The story of Otahki is not a legend. Her English name was Nancy or Nanny Bushyhead Walker Hildebrand. Some history books list her as the daughter of Jesse and Eliza Wilkerson Bushyhead, other books list her as a sister of Jesse Bushyhead. Recent research suggests however, that she was the sister of Reverend Jesse Bushyhead, an ordained Baptist minister.She was married to John Walker, Jr. while living near Cleveland, Tennessee. Since Walker was married already to a woman named Emily Stanfield Meigs, Otahki was a second wife and continued to live with her brother, Jesse Bushyhead. She was the mother of two children by Walker, Ebenezer and Sara, both of whom made it to Oklahoma.

It should be noted that plural marriages were not illegal at this time, and such arrangements were not unknown among the Cherokees or whites.After the death of Walker, who was ambushed and killed on the way home from a council meeting in 1834, she married Lewis Hildebrand. Lewis always went by the name of "Lew" and was a courier for Chief John Rose. They were both on the Trail of Tears and after crossing the Mississippi River and while camping in the now Trail of Tears State Park, she died.Her husband and Jesse Bushyhead erected a wooden marker on her grave. After the Cherokees had been removed to Oklahoma, this marker was maintained by l.ocal people.

About 30 to 35 years later the wooden marker was burned in a woods fire. Local people then mounded rocks and erected an iron cross, made of welding rods to mark the spot.In 1962, the Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau erected a pagoda not only as a memorial to Otahki, but to all the Cherokee who lost their lives on the Trail.The Otahki Memorial is known as the "Princess Otahki Crave". Since the Cherokee do not recognize royalty, the title of "Princess" is not authentic. It was a courtesy title given her by those who lived in the area where she was buried. All the chiefs were and still are elected.

When the Cherokee Indians were on their way in 1839 to their new home in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) they lost one of their fair daughters, Princess Otahki. She was buried on a beautiful knoll near Mocassin Springs, north of Cape Girardeau, by her husband, Hilderbrand. She was a daughter of a favored minister, named Bushyhead. A tomb was erected to mark the grave. A fire swept over the place and left a few broken stones. Years later evil-disposed persons dug up her remains, it is supposed, expecting to find jewels as her father was wealthy. The remains were restored by settlers. A cross marks her last resting place, on the "Trail of Tears."

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