“Every Great Dream Begins with a Dreamer…”
Harriet Tubman and Historical Justice
There are lots of Republican Cherokees, and the reason why in two words is Andrew Jackson. As we speak, there are Cherokees who put twenty dollar bills in their wallets all with Jackson on the same side, so they can turn the entire wad in a direction that avoids seeing his face.
Which always leads to the question, “When are you Cherokees going to get over the Trail of Tears?” It’s a cheap shot but also a short cut to the truth to say the same time Jews get over the Shoah or Navajos get over the Long Walk or Potawatomi get over the Trail of Death. How long does it take to forget about a disaster of a size that everybody knew somebody who died? Does it make it worse that the whole happening was man-made and based on fraud? What’s the size of the disappointment that Chief John Ross came within one vote of stopping the travesty by convincing the U.S. Senate to withhold its consent and advise the executive that this country does not traffic in fraud?
This is why there were happy campers in the Cherokee Nation when the competition to redesign the twenty came up with Araminta Ross, the birth name of a brave woman who comes down to us in history as Harriet Tubman. Most Cherokees voted for Wilma Mankiller, a “favorite daughter” deal, but we all knew Mankiller was a long shot and the main…
