Te-la-nay's Wall - Florence, Alabama
In 1830 a thirteen year old
Yuchi girl was removed along with her tribe from their ancestral home in the
Northwest corner of Alabama alongside the Tennessee River, the Singing River.
Her name was Te-la-nay. The forced relocation of Native Americans to Oklahoma was known as the Trail of Tears. When Te-la-nay
arrived in Oklahoma she was not happy there because the rivers and
streams did not sing. So all alone over of the course of five years she walked
back to her home in Alabama. Because of her skills as a healer which she had
learned from her grandmother, she was protected and valued by the white
settlers and lived out the remainder of her life there.
Tom Hendrix was told the
story of his great-great-grandmother’s journey by his own grandmother when he
was a little boy. As an adult he wanted to create a memorial to his revered
ancestor. An elder of the Yuchi tribe told him that “All things pass. Only the
stones will remain.” He decided to build a memorial stone wall. He spent over
30 years building the wall. It is a mile long and contains over 8 million
pounds of stone. It is the largest un-mortared rock wall in the United State.
It is the only large memorial to a Native American woman.
We visited the wall on a
cold November day. Tom Hendrix passed away a few years ago, but his son Trace
was there to tell us the story. We three were the only ones there that
afternoon. The wall is a work of art, hard work, dedication and love. It is
hard not to be moved by its presence. We walked the grounds for several hours in
a sense of awe and reverence.
Here is a short video which
tells the story of the wall.
Enjoy the photos. And next time you find yourself in the Northwest corner of Alabama, spend some time at Te-la-nay’s wall.
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