"Father ’s Day – a time to reflect and remember one’s father with sadness, gratefulness, sorrow, happiness or even soul searching. For the Native American, we will never forget what the Great White Father promised but did not deliver.

Here is a brief excerpt from the book The Road to Disappearance by Angie Debo: “Two hundred years ago when the activities of the white man in North America were dominated by clashing imperial ambitions and colonial hardships and struggles, the great Creek Confederacy rested in savage contentment under the reign of native law. The reputation of the Creeks as warriors and native diplomats extended to the most distant reaches of the Indian country and the lonely settler hated them with a ferocity inspired by fear; but secure in their careless strength, they had no guile to match that of the white man, and no disciplined courage to oppose his ruthlessness. They met encroachment with angry and sporadic reprisals, but in the main, they were held in check by specious arguments and pledges of friendship until their power was worn down and their spirits tamed. Piece by piece their land was wrested from them and they submitted with grumbling, always believing that this time the treaty would be kept. In the end they were dragged from their ancient homes and flung down upon a raw western frontier to conquer it or die.”

Such is the case of thousands of First Americans treated equally as sovereign nations, entering into agreements and treaties to keep the peace and attempt to live along side the exploding Non Native settlers. The earliest treaties began in approximately 1792 and ended in the late 1800s, however the precedent had been set, only sovereign governments make treaties with each other. http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Treaties/Treaties.html#Creeks In return for ceding land and removal from homelands to foreign lands, the Native Americans were promised many things included food, blankets, sustenance, a new beginning, and land without interference for ever. A population of 21,792 Creeks was enrolled under the Treaty of 1832, which was added to by the McIntosh emigrants and brought the total number of Creeks to well above 23,000. In 1859 following the removal to Indian Territory a careful census taken showed a population of 13,537. Obviously not more than half the Creeks who were uprooted from their homeland forcibly lived to thrive in Indian Territory."

Get the Story:
Brenda Golden: All Hail the Great White Father (Native American Community Examiner 6/20)