Cherokee Choices: A Ride to Remember

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Corlee Thomas-Hill, Coordinator Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Remember the Removal Bike Ride

At the Cherokee Nation and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), an active and healthy lifestyle is at the center of one of our most important programs that helps connect today’s young people to their heritage. The Remember the Removal (RTR) Bike Ride program offers EBCI members a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to retrace one of the original Trail of Tears Removal Routes. The bike ride program commemorates the forced removal of the Cherokee people from their eastern homelands as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Started in 1984 by the Cherokee Nation, the original RTR Ride was made up of 20 students and their support staff. It became an annual event starting in 2009, with the Eastern Band joining in 2011 and it has continued to grow into the program it is today.

For Cherokee Nation, the bike ride is conducted through the nation’s education department and is open to teens and young adults. For the Eastern Band a different approach is taken, the ride is open to any enrolled member over the age of 15, and the program is conducted by Cherokee Choices, a chronic disease prevention program. The RTR program for the EBCI is focused on overall health; including spiritual, physical, and mental, as well as historical and cultural knowledge.

For the Eastern Band the application process for the bike ride begins the first week of October with the team being chosen the last week in November. Starting in January riders become fully immersed in the experience. The ride is not geared toward the super athletic but rather those of different physical abilities. Training for the ride consists of multi weekly workouts, and not just on a bike: participants swim, do yoga, spin, gym workouts and hit the road for longer bike rides on weekends. Through five months of training and hard work, the ride shows that members can go from physically inactive, or moderately active to completing a 950-mile bike ride in just three weeks.


2019 Remember the Removal Riders resting and performing yoga
during one of their stops at Falls Creek Falls State Park in Spencer, TN.

As a population with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, it is important to be able to incorporate physical activity, healthy eating, as well as culture and history into the lifestyles of young people. Riders meet with registered dieticians through Cherokee Choices to talk about nutrition options throughout the training process. Programs such as Whole 30 and the Stress and Healing Arts Retreat also offer riders the ability to gain knowledge on healthy eating and lifestyle choices that can help them lead happier, healthy lives long past their participation in the Remember the Removal Bike Ride program.

Prior to the bike ride, cyclists are offered an array of historical and cultural classes, including Trail of Tears History, genealogy classes and Cherokee Syllabary/language classes. Each rider is provided with a genealogy chart that traces their family back to the removal period, giving riders a connection with their family that was forced westward.

During the three-week ride in June, riders complete daily rides that average 50 miles, with the longer rides reaching more than 70 miles. Riders begin in New Echota, Georgia with stops at multiple historic sites, including the original Cherokee Capital, Red Clay, Blythes Ferry, gravesites, and springs before ending in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Riders return to Cherokee, North Carolina with a greater understanding of the forced removal of their ancestors, a broader sense of community, as well as a greater understanding of physical, mental and spiritual health. Riders also return ready to share this knowledge with the larger EBCI community and future Remember the Removal Riders.