Journal entry by Al Negstad — a minute ago
Yesterday's post was a brief excerpt of Bee Yang's love poem. I encourage all to read Kao Kalia Yang's book The Song Poet.
"On this day (May 29) in 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law. It was the first legislation to diverge from the previous official U.S. policy to respect Native Americans' legal and political rights. Jackson announced his policy by saying 'It gives me great pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond white settlements is a approaching to a happy consummation.' He also said, 'Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge a more friendly feeling than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from their wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people.'
"The policy primarily affected the five tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations of the the southeastern United States. In 1823, the Supreme Court ruled that white settlers' 'right of discovery' superseded the Indians' 'right of occupancy.' The five nations resisted nonviolently at first, and tried to assimilate into Anglo-American practices of education, large-scale farming, and slave-holding, but to no avail and about 100,000 Native Americans were forcibly marched thousands of miles--sometimes in manacles--to lands west of the Mississippi, most of which were deemed undesirable by white settles. As many as 25 percent died enroute.
The Cherokee nation battled the Removal Act in courts of law, and the Seminoles of Florida battled literally: Chief Osceola said 'You have guns, and so have we. You have powder and lead, and so have we. You have men, and so have we. Your men will fight and so will ours, till the last drop of the Seminole's blood has moistened the dust of his hunting ground.'" From The Writer's Almanac 5/28/2019
What do contemporary Native Americans think when they use a 20$ bill? If wisdom is using the proper name let's call it genocide.
Takk for alt,
Al
"On this day (May 29) in 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law. It was the first legislation to diverge from the previous official U.S. policy to respect Native Americans' legal and political rights. Jackson announced his policy by saying 'It gives me great pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond white settlements is a approaching to a happy consummation.' He also said, 'Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge a more friendly feeling than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from their wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people.'
"The policy primarily affected the five tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations of the the southeastern United States. In 1823, the Supreme Court ruled that white settlers' 'right of discovery' superseded the Indians' 'right of occupancy.' The five nations resisted nonviolently at first, and tried to assimilate into Anglo-American practices of education, large-scale farming, and slave-holding, but to no avail and about 100,000 Native Americans were forcibly marched thousands of miles--sometimes in manacles--to lands west of the Mississippi, most of which were deemed undesirable by white settles. As many as 25 percent died enroute.
The Cherokee nation battled the Removal Act in courts of law, and the Seminoles of Florida battled literally: Chief Osceola said 'You have guns, and so have we. You have powder and lead, and so have we. You have men, and so have we. Your men will fight and so will ours, till the last drop of the Seminole's blood has moistened the dust of his hunting ground.'" From The Writer's Almanac 5/28/2019
What do contemporary Native Americans think when they use a 20$ bill? If wisdom is using the proper name let's call it genocide.
Takk for alt,
Al
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