Tom Hendrix

Ewashnay-e-e-mello. Greetings, Brothers and Sisters. Let me tell you of a journey—a journey of a young girl, a healer, a daughter of the Sun. Her name was Te-lah-nay, which in her language means Woman with the Dancing Eyes. She was born above the shoulderbone in the valley of the Tennessee River in the 1800s. Her tribe was the Yuchi, and she was my great-great-grandmother.

Te-lah-nay's journey began when she and her sister were part of the removal of native peoples from nor

Ewashnay-e-e-mello. Greetings, Brothers and Sisters. Let me tell you of a journey—a journey of a young girl, a healer, a daughter of the Sun. Her name was Te-lah-nay, which in her language means Woman with the Dancing Eyes. She was born above the shoulderbone in the valley of the Tennessee River in the 1800s. Her tribe was the Yuchi, and she was my great-great-grandmother.

Te-lah-nay's journey began when she and her sister were part of the removal of native peoples from northwest Alabama to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Almost from the beginning of her exile, Te-lah-nay had a recurring dream in which her grandmother beckoned to her from a hill overlooking the river.

The Yuchi people believed that in the Tennessee River there was a young woman who sang beautiful songs. They called it the Singing River. When she reached Oklahoma, my great-great-grandmother said the rivers and streams were silent. She felt she had to return to her homeland.

On her journey back to Alabama, Te-lah-nay encountered people and places both good and bad. She endured in the remote mountains of Arkansas, the treacherous canebrakes of many rivers and streams, and the long shadows of the Devil's Backbone.

Come, make the long walk with a young Indian girl who lived her dream—a dream to come home.