PEA RIDGE — A leather bag hangs around his neck on his chest. Inside the bag is a pebble from every place David Comingdeer has stopped along the path retracing his ancestors’ sorrowful journey from their homeland in the east to Indian Territory.

“Every specific place my family stopped, camped, I picked up a pebble along the trail,” he said.

Walking down the path beneath the shade of a heavily-wooded section of the Pea Ridge National Military Park Wednesday, June 22, 17 Cherokee stepped on the path their ancestors had walked 173 years ago. David Comingdeer was joined by two of his children - Spencer, 17, and Haydn, 15.

They approached a sign displaying that there were 60 more miles west to Woodhall’s Depot in Oklahoma and 720 miles east to Fort Cass, Tenn., the directionsfrom which they’d come, riding bicycles over mountains and through valleys. As they stepped onto a section of the original Trailof Tears, they took photographs of one another and the trail. Theyrested in the shade from their arduous journey.

Ranged in age from 15 to 62, the riders all had ancestors who had walked that nearly 1,000-mile journey during the winter of 1838-1839 when they were forced to leave their homes and relocated in Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

The 2011 Remember the Removal Bike Ride began in Tahlequah, Okla., June 3 as 10 members of the ride gathered for the drive east to join six members of the Eastern Band Cherokee in Cherokee, N.C. From there, they went to New Echota, Ga., and begin the cycle trek back to Tahlequah.

Passing through six states - Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas - before returning to Oklahoma, the ride concluded with a homecoming Friday, June 24, as the cyclists arrived in downtown Tahlequah.

“I almost feel guilty on having so much assistance,” David Comingdeer said.

Comingdeer, of Stillwell, Okla., is a wildland firefighter for the Cherokee Nation. The teens are students at Sequoyah High School. Their elder sister, Tara, 18, just graduated from high school and didnot join them on the trip.

“It was interesting seeing all the places our ancestors went,” Haydn said.

“We’ve bonded as a family,” Spencer said.

The elder Comingdeer said family vacations when the children were young centered around traveling back east to historic places important to the Cherokee.

As the group pulled into the Pea Ridge National Military Park on U.S. Highway 62 east of Rogers, they were greeted by Glenn Jones, vice president of the Arkansas chapter of the Trail of Tears Association, board member of the National Trail of Tears Association and commissioner/chairman of the Benton County Historical Preservation Commission;

Pea Ridge Mayor Jackie Crabtree; park ranger Kevin Eads; Tamala Johnson, administrative assistant ofthe Benton County Historical Preservation Commission; and Jerra Quinton, executive director of the Trail of Tears Association, Little Rock.

Todd Enlow, group leader of leadership for the Cherokee Nation, said there are three support vehicles and a trailer. The bicycles, helmets, outfits,gloves were all provided by the Cherokee Nation. Applications were accepted and, once participants were selected, there were three months to prepare before the group left. A genealogy was run on each participant. The group camped and stayed in hotels along the way. He said the ride was first held in 1984, then again on the 25th anniversary of that ride in 2009, and continued annually since then.

“We’ve had flats, road hazards, accidents ... we try to travel six to seven miles before stopping,” Enlow said. “The experience isdifferent for everybody, but somewhere along the route, they usually connect with the meaning in the ride.”

Enlow said the younger riders are at a time in their lives when they’re trying to figure out who they are and this ride often helps them get in touch with their ancestral history.

“Forty percent of the ride is in Missouri and that’s very tough,” Enlow said, saying it was full of “anguish” because of the weather, terrain and road conditions.

To learn more, visit remembertheremoval.org.

News, Pages 1 on 06/29/2011