The story of the Cherokee Indians is one of tragedy and triumph: a tragedy of sorrow and a triumph of the human spirit. My personal encounter with the Cherokees was a trip our family took several years ago to the Great Smoky Mountains, the Eastern homeland of the most civilized of American Indians. Living in these beautiful mountains on the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Cherokee, N.C., are the remnants of those who were removed by force to the west in what is called the "trail of tears."