Summary Of Don L. Birchfield's Choctaw Legacy

Settler colonialism is a term that describes a process in which a colony of foreign people move into a new region with the intent to establish a new community through territorial dominance. For centuries, settler colonialism has helped the United States of America become one of the richest, most powerful nation in the world, however; it’s global dominance could not be defined without remembering the millions of people the United States has killed or displaced. Although there are many historical examples of settler colonialism, the most memorable form of this concept was between the United States and Indigenous peoples. The history of the United States is a history of settler colonialism, based on the practice of slavery, genocide, land theft, and ultimately the acquisition of Indigenous peoples. The United State’s history is more often than not told in an …show more content…
By the end of the decade, however; very few native nations occupied the land. Don L. Birchfield, author of, “Choctaw Legacy: How To Lose Your Country Twice in Fourteen Treaties” illustrates the end of occupied Indian land and the start of American owned land through various treaties signed by the tribes. Choctaw people were the first Indian nation to be expelled from their land after Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which gave Federal Government Power to exchange native land in the cotton kingdom east of the Mississippi for land to the west. The law required that the government negotiate treaties fairly and peacefully, however, this law was ignored.The federal government forced nearly all of the Choctaw peoples out of their land bringing them to walk thousands of miles to a designated “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River, the journey known as the Trail of