Ryan Spring

But he looks towards the future in a positive light, and he states that he hopes that this will never happen again to Choctaw people, and Choctaw people will be prosperous.

Right.

And he's looking towards the future, a future of healing and positivity.

Right.

Which is one of our values that we still focus on today when it comes to the Trail of Tears.

You know, we know of the history of what happened.

We know of some of the accounts.

But overall, Choctaw people chose to let these stories go to sleep instead of passing on that trauma.

So we have a few examples of some eyewitness accounts.

But for the most part, these stories were, as I said, left to sleep.

So the 1831 removal was the first removal that the United States had ever done.

Mm-hmm.

And it was just fraught with chaos from day one.

So you have thousands of people coming to Vicksburg and you have thousands of people going to Memphis and they'd be taking steamboats.

The goal was to have these steamboats take them to a central part in Arkansas where then they could walk on military roads, which had just been created.

However, this decade suffered some of the

worst winter weather that's ever been seen in recorded history.

Well, for Choctaw people, the winter months were the traditional time period for what we would call the Oachito or the big hunt.

And so throughout the year, you have a responsibility to your community.

And during the spring, during the summer, and during the fall, you put your community first.