A war between the United States and the Confederate States began at 4:30 in the morning of April 12, 1861 and within days United States troops were ordered to abandon all army post in the Indian Territory. This action was a violation of treaty pledges and exposed the Creek Nation to Confederate invasion. By the early fall Confederate soldiers were in fact entering the Creek Nation from both Texas and Arkansas.
The following letter was sent to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States: You said no white people in the world should molest us and should we be injured by anybody you would come with your soldiers and punish them, but now the wolf has come. Men who are strangers tread our soil. Our children are frightened and mothers cannot sleep for fear. We want you to send us word what to do. My ears are open and my memory good. Opothleyahola Summer 1861
There was no response from Washington D.C. and one cool fall morning Opothleyahola left his home accompanied by half a hundred men. They were the rear guard for the Creek men and women and children already moving north to safety in Kansas. As he had done so many times in the old country, before he lead Mvskoke soldiers into battle on horseback, he paused and offered a prayer to the one above, the Breather of Life. He then galloped north never again to return to his home in Tukvpvtce.
I wonder what the latest school history books are like. Are they honest enough to tell how the government let these people down?
ReplyDeleteI don't have any kids so I don't know.
But when I was a kid we learned that our government always did the right thing. Tough learning the truth
Apart from the fact I believe native americans were itinerant travellers or migrants. But one thing is to move with the seasons, another thing is to be pushed out of 'your' fertile land and pastures, by invading settlers.
ReplyDeleteAlas the inhumanity of man on fellow man continues in some unmentionable places on earth, with whatever false premise or justification can be drummed up.
Thanks for the his + her story lesson. laters ... Q
Sandy, oh there is so much more to that story, I'll try to post some more of what happened after the War between the states. I know you have heard this before, but it is the truth. Brother fought against brother in that Civil War and it was the same in the Indian Nations. By the end of the war, the Creek Nation was split and it was costly to them not only in lives but in land. As a result of some fighting for the South the government took much of the Creek land and opened it up to settlement by others.
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