Cherokee Tears - The Story Behind The Song

"An estimated 4,000 Cherokee Indians died in the march known as “The Trail of Tears”. Under orders from President Jackson, the U.S. Army began enforcement of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Almost all of the 17,000 Cherokees were forced to leave their southeastern homeland during devastating winter conditions." *

Jobel Star, who himself is a descendant of the Cherokee on his Father's side of the family, delivers a haunting, otherworldly, passionate performance of "Cherokee Tears".

Here is the story of "Cherokee Tears":

He walked with the others through the devastating, oppressive winter on the Trail of Tears. He traveled the Kentucky route. The depth of his grief and horror was indescribable. An overwhelming, sickening sorrow.

He settled at the end of The Trail of Tears in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and lived out his life in Oklahoma always longing for his home in the North Georgia Mountains.

Upon his "passing"; his spirit and energy rose from his physical body like ethereal white dust and formed into a feather. A light breeze blew from the West and began to carry him Eastward toward Georgia. The wind was steady and it lifted him up to float easily and blissfully on a journey over bridges, rivers and hills back to the leaves of summer in the North Georgia Mountains. He is at peace now. He is home.

*For more information about the Indian Removal Act and The Trail of Tears; please visit: https://cherokee.org/About-The-Nation/History/Trail-of-Tears/A-Brief-History-of-the-Trail-of-Tears  

"Cherokee Tears" © 2000 ℗ 2019 words, music & production by

Jayne Olderman, James Donte Harris & Joseph Bell, Jr.