I briefly learned about the Trail of Tears when I was in high school and when I mean learning, I am referring to the idea that the words walking, Native Americans, and harsh times were mentioned. Oh, and of course, the words expansion, civilization, growth, and advancement were discussed as well. Never were the terms annihilation, unjust, genocide, or horrific actions mentioned.
As I was doing the reading for the last two weeks and writing the latest discussion, the reality of the matter came alive in my head. Native Americans were forced to relocate time and time again so that the white man could acquire more land (Nabokov, 1999, pp. 145-147). The Trail of Tears was just that a Trail of Tears, Native Americans were being continually forced to move West by the instated Indian Removal Act, while the white man greedily took more land (History.com, 2016). While moving, the Indians suffered and died from such factors as disease, exposure, and starvation (History.com). Not only were the Native Americans forced to leave their lands that they so loved and cherished and related to, they were forced to march in a manner that led to numerous deaths, only to reach a place that was unfamiliar and new to them. If my feet were forced to take that trip, I too, would in fact be crying!
As history lessons in the classroom have begun to evolve over the years, there is still much to be said about the concepts and ideas that are taught that relate to Native Americans. I truly hope that the curriculum begins to adjust for the slight view offered by the white man perspective so that children gain a full understanding of really happened years before they were born. As Oren Lyons so kindly put it, life is an endless cycle, where we protect, honor, and participate and even the worst of people, can change to be the best (Oren Lyons the Faithkeeper, 1991). It is time for the white man to share the wrongs that were committed in the past so that the future can be better.
History.com (2016). Trail of Tears. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears
Nabokov, P. (1999). Native American Testimony. New York, NY: Penguin Book (1991).
Oren Lyons the Faithkeeper. Retrieved from http://fod.infobase.com.library.esc.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=6775
It Truly Was a Trail of Tears
ReplyDeleteI agree, there needs to be significant reform in K-12 Native American history. Everyone should be accurately informed to help ensure that events such as this are never repeated again in history. This long drawn out suffering and tribulation was unjustified, and unnecessary. It was difficult to read this section of our assignment, but necessary to gain a more informed understanding of mistakes of the past.
As white cultural influences permeated regions of North America, there was a continuous wave of displacement taking place. According to Peter Nabokov, there were no periods of rest. This exile started with the first contact with whites in North America (145). And if that were not bad enough, there was much taunting and harassment by both white men, and unfriendly Indians along the way. Peter Nabokov describes one situation where a Sioux named Red Dog expressed strong concern and discontent to a treaty commissioner stating “I think you had better put the Indians on wheels.” (145) By this, he was expressing discontent with the common occurrences where Indians were being dislocated.
To truly understand the hardship and distance, traveled by many tribes, Nabokov explains that the over the one hundred years following 1750, the Osage were traveling westward an average of 100 miles every ten years (147). Additionally, there were tribes that continually suffered loss of land as a result of constantly being displaced, with some being forced to move over six different times.
The United States government had a shift in policy toward Indians following the year 1790. As described by Peter Nabokov, the following four options were outlined; 1) exterminate; 2) protect and surround in zoolike enclaves; 3) assimilate by making them conform to white culture; and 4) transplant into inhospitable wilderness (147). Obviously none of these options are humane, and were drafted only in detriment to Native American tribes.
References:
Nabokov, Peter. (1999). The Treaty Trail. Native American Testimony. New York, NY. Penguin Group 1999. Print
The trail of tears really is a sad story. Many of Native Americans died making the journey west. Even prior to their march they were kept in camps and disease spread like wild fire. It is amazing to me the ones who lived to tell the tale. The endourance that they must have needed for that must have been through the roof.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, that was an interesting blog. It made me realize how sparse the the Native American population is where I live relatively to the amount of Whites and other cultures in my area. I live in the suburbs of New York city, it really does not get too much more urban than where I live. Having made a couple trips to the west recently, I recall how much higher the Native population is out west. After reading your blog, I started thinking about how many Native Americans had to pack up their belongings and take their family away from their spiritual homeland here in the Northeast. There are so many areas where I live that are named in Indian words. Now that I think about it, in some ways, as crowded as it is where I live, in sense it is a ghost town. The spirit of the Native Americans is still here but the residents are not, or at they are not, in the quantities they should be.
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ReplyDeleteThis blog is very interesting, I actually didn't know about the trail of tear until i started this class and read Nabokov because most of my high school education was outside of the US and in latin america the focus is more towards South American Native culture. But it just confirms that genocide and injustice was happening to all of Native communities . Not only were Natives not immune to the diseases brought by Europeans but they were also annihilated like you mention. From what I have learned a Spanish census in 1514 "reported only 22,000 surviving Indians".This is way earlier then The trail of Tears.They most likely had disappeared by 16th century.
ReplyDeleteSo, the trail of tears was indeed like you said a trail of tears. But it's a blessing that many of these Natives nations have been able to preserve the culture one way or the other.
I also agree with you that there is still much more for us to learn and to incorporate into history lessons so that future generations can not only understand what happen but also create their perception of Native Culture.
If you would like to read more on Taino massacre check out
Tinker, Tink, and Mark Freeland. "Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus And Caribbean Population Decline." Wicazo Sa Review 1 (2008): 25. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 18 Feb. 2016.
This article is the ESC library.