Trails of tears and Palestine

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The Five Nations: A History of Sovereignty, Dispossession, and "Vassalization" by the United States

The story of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Nations – collectively known as the "Five Civilized Tribes" – stands as a poignant and often tragic chapter in the history of the United States. It is a narrative of sophisticated Indigenous sovereignties progressively undermined, stripped, and forced into a state of "vassalization" by an expanding and increasingly powerful nation. While never officially termed "vassals" by the U.S. government, the historical reality of their relationship, particularly from the early 19th to the mid-20th century, closely mirrors this concept of a powerful suzerain imposing its will upon subordinate, albeit internally autonomous, entities.

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, these five nations were formidable powers in the American Southeast. They possessed complex political systems, advanced agricultural practices, distinct languages, rich cultural traditions, and well-defined territorial boundaries. By the early 19th century, many had adopted aspects of Euro-American culture, developing written constitutions, bicameral legislatures, written languages (like Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary), and settled farming communities. They were, by any reasonable measure, independent and sovereign nations engaged in treaty-making with the nascent United States government on a nation-to-nation basis.

The early 19th century, however, ushered in an era of escalating conflict driven by relentless white settler expansion and insatiable demand for land, particularly after the discovery of gold on Cherokee lands in Georgia. Despite treaties explicitly recognizing their land rights, the U.S. government, fueled by states' rights rhetoric and popular sentiment epitomized by President Andrew Jackson, embarked on a policy of "Indian Removal." The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the forced relocation of these nations from their ancestral homelands to "Indian Territory" (present-day Oklahoma).

The culmination of this policy was the infamous "Trail of Tears" (1830s), a series of forced marches that resulted in the deaths of thousands from disease, starvation, and exposure. This was not an act of legal annexation but a brutal act of ethnic cleansing and dispossession. The nations did not "cede" their lands willingly; they were violently expelled, their sovereign rights and treaty guarantees trampled underfoot.

Upon arrival in Indian Territory, these nations remarkably demonstrated incredible resilience. They rebuilt their societies, establishing new capitals, writing new constitutions, founding schools, judicial systems, and economic enterprises. For a few decades, they largely managed their own affairs, operating as internally sovereign entities within a territory promised to them "in perpetuity" by the U.S. government.

However, this period of relative autonomy proved fleeting. The U.S. vision for "Indian Territory" was not permanent Indigenous self-rule, but rather a temporary holding ground before eventual assimilation and absorption into the broader American state. The process of "vassalization" intensified through a series of legislative actions:

The Dawes Act of 1887 was a critical blow. It unilaterally dissolved the communal land ownership systems central to tribal identity and economy, allotting individual parcels of land to tribal members. Any "surplus" land was then declared open for white settlement, leading to a massive influx of non-Native settlers and a dramatic reduction of tribal land bases. This act was a direct imposition of the suzerain's legal system onto the internal affairs of the "vassal" nations, without their consent.

Further eroding their sovereignty, the Curtis Act of 1898 effectively dismantled the tribal governments, abolishing their courts and forcing them to operate under federal law, clearing the path for territorial organization and, ultimately, statehood. These legislative acts transformed the treaty-based, nation-to-nation relationship into one where the U.S. Congress exercised near-absolute, "plenary power" over Native American affairs, dictating their governance, land tenure, and even citizenship. This unilateral assertion of control, despite treaty obligations, is a hallmark of a vassal-suzerain dynamic.

By 1907, with the admission of Oklahoma as a state, the "Indian Territory" ceased to exist as a distinct political entity. The Five Nations, though retaining their identities, were formally integrated into the state and federal system, their citizens becoming U.S. citizens and their governments largely disempowered.

While the term "domestic dependent nations" is the official legal designation, it was coined during an era when the "dependent" aspect heavily outweighed the "nation" aspect. The term "vassalization" accurately captures the historical reality of powerful nations being brought under the severe political, legal, and economic subservience of a dominant power.

In recent decades, however, the Five Nations and other Native American tribes have seen a powerful resurgence of their inherent sovereignty. Through legal victories (such as McGirt v. Oklahoma in 2020), economic development, and renewed cultural and political activism, they are actively rebuilding their nations and asserting their rights to self-determination, though always within the complex framework of their unique "domestic dependent nation" status within the United States. This ongoing struggle continues to define their complex relationship with the very power that once sought to dismantle them.

The Palestinian Fate: Dispossession and the Echoes of the "Trail of Tears"

The experience of the Palestinian people since the mid-20th century, marked by mass displacement, land confiscation, and the systematic undermining of their self-determination, bears striking and often tragic parallels to the historical "Trail of Tears" endured by Native American nations. While distinct in their specifics, both narratives reveal a pattern of a powerful, settler-colonial project driven by ideological claims and implemented through methods designed to dispossess indigenous populations for territorial expansion and demographic control.

Before 1948, Palestine was a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society under the British Mandate. However, the escalating Zionist movement, aiming to establish a Jewish state, intensified tensions. The UN Partition Plan of 1947, proposing a division of the land, was largely rejected by the Arab population, who comprised the majority and owned most of the land.

The critical turning point was the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which Palestinians call the Nakba ("catastrophe"). During this conflict, approximately 750,000 Palestinians—over half of the Arab population of Mandate Palestine—were expelled or fled from their homes. Zionist and later Israeli forces used various methods, including direct military assaults, massacres, and psychological warfare, to induce flight. Over 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed or depopulated, and their lands were subsequently absorbed into the newly declared State of Israel. This was not a voluntary migration; it was a forced displacement, driven by violence and the deliberate erasure of Palestinian presence. This initial, foundational act of dispossession resonates deeply with the forced removal of Native Americans.

The methods of Israeli control and land acquisition did not end in 1948; they evolved and intensified after the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The tactics employed to control and dispossess Palestinians in these occupied territories have since become systematic and multifaceted:

1. Military Occupation and Control: Palestinians in the occupied territories live under a pervasive Israeli military occupation. This includes checkpoints, movement restrictions, permits, and a dual legal system where Israelis in settlements are under civilian law, while Palestinians are under military law. This creates a highly controlled environment, severely limiting Palestinian freedom and development, similar to how Native Americans were confined to reservations with limited autonomy.

2. Settlement Expansion and Land Confiscation: Israel has systematically established and expanded hundreds of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are illegal under international law (Fourth Geneva Convention). This expansion involves the direct confiscation of vast tracts of Palestinian land, often through various legalistic maneuvers such as declaring land "state land," "absentee property," or for "military purposes." This mirrors the way U.S. land laws and treaties (often fraudulent) were used to legitimize the taking of Native American lands.

3. Home Demolitions and Discriminatory Planning: Palestinian homes and structures are frequently demolished on the grounds of lacking Israeli-issued permits, which are often impossible for Palestinians to obtain in areas controlled by Israel (like Area C of the West Bank and East Jerusalem). Meanwhile, Israeli settlement construction is heavily facilitated. This "discriminatory urban planning" is a deliberate tool for population control and pushing Palestinians out of strategic areas.

4. Restrictions on Movement and Access to Resources: A complex system of checkpoints, walls, and bypass roads (often for settler-only use) fragments Palestinian communities and severely restricts their movement, stifling economic activity and access to essential services. Control over water resources, a vital element in a dry region, is also disproportionately allocated to Israeli settlements, while Palestinian communities face severe shortages. This mirrors tactics used to starve Native American tribes into submission by destroying their traditional food sources.

5. Citizenship and Residency Laws: Israel's laws, such as the Law of Return (granting automatic citizenship to Jews globally) and the Absentee Property Law (confiscating land from Palestinians displaced in 1948), are highly discriminatory. Palestinian refugees from 1948 are denied the right of return to their homes, and even Palestinians in East Jerusalem, though residing under Israeli law, hold a precarious "permanent residency" status that can be revoked. This "personal status engineering" manipulates demographics to ensure a Jewish majority and prevent the return of dispossessed Palestinians.

6. Violence and Intimidation: Alongside official policies, Palestinian communities face violence from both Israeli settlers and military forces, often with little accountability. This persistent threat of violence contributes to a coercive environment that can lead to further displacement and erode the will to resist.

The Palestinian experience, like the Trail of Tears, represents a profound loss of self-determination, territory, and a continuous struggle for basic rights. The methods employed – from outright force to legalistic maneuvers and demographic engineering – illustrate a calculated process of dispossession and control. For Palestinians, the Nakba is not just a historical event but an ongoing reality, deeply defining their collective memory and their enduring struggle for justice, return, and the right to live freely in their homeland.