Wes Studi, the best known Cherokee actor, presents the documentary film, speaking on camera in his native tongue (with subtitles). Noted actor James Earl Jones, who is of blended African and Cherokee heritage, narrates in his customary and convincing tones. They are supported by the celebrity voices of actor James Garner, singer Crystal Gayle, actor John Buttram and former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder reading diary excerpts, and a host of historical experts from major universities.
“Uniquely, a Cherokee is recounting this shameful chapter in American history,” said Steven R. Heape, Executive Producer and a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation. “This is no ‘Hollywoodization’ of an American holocaust. The Trail of Tears actually drove the Five Civilized Tribes – Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw and Muscogee Creek – from their native lands.”
Scenes and segments used in The Trail Of Tears were filmed in and around Andersonville, Lumpkin and Westville, GA; Hopkinsville, KY; Littleton, ME; Cherokee, NC; Bismarck, ND; Tahlequah, OK, and in Nashville, TN.
Commenting in the film on the “Cherokee Tragedy” are authors and historians Robert J. Conley; Dr. Brett Riggs and Dr. Theda Purdue, both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Dr. Daniel Littlefield, University of Arkansas; John B. Finger, head of Native American Studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; Dr. Duane King, Executive Director of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, and Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation.
The documentary is endorsed by the Cherokee Nation, headquartered in Tahlequah, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in Cherokee, NC.
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