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trail of tears

Democracy

187 years after the House said it'd seat a member of the Cherokee Nation, it may finally happen

We can't break another promise.

via Wikimedia Commons

Cherokee Nation Vice President of Government Relations Kimberly Teehee in 2019.

One hundred and eighty-seven years ago, the United States government promised the Cherokee Nation a seat in the House of Representatives as part of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. A minority group of Cherokee leaders signed the treaty, forcing the tribe to give up its ancestral land and relocate west of the Mississippi River.

The treaty was unpopular with a majority of tribe members and when they were slow to move, they were forced out of their homeland. This resulted in more than 4,000 Cherokee people dying during the forced relocation that became known as the “Trail of Tears.”

Article 7 of the Treaty of New Echota says that the Cherokee Nation “shall be entitled to a delegate in the House of Representatives of the United States whenever Congress shall make provision for the same.”

On Wednesday, the United States came closer to making good on the promise. The House Rules Committee held a historic hearing where representatives from the Cherokee Nation spoke in favor of seating a delegate from the tribe as promised nearly two centuries ago.

“It’s time for this body to honor this promise and seat our delegate in the House of Representatives,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in his testimony. “No barrier, constitutional or otherwise, prevents this.”

The Cherokee Nation has named former Obama White House advisor Kim Teehee to be the delegate.

Kim Teehee and President Obama in the White House.

via Wikimedia Commons

“Mr. Chairman, I am a proud American, and I am a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation. I have great respect for the United States House of Representatives. Because of all of this, it is my firm belief and expectation that the House of Representatives will take swift action to seat our delegate to Congress, honor our treaty rights, and therefore make the United States good on its promise to our Cherokee ancestors,” Hoskin added.

The Cherokee Nation hopes to seat a nonvoting delegate similar to the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, thinks it's important for the U.S. government to uphold its agreements with Indigenous tribes. “The history of this country is a history of broken promise after broken promise to Native American communities,” said McGovern. “This cannot be another broken promise.”

\u201c#CherokeeDelegate. We made history today, but we must keep advocating for America to keep its treaty promise to @CherokeeNation to a delegate to Congress. Today\u2019s hearing was powerful and a basis for real action.\u201d
— Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. (@Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr.) 1668630794

Before the House can act on the resolution it has to decide on the proper path to make it law and how the Nation should select its delegate. The House also wanted to know why it took so long for the Cherokee Nation to pursue its right to representation.

“We are now in a position where we can, as a practical matter, assert this right,” Hoskin said. “Whereas my predecessors in the two centuries before, frankly we were just trying to hang on to our way of life and rebuild.”

The United States has a long, terrible history of breaking promises it's made to Native people. Allowing the Cherokee Nation to have a delegate in the House would send a strong message that those days are over.

“For nearly two centuries, Congress has failed to honor this promise. Yet the obligation to seat a Cherokee Nation delegate remains as binding today as it was in 1835,” the Cherokee Nation said.

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native americans

Education & Information

Assignments that prompt students to empathize with those who committed atrocities need to go

Jennifer C. Martin/Twitter

An assignment on the Trail of Tears has prompted debate about taking historical perspectives.

Helping young people understand the causes and effects of historical events is a formidable task for any educator. History isn't just "what happened and when." There's also a "why," "how" and "who" in every historical happening, and quality history education helps students explore those questions.

Sometimes, however, that exploration can go off the rails.

Most people would agree that understanding different perspectives is an important part of learning history, but there are more and less problematic ways of helping students gain that understanding. We've seen some of the more problematic methods pop up in school assignments before, from asking students to pick cotton like slaves to listing the pros and cons of slavery.

Now an assignment from a school in Georgia is making the rounds, with people calling out issues with the perspective it asked students to take.

Jennifer C. Martin shared a photo of a computer screen from her friend's kid's school with an assignment about the Trail of Tears, telling students to write letters from the points of view listed in the questions and to use facts to support their point of view. (The Trail of Tears sometimes refers to the forced removal of several Native nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast in the 1830s, but also refers more specifically to the forced relocation of the Cherokee nation to Oklahoma in 1838. Thousands died of disease, exposure and starvation during the removals.)

The writing prompt on the screen reads:

"Write a letter to President Jackson from the perspective of an American settler. Explain why you think removing the Cherokee will help the United States grow and prosper."

my friend's kid's school in Georgia sent homework with this questionpic.twitter.com/pSFhJ0Ucvz
— Jennifer C. Martin (@Jennifer C. Martin) 1642645127

Having written about problematic history lessons before, I know there will be people saying, "But this is just asking students to understand different perspectives! We have to be able to understand perspectives we don't agree with."

That may sound reasonable—or even desirable—but there are some problems with that line of thinking when it comes to teaching kids.

One, there's a difference between understanding someone's perspective and taking on their perspective, even as an exercise. The latter can be useful; putting yourself into someone else's shoes through "Imagine if" exercises is a good way to build empathy, helping us understand the impact of an event on a person or people. But is it desirable to build empathy with people who committed or perpetuated atrocities? I would argue it's not.

\u201cWrite a letter to Chancellor Hitler from the perspective of a German merchant. Explain why you think removing the Jews will help the Reich grow and prosper.\u201d\n\nDon\u2019t \u201cGodwin\u201d me. That\u2019s precisely what this is: Write a letter justifying genocide.https://twitter.com/notreallyjcm/status/1483987339206705152\u00a0\u2026
— President Dawg (@President Dawg) 1642695467

Second, the Trail of Tears is an objectively oppressive historical event. Asking students to explain the benefits of it from the perspective of the oppressors is gross. We don't need to "both sides" an oppressive event, as if there is some legitimate justification for why it happened and what the impact was. There is an explanation, of course, but when we take on a perspective and make arguments in favor of it as a personal exercise, we risk legitimizing and justifying it. This is totally unnecessary and potentially harmful.

Third, what if you were a student whose ancestors were the ones who suffered and/or died during the Trail of Tears? How would this assignment assist in your understanding of that event? It's not like you wouldn't already know that the settlers cared more about the growth and prosperity of the United States than about your people's lives, so what would be the point of this assignment for you?

If we want students to think critically about these events and look at the different perspectives that led to the tragedy of the Trail of Tears, we can ask questions that get them to think critically without making them argue the benefits from a colonizing perspective, such as:

"Why did some American settlers support the removal of the Cherokee people? What do you think about their reasoning?"

"What were the motivations behind forcing the Cherokee people off their land? How did American settlers benefit from the tragedy?"

"Were the settlers' arguments for relocating the Cherokee aligned with the American ideals of liberty and justice? Explain."

None of those writing prompts require a student to put themselves into the mindset of people who committed or supported violent injustice, but they still accomplish the goal of understanding different perspectives and getting students to think.

We need to acknowledge that history is not neutral and history lessons are not benign. There are ways to teach history that are objectively inappropriate, no matter what the intention behind them. Asking students to take the perspective of a Nazi during the Holocaust would be inappropriate. Asking students to take the perspective of a racist white person in the South during the civil rights movement would be inappropriate. It's not appropriate to ask students to think like a colonizer during the Trail of Tears. Understanding that perspectives differ does not require taking on an oppressive perspective, even as an academic exercise, and we do students a disservice by asking them to do so.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has announced some major changes coming to paper currency.

America's first Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, will remain on the $10 bill (don’t say Broadway never changed anything), but the back of the note will feature leaders of the women's suffrage movement.

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

While President Abraham Lincoln will remain on the face of the $5 bill, key figures from the civil rights movement will be prominently featured on the other side.

But the landmark news is that Harriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

This will be the first U.S. paper note to feature the portrait of a woman in over 100 years.

Image via National Portrait Gallery/Wikimedia Commons.

Tubman, who escaped slavery and became an abolitionist, returned to the South at least 19 times to free slaves. She went on to lead hundreds of people to freedom along the Underground Railroad, a network of routes and safe houses. During the Civil War, Tubman worked as a spy and nurse for the Union government. After the war, she continued to help black people by turning her home into the Home for Indigent and Aged Negroes.

While the bills won't reach circulation for another decade, this is a huge victory for representation and inclusion.

Dyáni Brown, who long pushed for a woman to appear on the $20, said it best:

GIF via Upworthy/YouTube.

After the $1 and $100 bills, the $20 bill is the third-most widely circulated note.

But Jackson, who booted President Grover Cleveland from the $20 in 1928, has long been a polarizing figure in American history.

Photo by Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images.

In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which allowed the U.S. government to forcibly remove thousands of Native Americans from their land. As part of Jackson’s policy, beginning in fall 1838, the Cherokee nation had to hand over their land east of the Mississippi River and migrate more than 2,200 miles to designated “Indian Territory” in present-day Oklahoma. The forced migration, now known as the Trail of Tears, was treacherous. Many faced disease, extreme hunger, and exhaustion. Of the 15,000 who were forced west, nearly 4,000 died along the way.

While there is no reason to continue to honor this man on the face of our money, Jackson will remain on the back of the bill.

People from across the country have been pushing the Treasury Department to remove Jackson from the $20 note and to include a woman on the face of a bill. Now, it's happening in one fell swoop.

Needless to say, the internet is pretty excited about the announcement.

From congressmen...

...and commentators...

...to witty writers...

...and familiar faces.

While most people are heralding the announcement, some argue it’s not the best way to honor Tubman’s legacy.

In a column last year in The Guardian, Steven Thrasher wrote:

"Putting Tubman’s face on the $20 would only obfuscate how much exploitation there is still left to fight in America, among those in prison, nail salons — and those exchanging twenties daily who don’t even know it. We should not let her be used to distract black and brown people from our present economic bondage every time we pay for something."

But when it comes to representation, seeing a woman — particularly a woman of color — in a space we've been kept out of is a major step forward and a milestone worth celebrating.

trail of tears

187 years after the House said it'd seat a member of the Cherokee Nation, it may finally happen

We can't break another promise.

Assignments that prompt students to empathize with those who committed atrocities need to go

Harriet Tubman will be the new face of the $20 bill. And yes, it's a big deal.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has announced some major changes coming to paper currency.

But the landmark news is that Harriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

After the $1 and $100 bills, the $20 bill is the third-most widely circulated note.

People from across the country have been pushing the Treasury Department to remove Jackson from the $20 note and to include a woman on the face of a bill. Now, it's happening in one fell swoop.

While most people are heralding the announcement, some argue it’s not the best way to honor Tubman’s legacy.

Hear Dyáni share why she pushed to replace Andrew Jackson with a woman on the $20 bill.

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