Reflection 2

I found the Trail of Tears to be very interesting and devastating. Five tribes: Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, and the Cherokee had to walk by foot west of the Mississippi River because the Supreme Court upheld Cherokee rights to their lands in Worcester v. Georgia. As a result,1 in 3 died on the journey due to "exposure, disease, and starvation. They had no wagons, horses, tents, or provision," (2.1 Readings).  All men, women, children, and elderly had to make this journey by foot. I find the Trail of Tears very interesting because of how cruel it is to think humanity left them to do this all on their own and shrugged and said it was all because of Manifest Destiny.

Manifest Destiny was a concept coined by John O' Sullivan in the 1840s. This idea justified all of the battles and negotiations the Americans and Native Americans faced in the 19th century. This belief was dictated by God. He had a will that will not be changed no matter what came their way, and that was for the Americans to "inhabit the lands of North America from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast." Manifest Destiny was about domination of land, resources, and societal order. The image above is the painting by John Gast's 1885, "American Progress." To me, using a higher power for greed is beyond blasphemous. It is sacriligous because to wipe out the Native Americans so that Americans can claim more land under God's name is immoral in all of its sense. There was never a destiny. This was all done under their force and control. It blows my mind early Americans did this and this is the land we live on. It is what it is, and history cannot be erased, but I do not agree on this concept one bit. 

Lastly, history has been changing the narrative for too long. The textbooks lied about Columbus and Disney lied about Native Americans in Peter Pan and Pocahontas. Columbus never was a hero. The text said, "shows an obvious superiority to the people he encountered by calling them poor, assuming they were without religion since they were not Christian, and declaring them to be of service to others like him. He shows intent to abuse and enslave,"( 2.2 reading). This proves that Columbus was in fact a tyrant for the acts he committed. In addition, in the video we saw Disney's "Peter Pan" - What Makes the Red Man Red?, The Native Americans were depicted as red indicating that this is their real color. For one, no man's skin color can be red. It is derogatory this was drawn in the films. The question is, do we remove it? Is it good to show the public how people thought of Native Americans in the past to remind us where we have come? Or should it be removed entirely and forgotten? Another film that was fabracated was Pocahontas and John Smith. Pocahontas was only ten years old and her marriage was arranged with John Rolfe as a political union. Back then people did not typically marry for love. Also, Pocahontas was one of Powhatan's daughters. He was a leader of the Powhatan Nation who married them.