Elizabeth Tallman portays a scene for the upcoming production of “The Trail Was A Circle.” (Contributed photo)Friday-Sunday, Nov. 10-12, local playwright Daisy Pratt will honor the Brainerd Mission’s bicentennial anniversary by telling the story of “Chattanooga’s finest hour.”
Her original historical production, “The Trail Was A Circle,” incorporates film, music and drama to re-create a little-known tale associated with the school that once sat where Eastgate Town Center now stands. Originally called the Chickamauga Mission, the school enrolled an equal number of Cherokee, black and white students until the Indian Removal Act forced it to close in 1838.
Pratt was inspired to write the play in 2006 after she learned that Native Americans weren’t the only ones forced to leave their homes and walk the Trail of Tears. According to an old newspaper clipping she found at Audubon Acres, white missionaries serving as teachers at the Brainerd Mission also went on the brutal journey.
“I had never heard that in my life,” said Pratt, who formerly taught American history. “They loved [the children] so much that they were beaten. I couldn’t believe it.”
Her goal for the project was to inspire unity by sharing “a time in Chattanooga history when all three races – red, black and white – came together in harmony.”