Jacqueline Keeler: Paiute ancestors were forced on Trail of Tears


The Paiute people were rounded up and imprisoned at Fort Harney in Oregon before being forced to march hundreds of miles to Washington. Photo from U.S. Army via Wikipedia

Jacqueline Keeler looks at the history of genocide against the Burns Paiute Tribe, whose ancestors were forced to walk the Trail of Tears from Oregon to Washington:
When Ammon Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who faced off against Bureau of Land Management agents in an armed standoff in 2014, came to Oregon to takeover the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in support of fellow ranchers, he knew nothing about the mistreatment of the Burns Paiute Tribe by the federal government and American settlers.

But, scratch the surface of any land issues in the United States, especially in the West, and you are confronted with persisting and strong land claims held by Native nations.

Bundy’s actions have brought national media coverage of the January of 1879 forced march of 500 Paiutes from the Malheur Indian Reservation some 350 miles in knee-deep snow, many shackled two by two, to the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington State—the Northern Paiutes’ “Trail of Tears.” One group that was force-marched by the U.S. army simply disappeared. No one knows what happened to them. Still more died and when a few Paiute returned to Burns, Oregon, they were considered outlaws, many were landless as their reservation had been opened completely to settlers and large California ranching corporations.

Get the Story:
Jacqueline Keeler: Educating the Oregon Militia on The Northern Paiute’s ‘Trail of Tears’ (Indian Country Today 1/7)

Also Today:
Tribe Member: 'We Would Have Been Dead By Now' If We Acted Like Oregon Militants (The Huffington Post 1/7)

Related Stories:
Peter d'Errico: Armed White men invade Indian lands in Oregon (1/8)
Federal agencies closed offices in Oregon amid safety concerns (1/8)
House Democrats call for armed group to leave refuge in Oregon (1/7)
Charlotte Rodrique: Land rightfully belongs to Burns Paiute Tribe (1/7)
Burns Paiute Tribe tells armed group to leave ancestral territory (1/7)
Burns Paiute Tribe not happy with armed group on ancestral land (1/6)
Armed group wants more to join protest on ancestral Paiute land (1/5)
Armed group occupies wildlife refuge near reservation in Oregon (1/4)

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