My Native Heritage: The Indian Removal Act, and lessons from our history

Some people asked about my heritage after some of my earlier posts on the subject. So this is an early 20th century photograph from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. It’s of my great-great grandmother ?? She was Choctaw, from the Jena Chahta tribe, and she married a Cherokee, my great-great grandfather. Their names all appear in the Dawes rolls of the Cherokee Nation.

In 1830, president Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which abruptly declared that all members of five Native American nations living in the southeastern United States would be forcibly removed from their homes and forced to walk to barren reservations thousands of miles away in Oklahoma. These five nations - the Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole - had taken great pains to live in peace with the fledgling American nation that had invaded North America, and consequently had been promised by the US government that they could remain living in peace on their native lands, undisturbed.

Why the sudden change? Gold was discovered in Georgia in 1828 - and Americans wanted the land for money. (It is the same reason the Sioux nations united by Sitting Bull would later be forced off of their homeland in South Dakota, reversing an earlier promise by the US government.)

So starting in 1831, US government authorities showed up at all homes belonging to these five nations - and forced their men, women and children to leave the homes they’d always known, and walk thousands of miles to a barren reservation that could barely grow enough crops to survive. All so that Americans could have the land to mine for more money.

Of 68,000 members of these five nations living at the time, 58,000 were forcibly removed and forced to walk what would become known as the ‘Trail of Tears.’ 10-17,000 of them - or 15-25% of all five nations - died from the hardships of the journey. The 10,000 who fought to remain behind (including the Jena Choctaw) were subject to constant harassment, murder, and burning of their homes and farms.

When this tragedy had concluded, Andrew Jackson and his supporters declared that the forced removals and deaths were justified because white Americans were a superior race, culturally and intellectually.

Once on the reservations, the hardships for the native peoples didn’t end. US government agents, on a policy pushed into law mainly by Christian churches, then informed native parents that their children were to be taken - by force - to live far away from their families in boarding schools, not to see their parents again until they were adults. There, native children were prohibited from speaking their native language or expressing any form of their native culture. They were regularly beaten, starved and sexually abused until they were freed on entering adulthood. Many died without ever seeing their parents again. This policy continued…until 1969.

Polls reveal that a majority of modern Americans continue to rank Andrew Jackson among our most admired presidents to this day. His image graces the $20 bill, with fierce opposition when some suggested removing it.

Remember - we cannot change the past. But the people and actions we choose to still admire, rather than condemn, today - determine what actions and views we would still support now. And how we will ultimately act toward those living today. Racism, kidnapping, invasion and racial violence are never justified, and never will be. Our commitment to that fundamental principle is demonstrated in those we view today as villains, or heroes in our past.