“Trail of Tears”, a moving and immersive comic about the deportation of the Cherokee

Séverine Gauthier and Stéphane Soularue tell the tragic story of the Cherokee people who were forcibly taken to the reservation after their land was taken. “Trail of Tears” is a touching comic about uprooting and resilience.

It is a tragic page in the history of the United States. In order to give the land to the American settlers, the Indians were forcibly and fraudulently deprived of their property. In 1838, President Andrew Jackson ordered the deportation of the Cherokee, the largest Indian tribe affected by this tragedy.

Between 1831 and 1838, several tribes (Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Seminoles) went through this forced population displacement. The title of the comic comes from this: The Trail of Tears, (“Nunna daul Isunyi” in Cherokee). Thanks to Séverine Gauthier and Stéphane Soularue, we discover this painful episode through Diwali, Adsila, Chaske and Ahyoka, driven from their countries and forced into exile.

Colonization and deportation

Woe to the vanquished ! Diwali and Adsila, like all lovers, were happy. They lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Georgia. They couldn’t wait to get married. After the decision of President Andrew Jackson, they were forcibly taken with their men to detention camps, and then transported across the Mississippi River.

And this long journey turns into “trail of tears”. Beaten, humiliated, some killed, the Cherokees suffered the horrors of colonization and deportation. Diwali and Adsila are separate. Throughout the journey, they helplessly witness the death of their loved ones. Thousands of Cherokees died on the way, from cold, hunger or exhaustion.

We will keep the memory of what happened here and our children will know our country and our history, says one of the characters. Witness that you don’t disappear. This is the whole point of the work of the authors, who give the public another view of this deportation. Séverine Gauthier, author of several screenplays, knows what she’s talking about. She is an expert on United States history and Native American culture. After seven years of research with the Cherokee Indian tribe and writing a thesis, she became a lecturer on American civilization.

Author of the series Eleanor Mandrake was previously interested in the United States with Cutshin Creek, comic set during the Great Depression. Stéphane Soularue’s line and light emphasize the tragedy of this story. The Trail of Tearsimmersion in universal tragedy.

“The Trail of Tears”, Séverine Gauthier and Stéphane Soularue, Nathan, 80 p., 23 euros