Review of Trail of Tears

Here's my review of Trail of Tears, the third episode of the PBS series We Shall Remain. In this part I'll concentrate on the storytelling aspects.

As usual, the look and feel of the episode is good. No complaints there.

This episode was written by Mark Zwonitzer, presumably a non-Native, and directed by Chris Eyre. It's interesting to compare the two episodes directed by Eyre with the one directed primarily by Ric Burns. Having viewed Eyre's work twice, I can see a difference.

Eyre:  Clear re-enactments. More personal, less political. I.e., more shots of people and places to establish scenes, fewer montages and quick cuts. More narration by Benjamin Bratt and Native experts, less by white historians.

Burns:  Hazy re-enactments. More political, less personal. Less narration by Benjamin Bratt and Native experts, more by white historians.

Is this an artifact of the stories told? (Maybe relatively little is known about Tecumseh's history.) Is it a personal difference between Eyre and Burns? Or is it the difference between a Native and non-Native director? Namely, that a Native director makes the Native figures seem more real and alive, less legendary or mythic?

I don't know. And I'm not saying one approach is better than the other. I actually like the Tecumseh episode best of the ones I've seen so far. But again, I find the stylistic differences between the two directors interesting.

As usual, the acting is good. Wes Studi is the only "big-name" actor you've probably heard of it. Some of the Cherokees are played by non-actors and I don't think you can distinguish them from the professionals. This seems like a rebuke to the producers who say, "We auditioned hundreds of Native actors and couldn't find one who could handle the role."

I think the story suffers some because it's less straightforward and more complex than the previous stories. There's also the unfortunate fact that the major players are named the Ridge or Major Ridge, John Ridge, and John Ross. These names aren't as distinct or memorable as Sitting Bull or Geronimo.

Narrative problems

The writing is a little unclear, especially at the beginning when establishing the key players. Three examples:

1) The Cherokees fought with the British against the Americans in the Revolutionary War. Major Ridge took his first American scalp at age 17 and personally fought the Americans "past the point of hope." Yet the next thing we learn is that he's decided to adopt the Euro-American lifestyle and become a Southern "gentleman farmer." King Philip and Tecumseh didn't take this approach, so why did Ridge?

About the only explanation Trail of Tears gives is this:Preserving the Cherokee nation meant walking, for a time, down the new path America was offering.But who says that was the only path? If it was, why was it the only path? What alternatives did Ridge and the other Cherokees consider? The episode doesn't say.

Wikipedia provides some key information on Ridge's conversion from an anti-American fighter to a pro-Southern farmer:He acquired the title "Major" in 1814, during his service leading Cherokees alongside General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the Creek War. He also joined Jackson in the First Seminole War in 1818, leading Cherokees against the Seminole Indians.Wow...interesting. Ridge fought with Andrew Jackson against other Indians. He later acceded to Jackson's removal policy against the wishes of the Cherokees. In other words, he wasn't exactly a Tecumseh-style visionary. A word such as "accommodationist" or "opportunist" seems closer to the mark.

But Trail of Tears doesn't think these facts are relevant? This is why the show suffers some. It sanitizes the story, ignoring the rough edges that would've made the drama more compelling. It tries too hard to elevate Ridge to the level of elder statesman.

2) John Ross is introduced as a boy working in a store. We don't learn if he's a relative of Major Ridge or what until a while later.

He eventually becomes the Principal Chief and the so-called "Cherokee Moses." But what exactly led him to embrace the traditional Cherokee position when other mixed-bloods were selling out?

3) Major Ridge's son John goes to school in Connecticut and marries a white girl. The New Englanders who supposedly wanted the Indians to assimilate prove their true colors. They shout at the mixed-race marriage partners and call them "sinners."

The narration says the protests "left a mark" on him. "He will never believe whites in exactly same way again." But eventually he goes from advocating sovereignty to advocating removal. Why exactly did he embrace the white position if he had learned not to trust whites?

The final tragedy

The episode downplays the actual Trial of Tears, devoting only 15 or so minutes to it. I read that some people cried after seeing this, but I wasn't moved.

But I'm not sure that showing more tragedy would've been better. It might've overshadowed what came before. I'd say that's the story people need to know: how the US used political and legal machinations to dispossess Indians.

The episode also doesn't say much about the removal of the other "civilized" tribes: the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole. Again, I'm not sure if this was wise. Focusing on one particular, personal story is generally good, but oversimplifying and omitting relevant information is generally bad.

Comparing this episode to After the Mayflower, I also wonder if it was the best story to tell. Both stories were basically about how Euro-Americans pressured the Indians to assimilate and how the Indians resisted. They covered the same or similar issues and conflicts. Perhaps another Indian story--California's Mission era? The Navajo Long Walk? The Dawes Act and how it disassembled Indian reservations? The boarding-school movement?--would've been better.

For these reasons, I didn't find Trial of Tears quite as satisfying as the previous episodes. Maybe it's because the story itself wasn't as satisfying. The Indians didn't fight to the death as they did in King Philip's War and the War of 1812. Major Ridge was trying to help his people, but he ultimately gave in.

Still, Trial of Tears is definitely worth seeing. Rob's rating: 8.0 of 10.

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