On this day in 1838, the first major group of Cherokee, more than 12,000 people, were forced out of Tennessee, traveling westward from the town of Red Clay. A Choctaw leader called the forced deportations “a trail of tears and death”.
The Trail of Tears was the cumulative result of a series of forced relocations of approximately 60,000-100,000 Native Americans in the United States from their ancestral homelands in the southeast to areas west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as “Indian Territory”.
In 1837-38, President Martin Van Buren allowed Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama, using an armed force of 7,000 people, to relocate about 13,000 Cherokees to Cleveland, Tennessee. On October 1st, 1838, the first major group of Cherokee, more than 12,000 people in hundreds of covered wagons, were forced out of Tennessee, traveling westward from the town of Red Clay.
Taking the journey through an unusually cold winter, they suffered terribly from exposure, disease, and starvation, killing several thousand people while en route to their new designated reserve. They were also attacked by locals and economically exploited - starving Indians were charged a dollar a head, equal to $24.01 today, to cross the Ohio River, which typically charged twelve cents, equal to $2.88 today.
I hope you nerds have a good month of October 
Remember no crackers
Missed this comment but it feels relevant to me.
And I tried to explain why I can’t seem to stop trying to drag white people I encounter into political education and awareness. Maybe because I’m surrounded by them I feel my options are to fight this or forever be subjected to it.
Honestly, a good question for me to consider, maybe talk with in therapy. What’s the point of these fights?
I read something today about how a prominent French “leftist” org condemned the FLN. Ultimately the let’s position was not changed through domestic agitation but through the FLN’s victory. So many “leftist” orgs today condemn Palestinian armed resistance, still. What’s the point of having these conversations? I guess as a matter of principle. I guess to engage in struggle for struggle’s sake. I was built for strife. I don’t think this is any nobler than people choosing to not argue against an exhausting torrent of white bullshit and save their energy for what really matters.