John Burnett's first hand account of the Trail of Tears - An eye witness to genocide

However, murder is murder whether committed by the villain skulking in the dark or by uniformed men stepping to the strains of martial music.

Murder is murder, and somebody must answer. Somebody must explain the streams of blood that flowed in the Indian country in the summer of 1838. Somebody must explain the 4000 silent graves that mark the trail of the Cherokees to their exile. I wish I could forget it all, but the picture of 645 wagons lumbering over the frozen ground with their cargo of suffering humanity still lingers in my memory.

Let the historian of a future day tell the sad story with its sighs, its tears and dying groans. Let the great Judge of all the earth weigh our actions and reward us according to our work.

I think the above words speak volumes about the man. Thank you for posting this Kavika,

Dear Friend Kavika: The parallels to Babi Yar and the holocaust are striking.

It is good that this is made available by you. Some things we must never forget, lest they re-occur.

Enoch.

I have read this before, in its entirety, and just can't read it again tonight. It makes me sad beyond words, and forever grateful that somehow, my great-great grandmother escaped this. Did her family hide in the mountains? Did her father know what was coming and escape somehow? How did she come to be in Hawesville, KY? She died about 1880-1885, and was about 40-45 years old, so she would have been a child...

We visited the Trail of Tears commemorative park in Hopkinsville, KY this past summer. Chief Whitepath and Chief Fly Smith have grave stones there. There is a placque there, given to the state of Kentucky by the grateful Nation of the Cherokee. The park is the ONLY park/monument/memorial to those that died on the Trail of Tears in the US. That, in and of itself, is a crime.

Dear Kavika-- a good friend, (Defense Council), told me the words to write, and I've put them up on my bio-- Much love to you, good friend, in Cherokee. (I'm trusting that he did NOT teach me how to say "sit on it and swivel", like my Hungarian friend...)

In English, because I don't speak Cherokee, I would like to say, "Much love to you, Good Friend"

Thank you for this. I just can't read it again right now... Just like I am avoiding all sad movies, sad music, and things that make me cry or have nightmares... Just for a while. I have a copy of this somewhere, though.

Niijii, that was a heart-rending story by an old man still suffering for what my people suffered. How very sad and needless! He was a good man. I believe my relatives may have been some of the ones who escaped because their band is called "Eastern Overhill Band", but sadly, I don't know for sure. That may be why we have no relatives eventually added to the Dawes Roll.

I put up an article "Missing Everyone, health issues" on Sunday.

Nookomis ♥

The story of the "Trail of Tears" never gets easier to hear. The atrocities committed by our government can never be erased or forgotten. The killing, pain, suffering, and injustices inflicted on our Native American brothers and sisters can never be erased or forgotten.

The legacy of greed is a shameful one.

Waanakiwin gete niijii.

And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold, and exposure. Among this number was the beautiful Christian wife of Chief John Ross.

Almost 25% of the Cherokee that were taken died. Look around at four of your friends and family and think what it would be like to lose one of them because of greed. Of those 25% most were less than five years old or over 50.

My gggrandfather left Alabama just days before the roundup started and took his family to safety in Arkansas. His father died in Texas.

Thank you Kavika. I have been reading through history books and accounts written around the time of the removal. This was "right on time".

The first word that came to mind was Devastating," I couldn't get past that word.

One of the reasons for my research was to see how many times and what context the removal was mentioned in writings intended to educate our youth. I went to school in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Virginia; the Native American Indians were mentioned, but only in a minor context. I was fortunate to have learned from tribal elders and parents who recognized the need for me to know and always search for the truth. One truth I have found is; there were many European settlers who accepted and found value in the Native American's way of life. In fact, many preferred it. There were many areas where the American Indian and the European settlers lived, worked, and built communities together while learning from each other. If it weren't for greedy profiteers; we may truly have had a country like no other. The entire history of the beginnings of this country has been construed and designed to make the atrocities committed appear justified and honorable. Spain, France, and England put claim on this country without consulting the original inhabitants; which began a long path of oppression fueled by greed.

The Indians problems with the Europeans started from day one. Here is an excerpt from the writing of Christopher Columbus:

The Enslavement of Native People

On October 12, 1492 (the first day he encountered the native people of the Americas), Columbus wrote in his journal: "They should be good servants .... I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses." These captives were later paraded through the streets of Barcelona and Seville when Columbus returned to Spain. [4]

From his very first contact with native people, Columbus had their domination in mind. For example, on October 14, 1492, Columbus wrote in his journal, "with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them."[5] These were not mere words: after his second voyage, Columbus sent back a consignment of natives to be sold as slaves. [6]

Yet in an April, 1493, letter to Luis de Santangel (a patron who helped fund the first voyage), Columbus made clear that the people he encountered had done nothing to deserve ill treatment. According to Columbus:

"they are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts." [7]

Nonetheless, later in the letter Columbus went on to say:

"their Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they need .... and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped." [8]

http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/columbus.htm

You may wish to visit c-span web site for a talk about Texas Comanches by author Gwynne. The story used to be taught in public schools there but has sadly been removed from texts there.

They were only conquered by settlers killing ALL the buffalo, so they were starving when they surrendered to the reservation which is in southwest Oklahoma. US army was stymied by their tactics, fortitude and equestrian skills.

Andy Jackson did not drink water at all. Only coffee and liquor.

I have often wondered what kind of men the soldiers had to be to follow the orders that had them treating the Native Americans the way they did.

Yes, they had to make them take that journey, as ordered by the government. No, they did not have to make them suffer in the way they did, and no, they did not have to be as brutal as they were in their treatment of them.

For that matter, what kind of men were those who attacked undefended villages where only women and children were there for the slaughter? What can be said of such people?

The Trail of Tears is barely mentioned in a few sentences, or not mentioned at all, in the history books in this country. That is as shameful as the journey itself.

Nearly all the dealings of white Europeans with the Native folk were underhanded and laced with greed. This is only one of several "Trails of Tears". Tragic and horrific don't even begin to cover these things.

Breaks my heart.

Thanks for this seed, Kav. It's something we need to remember and understand so it never happens again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW8rIM2lNN8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RIJ_hFPDFE