A marker along the Trail of Tears in Tennessee documents the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation by the United States. Photo: J. Stephen Conn
President Donald Trump looks to be modeling his time in the White House after that of Andrew Jackson, even hanging a portrait of the man who forced tribes out of their homelands in the Oval Office. Simon Moya-Smith, a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, isn't surprised by the comparison:
Many of the controversial policies and plans he’s setting into motion have already been executed in this country. Think about it. Mr. Trump has vowed to evict millions of undocumented individuals. Brown folks, mostly. But, of course, this wouldn’t be the first time a sitting U.S. president would forcibly and eagerly evict the indigenous peoples of this continent from their homes. One of the first of such evictions in this country’s shady history occurred in the 19th century, back in 1830, when president Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which coercively extirpated thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands. The brutal act prompted the “Trail of Tears,” a vicious campaign that resulted in a forced westward march of men, women, and children through ice, snow, and freezing temperatures. More than four thousand Native Americans died during that rotten trudge.Read More on the Story:
Simon Moya-Smith: Right Now, Trump Is Acting More Like the Founding Fathers Than Hitler (Indian Country Today 1/31)
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