Thoughts To Ponder: The Mysterious Thong Tree

I have memories as a child of picking up arrowheads in a freshly plowed field. I would play with them for a while and they would eventually get tossed around and lost. Not until I reached middle age did I realize what treasures they are. Along with the other Indian artifacts or relics.

I was raised in Tennessee where the country side is full of rock houses. Tennessee extends from the Appalachian Mountains in the east to flatlands along the Mississippi River in the west. The land is still full of artifacts if you look hard enough you can find them. My friend and I got a late start in life searching for arrowheads and artifacts but no one enjoyed it more than we did. And I have to say that we had some pretty good finds on our searches.

The Cherokee were the largest and most important single Native American group in our area. They had settled in our area in the 16th century and lived there until 1838 they were deported to the Indian territory (later in Oklahoma). Excluding a small group of Cherokee, that hid out in the mountains, local rock houses and caves. They are now known as the Eastern Band of Cherokees.

During this time I was directed to an article that mentioned a thong tree. I knew where this particular one was located. It was near a local highway and I had past it many times but never thought much about it. Reading this new information I had to go take another look at this tree, the mystery it held, along with the scars. While taking a closer look at this tree it was easy to see the scaring of the tie down marks and also the pointer or nose. These trees are known by different names "trail trees" "message trees" and "thong trees. As the story goes, they were bent by Native Americans to mark a trail for them or to point to safety or water and to even leave a message in. That explains where the first two names came from and the third name came from the process they used to form them to make a pointer. They would use a young sapling (usually white oak) and bend it over, using a forked stick to make the bend and some form of tie down to hold it in place (thong) until it would take shape. They would also cut the end to make the nose or pointer as the wound would heal it made a protrusion.

My friend and I started a quest, as were hiking into some of these rock houses, we started searching for thong trees. She took several pictures and we were going to document them. (Unfortunately she passed away before we finished this project and the pictures are lost to me). We did however locate several of these trees. These trees were located near rock houses and they all were pointing to something significant. Some argue the fact that these trees couldn't be that old but white oaks live many years. There are always acts of nature that cause a tree to bend. But these trees had indentions going down the side of the tree where a tie had once held the tree down. They also had a distinctive nose or pointer. These trees are controversial there isn't much information about them.

What do you think? I always like to use my imagination, so I imagine the Native Americans being taken against their will along the Trail of Tears. When no one was listening they made their plans to escape, as many of them did when there was an opportunity. They past along the knowledge of these bent trees that the first to escape had bent to help the others find their way to water, shelter and safety. Or as they were pushed farther and farther from familiar territory by the white man they could have used them to find their way.

Or are they just simply acts of nature? Hmmm, no they are definitely "thong trees".