In my most recent writing on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, I looked at Articles 1 and 2. Today, I’m going to jump down a little bit to Article 10 simply because forced relocation has been on my mind lately.
Article 10 is this:
Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.
In keeping with my American Indian theme, I’ll discuss forced relocation of Indians, although we should keep in mind that indigenous peoples outside of the U.S. have been subject to similar polices.
I suspect the most famous case of forced relocation in American Indian History is The Trail of Tears, so this is the example I’ll take of a forced relocation policy.
I will use ‘The Trail of Tears’ to refer to the forced removal of five southeastern tribes: Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole. (It is also called other things, such as ‘The Trail Where We Cried’, by the Cherokees, of their own removal.)
The Trail of Tears began because of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (which you can read here). The Indian Removal Act allowed the president—in 1830, it was Andrew Jackson—to relocate eastern tribes to the west. Some white people opposed the Indian Removal Act, like the (in)famous Davy Crockett, who by then had gone from fighting Indians to rather defending them. But the piece of legislation passed and removal began in 1830 with the Choctaws and ended in 1842 with the Seminoles.
The five tribes resisted relocation and although they were supposed to go willingly under the Act, they were pressured by white settlers and the U.S. government to relocate. Some of the treaties signed at the time, which are agreements to relocate and cede lands, are said to have been either (1) signed under false pretenses or (2) weren’t signed freely or (3) weren’t signed by the appropriate representatives of the tribes. Those are important things to discuss, but I won’t get into them right now.
Approximately 100,000 people were removed during this time and many, many people died during relocation. People from each tribe stayed behind, oftentimes hiding out to avoid forced removal. So today we have the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, for example. The former were forcibly removed. The latter stayed behind, dodging relocation.
The Cherokees took the State of Georgia to court over the removal and Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of the Cherokees, saying they do not have to leave. To this, Andrew Jackson famously said: He made the ruling. Now let him enforce it.
The Cherokees were forcibly removed at gunpoint.
The five tribes were moved to Indian Territory (now called: Oklahoma) because there weren’t many white settlers there yet. There were, however, other tribes living there already.
It is because of policies like this, then, that Article 10 has been included, which says that no forced relocation shall take place and no relocation shall take place without free, prior and informed consent.
Because all of my videos so far have been pretty sad and depressing (and rightly so–it’s sad and depressing stuff), today I’m including a satire of the Indian Removal Act that is pretty funny. Check it out: