The painting above is titled "Trail of Tears." It's a 1942 work by Robert Lindneux and is currently on display at the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve in Bartlesville. It depicts the brutal and atrocious forced removal of the Cherokee nation from its lands east of the Mississippi to present day Oklahoma in what became known as... the Volunteer Walk?
Well, that's what Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin now appears to call it. Check out this clip from a recent appearance the congressman made on Fox News. It was caught by Brandon Scott with the Cherokee Phoenix:
Question for all the people out there who know a JoeBob, RickyBobby or WaynePayne – when your parents name you something like Markwayne does it automatically drop your IQ a couple of points? Considering this is the same guy who told people at a town hall that he pays his own congressional salary, it's an interesting hypothesis.
Seriously, Volunteer Walk? Wouldn't that imply the Cherokee tribe's trek to Oklahoma was voluntary? Unless Oklahoma History books lied to us as kids, which you never know with the Oklahoma educational system, I don't think that's the case.