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Cherokee Trail of Tears

3K views 39 replies 16 participants last post by  squirrelfood 
#1 ·
Just finished reading and researching this great American tragedy with enormous human cost, of the 5 nations, including their black slaves on a forced walk to Oklahoma. I've read much history on both sides of the border but never heard of this until recently. It's left me feeling hollow that our fellow man can treat people so inhumanely. It was a land grab for the white people who were coming in droves.
 
#6 ·
Just a couple of weeks ago we were reading about them in history. (A more recent just as depressing tragedy was the Native American boarding schools, my friend's grandmother was sent to one)

As for the rest of it, see my signature.
 
#7 ·
There was a school not far and one about an hour's drive. I knew people who'd been to the local one and no complaints, ate well, treated well. Everyone worked in the gardens or tended livestock, all of which fed the many mouths. They were taught hockey and the teams were tough kids to beat at the tournaments. No knowledge of life at the other school. The local was a two story, brick building whereas the other was a three story fireman's nightmare. Locally, the kids were allowed to speak their own languages but had to learn English.
 
#9 ·
My husband is Chickasaw, one of the 'removed' tribes. His grandfather, John Wolf, had an original role number. The Carter School is near us and the White bead school is near Pauls Valley (35 miles away). They were both Indian boarding schools.

Maybe it was different in Canada. Here, they were ripped away from their families and forced into an orphanage-like settings when they were not orphans. Their families thought they were being forced into 'death camps' since just prior they were massacred in large numbers and many soldiers spoke of 'exterminating' them.

Husband's grandfather had his hair cut short (terrible from an Indian standpoint), was beaten for speaking Chickasaw, forced to eat foods they did not like and forbidden to speak of 'Indian' things. They only got to see any family on Holidays and that was only if the family could afford to travel to the school. There was no place for them to stay so they had to camp along the trail, visit for the day and return back to home, all by wagon.

I think it is pretty difficult to put a 'good spin' on it. No Indian around here had any 'fond' memories passed down of 'good' treatment in a boarding school.

It is, indeed, a very dark part of American history.
 
#10 ·
The trail of tears was horrid, IMO.

Not everyone had a bad experience with boarding schools. At least not in MT, WY, and SD.

Some of my husband's family said it was the only way the could get education.

Teachers and house parents were less strict than their own.

All their friends and cousins were easily accessible, compared to being far from each other on the rez.

Anglo ranch kids and families were jealous because they either had to board in town, or be stuck homeschooling with just siblings everyday.

The Native and their Anglo friends missed each other and an uncle told me "We didn't know what to call it, but it was discrimination toward the Anglos!"
 
#12 ·
I have a good friend of mine who goes off on how Native American's aren't the kindest, they were blood thirsty, started wars for no reason, scalped, etc. so I started to read up on my own Native American heritage, the Blackfoot Nation.

One book I am reading is the translated stories and trials of every day life, many of the elders tell of what the white man did to them, and when they did go to war with them, it wasn't for nothing, at least to them. A broken treaty, breaking their word, which to the Native American's, meant a lot, hunting on sacred ground, stealing of hides or traps, raping their woman if they caught them alone. For me, it gave a much different picture than what we are taught in school, and I can certainly see the slanted history in our books that we teach children in school as well.

Yes, even today we still get discriminated against. When I ran fire/rescue, I was often called "Navaho", stressing the ho part, if we were at a parade that was my call sign, "Navaho 9" as we were station 9. I never said much but I did tell the boys once that the reason Custer got his 4th point of contact handed to him was because he was a narcissistic white man who thought we savages were stupid. Shut them up for a while. Been called "squaw" too a few times.

One time stands out for me as for me, feeling proud. My best friend and I were at the Crazy Horse Monument and memorial looking around, reading the history behind it, when a very beautifully dressed Lakota Sioux in full war regalia came up to me and asked, "What Nation do you belong to?" I had my hair in a braid, I tan very well and he said you could just see it by the way I walked, my cheek bones, my manners, that I was Native. We talked for some time and I have a great photo of us together.

Going through the Navajo reservation in North Dakota, the many houses boarded up, the way those who are there still live. I often ask, why are we so worried about 3rd world countries, their children, always going over seas to build houses and better them when our own people, the Native people, could use that help too? Why don't we help them?! The Peace Corp can't go build better houses for the elderly Native Americans? They can't send counselors and all that to them?

Okay, let me shove my soap box back under my chair.....
 
#13 ·
You found a Navajo rez in ND? Where?

In my world some houses are boarded because they belong to someone who is living somewhere else. And kids being kids like to hear the sound of glass breaking and the adrenaline rush of trying to not get caught. *shrug*
 
#14 ·
lol sorry Boots...that should of said...the Sioux reservations...NOT the Navajo....

No, those houses use to belong to an elder and their family...I asked around.
 
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#15 ·
Anyone interested in the history of the Indians of the Southern Plains should read how the last Comanches and Kiowas were brought under 'control' by General MacKenzie in 1974.

They got the last of the Indians to go to Ft Sill, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma -- Ft. Sill is in Lawton) by destroying their homes (teepees), all of the their food and supplies stored for the up-coming winter and shot over 1000 horses so they would be on foot and could not hunt. Look up the 'Battle of Palo Duro Canyon'. Several books have been written on the subject. Here is one account.

Palo Duro Canyon

Cherie
 
#16 ·
20/20 with Diane Sawyer did a story on the Lakota Sioux rez. The conditions of even the schools were horrible. Kids still going to school in buildings that have asbestos. The kids didn't have enough to eat, the school tried to feed them all they could. I was blown away by how the government just allows the asbestos. Any other public schools in the country they would send a hazmat unit if it was discovered. There would be outrage.

The story focused on 2 students in particular. The most beautiful young lady you could ever see was in tears as she told Diane about her life and feeling so bad that her brother had found her when she tried to hang herself in a closet. The male student was smart as well. Participated in sports. Said he wanted to be president some day. It stuck me all the political push for a race or sex of a Presidential candidate. But never a push for an Indian president. It report is worth checking out if you can find it.
 
#18 ·
Very disturbing and shameful, isn't it? I'm a legitimate amount of Cherokee but I don't know much about it, other than my some number of 'great' grandmother was named Idaho, and she did a 'bad' thing by marrying a Scot.

Native American culture is beautiful and mysterious and just all around too neat to destroy. I hope it never fully goes anywhere. It's sad to see what neglect has done to many of the reservations in Washington though. That stuff sticks in my mind like a thorn.
 
#19 ·
If memory serves me, the Navaho were issued flour which of course would be full of bugs then, and little else. It seemed that annihilation, was the order of the day, everywhere. I used to work at an historical library and what I figured out was that our Indians were basically stone-age people surviving in the best way they knew how. Along comes the white man, who'd spent thousands of years becoming who he was, with the expectation that the Indian should suddenly adapt to the white man's world. The natives saw many flaws in it and refused to let go of what they knew. I'd better stop here as I can feel anger broiling up in me. GreySorrel, if you want to read an unbiased documentation of native life, read Paul Kane, an artist who's goal was to travel across Canada recording his travels while drawing the people before the white man's influence took over. Some phony critics said Paul's work was "romantic". Not my impression at all. He wrote and recorded what he saw and heard. He does not pass judgement.
 
#21 ·
The Chickasaw are one of the wealthiest tribes in America. They are fortunate enough to have the I-35 corridor as part of the 'Chickasaw nation'. This means that any land purchased by the 'Tribe' becomes part of their 'Sovereign nation' and is not taxable by the State of Oklahoma or the County. They have bought up several large ranches around here -- the 4000 acre Drake Ranch in Davis, the 1500 acre Arbuckle Ranch south of town and 2 weeks ago they bought the 1200 Acre Penner Ranch between here and Mill Creek.

They have more than 12,000 people on their payroll. They own and operate the largest casino in the World located 1 mile north of the Red River (the boundary between OK and TX. They have over a dozen casinos along or near I-35. They built a gorgeous 4 story hotel here in town. They do hire with Indian preference -- first preference to Chickasaws and next to any other Tribe.

All of this has been done with gaming money. It is just 'dumb luck' that their part of the Indian Nation has I-35 running right through the middle of it and that they are the closest place to gamble near the Dallas / Ft Worth Metroplex.

Husband goes to the coffee shop where the local ranchers and cowboys still hate Indians, especially the Tribe as a whole. They complain about how the Tribe is buying up all of these ranches and taking the land off the tax rolls. [Sovereign Indian land is not taxable for property taxes.] He just tells them in his slow, monotone voice that they took the land away from them (Indians) twice so now they are buying it all back, one acre at a time, with the 'white-eyes' money. He just loves it. Half the time they stomp out.

If I can get it to work, here is a picture of the Pete, the old Indian husband of mine and our 6 year old granddaughter last month.
 

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#22 ·
My native friends and relatives call the documentaries that college students and main stream media make "Poverty Porn." Similar stories are told in major and mid-sizes cities across our country.

A couple wealthy towns where I work, both known as tourist destinations, still have schools with asbestos in them. I bet your town does, too. Or your state.

I am not Pollyanna-ish about the problems on reservations. But they are not different than those faced by people of other races and living in non-reservation areas. Atlanta. Detroit. Baltimore, Washington, DC.

Discuss. Come up with solutions. But it does not help Native Americans to pity them or treat them like they are magic. The latter referring to the claims of any extra edge NAs have with horses. And don't forget your own neighbors.

Focusing only on the negative negates the great things individuals and communities on reservations do.
 
#23 ·
I recall learning about the Trail of Tears in elementary school, but honestly don't know much about what native americans were subjected to then, or more contemporary issues like Reservations. I guess I should do a little research...

In the mean time, I love the pic, Cherie <3<3!
 
#25 ·
It wasn't meant as pity. I just found it interesting. Most interesting was the life expectancy rates mentioned in the piece. 20 years below national average. I am also very familiar with poverty and the stuggles of all sorts of groups, especially how it affects children. I have degree in social work and child welfare. I have seen alot. Since I also have done hospital social work, I found the life expectancy rates and lack of nutrition disturbing.

I didn't mean to offend. I should have mentioned in my original post that there is an excellent chance some of my ancestors where on the trail. Although Cherokee are the most known, from my part of the country Creek, or more specifically Muskogee Indians were also taken. I know very little about my complete ancestry, but know one of my Grandmothers was full Muskogee. Thus the shame part about not knowing more about it.
 
#26 ·
It wasn't meant as pity.
Aw, I wasn't picking on you. Sorry if it seemed that way.

I run on three reservations. My oldest daughter on two others. Just like people anywhere we make friends at work. And then there's the family.

I think most groups of people have had really cruddy things happen to them. I just hear more negative than positive about NAs and reservations than seems fair.
 
#28 ·
My Great Grandmother had married an imported Irishman before the trail of tears, so she isnt on the rolls of the Chickasaw tribe at the time. I'm sure plenty of her relatives were, though, but I don't have any information. My uncles who are in their late 80's remember her well (their Grandmother) and I love to hear the family stories. Not any Native American Culture in their stories , though,,she mustv'e gone completely to the white's ways and culture to raise her family,..sad. Or , perhaps she was mixed, I really don't know. My Dad & uncles all say she was full Chickasaw.

At any rate, I guess it makes me 1/8 Chickasaw. :D

Fay
 
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