“(2012.02.25) (pp 421 of 421) Many of the names mentioned in this book were familiar, not for who they were or what they did, but instead because I recognized counties, cities, and places that were named after people that died long ago.
This is a powerful and engaging book that describes the savage treatment of the Cherokees during the mid to late 19th century in heartrending fashion. “What happened to the Cherokees, and other natives of this country, is one of the greatest sins ever perpetuated by the United States, second only to slavery.”
Brian Hicks focuses mainly on the mostly white principal chief of the Cherokee nation, John Ross, who attempted to prevent removal through legal debate and treaty enforcement until he was eventually undermined by “a group of renegade Cherokees [that] betrayed their chief and negotiated an [illegal settlement] with Jackson’s men.”
Thomas Jefferson told the Cherokees that their only way of survival was to become more like the white man. So, the Cherokees set aside their hunter upbringing and became farmers, they moved from their “old religion” to Christianity, they learned to read and write, they set up a form of government that resembled the US government, they divided up communal land into residential lots and built homes, they built a capital city that resembled many of the eastern colonial cities, and, in many cases, they became more educated than the land-grabbing politicians with less education that called them savages. The result, Georgia, Tennessee and Washington disregarding their own laws, intentionally misinterpreted and ignored treaties and broke promises to get what they most wanted, land.
This book makes you question why some of the characters (e.g., President Andrew Jackson, Governor Wilson Lumpkin) have been portrayed so kindly by history, hope the Cherokee’s side of the story will not be completely ignored or lost over time and long for a day where injustice is not tolerated. ”
Glenn wrote this review Wednesday, February 29, 2012.
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