Discover the story behind Riding the Trail: Cherokees Remember the Removal with Will Chavez and Traci Sorell. Together, they will share the history and meaning behind the Remember the Removal Bike Ride, a journey that connects Cherokee youth with their ancestors as they follow the Trail of Tears by bicycle. From the road traveled to the stories preserved in the pages of the book, hear how remembrance, language, culture and resilience continue to guide generations forward.
Best-selling author and Cherokee Nation citizen Traci Sorell writes inclusive, award-winning fiction and nonfiction in a variety of formats for young people. Riding the Trail is her seventeenth book. Her family still lives within the Cherokee reservation and descends from Nancy Harris Adair and Walter Scott “Red Watt” Adair who served as assistant leader in Richard Taylor’s detachment during the forced removal of Cherokee people in 1838-39.
Will Chavez is a Cherokee/San Felipe Pueblo Indian who has worked in the newspaper and public relations field for 30 plus years. He is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Indigenous Journalists Association. He also serves as president of the Oklahoma Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association and president of the Remember the Removal Legacy Association. Will has completed the RTR bike ride twice.
