The America that epitomizes power and wealth today has behind it the heated legacy of 250 years of continuous bloody conflict and confrontation. In an America where presidents once kept families of slaves as personal assets, this aspect of American history shocks many. For instance, when the first US President, George Washington, passed away, he owned a list that included 300 slaves. These were individuals born as humans but never treated with humanity. Several generations lived and perished in slavery right on American soil.
Americans showed a similar barbaric behavior toward the native inhabitants, known as 'Indians.' Do not be surprised by the term 'Indian.' It goes back to 1492 when Christopher Columbus set out from Spain to find a sea route to India but landed in America. Believing he was in India, Columbus began referring to the native people as Indians. This term traveled across the ocean to Europe and 'Indian' became the designation for America's aboriginal tribes.
America's Lecture on Human Rights from its Past
The journey of the American state as a nation is filled with the ethnic cleansing of these Indians. Today, America undergoes electoral processes—a time to flip through the pages of its history. Look at the past of an America whose agencies give global lectures on human rights and impose bans on nations and institutions by invoking cultural freedom, yet often ignore the stains on its fabric. The 'Trail of Tears' is a narrative of this American hypocrisy.
In 1830, a law was passed in the American Congress. It was a project of then-President Andrew Jackson and was named The Indian Removal Act. As the name suggests, this oppressive legislation aimed to remove Indians. Using this law, America pushed thousands of Native Americans who had lived on millions of acres in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida for generations, west of the Mississippi River. Many died during this forced migration, and the US brazenly robbed them of their identity, heritage, culture, and customs. This calamitous journey of America's native inhabitants went down in history as the Trail of Tears.
What You Have Done Amounts to Genocide
At that time, neither human rights organizations nor international courts or watchdogs existed who could point a finger at America and declare that what it did to these native people was indeed genocide.
Source: aajtak
The story begins on July 4, 1776, when America won its independence from Britain. With this victory, the English became the masters of a country called America that covered millions of miles. However, hundreds of years before their arrival, America's original inhabitants, the Indians, had already been living on this land.
When white settlers began to establish colonies in America, planting cotton, they discovered gold mines under the land of native settlements, which led to conflicts with the Indians. Europeans took away the natives' animals, seized their crops, and claimed their lands. Natives, too, began attacking settlers with traditional weapons. This issue became a 'problem,' and the US government labeled it the 'Indian Problem.'
Elected President Promising to Solve the 'Indian Problem'
Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, emerged as a 'gentleman' who fought the election promising to rid Americans of this 'Indian Problem.' As soon as he became president, he passed a law through Congress named The Indian Removal Act. He considered Native Indians merely human in name and claimed they neither possessed intelligence, industry, moral behavior, nor a desire to progress.
The Native Indians, on the other hand, were content in their world, with unique customs, attire, and culture. They neither needed European knowledge nor virtues. But the Renaissance and Enlightenment-inspired white settlers viewed them with disdain. Their real target was the Indians' land, which they intended for cotton cultivation and gold extraction. By natural justice, this land should have belonged to the tribes whose ancestors had lived there for centuries. But who would uphold justice back then?
At that time, America was home to five primary tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. These tribes had lived in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee for centuries. Once the Indian Removal Act was passed, the government sprang into action to execute its mission. The US government decided on a location near present-day Oklahoma for these tribes, calling it 'Indian Territory.'
The Winter of 1831 and the Historic Displacement
In the winter of 1831, under the watchful eyes of US Army guns, the Choctaw was the first tribe to be displaced. Tribes have an inherent attachment to their water, forest, and land, and initially refused to leave, but US soldiers forcibly evicted them. Those who resisted were imprisoned.
Imagine the year 1831: a 500-mile journey in winter, traversed on foot, with children and women, carrying the burden of an entire household. The journey was marked by numerous deaths—some from illness, others from starvation, exhaustion, sorrow, or tragedy.
Boiled Corn, One Turnip, and Two Cups of Hot Water
The rations given to them were meager: two or three handfuls of boiled corn, a turnip, and two or three cups of hot water. It was under these circumstances that the journey to Oklahoma was undertaken.
Historical records indicate that 17,000 Choctaw embarked on this journey, and 5,000 to 6,000 perished along the way. A helpless Choctaw tribal chief sardonically referred to it as the trail of tears and death.
This was only the Choctaw tribe's story. Other Indian tribes faced similar fates. In 1836, the government expelled the Creeks from their lands, and 3,500 of the 15,000 Creeks who set out for Oklahoma died on the way.
Seminole and Creek tribes shared similar stories. Thousands perished. This process continued for years.
A 1,600-Kilometer-Long Journey
The displacement of the Cherokee Indians represents the extreme shamelessness of American imperialism. The Cherokees were unwilling to leave their land. By 1838, with Jackson's term over and Martin Van Buren as head of state, General Winfield Scott led 7,000 soldiers to remove the Cherokees. At gunpoint, Scott's soldiers detained 16,000 Cherokees in pens and detention camps, while outsiders looted their homes and possessions.
The Trail of Tears began—a thousand-mile, approximately 1,600-kilometer journey. In this journey, whooping cough, typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and starvation became rampant. Historians estimate over 5,000 Cherokees died as a result of the journey.
Life is Part of the Land
For the Cherokee tribe, life was an extension of the land. They couldn't envision life beyond it. William M, a writer, noted, "Every rock, every tree, every spot in the forest contained their spirit. This spirit was central to tribal life. The thought of losing this place was akin to losing oneself."
During this time, a missionary named Elizur Butler traveled with the Cherokee tribes, serving as their doctor. His wife, Lucy Ames Butler, recounted this tragedy in a letter to a friend: "Will those with the power to right the injustices against the Indians awaken to their duty? Will they not think about those lured by the greed of white individuals enjoying wealth and freedom on the land of these suffering Indians?"
By tallying the deaths, approximately 15,000 to 20,000 Native Americans lost their lives around 200 years ago, walking this path of tears.
Americans Burdened with 'Civilizing' the World
Ironically, not only the American government but the entire system believed their treatment of the tribes aligned with Christian values.
President George Washington believed that the best solution to the 'Indian Problem' was to 'civilize' these tribes. The primary aim of this so-called civilizing mission was to convert them to Christianity and make them as white as possible.
Source: aajtak
In 1872, a painting by John Gast titled 'American Progress' gained widespread attention. In this artwork, a white settler woman descended from the sky like an angel over American land, accompanied by white settlers. They brought with them advancements like railways, telegraphs, ships, and modern farming implements, while before them, the native Indians, perceived as savage and wild, fled. This propaganda tool became very popular at that time.
The Shrinking 'Indian Territory'
By 1840, thousands of Native Americans had been forcibly relocated from their southeastern lands across the Mississippi. However, American greed knew no bounds. The US government had promised that their new location would remain permanent, untouched by American governance. But the rapidly developing America, fueled by the rights taken from native peoples, could never be satiated.
As the settlements of white Americans spread westward, the "Indian Territory" continued to shrink. The promises made in American law were forgotten. In 1907, Oklahoma became a state, and the Indian Territory ceased to exist. This region was devoured by the vast maw of American imperialism.
