Graves of two enslaved Trail of Tears survivors marked by Oklahoma TOTA

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26-04-2025

Will ChavezCherokee Phoenix
HULBERT – For the first time, the Oklahoma Trail of Tears Association marked the graves of Cherokee Freedmen who survived the Trail of Tears that occurred in 1838 and 1839.
The grave marking ceremony for Harry Buffington and Dorcas Bushyhead Buffington took place on April 12 at the Gadugi Cemetery near Hulbert and was attended by numerous family members, Cherokee Nation officials and community members.
During the ceremony, Ashawna Miles read the biography of her grandmother, Dorcas.
'I'm so honored to have this opportunity to have the grave marking take place. This is my fifth great-grandmother, and just knowing the sacrifice and everything she did to get my family where we are at today she deserves the honor,' Miles said before the ceremony. 'Having her grave marked we are able to show that she was one of the individuals that came on the Trail of Tears. It's just an honor.'
She added she hopes the marking of her grandparents' graves will be a catalyst for having more graves of Cherokee slaves and former slaves marked.
'I came to see my sixth great-grandparents be recognized for walking on the Trail of Tears, said Gary McGhee who read the biography for his grandfather Harry Buffington. 'We did our family tree, and after that we came out here and was looking around and was like, 'oh my god, this is Harry right here and Dorcas right here,' and we started figuring out all of these people we knew were on our family tree were buried here together. So, we thought let's do more research and figure out who is who, and this is how far it brought us now, them being recognized as walking on the Trail of Tears.'
Harry Buffington was born into slavery circa 1813 in Cherokee Nation east. The names of his parents have not been preserved. Dawes Commission records indicate his slaveholder was Charles Buffington, a half-blood Cherokee, who resided in Brasstown, current-day Clay County, North Carolina, prior to the Trail of Tears. The 1835 Cherokee census indicates that Harry was the only slave held by this family.
Traveling with the Buffington family, Harry would have been on the Cherokee forced removal west in the Choowalooky/Wofford Detachment which left the east on Oct. 27, 1838, and arrived in the west on March 1, 1839. The Buffingtons settled in the Beatties Prairie area, now Delaware County.
About 1840, Harry married Dorcas Bushyhead at the Baptist Mission north of present-day Westville. They were married by Rev. Jesse Bushyhead. Dorcas and Harry were the parents of 15 children, seven of whom lived to adulthood: Harry, Lucy Ann, Josephine, Margaret, Narcissa, Ambrose and Chancy. In addition, Harry was the father of another son, Henry Buffington, whose mother's name is not known.
After the start of the Civil War, Harry enlisted as a private in the Union Army at Baxter Springs, Kansas, on July 11, 1862, and served with Company K of the Third Indian Home Guard. He served as a hospital orderly, likely in Fort Gibson. In February 1863, the month following President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the Cherokee Council emancipated slaves in the CN. Therefore, Harry would have been discharged from his military service in April 1865 as a freed man.
After the war, the Harry and Dorcas' family farmed in the Tahlequah district northeast of Fort Gibson. He died suddenly of heat stroke at his home on June 24, 1884, and was buried in the Sol Harlan Cemetery. The graves in this cemetery were removed in 1951 due to the construction of Fort Gibson Lake and now rest in the Gadugi Cemetery.
Dorcas Bushyhead Buffington was born an enslaved person in 1824 on Candy's Creek, Cherokee Nation east in present-day McMinn County, Tennessee. Her mother, Patsy, had been a slave of Edward Wilkerson. Patsy later became a slave of Edward's daughter, Eliza, who was married to Rev. Jesse Bushyhead. Dorcas' father was a three-eighths Cherokee, Charles Foreman, who was a first cousin of Rev. Bushyhead.
The Bushyhead family is indicated as having four slaves on the 1835 Cherokee Nation census. Jesse Bushyhead was appointed by Chief John Ross as one of 13 detachment conductors during the forced removal of the CN over the Trail of Tears.
The Bushyhead detachment left on Oct. 6, 1838, and arrived in the west on Feb. 27, 1839. Dorcas made the journey of over 800 miles as a 15-year-old girl.
After Dorcas married Harry Buffington about 1840, it appears they continued to live near present-day Westville prior to the Civil War and probably all of their 15 children were born there.
Dorcas claimed in her pension affidavit that she had bought her freedom from Mrs. Bushyhead about 1856 prior to the birth of her younger children, but no official records are available to verify this. If this is true, she was already a free woman when the Civil War began in April 1861 and when the Cherokee Nation abolished slavery in February 1863.
In March 1863, she took up nursing duties for the Union Army. She indicated that she served mainly at the hospital in Fort Gibson and for a short time at a temporary Union hospital in Neosho, Missouri, and perhaps in encampments where injured soldiers were found.
In 1894, she was granted a pension from the United States for her service as a nurse during the war and was receiving $12 month at her death. Dorcas died, likely at her home near Hulbert, on Nov. 22, 1913. She too was buried at the Sol Harlan Cemetery but due to the creation of Fort Gibson Lake was reinterred at present-day Gadugi Cemetery in 1951.
During the marking ceremony, Cherokee songwriter and performer Becky Hobbs sang 'Tsa la gi, We Are Many,' and Cinda Rose Gilford read a poem titled, 'We Cried Your Tears.' National President of the Trail of Tears Association Jack Baker and Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. spoke during the ceremony.
Hoskin said Harry and Dorcas were among the 1,500 to 2,000 'human beings' Cherokee people brought along the Trail of Tears as property. He added there was a promise in 1866 by Cherokee leaders that slaves and their descendants should have all the rights of native Cherokees.
'We should also talk about that every chance we get to talk about our history,' he said. 'It's the journey we continue to be on that's far more important because telling the truth as leaders of this nation or great organizations like the Trail of Tears Association, and the fine men and women of the Oklahoma chapter in particular who commemorate the survivors of the Trail of Tears, that sort of action helps us along this journey.'
Baker said the day was 'especially significant' because the graves of two former slaves were marked for the first time.
'The Trail of Tears Association helps to mark the Trial of Tears from the east to Oklahoma. Once they (survivors) got to Indian Territory they went to supply depots that were immediately across the (Arkansas) line, so there were no road segments to mark in Oklahoma,' Baker said. 'So, the Oklahoma chapter decided back in the late 90s, for us, we would like to mark the graves of the people who actually came on the Trail of Tears, so that we could recognize them and let their families know about what they endured.'
McGhee added it means a lot to him people will see and understand better who his grandparents were and they mean something to the Cherokee Nation.
'Them being recognized by the tribe means a lot because they were like left behind (in tribal history). It feels good that everyone is here to give them their honor that was due,' he said.