A Place Where They Cried
A Place Where They Cried
Artist
Pat Musick
(born 1926)
Date2010
MediumNative stone
Dimensions76 in. x 56ft. x 72ft. (193 x 1706.9 x 2194.6 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2010.13
Accession number
2010.13
Description34 stone figuresOn View
Not on viewLabel TextA Place Where They Cried commemorates the hardships endured by American Indians forced to migrate west from their lands in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, North Carolina, and Florida. They traveled across northern Arkansas to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) between 1837 and 1839. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced the Choctaw, Seminole, Creek (Muscogee), Chickasaw and Cherokee to relocatea nd resulted in the Trail of Tears, the tragic march that the Cherokee call Nunahi-duna-dlo-hilu-i (the place where they cried).
This installation is placed approximately two miles south of one of the routes of the Trail of Tears. It led from Missouri to present-day Pea Ridge National Military Park and then westward along Little Sugar Crek and Spavinaw Creek to Beattie's Prairie near Maysville, Arkansas. Using native stone plinths, the sculpture suggests human figures traversing the stream, a symbolic expression of American Indians on the Trail of Tears. While addressing historical events and human tragedy, the stone figures flanking the gently flowing stream can also be viewed as witnesses to endurance and survival.
