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that many
Cherokees are offended by it. They say it refers to the tears of
the onlookers, not the participants.
Not all Cherokees were removed. Some fled to the hill country or
blended in with the white frontiersmen. A few bands emigrated to
Spanish territory, while others "jumped" the trail, settling
wherever they could. The U.S. Army and state militias had orders
to arrest and deport anyone of more than one-eighth Indian blood.
Other Cherokees anticipated the inevitable by following one of the
Western Emigrant Bands into the Rocky Mountains, moving to Mexico
or Texas or taking refuge with their Algonkian connections as far
north as the Great Lakes and Nova Scotia.
The history of the Cherokee Nation in the West (Oklahoma) is fraught
with internecine warfare, governmental manipulation and, ultimately,
political disappearance. The traditionals formed the Ketoowah movement
against the mixed-blood leadership.
Over the years, many Cherokee families quietly returned to their
homes in the Southern states. But the cost of assimilation was high.
Cherokees tossing in their lot with the white man automatically
surrendered positions in the Cherokee Nation. They and their children
were forever excluded from seats in the council house, and for a
time there was a death warrant sworn out on any citizen putting
their name to a treaty. Many choosing expatriation on the promise
of land allotments or citizenship and a "private
reservation" from the federal government quickly found themselves
cheated of their rewards in county courts. Most "traditionals,"
however, either assumed a low profile or attached themselves to
a white family for protection. White businessmen were eager to have
cheap labor and often exploited such underground workers, who had
fewer civil rights than the black slaves.
As a result, most of the Cherokees who stayed behind or somehow
escaped along the way disguised their heritage. Families adopted
a policy of silence and denial. In the Old South, so-called non-reservation
Indians were considered Free Persons of Color, classed with freedmen
and Orientals. In Virginia, the Cherokees and other natives such
as the Powhatan and Siouan tribes called themselves Black Dutchmen
rather than be categorized as Indian.
For most, the path back to the old ways was closed. Like other Native
Americans, the Cherokees suffered long and hard from the effects
of government policies. Indians were not allowed in courts to defend
themselves until 1864, though they had been made subject to taxes
and military service. Tribal governments were abolished in 1898.
Indian languages and religious practices were heavily proscribed.
The red people did not win the right to vote until 1924. Southern
prejudice continued to keep Cherokees out of
the polls and classrooms until well into the 1950s.
In 1946, the U.S. Government's attempts to eradicate Indian
culture entered a new phase. The official name for the policy was
Termination. This meant winding down all government services to
reservation Indians by the year 1960, while making it virtually
impossible for non-reservation Indians to enroll in their tribe
or claim their rights. Reserva-tions were to be broken up, no longer
funded. Indian children were separated from their families, put
up for adoption or sent to white boarding schools. Young men were
bused into the big cities, where they were given menial jobs and
fell prey to alcoholism. During America's golden years, poverty
and ill health reached new heights in the country's Indian communities.
The last Cherokee was deported from the state of Alabama in 1949,
more than a hundred years after the Great Removal.
Cherokee identity went even more underground in the fifth generation
from the Great Removal. But in the 1960s and '70s Indian culture
began to be more acceptable. The popular imagination romanticized
Indians more than ever. Many cultural conservatives closed ranks
and withdrew from mainstream society.
Spiritual leaders like Mad Bear Anderson (Tuscarora) and Rolling
Thunder (Cherokee) taught that the time would come when the Rainbow
Warriors (hippies and counterculture adherents) would grow interested
in tribal culture and propagate the old ways of respect for the
Earth and all living things. The American Indian Movement was founded.
Many of America's young people
rediscovered their Native roots.
It was not until passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom
Act under President Jimmy Carter in 1979 that Cherokees, like other
indigenous people, could practice traditional ceremonies publicly.
The term "Native American" gained currency in the 1980s.
Powwows became common events.
A spirit of stoicism and perseverance has carried the southeastern
Cherokee people through the onslaught of European diseases, military
conquest, genocide, forced removal, factionalization, legal limbo
and cultural persecution. Today, we are stronger, more numerous
and more resilient than ever before.
Donald N. Panther-Yates (1995)
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