On Sunday I went to the Museum of Westward Expansion, underneath The Arch in St. Louis and run by the National Park Service. One wall was devoted to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, another whole wall to the Native American experience during the expansion.
President Jefferson – through Lewis and Clark, his ambassadors to Plains Indians – told the Indians he just wanted trade, not land. Lewis and Clark left civilization, near St. Louis, on May 21, 1804. But one week earlier the U.S. government had passed the Louisianna Territory Act. It was the first official notice of the U.S. government’s intention to move the Indians east of the Mississippi River to the west of it.
President Jefferson – through Lewis and Clark, his ambassadors to Plains Indians – told the Indians he just wanted trade, not land. Lewis and Clark left civilization, near St. Louis, on May 21, 1804. But one week earlier the U.S. government had passed the Louisianna Territory Act. It was the first official notice of the U.S. government’s intention to move the Indians east of the Mississippi River to the west of it.
Lewis and Clark left the circle of the U.S. Post Office before word could reach them. But I’m sure Jefferson knew this Act was afoot and didn’t tell Lewis and Clark that land west of the Mississippi was indeed going to be an issue. And the government continued to be duplicitous in its relationship to the Indians, just as it had done in the East, mercilessly breaking treaties.
After the Euro-American settlers moved into the Great Plains and buffalo, elk, antelope and other abundant wild game became scarce, and after the plains were transformed within one generation into agricultural space, some tribes in desperation revived ancient traditions in the early 1890s.
Wovoka, a Paiute medicine man, helped to revive Ghost Dances. He told Indians that, as a result of the dances, dead ancestors would return, game would be plentiful again, and the white man would disappear.
The fervor of the Indians’ Ghost Dances brought out the Army. On December 29, 1890, when the Seventh Cavalry arrived at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, not only scores of Indians, but also “a beautiful dream…died in the snow,” said Ben Black Bear, a Lakota Sioux. The Park Service wrote, “It was a dream of recovering all that had been lost in the cultural collision with Euro-Americans.”
After Wounded Knee, very few Indians migrated freely across the plains, as they had done for thousands of years.
I think their American dream was broken, killed, buried, and never resurrected.
I think the Park Service was very fair in making the agony of the Indians vivid.
My friend and fellow writer, Karl Bacon, has provided his view of another battlefield, and other dreams birthed and killed, at Antietam, Maryland.
ReplyDeleteAntietam: Dreams Shattered - Dreams Sown
by Karl Bacon, Author of "An Eye for Glory: The Civil War Chronicles of a Citizen Soldier"
Located about thirteen miles south of Hagerstown, Maryland, Antietam National Battlefield Park is easily accessible from both I-70 and I-81. Of all the Civil War battlefields I have visited, I believe Antietam is the most dear to me. The beauty of the gently rolling farmland and the tranquility of the park allow me to close my eyes and see the battle rage. I can smell the acrid smoke of cannon and musket. I can hear the din of battle and the piercing cries of those who fought there.
The battlefield is very much as it was one hundred and fifty years ago. The community of Sharpsburg has grown to the west and south, away from the battlefield. The scenes of heaviest fighting have all been preserved, from north at the Poffenberger Farm to south at Burnside's Bridge. Perhaps the greatest difference from then to now, besides the Visitors Center, is the East Woods. Today only a small portion remains of the woods that provided protection for Federal brigades as they assembled for their assaults down the Smoketown Road toward the Dunker Church, or through the fields and orchards of the Mumma and Roulette farms toward Bloody Lane.
The American dreams of 3,650 men came to a sudden end on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in the history of this nation. An additional 17,000 men were wounded, and it is estimated that one in seven would eventually succumbed to his wounds. Including the missing in action there were almost 23,000 casualties in a single day of fighting, compared to about 6,600 American casualties on D Day.
The perspective of history allows us to understand that the Antietam fallen were as seed for the hopes and dreams of the four million Americans living in bondage. The Federal victory forced Robert E. Lee to withdraw the Confederate Army back into Virginia, and led directly to President Lincoln issuing his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation just five days later. Not only were all slaves in every rebelling state to be legally freed as of January 1, 1863, the Federal government and its military were now committed to purging the evil of slavery from this land forever.
To read more about Karl Bacon's book, visit www.kbacon.com. To order the book, go to www.zondervan.com.
To read more about Antietam, visit the National Park Service's site at
http://www.nps.gov/ancm/index.htm.