Kanchi

"The Choctaw lived in lands east of the Mississippi River until 1830 when the white men of the United States forced them to sign treaties giving up their land, moving them to the west. Of 20,000 Choctaws forced from their homes 2,000 would die before reaching new settlements in Oklahoma.

"Listen to the words of Kanchi, one of the dispossessed Choctaw, as he stood with friends and relatives on the east bank of the Mississippi River before crossing to the west. They had just received word of the burning of their homes.

" 'My own kin and blood brothers, I know how you feel about what has happened to you; I too have felt the same and looked about for comfort from this wretchedness unto which we have been brought... Why are we surrounded by foes and cast out of our homes...? Sometime back beyond our old homes I heard a man preach from a book that he called a Bible, and although that book was read by a white man, I believe there is something better in it than the way the white man acts... We are in much trouble now, but don't want to kill or destroy, so give us hearts that we hear about in this book and let us be good, and if we live to see this new country to which we travel, help some of us to do good to those we meet. Perhaps we will not bring shame upon the land.' "

"For Natchez Trace a road through the wilderness, I'm Frank Thomas."

For more about Natchez Trace: A Road Through the Wilderness, visit eddieandfrank.com