In this portrayal of the Cherokee “Trail of Tears” of 1838, we find Wisdom as a Christ, or Moses, figure in the persons of three people—a woman, a child, and an old man— leading the people out of their ancestral lands in the mountains to west of the Mississippi River. A sick or deceased person is being carried behind them in a litter. The gold strands in the lower right corner remind us of the gold found in north Georgia that precipitated the settler seizure of Indian lands. Hanging on the left is a “finding stone” to lead them and on the right an arrowhead reminding them of their past efforts to defend their land. The phrase “bound for the promised land” comes from an old hymn.
