Steve Stone’s selfie
Near the small town of Jasper, Georgia, 50 miles or so north of Atlanta, a 66-year-old self-taught sculptor is carving a huge marble slab in the shed behind his home. He’s doing this as a voluntary community historical project. Measuring 8 feet long, 5 ½ feet wide and 8 inches thick, this 5,000 + lb. rock is Steve Stone’s heartfelt creation to honor the Cherokee people who were forced to leave his state during the 1838 Georgia Indian Removal.
Note: The above drawing is Steve’s concept for how the Georgia Indian Removal Memorial should look when it is completed. It shows soldiers evicting a Cherokee family from their home. (Click on the picture to see it fully)
Georgia Indian Removal Memorial in progress.
Although focusing on the Cherokee, Steve’s Georgia Indian Removal Memorial will also be a tribute to all the Native Americans who were physically extracted from their homes in the 1830s and who traveled the horrific Trail of Tears where thousands of them died. Essentially, this man’s tremendous effort is an attempt to educate people about the removal, a protest of an historic wrong and a fervent cry for inclusion over exclusion in the United States of America.
Mt. Oglethorpe Foundation’s project promotion
Click here for a Trail of Tears map.
A quiet, unassuming and far from wealthy man, Steve had to find help in order to make his Georgia Indian Removal Memorial a reality. And to do that he first convinced the Georgia Mable/Polycor Company to contribute a marble slab. Next, he approached the local Mt. Oglethorpe Foundation for further support. The result? A partnership with the foundation. They have already provided the expensive tools Steve needs to do the carving and they have guaranteed a beautiful location close to his hometown for placement of the memorial.
Close-up of a partially carved memorial section
Steve says that he is truly driven to get his carving completed and installed at Eagle’s Rest Park on Mt.Oglethorpe as soon as possible.
For him, this project is a deeply spiritual experience, one he does not completely understand but feels compelled to fully translate into stone as the Georgia Indian Removal Memorial.
Click here and then scroll down to The Trail of Tears Memorial Campaign to help Steve and the Mt. Oglethorpe Foundation make the Georgia Indian Removal Memorial a reality.
Maybe it’s his distant Cherokee heritage that spurs Steve’s relentless sense of purpose with this project. (Steve recently found the graves of his Cherokee grandparents in Vinita, Oklahoma) Or then again, maybe it’s his thankfulness for having survived a medical death sentence and/or his gratitude for his solid and ongoing recovery from chemical dependency.
Whatever the reason or reasons, when Steve is asked about his drive to complete this project, he simply says this:
“All I know is that when I’m cutting into that rock, it is as if an unseen hand is guiding me. I just really feel like this is what I was meant to do in my life.”
Steve will tell you, though, that there is quite a pre-history to his Georgia Indian Removal Memorial dating back to 1994. In those days, he, his wife and three young sons lived near the little town of Waterloo, Alabama just south of the border with the state of Tennessee.
Steve working on his memorial drawing
Back then, he had never heard of the Trail of Tears or the removal of Native Americans from the eastern United States in the 1830s. But that was about to change.
In the years 1994 and 1995, Steve saw the town of Waterloo flooded with out-of-towners, something that had never happened before.
The Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride
Those were the first two years of the Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride. From 100 riders in ’94, that event has continued until today, at times topping 150,000 riders. 150,000! A portion of their very laudable purpose was and is as follows:
“This event was started to bring awareness about this dark chapter in America’s history and to educate the public so this atrocity would never be repeated in America again.”
Trail of Tears not forgotten
The route for The Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride follows, as closely as possible, the 1838 overland removal path of one large group of Cherokee people out of many. It begins at Chattanooga, Tennessee and runs for 200+ miles and ends at Waterloo, Alabama. It was at Waterloo, where the Cherokee were then herded onto boats like cattle for the next leg of their journey onward towards their destination upriver to Arkansas.
That event started Steve Stone on his path to understanding how the Cherokee people and other Native American tribes of the eastern United States were treated back in the early days of the republic. Horrified and disgusted the more he heard about those events from the bikers who visited his town, Steve resolved to learn more, and that he did, by reading all he could on the subject.
Unfortunately, of fortunately, depending upon how you might view it, Steve’s studies were interrupted when he broke the heel of his right foot. That laid him up with his leg in a cast, putting his profitable career as a diver for mussels in the Tennessee River on hold.
The Tennessee River, source of Steve’s mussel shells.
But, then a rapid-fire string of events stirred Steve’s interest in Native Americans and the Trail of Tears beyond anything he could have ever imagined, eventually leading to his Georgia Indian Removal Memorial so many years later.
Slate like those found by Steve’s sons
It all began when his young sons brought him large pieces of slate they had found in the creek near their home. Being laid up as he was, and not having much to do, Steve whipped out his pocket-knife and began etching pictures of Native Americans and Native American themes.
The results were beautiful and at the same time, astounding, because he had never been taught how to draw or carve.
And while carving those Native American images on slate, Steve’s thoughts increasingly centered on the Trail of Tears. That thinking process soon caused him to draw his first picture of that appalling event in 1838 and write a poem titled, “Lost Lake Cherokee.”
That poem is a fictional story where a Cherokee man members his grandfather’s account of surviving the Trail of Tears. And while writing his poem, Steve felt a deep and inexplicable connection to the Cherokee people that sent chills running through his body. “It was truly amazing night,” he recalls.
Click here for a special story about Steve and the Burial Ground Incident.
Once it was completed, Steve dedicated his poem to Principal Chief John Ross who led multiple Cherokee groups west during the Removal. He also combined that text with his drawing, designing a unique pictorial story. And more recently, Steve used his own voice to create a haunting audio recording of the poem on YouTube with drumming from the band, Wayra in the background.
To read the text of Steve’s Lost Lake Cherokee poem, click here.
See below to hear Steve reciting his poem. Note: the Wayra band has given Steve permission to publish their drumming contribution to his recorded work.
Tennessee River mussel shells
Soon after finishing his slate art and poem, Steve happened to look at the interior of an old Tennessee River mussel shell he had on hand. The closer he concentrated on that mother-of-pearl, the more he saw what looked like a drop of water, or even a teardrop.
The teardrop concept suddenly merged in his mind with the Trail of Tears. And that thought process led him to create sets of earrings and some necklaces from multiple mussel shells. He named his jewelry creations, “Cherokee Teardrops.
Right on the heels of those artistic achievements, the Third Annual Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride (1996) ended with a big festival in Waterloo as it had in the two previous two years.
Steve and his family at the 1996 Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride Festival.
Wanting to share his Native American related art, and his understandings about the Trail of Tears history, Steve signed up for a booth at the big event. There he sold his slate art, Cherokee Teardrops and his combined poem/drawing. Actually, he gave more away than he sold, making very little money, but he felt good about contributing to the the goals of the motorcycle ride and the festival.
Once the Motorcycle Ride ended, Steve began experimenting with carving in wood and marble, and before long, local media folks and the University of North Alabama got wind of his efforts. Eventually, his stone carvings were put on display, and he was giving lots of interviews.
And for quite a while there was talk of, and even some initial planning for, Steve to create marble Trail of Tears memorial in Waterloo.
But somehow those plans fell through and within a short time, Steve was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. Unfortunately, his body wouldn’t tolerate the medication available that should have been able to cure his illness.
The doctors gave him 10 years to live. On top of that, alcohol and drug addiction were rapidly tearing his life apart
Eight years into that death sentence, and deep chemical dependency, Steve decided to move to northern Georgia where one of his sons lived. There, he decided he would at least be near family and he could get his wife set up in a house before he died.
But, incredibly, new medication came on the market that cured his Hep C. And eventually Steve entered a 12-step program that put him on his present road to recovery that lasted almost 6 years. He now had acquired an unexpected and truly wonderful lease on life.
What didn’t strike Steve initially when he first moved to northern Georgia was one of those strange Native American related coincidences that had been popping up in his life ever since 1996.
Where Steve and his wife had moved to in Georgia is near Chattanooga, Tennessee, the same place where the Cherokee began their overland journey to Waterloo.
In traveling to his new home, Steve had generally paralleled the 200+ mile 1838 Cherokee route but in reverse: Waterloo to Chattanooga.
On top of that discovery, Steve’s new home turned out to be located in what once was the Heart of Cherokee territory, before the Removal.
It took a while, but Steve Stone eventually realized he had to use his artistic talents to do what he had not been able to accomplish in Waterloo, Alabama.
Two stones
So began the man’s quest that will soon establish the Georgia Indian Removal Memorial. The initial dedication date for the carving was projected as sometime in November of 2019. But that all depends upon exactly when Steve completes his work. This article will be updated when the date for the ceremony is established and after it actually happens.
2020 Update
Steve finished the monument in July. It is now installed at Eagle’s Rest Park in northern Georgia AND a great dedication has been planned. Check out the details by clicking on the link to the follow-up article below:
Georgia Trail of Tears Ceremony
One of the historical signs on the walkway to the monument.
Information sources: Trail of Tears + other Indian Removal related websites/topics.
About north Georgia – Trail of Tears
Cherokee Historical Association
Cherokee Patriots’: Planning The Trail Of Tears (NPR)
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (PBS video 6 min.)
Moving the slab
Georgia Trail of Tears Association
How the Brutal Trail of Tears Got Its Name (Smithsonian video 2:44)
National Park Service: Trail of Tears
National Historic Trail Museum of the Cherokee Indian
National Trail of Tears Association
Partnership for the Nation Trails System: Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears (History.com)
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