A depiction of a Creek baby, named Lincoyer here, and his dead mother is seen in A Pictorial History of Andrew Jackson, a biography published in 1860 by John Frost.

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'I send on a little Indian boy': Andrew Jackson's history of taking Indian children

Monday, June 17, 2019

Add this to the genocidal legacy of Andrew Jackson, America's seventh president: taking Indian children from their communities.

According to "Quick Facts" by the National Park Service, Jackson sent at least three Indian children to his home and plantation in present-day Tennessee. All hailed from the historic Creek Nation, the tribe forced out of its homelands by conflict with the United States and, eventually, by the Indian Removal Act.

“I send on a little Indian boy,” Jackson wrote as a general after U.S. forces attacked a Creek village in what is known as the Battle of Tallushatchee, The Washington Post reported.

The boy's name was Lyncoya, though in a Jackson biography his name is written as Lincoyer. According to NPS, he was "found clinging to his dead mother’s breast after American forces overwhelmed the small Creek village, killing at least 186 Creek men and taking over 80 prisoners, including women and children."

President Donald Trump lays a wreath during a ceremony at Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage in Hermitage, Tennessee, on March 15, 2017. Photo by Shealah Craighead / White House

Lyncoya only lived for another 15 years, meaning he was just a teen when he died on July 1, 1828, at the Hermitage, the Jackson family home near Nashville. The cause was tuberculosis, according to historians.

Though Jackson claimed Lyncoya as a member of the family and was eager to promote his relationship to the media, the boy was buried in an unmarked grave at the Hermitage, The Post reported. A second Creek child taken there died shortly after arrival while the fate of the third is unknown, according to the NPS.

By the end of 1828, Jackson was headed to the White House. And two years into his term, he signed the Indian Removal Act, completing what he had started as a war general: forcing the Creek Nation out of its homelands, along with the Cherokee Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, the Choctaw Nation and the Seminole Nation.

Despite the tragic history, Jackson's legacy is celebrated at the Hermitage, which is considered a National Historic Landmark by the federal government. Donald Trump visited the site two months into his presidency but didn't bring up the genocidal past.

"Andrew Jackson was called many names, accused of many things, and by fighting for change, earned many, many enemies," President Trump said on the 250th anniversary of the former president's birthday.

Jackson's legacy also lives on as the face of the $20 bill. And it will remain that way for awhile, as the Trump administration has halted plans to replace his likeness with that of of African American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, according to news reports.

The Obama administration started plans to debut a Tubman bill by 2020, on the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. But Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin has since put a hold on the process, citing technical concerns with the redesign, The New York Times reported.

Though Mnuchin has denied making a decision one way or the other on Tubman's appearance on the currency, The Times obtained evidence which showed the redesign was far along. Further confusing matters, a spokesperson for the Department of the Treasury said the $20 bill is on track for a new design in 2030 -- long after Trump will be out office -- but would not say who will be on it.

“The scheduled release (printing) of the $20 bill is on a timetable consistent with the previous administration,” a spokesperson for Mnuchin said in a statement in which the The Times' June 14 story was called "misleading."

"The Secretary at this point is focused on security features and anti-counterfeiting measures related to the currency," the statement read. "The suggestion that the process is being delayed is completely erroneous."