(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Illegal Mass Deportations Under A Racist President? Lessons from the Trail of Tears. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-11-16 I had planned to publish this on Thanksgiving, that day when we all give thanks that our Native American ancestors took pity on our starving European ancestors and introduced them to strange food: beans, corn, potatoes and tomatoes. But we’re already in the middle of Native American Heritage Month, and unfortunately Tr*mp just made remembering our history more urgent. Learn from our history For years, but especially recently, Tr*mp has promised to dispose of due process, herd millions into concentration camps and deport them, and he recently used the Nazi term ‘vermin’ to target his political enemies for similar treatment. This dystopian cliché has already happened here. Lest we be doomed to repeat history, we must remember, pay attention to what Tr*mp is promising to do and win the next election. Another time, I will write about FDR’s American Concentration Camps for US citizens of Japanese descent or the US citizens of Mexican descent deported during Eisenhower’s ‘Operation Wetback’. Maddow is reminding us that Fascism filled Madison Square Garden in 1939. Yet we need to go back further, before women had the right to vote and before the Civil War, when voters were almost exclusively white men, to appreciate the deep, twisted roots of concentration camps and mass deportations under our flag. The ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ of the southeast 300 years after contact with De Soto, by the early 1800s the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee (Creek) and Seminole—the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ in the southeast— had mostly assimilated into new communities, often through intermarriage, building homes, farms and businesses alongside immigrant families, adapting to new ways while retaining much of their own culture. Between 1809 and 1821, a Cherokee named Sequoyah created the first Native American Syllabary. The five tribe’s lands, both private and public, included much of the most productive farmland in our country. Despite centuries of effort to assimilate, some Americans are not willing to live peacefully together with people who are different. Our great nation of immigrants could have chosen to respect cultural differences and to accommodate the natives. But too many of our European ancestors had forgotten the lessons of the cultural persecution they fled from the ‘Old World’. And they had forgotten the grace and gratitude of that first cold and hungry thanksgiving when our Native American ancestors brought food. Instead, fueled by fear, racism, hatred and greed, many white men voted for policies and politicians who would remove the tribes. The War of 1812 In 1811 seeking to seize native lands, Indiana Governor Harrison destroyed a sacred Native American village called Prophetstown at Tippecanoe, killing the inhabitants, digging up graves and scattering the remains (a war crime). 20 tribes responded by allying with British forces in Canada, and, after Americans took a French settlement on the River Raisin, they responded by attacking and killing some wounded Americans (also a war crime). The American military launched a national revenge campaign in the War of 1812 to “Remember the Raisin”. Native American tribes in the north—who fought on both sides—lost their lands, breaking promises made by President George Washington. Before the war, Andrew Jackson had a successful political career, purchased a plantation and over a hundred slaves to work it, and was appointed a colonel in the Tennessee militia. During the war, Jackson led troops including regiments from some of the five ‘civilized tribes’ above in the slaughter at Horseshoe Bend in 1814. One of his soldiers was Sequoyah, who saw first hand how the rebellious ‘Red Sticks’ were cut down by superior weapons. Jackson used the victory to betray his Native American allies by forcing the Muskogee who had fought on both sides to cede almost half of Alabama and much of southern Georgia in the 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson. The Aftermath Within 10 years of Horseshoe Bend, the Chickasaw had ceded 1/2 their territory, along the Mississippi River in western Kentucky and Tennessee (between Shiloh and Fort Donelson), retaining much of northern Mississippi (around Brices Cross Roads and Tupelo). The Choctaw lost their land near Vicksburg, and lived south of the Chickasaw. The Muskogee were restricted to a fraction of their land around Horseshoe Bend in eastern Alabama. The Seminole had lost around 1/2 of Florida and lived in the swampy center. And the Cherokee still held their land in the mountainous corner of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina, from Little River Canyon, a waypoint on the trail, and Russell Cave, inhabited for 10,000 years, to Kennesaw Mountain and Chattahoochee River up to Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and up to the Smoky Mountains. (Yes, much of the Civil War was fought over land stolen from natives 50 years earlier). Jackson is remembered for winning the Battle of New Orleans, but now we should remember the aftermath of the War of 1812, which ended when John Quincy Adams negotiated the Treaty of Ghent. Spanish Florida had been allied with the British, who had forts on the Panhandle. When they withdrew, they gave over one fort to a group of Seminole and African Americans. This became known as the ‘Negro Fort’ which caused great concern among those who benefited from slavery in the southeast. General Jackson sent in forces, and they bombarded the fort (containing a number of civilians) until it was leveled, when a cannonball hit the powder magazine. The Seminole Wars continued for decades, and the history of natives, African Americans and negotiations over Florida is fascinating. The Elections Adams, who supported financial compensation for the five tribes, won a contingent election for President in 1824, but then Jackson defeated Adams overwhelmingly in 1828 and was reelected in 1832. If this history teaches us anything, it must be that Americans have voted for racist, unconstitutional and blood-thirsty policies and Presidents before. “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” — President Andrew Jackson As President, Jackson refused to follow a Supreme Court decision in favor of the Cherokee, and he supported segregation of natives and both state and federal jurisdiction over native land. Jackson supported and signed the ‘Indian Removal Act’ of 1830, intending to remove the five tribes from their remaining land. The Trail of Tears Tens of thousands of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee and Seminole were removed from the southeast and relocated to Oklahoma with thousands dying on the forced migration trail: rounded up and held in forts, with few possessions, homes looted, families separated, marched under guard, some in chains, suffering cold and exposure, denied medical help, including women, children and the elderly. Stops along the way included Arkansas Post, Little Rock, Pea Ridge and Fort Smith in Arkansas and Wilson’s Creek in Missouri. The historic trail focuses on the Cherokee, but the removal act applied to all tribes east of the Mississippi. The Chickasaw were able to sell some of their land and moved first. The Choctaw were cheated by treaty but moved too. Many Seminole continued to fight, with some moving to Oklahoma and others to reservations deeper in central Florida. The Muskogee ceded their public land to Alabama, and Jackson refused to defend their private property from being stolen. The rest moved after the Creek War of 1836. The Cherokee also lost their land that year in a treaty their leaders didn’t sign. President Jackson used bribery, fraud, intimidation and war to effect the removal. Over 70,000 Native Americans living east of the Mississippi, including the north, were removed under his policies for 8 years and enforced by his Vice President and successor Van Buren. What have we learned? Some of the Cherokee hid in the mountains, and their descendants still live in towns like Cherokee on the southern border of Smoky, where you can see signs in Sequoyah’s written language. Eastern Oklahoma territory became tribal reservations for the Cherokee in the north, Chickasaw in the south, Choctaw in the southeast and both Muskogee and Seminole in the middle. Today, the tribes there thrive, have found ways to come to terms with the trail’s brutal history and have chosen to move forward. This is an inspiring example to face the facts, recognize the evil acts and resolve to be better people. Is it so difficult to admit that some of our ancestors were wrong and to learn from our past tragic history? All US residents live on land that once belonged to Native Americans. Many live on land once worked by slave labor. Most Americans eat fruit and vegetables harvested by migrant labor. History doesn’t mean that all past actions were inevitable or justified. History is a chance for us to think, ‘what if our ancestors had made better choices’? There is a straight line of evil from past voters for ‘Sharp Knife’ Andrew Jackson, Van Buren, and his successor Harrison, the “hero of Tippecanoe”. Those voters applauded the deceit, the theft, the cruelty and the violence against Native Americans. Those voters wanted ‘an Indian fighter’, not the truth, fairness or the rule of law. Many simply refused to accept natives as “created equal” or deserving of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Some were unprincipled opportunists, seeking to exploit racism for easy gains. Today’s MAGA voters and their political exploiters also thrive on fear, imagined grievances and hate, while ignoring the truth, history and law. As before, they seek power to wield over others, to break the law and take what they want by force. Most of the undocumented immigrants in this country have partial Native American roots, so some of their ancestors lived in the Americas for thousands of years before the ancestors of Europeans arrived, many without permission. Rounding millions up in camps for deportation would be a hauntingly dark echo of history. The Next Election Make no mistake. The next presidential election pits those of us who believe in fairness, equality, liberty and the rule of law, against people who believe they and their families will and should benefit from mass deportations and other unconstitutional abuse. Fear, racism, hatred and greed have driven past majorities of American voters to support evil, unfair, illegal and deadly policies, including slavery, stealing land, mass deportation and using artillery against tribal villages. Do not underestimate the capacity of many voters to choose evil, if they believe they will and should benefit. Ultimately, the next election will be a referendum on both evil and truth. Sequoyah, who saw Jackson in action and witnessed his lies, worked for over a decade to create a written Cherokee language to preserve words for people to read later. We owe it to Sequoyah, to remember history, to learn from it, to improve ourselves and to make a better choice. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/16/2205807/-Illegal-Mass-Deportations-Under-A-Racist-President-Lessons-from-the-Trail-of-Tears?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/