ABSTRACT
In the early 1830s, Basil and Narcissi Leflore and Samuel Spring and his future wife Elizabeth Leflore, my great-great grandparents and great grandparents respectively, traveled the Trail of Tears from Mississippi through parts of Louisiana and Arkansas to Indian Territory. 1 There is no record of their personal experiences on the Trail, but all Choctaws making the 350-mile trip faced the hardships of traveling through wilderness country, crossing swamps, cutting through dense canebrakes, and filling cramped quarters on boats navigating swollen and treacherous rivers. The U.S. government promised to provide provisions at certain locations on the Trail, but because of graft and inept officials, the provisions were either inadequate or spoiled. Dressed for summer and fall at the beginning of the trip, many Choctaws died from exposure in some of the worst blizzards in regional history. Adding to the horror of the trip were the devastating effects of a cholera epidemic. In a letter to a federal official, Peter Pitchlynn expressed the sentiments of many tribal members: “The privations of a whole nation before setting out, their turmoil and losses on the road, and settling their homes in a wild world, are all calculated to embitter the human heart.” 2
