Posted on 04/20/2009 9:09:34 AM PDT by AuntB
Last Monday began the PBS Series, "WE SHALL REMAIN" with their first Episode "After The Mayflower".
The ones that will get my attention begin next week, Monday April 20th, 2009, and especially the April 27th "Trail of Tears" episode which will feature "The Ridge", the Cherokee leader and his clan who I wrote about in "Jesus Wept" An American Story.
It will be VERY interesting to see how PBS deals with this situation or if they will be overtaken with the usual political correctness and historical rumor. My story is taken from documented records as well as family letters saved from the time. I sincerely hope PBS's story is also as factual. We shall see. It's a story worth telling.
From PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/
"Though the Cherokee embraced “civilization” and won recognition of tribal sovereignty in the U.S. Supreme Court, their resistance to removal from their homeland failed. Thousands were forced on a perilous march to Oklahoma."
'We Shall Remain': From Plymouth to Wounded Knee, a Tale of Survival
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041202539
"The episodes devoted to Tecumseh and the Trail of Tears are the most emotionally powerful, and achieve the best balance between reenactment and standard documentary style. In "Trail of Tears," the third episode, distinguished Native American actor Wes Studi stars as Major Ridge, a prosperous Cherokee landholder who decided it was in the interest of his people, and his own prosperity, to give up an independent Cherokee homeland in the southern Appalachians in hopes of peace and resettlement in land west of the Mississippi. It is one of the most vile and shameful chapters in the history of U.S. relations with Native Americans, and Studi captures well the anguish of his conflicted character.
The filmmakers don't shy away from internal conflicts within native societies, and these conflicts were often exploited by outsiders. It was the Mohawks, loyal to the English, who turned on King Philip and defeated him. After Major Ridge, who owned black slaves and sent his son to boarding school in Connecticut, signed a desperate treaty with the Americans he was viewed as a traitor. He and his son were killed by their own people."
Tonight, next week will be ‘Trail of Tears’ which I addressed in the book.
If you missed the first episode, it can be seen at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/index
Watch Episode 1, After The Mayflower
I watched it and thought it pretty good. They did seem to take some shots at the notion of the Christian God and was more sympathetic to the natives (not expressing my opinion on the appropriateness of this, just saying), but interesting coverage on some of the dynamics. I wished there was some more information covering property rights, but that’s the economist in me.
Thank you!
“I wished there was some more information covering property rights, but that’s the economist in me.”
It will be interesting to see how PBS handles that issue in the upcoming segments. I covered it more extensively in the book.
It is interesting to look at these things as economic problems. They showed the native economy to be low intensive use of the land and colonists to be higher, or a least they would obtain higher revenue per acre. I'm not sure how much I agree with that outlook; some natives burned large amounts of land to keep it free of trees. Kinda of an opposing view here: http://www.wildlandfire.com/docs/biblio_indianfire.htm. I've also heard tails of them running whole herds of buffalo off a cliff. These are probably extremes though.
So I guess I'm cautious in that they might romanticize the cultures more than it should. However, there was another series an hour earlier which showed Jackson kicking the Cherokees off their land. And that was an atrocity by any standard.
“So I guess I’m cautious in that they might romanticize the cultures more than it should. However, there was another series an hour earlier which showed Jackson kicking the Cherokees off their land. And that was an atrocity by any standard.”
I haven’t seen last night’s segment yet, but did watch the Jackson program, which was interesting in this context. Next weeks segment will cover extensively the Cherokee removal, which is what I outlined in my book. Interesting, the Ridge party group of Cherokees were aristocratic, richer and more productive than their white counterparts, which PBS will bring out. Should be interesting.
Ping
If you missed the first episode, it can be seen at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/index
Watch Episode 1, After The Mayflower
Ping to watch tonight.
A slight deviation from our usual threads to bring attention to a topic close to AuntB’s heart...
disclaimer: I’m pinging of my own accord...
My wife is part Chiracahua, Maya, Pagago and other native blood as well. And both she and I have been somewhat underwhelmed by this series. It’s too academic and too make-a-big-deal-about-what-we-know-already, as far as we are both concerned.
“
A slight deviation from our usual threads to bring attention to a topic close to AuntB’s heart...
disclaimer: I’m pinging of my own accord...”
The Indian needed a better immigration policy....;<)
Be sure to catch the episode tomorrow night...Trail of Tears...we’ll see how badly PBS botches it. Then when you want ‘the rest of the story’, read my book.
“And both she and I have been somewhat underwhelmed by this series. It’s too academic and too make-a-big-deal-about-what-we-know-already, as far as we are both concerned.”
There may be some parts of Monday’s segment that will surprise you. For one thing the extent that many of the Cherokees went to to become ‘civilized’.
Tonight’s segment, “Trail of Tears” is the one featuring Wes Studi as the Cherokee leader, “The Ridge”.
Following is a quote by his son John:
“All Nations have their rises & their falls.
This has been the case with us.
Within the orbit of the U. States move the States
& within these we move in a little circle,
dependent on the great center.
We may live this way fifty years and then we shall
by Natural Causes merge in & mingle with the U. States.......
Cherokee blood, if not destroyed,
will win its courses in beings of fair complexions,
who will read that their ancestors became civilized
under the frowns of misfortune
& the causes of their enemies.” -
John Ridge , letter to Albert Gallatin,
member of Thomas Jefferson’s staff - February 27, 1826
______________
One thing that will surprise many is the extent this group of Indians became ‘civilized’.
Following is a description of their typical home.
After some time passed, Benjamin Gold, Harriet’s father traveled to the ‘wilderness’ to look in on his daughter living among the savages. On the 8th of December, 1829, he wrote from New Echota to his brother in New England describing his daughter’s home.
“She has a large and convenient framed house, two story, 60 by 40 ft. on the ground, well done off and well furnished with comforts of life.
They get their supplies of clothes and groceries—they have their year’s store of teas, clothes, paper, ink, etc.,—from Boston, and their sugars, molasses, etc., from Augusta; they have two or three barrels of flour on hand at once.
This neighborhood is truly an interesting and pleasant place; the ground is smooth and level as a floor—the centre of the Nation—a new place laid out in city form, —one hundred lots, one acre each—a spring called the public spring, about twice as large as our sawmill brook, near the centre, with other springs on the plat; six framed houses in sight, besides a Council House, Court House, printing office, and four stores all in sight of Boudinot’s house.”
The 1835 Cherokee Census in Georgia recorded: Indians 8,946, Intermarried Whites 68, Slaves 776, Farms 1,735, Acres under Cultivation 19,216.
From the book: Jesus Wept An American Story
http://jesusweptanamericanstory.blogspot.com/
I went to high school in Oklahoma. I am well-versed in the history of the Five Civilized Tribes.
But I will say - this episode was an order of magnitude improvement over the first two. It is a sorrowful tale - the clash between Major Ridge and the traditionals, but in the end, Major Ridge probably took the pragamtic approach that salvaged something for the Cherokee people. And for that, he was killed. A lesson for all of us as we in turn deal with powers and principalities that seek to dispossess Americans from their heritage.
“But I will say - this episode was an order of magnitude improvement over the first two. It is a sorrowful tale - the clash between Major Ridge and the traditionals, but in the end, Major Ridge probably took the pragamtic approach that salvaged something for the Cherokee people. And for that, he was killed. A lesson for all of us as we in turn deal with powers and principalities that seek to dispossess Americans from their heritage.”
This is exactly what I covered in my book. I haven’t seen last nights episode yet, can’t wait! You are right, dirtboy, there are SO many lessons in this sad tale for all of us today. The Cherokee were being removed by the State of Georgia Militia for years before the army removal. They had no choice. It was leave or die. Chief John Ross ( the John Kerry of the Cherokee tribe- he was for it before he was against it) wanted more money and held out causing those many deaths instead of getting his people to safety when he could have. My grgruncle , John Adair Bell, also one of the signers of the treaty of New Echota, led one wagon train of 700 and only lost 21 on the trip...because they prepared.
Ridge, his son, Boudinot, Stand Watie and Bell all went back and forth to the ‘new territory’, to prepare for the arrival of the removed Cherokee, while Ross told his people to wait. Wait for what?? Death, that’s what.
[a snip]
President Jackson passed his Indian Removal act into law. Settlers were moving into Cherokee homes and it became apparent to the sensible leaders of the Cherokee Nation that removal would happen. Their protests and their Supreme Court victory which stated the Cherokee Nation had all the rights of any state of the union and was by any legal definition, sovereign, did not matter. Jackson’s position was that he would not enforce the ruling of the court to stop the incursion. Prominent Cherokees in the community were made examples of to further the ends of white settlement of the Cherokee homes. Others were held long enough for their property to be siezed if they were perceived as troublesome.
An 1832 edition of the Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper in New Echota tells of the arrest of the twenty-six year old son of John Bell, Jr. and Charlotte Adair. He was also the grandson of John Bell, the earlier mentioned Scottish immigrant and his Cherokee wife. For decades, four generations of this family occupied their homes in Georgia as did their native ancestors before them.
“We understand on Wednesday morning Mr. John A. Bell of Coosewaytee was arrested by a detachment of the Georgia Guard. Mr. B. is a native. What the charge was we are unable to say; and in fact it is impossible to know, for these law officers go to work without a written precept.”
Subsequent issues of The Phoenix contain letters from other citizens stating that weeks later Bell and others had not been charged, but were still held in custody, not allowed representation or visitation. No ‘crime’ was necessary. The only prerequisite was having something the ‘powers that be’ of Georgia wanted or to be eloquent and bold enough to speak against them. Such treatment would explain why Cherokees like John Adair “Jack” Bell signed the Treaty of New Echota in December of 1835 and chose to accept the offer by the U.S. Government to remove voluntarily beyond the Mississippi. To escape living with the daily persecution by the State of Georgia Militia and its citizens must have seemed logical. To them, it was a choice of having life and home somewhere with dignity or to lose it all.”
From Chapter 3 - Law, Law Understood, and Law Executed
“Jesus Wept” An American Story
Next week should be good as well, about Gerinomo. My wife is part Chiracahua, so she'll be in top form for it.
“And Andrew Jackson’s precedent should send a chill down our spines -”
Yep!!!
another snip:
Some historians contend Congressman David Crockett’s political career ended because of his support for the Cherokee against President Jackson’s removal plans. Crockett explains his position in 1834:
“.......His famous, or rather I should say infamous, Indian bill was brought forward, and I opposed it from the purest motives in the world. Several of my colleagues got around me, and told me how well they loved me, and that I was ruining myself. They said this was a favourite measure of the president, and I ought to go for it. I told them I believed it was a wicked, unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost to myself be what it might; that I was willing to go with General Jackson in everything that I believed was honest and right; but further than this I wouldn’t go for him, or any other man in the whole creation.
I voted against this Indian bill, and my conscience yet tells me that I gave a good honest vote, and that I believe will not make me ashamed in the day of judgment.”
Other popular voices of reason and compassion of the time appealed to the powers of the government on the Cherokees’ behalf, only to be ignored. One such advocate was Ralph Waldo Emerson. The unwelcome duty of Cherokee removal fell to President Martin Van Buren who succeeded Jackson. From Concord, Massachusetts on April 23rd, 1838, Emerson wrote Van Buren with his concerns.
“Sir, my communication respects the sinister rumors that fill this part of the country concerning the Cherokee people. ...... Even in our distant State some good rumor of their worth and civility has arrived. We have learned with joy their improvement in the social arts. We have read their newspapers. We have seen some of them in our schools and colleges. In common with the great body of the American people, we have witnessed with sympathy the painful labors of these red men to redeem their own race from the doom of eternal inferiority, and to borrow and domesticate in the tribe the arts and customs of the Caucasian race.
[Rumors are]…you are contracting to put this active nation into carts and boats, and to drag them over mountains and rivers to a wilderness at a vast distance beyond the Mississippi. And a paper purporting to be an army order fixes a month from this day as the hour for this doleful removal.
In the name of God, sir, we ask you if this be so. Do the newspapers rightly inform us? Men and women with pale and perplexed faces meet one another in the streets and churches here, and ask if this be so. We have inquired if this be a gross misrepresentation from the party opposed to the government and anxious to blacken it with the people. We have looked in the newspapers of different parties and find a horrid confirmation of the tale. We are slow to believe it. We hoped the Indians were misinformed, and that their remonstrance was premature, and will turn out to be a needless act of terror.
In speaking thus the sentiments of my neighbors and my own, perhaps I overstep the bounds of decorum. But would it not be a higher indecorum coldly to argue a matter like this? We only state the fact that a crime is projected that confounds our understandings by its magnitude, - a crime that really deprives us as well as the Cherokees of a country. For how could we call the conspiracy that should crush these poor Indians our government, or the land that was cursed by their parting and dying imprecations our country, any more? You, sir, will bring down that renowned chair in which you sit into infamy if your seal is set to this instrument of perfidy; and the name of this nation, hitherto the sweet omen of religion and liberty, will stink to the world...
I write thus, sir, to inform you of the state of mind these Indian tidings have awakened here, and to pray with one voice more that you, whose hands are strong with the delegated power of millions of men, will avert with that might the terrific injury which threatens the Cherokee tribe. With great respect, sir, I am your fellow citizen,
Ralph Waldo Emerson”
My ancestors were marched to Kansas/Oklahoma also...
I know of some of my past family...and it's incredibly interesting.
There were many trails....that could be called “Trails of Tears”
Indeed. Scroll down for a map of some of them.(sorry, don’t know how to post photos here) My family was the Bell Contingent who only lost 21 out of 700, because they planned instead of relying on the government.
http://jesusweptanamericanstory.blogspot.com/
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