Bushyhead Memorial

When this memorial was dedicated in 1961, legend held that a Cherokee princess was buried here. She was identified as the daughter of Reverend Jesse Bushyhead, a leader of a contingent of Cherokees on the Trail of Tears, and a local group erected the pagoda to honor "Princess Otahki" and all who died on the Trail of Tears. More recent research shows that Otahki's real name was Nancy Bushyhead Walker Hildebrand and that she was Reverend Bushyhead's sister, not his daughter. Local residents had given her the courtesy title of princess, although the Cherokees have a democratic form of government and do not recognize royalty. The site marks the area believed to be near Nancy's grave. A wooden cross once erected on her grave burned in a woods fire thirty years later, and local residents then mounded rocks and erected an iron cross. Today it honors not only Nancy Bushyhead Walker Hilderbrand, but also all Cherokees forced to march from their homelands to Indian Territory on the route now known as the Trail of Tears.

Missouri · United States