To remember the 1875 Trail of Tears when their ancestors were forced to trek approximately 180 miles from San Carlos to Fort McDowell, nearly 30 Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation tribal council and community members retraced the journey in a three-day relay on March 12-14.

The three-day run/walk started March 12 from San Carlos through Roosevelt Lake on State Route 188, proceeding southwest on Highway 87. The relay culminated March 15 with a community dinner at the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation’s Parks and Recreation Center.

The commemorative walk acknowledged a significant time in the tribe’s history. In the winter of 1875, four years after the 900-square-mile Rio Verde Reservation was established in the Verde Valley of Central Arizona, about 1,500 Yavapai and Tonto Apache were forcibly marched to the San Carlos Reservation on what is now known as the “Trail of Tears.”

Only about half survived the trip. Many succumbed to hunger, exhaustion, drowning and weather-related illnesses.

It wasn’t until 1900, 25 years later, that those remaining were released from the San Carlos Reservation and permitted to return to their homelands in present-day Fort McDowell, Verde Valley and Prescott.

“The Yavapai people come from a proud tradition and culture, and we appreciate and remember the history that our ancestors endured,” said Bernadine Burnette, President of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Tribal Council, the governing body of the Nation.