Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge 306 Cloak / Race
“American Progress”
-John Gast
The land was stolen
Under cloak of destiny
-Justified by race©2020 cj holm
“The tribes of Indians inhabiting this country were fierce savages, whose occupations was war, and whose subsistence was drawn chiefly from the forest… That law which regulates, and ought to regulate in general, the relations between the conqueror and conquered was incapable of application to a people under such circumstances… Discovery gave an exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of occupancy, either by purchase or by conquest.”
-Chief Justice John Marshall,
Johnson and Graham Lessee v. William M’Intosh, 1823
Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge (5/18/20)
love this. we (white people) were (and frequently still are) the worst.
I’m glad you liked the words this week. A great direction to go in and being the history guy that I am very appropriate. I think we’ve come a long way in many ways since then. But, all peoples of the world are going to continue to have those idiots among them that drags them down, some just happen to be louder and more accessible than others. Oh our Washington squeaky wheels, and their lack of proper balls. Ball bearings I mean.
Thought you might want to read the After Action Report written in 1863 in the fever of the time. It is a stark reminder of how the victor’s history is recorded. https://archive.org/details/historyofsiouxwa00hear/page/n8/mode/2up
Downloading the report now for my Kindle. I’ve always liked to read from many different angles. I have this habit of seeing through different eyes. As far as our opponents in conflicts go, they are at war as well and in many cases for a good reason. And the victors skew or outright lie to justify their reasons. No matter who the victor is.
As my ancestors arrived in Minnesota in 1850, they had multiple family members drafted into service for the 1862 Indian War. One of them was at the Minnesota Indian Execution/Hanging at the end of the war. I’ve done extensive research on that history including visiting a number of the sites where battles and confrontation occurred. I also talked with children born in the area soon after the the battles were fought. I remember my Grandma’s bitterness and hatred of the Indians, colored by killing and torture of the settlers caught in the conflict. I’ve also read the newspaper accounts published during the time frame. The one-sided accounts fanned the flames of hatred for many generations that are only now beginning to be subside. We need to hear both sides of the story to appreciate the terrible things that were done.
I haven’t studied about my Great Grandmother’s people, the Choctaw. She was full-blooded. I really should. Not much is said in the history books about them.
I have great respect for the indian people and the tragedy inflicted by the exploration and expansion of the American West. For instance that Lewis and Clark had rats on their boats and introduced the pestilence on the Mandan People who stored their food underground. Very interesting stuff.
Well said.