One of the hottest “got’cha” issues for the Democrats this election year has been the chastising of any politician who refused to take the stand demanding the removal of the Confederate battle flag from any position of display on public property. The most notable example has been the battle over the place of the flag at state capital building in Columbia, South Carolina.
This issue falls under the category of “no brainer” for the Democrats because it plays well to their major constituencies, particularly black Americans, and carries little risk of alienating any of their core supporters or special interest groups. It also nicely casts any opponents of flag removal as racist, since, as all good sociocrats know, the Confederate flag is the banner under which the most horrible of atrocities was committed by Americans.
Or is it?
In 1830, the government of the United States, under President Andrew Jackson, passed the Indian Removal Act to force all remaining Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River to move west to the Indian Territories, or what is now known as Oklahoma. Coincidentally, in 1830, gold was discovered on Cherokee lands, and lotteries were begun to auction off the mining rights to whites. Cherokee were, by law, not allowed to mine for gold.
In December 1835, a small group of Cherokee led by John Ridge, signed the Treaty of New Echota, ceding all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi for $5 million and a promise of land in the Indian Territories. Only 300 – 500 Cherokee were present at the treaty signing, of which only 20 signed the document, none of whom were elected officials of the Cherokee Nation. Though more than 15,000 Cherokee opposed it, the treaty was ratified in 1836 by the U.S. Senate.
In 1838, federal troops and militia began rounding up the Cherokee for forced removal into concentration camps. Families were separated, and looters burned and occupied homesteads as the Cherokee were interned. Due to the worst drought in years, conditions for travel were terrible. Chief John Ross asked that the removal be delayed until the fall. His request was ultimately granted, provided the Cherokee remain in the internment camps until their departure. Many of the Cherokee were poorly clothed, having been forced at gunpoint from their homes, and refused offers of clothing from the government because they perceived it as an acknowledgment of the validity of their removal.
By November 1838 over 15,000 Cherokee began the 800 – mile forced march to the Indian Territories. Many died along the way of exposure or disease, such as cholera, smallpox and dysentery, most protected from the elements only by the single blanket they had been issued by the government. To make matters worse, torrential rain, and then a frozen Mississippi created tremendous hardship for the travelers. By March of 1839, most of the survivors had arrived in the Indian Territories. Of the original parties, it is estimated that as many as 4,000 did not survive the journey, many of them children and the elderly.
On December 29, 1890 Sioux Chief Big Foot and 350 of his followers were camped on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, surrounded by Union troops who were there for the explicit purpose of arresting Big Foot and disarming his warriors. Chief Sitting Bull had been killed just 14 days earlier in an attempt to arrest him, a fact of which Big Foot was aware.
The cause of this unrest was the growing movement among the Sioux led by a Paiute shaman called Wavoka. He prophesied a great resurgence among the Indians, with a new soil covering the land and burying the white man. The Ghost Dance was practiced as a way to bring about this event. The dance spread throughout the Dakota reservations, causing such alarm among whites that an Indian Agent with the U.S. government called in soldiers for the protection of the settlers.
During the attempt to arrest Big Foot, shots rang out. The troops opened fire on the Indians with Hotchkiss guns and drove them into the nearby ravine where they were slaughtered. When the fighting finally stopped, over 300 Sioux and 25 Union soldiers were dead, including Chief Big Foot.
In his excellent article “The Feds versus the Indians,” Thomas J. DiLorenzo quotes General William Tecumseh Sherman, the nefarious pillager of the South, who shared his “enlightened” view on what he referred to as “the final solution to the Indian problem”:
“We are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress of the railroads…. I regard the railroad as the most important element now in progress to facilitate the military interests of our Frontier.”
“We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux,” Sherman wrote to Ulysses S. Grant (commanding general of the federal army) in 1866, “even to their extermination, men, women and children.” The Sioux must “feel the superior power of the Government.” Sherman vowed to remain in the West” till the Indians are all killed or taken to a country where they can be watched.”
“During an assault,” he instructed his troops, “the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age.”
DiLorenzo also makes reference to the irony that former slaves were recruited, the infamous “Buffalo Soldiers,” to participate in the genocide of the Indian tribes.
These are but a few of the better known examples of the atrocities that have been committed against the Native American peoples of this nation under the banner of the Stars and Stripes.
While the institution of slavery is an abomination, one would be hard pressed to find an equivalent action by the government of either the United or Confederate States against freemen or black slaves. Yet, it is demanded that we remove the Confederate battle flag from public display because it hurts the feelings and sensibilities of contemporary black Americans, and stands, in their minds, as a symbol of oppression; a position that most liberal politicians are more than happy to embrace.
So, let’s have it, Mr. Gore:
On the day that the members of A.I.M. come knocking on your door and demand the removal of the American flag from all public display because of the crimes and atrocities committed against their ancestors, what will your response be?
On the day that the Native Americans come calling with the grievance that they are offended by the flag of terror, evil and oppression flying over our state and federal buildings, will you still be so smug in your conviction that removal of the offending banner is the solution?
August 31, 2000
Jef Allen is a technology professional in Georgia. As a reformed Yankee, who has lived in the South for roughly twenty years, he has very little tolerance for Northern sanctimony, or the erosion of individual liberty.
