Time Magazine asked ten history experts to make recommendations for summer travel and Julie Reed, an assistant professor in the Department of History, is among that distinguished group of travel advisors.
Reed’s travel recommendations include historical landmarks throughout the state of Tennessee, such as the Hiwassee River Heritage Center in Charleston, the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Venore, and Red Clay State Park in Cleveland.
Reed explains that these sites in the Southern Appalachia region are all within a few hours of each other and are all connected to Cherokee Removal.
The Hiwassee River became the border between the United States and the Cherokee Nation. After the Treaty of 1819, Cherokees gave up significant amounts of land despite the fact that they had sided with the US during the war of 1812. Less than an hour away is Red Clay State Park, which is on the Georgia-Tennessee State Line. Because of its location, when the Georgia state legislature made it a crime for the Cherokee Nation to operate its government within the boundaries Georgia claimed, the Cherokee people went to Red Clay to carry out governmental activities. About an hour away, there is the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. Sequoyah was a War of 1812 veteran who fought under Andrew Jackson and an illiterate Cherokee man who invented a language and ornate script that was ultimately used during the era of removal and is still used today.
Reed is the author of Serving the Nation: Cherokee Sovereignty and Social Welfare, 1800-1907 and has also written about Cherokee historic sites in the upcoming book Marked, Unmarked, Remembered: A Geography of American Memory.