From a Trail of Tears to A River of Sadness

The "Immigrant" Problem

Part II

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

- George Santayana

Out with the Old, in with the New

In Part I many of the Native Americans that still lived were in the Southeastern Part of the United States. These natives were forced to leave their ancestral homelands in parts of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama by the end of the 1830's. There new destination would be hundreds of miles west, towards to the western edge of Arkansas and into parts of Oklahoma.

The purchase of the Louisiana Territory along with the land ceded after the Revolutionary war effectively enlarged the original 13 colonies by 2 or 3 times its original size. By the mid 1800's, immigration to the United States from all over the world was in full swing fueled by what Americans and immigrants believed was Manifest Destiny. Scandinavians came and settled in parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Many Germans also emigrated to the United States during this time, while millions of Irish left the Great Potato Famine in search of a better life for their families. Between 1820-1880, some 10 Million immigrants arrived to America from Germany, England, Ireland and other countries. Then between 1880-1930, over 27 Million more immigrants arrived on American soil from Italy, Austria, Russian, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Sweden and other countries

Indian Territory created in 1834 (red)

Meanwhile, the Native Americans that had been moved from the Southeastern United States believed that they had at least achieved some semblance of peace or normalcy in there lives with the resettlement. Although the government had left a trail of broken promises, the natives believed that this time would be different. Of course it would not be different for the resettled Natives. In 1834 the Indian Intercourse Act created a large land area for the many displaced Native Americans, but much of that land disappeared with acts such as the Homestead Act of 1862 and many others meant to displace them in order to allow for American settlers.

Remnants of what was left of Indian Territory

For the Native Americans in the Western frontier, the wars were just beginning. As the growing United States and its many immigrant settlers encroached more and more on Native Ancestral Lands in the West, this would lead to many separate Indian wars throughout different regions. American expansion into the west would lead to at least 50 more Indian wars and countless skirmishes between 1823-1918. Native Americans like Geronimo would fight in vain against American expansion. Geronimo and those who surrendered would ultimately be removed from the Southwest areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and sent to a reservation in Florida. Geronimo and many of his tribe would later be sent to Fort Sill Oklahoma, where Geronimo died an American Prisoner of War in 1909.

the Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo

Once the United States accomplished its goal of extending it boundaries to the Pacific Ocean, its once open arms to all comers began to turn into crossed arms. For the Chinese that came with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Although immigrants from Europe and other parts were still welcomed, the United States began to place requirements before allowing immigrants into the country. Nonetheless, immigrants would continue coming to the United States in steady number up until about the 1970's. Then in the 1980's legal and illegal immigration would spike from Latin American countries with much of the civil strife in those countries.

Immigrants at Ellis Island

Cuban Immigrants around 1980

As political and economic strife increased throughout the world, especially in Latin America, many immigrants began to migrate illegally into the United States. Since the 1980's until now, the undocumented population in the United States has been about 3% of the U.S. population which currently puts that number at around 10 Million people that are in the United States without proper documentation.

Currently, the United States finds itself in a conundrum of epic proportions with over 10 million people within its borders with no legal authority to be in the United States. Many of these 10 Million people have sprouted roots in the communities where they live. Many of these people that have illegally immigrated to the United States in pursuit of happiness and the American Dream have left their homelands because of the strife there, much like the original Pilgrims and the immigrants that followed.

The current political climate in the United States once again currently seeks to figure out what to do with these mostly indigenous people that have illegally immigrated into the United States. Estimates put the figure at between 10 Million to 12 Million people that are in the United States without proper documentation. Some would have the U.S. government completely remove these people from within its border without any recourse or exception, possibly leading to one of the biggest human migrations and possibly biggest human crisis of all time.

What the United States once called the Trail of Tears would be multiplied into a River of Sadness.

So maybe when Trump says "Make America Great Again," he is referring to the period of U.S. expansion fueled by immigrants like his grandfather?

"There are no solutions. There are only trade offs."

- Thomas Sowell

07/22/2018
Full Steem Ahead!
@streetstyle

Sources:
https://we-explore.com/expeditions/1399
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars
https://sites.google.com/site/thenorthsite/early-immigration-in-the-u-s-1
https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/native_american2.html
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/indianremovalg.htm
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/territorial-expansion
http://www.okhistory.org/research/airemoval
http://www.savagesandscoundrels.org/events-landmarks/1854-kansasnebraska-act-passed/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrant_population_of_the_United_States
https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/immigration-timeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_the_United_States
https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/10/29/immigration-to-and-migration-within-the-u-s-in-the-1900s/
https://www.history.com/topics/u-s-immigration-before-1965

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