My family has been been told that we will be receiving 2 acres of land in northwest rural Georgia, west of Atlanta and close to Alabama.
This is land that has been given to us by some extended family (on my mom's side) and had been divided many times before so that the original family tract would have been hundreds if not thousands of acres.
We have been told that this land was given to our family by the State of Georgia. We also know that several of our ancestors participated in the Trail of Tears, forcing the Cherokee tribe from Georgia out west to Oklahoma.
Family history is not complete. I don't know that this particular land was forcibly taken by the State and/or given in return for complicity in driving away the Cherokee. But it seems suspicious.
I recommended to the family that they give this land back to the Cherokee tribe. They were not receptive. But it was a good dialogue and they asked the following questions in return:
1) Who are we to give it to? What would the Cherokee tribe want with 2 acres in the midst of a rural environment where they might not, even today, be received well? Also, if it is given to the leaders of the Cherokee tribe, how would we know this would go to actual descendants of the people who were driven from the land?
2) Since we are a bi-racial family, it was also stipulated that maybe with our family owning the land, this act is redemption in itself....because it means that lots of different ethnicities will be represented in ownership.
If it is true that this land was gained in such a manner, do we have the responsibility to give the land back? How can we make amends for the sins of our ancestors?...especially in light of clouded histories?
4 comments:
Berry, berry interesting. This pondering (ponderance?) really messes with me. I think I'd give serious consideration to giving it back, especially since the Wikipedia article says that the Cherokee were not compensated for their land like others. What a great statement that would be about valuing people over possessions and righting previous wrongs. Is it bad that I'd send out press releases to ensure adequate coverage?
I just heard a little more about family history and a bit more about the intentions of the family, if we ever were to obtain those 2 acres.
Evidently, the family history and how it obtained the acreage is shrouded in even more mystery than I imagined. There isn't enough known to surmise who sold/gave the land to the ancestors.
I have also learned that this is a source of family pain, especially for close family members.
I have been told that our family has the desire to stipulate in wills that these 2 acres be given to the one family member who has both African-American and Cherokee heritage in the family so that there would be full redemption in the story.
Dear Mr. Anderson,
These questions about restitution and indeed even reconciliation are quite vexing. I believe there were eventually some payments (much later) in line with the rump treaty of New Echota, but you would have to research that further. The real question is how to "make right" a terrible wrong many generations later. Questions like these, both here and in South Africa, led me to write a historical novel, told by the Earth, in which a (Oklahoma) Cherokee returns to East TN to find his land, and eventually finds ways to honor his ancestors by returning it to ecologically sustainable use, regardless of "ownership." I hope you can find similarly imaginative responses to your challenge.
William J. Everett
Author, Red Clay, Blood River
I had always been taught that orginally, Native American culture did not believe in land ownership. Is that still the case? Why not ask the descendants of the land's earliest known inhabitants what they would suggest be done to best honor their ancestors?
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