American Indians Left Behind

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 began a series of formal, federally mandated and militarily enforced migrations of American Indian groups living East of the Mississippi. These were native peoples whom war, famine, disease and military treaties had not driven out. It was also a collapse of the political notion that Indians should be allowed to become citizens or belong to legal protectorates within the United States, if they adopted European cultural ways, including agriculture, commerce, permanent housing, religion and essential elements of European dress. Most people think of the "Five Civilized Tribes" and the Trail of Tears when they consider the onset of this era of complete racialization of the "Indian Question". In my home state of Ohio, many Indians and people of mixed Indian/European or Indian/African heritage chose not to board the riverboats that would bear them down the Ohio River, then the Mississippi, and finally into the Oklahoma (Indian) Territory. That these "renegades" were able to to do this in Ohio depended on several factors. For one, the state was still extremely rural and heavily wooded back then, so there were places to hide and escape the detection of military authorities. For another, the Quakers gave them asylum in their villages and collective farms, just as they did for runaway slaves. Then there is a third significant factor: these Ohio Indians were good neighbors within the local communities of the general white population. Such communities simply chose not to "rat them out". So these Indians remained scattered all over Ohio, despite even earlier peace treaties of receding boundaries in the state from wars their forebears had lost in the late 1700s and onward. They largely dressed like Europeans, but still preserved certain words, religious rituals, folklore, cuisine, hunting practices, special craft techniques for making tools and vessels, folktales, and decorative traditions and sensibilities from their native ancestors. They inhabit Ohio to this day. Some might call them "white" or "black" or even assume they are some other race by their superficial appearance, but what matters is their honest sense of connection to their American Indian heritage. When it gets right down to it, native cultural practices and values are more important than how much of the genetics survives in these people, who of course have had to intermarry with the people around them over the generations. Most of these people aren't thinking about trying to find a way to get a share of tribal money, or even independent tribal recognition from the Federal Government so that they can receive such monies. They are simply proud not to have to be ethnically covert or ashamed anymore of their heritage. These people have a respect for Nature and preserving and restoring Ohio's scenic beauty, ecological health and the native heritage of the region (including prehistoric earthworks and grave-sites). I myself have no American Indian heritage, but I respect and admire these survivors, these remnants, these descendants of those who stubbornly held on to whatever private homestead they could claim amidst their ancient tribal homeland. They have kept the spiritual flame alive for their brethren and sistren in Oklahoma. In any case, it seems inevitable that one day people of common values from all races and cultures will come together and heal this world.