Andrew Jackson and his Indian Wars

Andrew Jackson and his Indian Wars by Robert V. Remini

For 16 years Andrew Jackson fought and led fighting in multiple Indian Wars in every one of the states now called the deep south, and Tennessee.  And he learned and would never unlearn that the only way the white and red man or woman would ever survive was fully separate.

His concern was never for the white person; he knew that the United States, barring another European war after the war with England in 1812, would grow such a population that the Indians of the east would be decimated by or amalgamated into the white culture. And he feared the latter was the most likely.

Robert Remini describes in highly documented and highly personable and conversational style why the US, for the most part, and Jackson, each wanted the same thing, though often for very different reasons.

It seems unfair, but I am going to give you the last words of this book which are the author's take on the probable result if the awful, horrible, and inhumane "Removal Act", which took as estimated 50,000 Indians, many of them Cherokee on their now famous "Trail of Tears" had not occured at all.

"He saved the Five Civilized Nations (Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek) from probable extinction."

There is no way to disagree with this statement without reading Remini's book.  I've read it, and for much of the last year Mona and I have traveled on parts of the several 'Trails of Tears', for there was not only one. We have visited Paynes Fort, Alabama and now Blythe's Ferry, Tennessee, the two gathering places that the US Army forced the last of the Cherokee to, and we have seen homes and sites where some of these Indians once lived.

Do i agree with Remini's words?  I can neither agree nor disagree. The 'what if's' of history are hard enough on historic battlefields, let alone in the halls of Congress and the Supreme Court, which is where these awful trails really began.

But I can say this, if you believe the end does justify the means, then perhaps you will find yourself agreeing with Jackson and the vast majority of Americans of the first half of the 20th century.

But then, these are some of the same Americans who said "Secede from the Union! Damn the United States!" or in response, "Trample those southern devils into the ground, and all their plantations too."

As the Civil War raged for it's four years one old plains, now reservation,  Indian was heard to say, "Why did we ever try to defeat these people? They have enough warriors to kill each other by the tens of thousands and still keep us imprisoned here. The Great Spirit has turned his face from us."

This book is REAL history, told in a way that the non-historian may understand and come away knowing something every human should know.  Whether you agree with Robert remini or not.

-*****
KEN