Prison Camps & The Trail Of Tears (Part 1)

by: winter rabbit

Fri Nov 17, 2006 at 07:34:35 AM EST

SOURCE
The Trail of Tears and the Middle Passage are journeys to the first of the concentration camps--Indian reservations and plantations--and the beginnings of the U.S. strategy to work the captured and colonized to death.

My wife and I went through the Trail of Tears exhibit at the Cherokee National Museum about two and a half years ago; I went though it again with my father the next year. I had just read Wilma Mankiller's book "A Chief And Her People" before I went the first time, and I got to hear the Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1985-1995) speak about atrocities that happened in 1838 on the Cherokee Trail Of Tears, though that wasn't her primary topic that night. Walking through the Trail Of Tears exhibit was a powerful experience, and has ended with tears of my own...

The exhibit begins in a reconstructed room appropriate to a cabin in 1839. Antique furniture and oil lamps grab the attention until an automated voice says (I'm going on pure memory), "Hurry up, get your things. Let's go. Move!"  It gives the feeling of surprise while the sounds of soldier's footsteps are heard. I want to stop here and fill in what I think many people miss. To illustrate, I quote my college history professor who said, "Once you get into prison camps, it's a whole different ball game (once again, pure memory)." Those prison camps were also called
CHEROKEE REMOVAL FORTS

Some Cherokee reported to the forts, not knowing the fate that awaited them...

For a number of reasons nothing seemed to go right during the removal. The round up that began in mid-May was completed on June 2, 1838. Some Cherokee were forced to live in these conditions for up to five months before the start on the journey whose name is "Nunna daul Tsuny (Trail Where They Cried)."

The reader needs to understand that the Cherokee are a matriarchal society. Plainly put: the clan mother can trump the chief, women choose HER mate based on HIS cooking skills, and a man knew he was divorced if all his things were outside when he got home. So when the soldiers raped the women in the prison camps and on the Trail of Tears, they raped the tribe's leaders as well. It was about taking away power. When the soldiers passed the women around like whiskey bottles raping them, it was about taking away power. When the soldiers scalped the women's genitalia and wore their vaginas on their hats, it was about raping power to the most excruciating degree imaginable. I think it's common knowledge how soldiers identified "leaders" in concentration camps and killed them, in order to keep the hostages under control. Still, one hundred and fifty-one years later nuns are raped and tortured...
1989

...and yesterday I heard on NPR that the soldier who raped the young adolescent Iraq girl pled guilty SOURCE
, and yet still I read this today:

SOURCE
God then sent the hunters. The hunter is one who pursues his target with force and fear. No one could see the horror of the Holocaust coming, but the force and fear of Hitler's Nazis drove the Jewish people back to the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have -- Israel. I stand amazed at the accuracy of God's Word and its relevance for our time. I am stricken with awe and wonder at His boundless love for Israel and the Jewish people and His divine determination that the promise He gave Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob become reality.

Michelle Goldberg:

SOURCEUnless I'm really reading this wrong, Hagee seems to be saying that Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews back to where they belong. If that's the case, he might be a friend of the Israeli state, but he's no friend of Jewish people.

I can't help but remember the old adage with what I know about my own history:

''Those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it.'' -Georges Santayana. ...

And then, only a fictional movie can even begin to explain it to me.

Scene from "Exorcist III":

EXORCIST III
The Gemini Killer: I kill at random... no motive... that's the fun.
______________
Dt. Kinderman: This I believe in... I believe in death. I believe in disease. I believe in injustice and inhumanity, torture and anger and hate... I believe in murder. I believe in pain. I believe in cruelty and infidelity. I believe in slime and stink and every crawling, putrid thing... every possible ugliness and corruption, you son of a bitch. I believe... in you.