TAHLEQUAH – Jon Tiger’s watercolor “No Time for Burial” won the Trail of Tears Award at the 54th annual Trail of Tears Art show, which began April 5 and continues through May 10.

The show, the longest- running juried Native art competition in Oklahoma, is at the Gallery at Cherokee Springs Plaza.

Tiger, a renowned Creek artist from Eufaula, said the art show commemorates the tragic event of removal of Southeastern tribes to Indian Territory in the 1830s.

Explaining his “No Time for Burial,” Tiger said, “The Federal army did not want the people to take time burying the dead. Keep moving, as instructed by the soldiers. Covering the deceased with anything – trees, limbs, leaves, dirt – to keep the animals from eating them. Many tragic stories were witnessed. Many did not want to talk about it after arriving in Indian Territory. Some were documented.”

Jon Tiger Artworks will be at the Mvskoke Art Market at the River Spirit Resort in Tulsa April 26 and 27.