marriages, divorces, etc. In regards to marriage, European laws required a couple to file for and receive a marriage license, then have their marriage performed only by an individual licensed to perform the ceremony, and the couple was required to obtain and keep a marriage certificate to prove they were married. Divorce involved the need to legally proceed with paperwork, usually involved lawyers, and a court proceeding where a judge ruled to end the marriage, and the couple had to maintain records proving their divorce.

After the removal from their Eastern homeland, the Cherokees were pressured to conform to the laws created by the Europeans. Eventually, the U. S. Congress passed laws which removed the rights of the individual Native American tribes to enforce their traditional tribal laws; they had to accept laws created and enforced by the Federal, State, and local governments.

The Cherokees did try to conform to the European marriage and divorce laws but their traditional native customs being replaced by paperwork, lawyers, judges, courts, etc. without the tribal and family structure of support as well as the personal guidance and wisdom of the clans was missed by tribal members. Many of the elders of the clans had died due to the deadly Trail of Tears removal. The European laws imposed upon the Cherokee did not support the revival of the customs and laws of the clans but several Cherokees tried to implement a form of marriage base on some of the old customs.

During this time, it became accepted by Cherokees that a man and woman could simply choose to live together as a couple and be viewed as married. If they decided to no longer lived as a couple, then they were regarded as divorced through the simple action of not living together, and both were then at liberty to marry someone else. The traditional custom of the children living with the mother and the home remaining personal property of the divorced wife remained intact. Nancy's last two marriages (listed below) were based on this modified version of the former marriage customs of the Cherokees.

About 1868, Nancy Sixkiller and Teh-neh-wo-ah-see Bullfrog (his name as it appears on the 1851 Drennen Roll, Group 148 in the Going Snake District) married. Bullfrog was more commonly known as Dunawas but he was also recorded in records under other similar spellings: Da-na-was; Da-na-wa-se, Dunnawas, etc.). Two sons were born to the couple: George about 1868 and Fred during 1870 or 1871. A week after Fred's birth, Dunawas Bullfrog and Nancy ended their relationship as a couple. The boys' father died during November of 1906. He had been working at picking cotton when he took sick; it is believed that Dunawas had been ill with pneumonia. He died at the home of Connels Crittenden and his cousin Elizabeth Suake signed his death certificate.

Circa 1875, Nancy and John Black Fox married. Their marriage lasted about two years before they parted. Nancy Sixkiller never married again.

Due to Nancy's marriage to Bullfrog in 1868 under what was legally accepted as a Cherokee marriage thru the act of living together, her Civil War Widow's Pension which had been granted in 1867 was terminated by the Bureau of Pensions. The regulations of the Bureau specified that she could not qualify for a reinstatement of her widow's pension unless she was unmarried either through a legal documented divorce in a court of law or the death of her spouse.

On Oct. 24, 1855 the Cherokee National Council had passed an enactment stating "No person, being married, shall marry another person without first having obtained a bill of divorce from the proper authority." On Nov. 5, 1859 another enactment was passed by the Council stating "several courts of this nation be, and they are hereby, authorized and required to grant divorces from the bonds of matrimony." Although both enactments were passed, they were not enforced by the Cherokee Nation because their method of not living together as a couple was still used and accepted by Cherokees as a valid divorce.

Because the Cherokee National Council had passed the two enactments mentioned above, the Bureau of Pensions would not recognized the Cherokee divorce of living separately as being valid (even though it remained a common practice of the tribe) so they considered Nancy as remaining married to Bullfrog until his death in 1906. Because the Bureau viewed her as married to Bullfrog until his death, they did not consider her as ever being legally married to John Black Fox so no court divorce was necessary to end her marriage to Black Fox. Upon Bullfrog's death in 1906, Nancy became eligible to submit a claim to the Bureau of Pensions for reinstatement of her pension as a Civil War Widow. She applied in 1907 and was granted a pension as the widow of Private Opossum Sixkiller, a Union veteran of the U. S. Civil War.

Nancy's daughter, Catherine "Caty" Sixkiller died in the Going Snake District, Cherokee Nation West, Indian Territory during 1885 at the age of 23; her cause of death is unknown.

On August 24, 1890 Mr. Fred Grant (a.k.a. Fred Dunawas, son of Nancy Dry Sixkiller and Dunawas Bullfrog) and Miss Lizzie Davis were joined in the holy bonds of matrimony. A. L. Lacie, at the Baptist Mission in the Going Snake District, was the Minister of the Gospel who united them. The young couple resided with Fred's mother, Nancy Sixkiller but visited, nearly everyday, with Lizzie's family who lived very close by at the log cabin they rented from former sheriff, Wash Lee, the nephew of Nancy (Aunt Chin) Sixkiller. Lizzie's family consisted of her stepfather Francis Marion "Frank" Chambers and her mother Drucilla "Dru" (née Moody) Davis who was the widow of Ulysses Green Davis, Lizzie's father. Ulysses had died of tuberculosis in the autumn of 1880 in Carroll County, Arkansas. The Chambers family had been living in Arkansas but when Frank was hired as a farm laborer by Soldier Sixkiller, a Cherokee living in the Cherokee Nation and a son of Old Soldier Sixkiller, the family relocated on July 7, 1889 to Indian Territory as permitted White residents.

When the Chambers family was enumerated on the 1890 Cherokee Nation Census, Frank and "Dru" were accompanied by Frank's two youngest stepdaughters (Janie and Girt Davis) and the son and daughter (Willie and Ada Chambers) that were born to Frank and Dru. Lizzie and her sister, Allie, are not on the census and their brothers Robert and Sam are not listed. Through family stories, it is known that Lizzie and Allie eventually lived with Frank and Dru by no later than the spring of 1890. The house rented by the Chambers was located just southwest of the Lee home, and Fred and Aunt Chin's home was a short distance from both the Lee and Chamber families.

The details of exactly what happened that heartbreaking day when an unarmed Wash Lee was ambushed on his way home, by Fred and George Dunawas, then died three days later of the five gunshot wounds inflicted by the brothers do not belong on a Memorial for Nancy Sixkiller. (Information about Wash Lee's death is available at Ancestry.com; to access his story go to his Find a Grave Memorial 90822442 and follow the instructions in the "Note from L. Abraham" at the end of his biography.)

Nancy had no idea what was going to happen to Wash and she would have given her life to have stopped the murder not only for her sons but also for the sake of her nephew Wash and his family. The boys had always been hard working and well thought of by the community. Wash had watched George and Fred grow from infants to young men and he knew how much Nancy loved her sons and how much she loved the extended family she had with Wash and his wife and children. Their bond from their painful experiences on the Trail of Tears cause both Nancy and Wash to want to protect each other and their families. Unfortunately, you don't always know what people and events are coming into play that will alter your life before you can understand how your life will be affected. You can't always protect your loved ones and yourself before someone is hurt or killed by the actions of others.

Nancy Sixkiller's loving devotion to her sons did not end the day their bodies were lower to the ground from the gallows at the National Prison of the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah. Prior to their public execution on April 17, 1891, Nancy had been approached earlier in the day by a local Tahlequah doctor who offered her money for the bodies of her sons. She couldn't understand why he would do such a thing. He proceeded with trying to explain that he was a doctor and needed medical cadavers to have a better understanding of the human body. She immediately refused the appalling offer and began to fear that he or men he would hire might try to steal her sons' bodies.

She became very vigilant and watched everything being done as her son's bodies were placed into wooden coffins. Despite people who wanted her to sit down and rest because of their concerns for her welfare, she refused to do so. She was determined to maintain a watchful eye and guard her sons against the possibility of someone stealing their bodies. The coffins were loaded onto a wagon for the journey homeward to the Going Snake District for interment. Nancy and her sons had lived northwest of the area which would develop into the town of Westville (est. 1895) in Indian Territory. The cemetery where the boys' bodies were taken for burial is located about one-half mile southwest of the Musgrove Cemetery where Wash Lee was buried. The Dunawas brothers' burial took place in the Lacie Cemetery near Walter (Watt) Lacie's home.

Nancy refused to ride with anyone (family, friends or neighbors) during the journey to the Lacie Cemetery. She chose to walk behind the wagon that carried her sons and never allowed the coffins from her sight. With the execution of her two sons, Nancy once again found herself on a trail not of her choosing – her second Trail of Tears – a trail which led to her sons' burial and was comprised of her tears over the deaths of the last of her children. In grief, remembrance, and fear that her sons' bodies would be stolen, she chose to be near her sons during their last journey by walking behind the wagon within arms reach of the coffins which held their bodies.

After the burial of her sons, Nancy refused to leave their grave sites. She worried that men would dig up her sons' graves and sell the boys' bodies to the Tahlequah doctor. She had a chair placed beside their graves and stayed next to them day and night. At night, she had only a coal oil lantern to light the darkness which fell across the isolated country cemetery. During the day, her friends would come and bring her food and join her vigilance for awhile.

In spite of pleas from her friends, Nancy refused to leave the Lacie cemetery and return to her home located about one mile north. She, in the Cherokee language, answered their pleas with, "I don't intend for that white man doctor to steal my boys!" Her vigilance over the grave sites was her final loving tribute as a mother to her deceased sons.

After a full week had passed, Nancy began to believe that enough time had passed for it to be reasonable for her to return home. According to legend it is believed her love for her two sons was so deep and enduring that it continues to maintain her protective vigil over her sons' graves.

From the marriage between Fred Dunawas and Lizzie Davis, one child was born, Freddie Dunawas a.k.a. Freddie Grant. She was born in the Going Snake District on June 7, 1891. On January 25, 1908, Freddie and Walter Justice were united in marriage by Judge Alberty in Adair County, Oklahoma.

Freddie loved her grandmother Nancy Sixkiller, and in Nancy's later years, she lived with Walter and Freddie and their children. Nancy's life journey had brought her home to a large loving family where she was an integral and cherished member of the family's life.

The biography was contributed to Nancy Sixkiller's Memorial by: L. Abraham.

L. Abraham's family relationships to the following people:

Nancy Sixkiller: 2nd great-grandaunt

Washington Jess Lee: great-grandfather

George Dunawas a.k.a. Quarles and Fred Dunawas a.k.a. Grant: 1st cousins 3x removed

Eunice Elizabeth "Lizzie" Davis Grant; aka Mrs. H. A. Trout; as Mrs. J. A. Lamont: grandaunt

Freddie (Grant) Justice: first cousin 1x removed

Sources: A lifetime of family stories, photos, and documents; interviews; government documents; court documents; newspaper articles.

NOTE: "The Cherokee Removal Trail" is being referred to on the internet as "Nunahi-Duna-Dlo-Hily-I" or "The Trail Where "They" Cried;" this name was given to a bronze sculpture, depicting a Cherokee family on The Trail, created by artists Gail Bergeron and Pamela Keller. Their sculpture serves as a historical marker placed at the two Cherokee routes of the "Trail of Tears" that crossed in Pulaski, Giles County, Tennessee; the marker depicts fear, suffering, survival and resolve within the family's postures and facial expressions.

Due to the way in which our ancestors told of their and other Cherokees' experiences on the forced removal from their eastern homelands, my Cherokee family refers to "The Removal" as "The Trail Where "We" (the Cherokee people) Cried." The Removal was a trail of suffering and deaths of my ancestors' family members and of so many members of other Cherokee families; in regards to "The Removal" the survivors spoke of how "women cry, children cry, men cry … we cried."

Several Native American tribes were removed from their eastern homelands and each forced over their tribe's own "Trail of Tears"; each tribe has distinguished their Trail by choosing to give it a name in their native language. Collectively these separate trails have been referred to as "The Trail of Tears" giving the impression there was only one "Trail of Tears" instead of "Many Trails of Tears."

During the aftermath of the Cherokee removal, the survivors named the trail to echo their heartache and grief. Their name was based on their first person heartrending experiences, and it is believed by my family that they chose a pronoun that was dual first person inclusive meaning "you and I" or "we." We believe the survivors named the removal of the Cherokees and the anguish they experienced with "We Cried," meaning in their native language, "We The Cherokee People Cried."

"The Trail Where We Cried" is also meant to be interpreted as "The Trail Where The Cherokee People Cried"; these two names have always been the way my family spoke of the Cherokee forced removal trail. We also feel this name reflects that we, the Cherokee Nation today and of the future, in remembrance of our ancestors' pain and heartache, have cried and will always remember with tears in our eyes. We will continue to shed tears for the ancestors of all Native Americans who suffered and died due to the many broken treaties and their forced removals from their native homelands.