[Looking at why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

Do you live where your grandparents lived?

It is not likely. Throughout history people have moved for a variety of reasons.

A common misconception is the Cherokee (insert whichever group you want) lived in a particular part of Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. People in that location are the descendants of Cherokee forced from their southeastern Appalachian homeland. But there is a “rest of the story.”

We have previously identified other migrations of the “Principal People.” The first in historical times began in 1677 from Virginia. After that came the 1721 Dangerous Man expedition to Louisiana then east Tejas and finally Coahuila, Mexico. Beginning in 1788, several groups relocated west of the Mississippi River.

Because of the Revolutionary War, in 1788 a group of Cherokee, previously aligned with the British, made a petition to the Spanish governor in New Orleans. He granted them permission to settle in the Louisiana territory. Why would the Cherokee even consider that location? Look at history in context.

During the French and Indian War (1753-1764) some of the Coushatta (Koasati) Tribe had aligned with the French, due to a long-standing trade relationship. The Coushatta located in eastern now Tennessee and Alabama, between the Chickasaw to their west and the Cherokee to their east and north.

To the victor goes the spoils and he writes history. Seeing things were going in the wrong direction, France ceded the Louisiana Territory across the Mississippi to Spain in 1763. The area east of the Mississippi, became British colonial territory.

When the British defeated France, the French-aligned Indians were forced from the British America Colonies. Where did they go? They headed across the great river to Louisiana with their former French allies. Over the next few years, another group of the Coushatta, under Chief Red Shoes, migrated to Spanish Louisiana Territory. They settled in the region between the Caddo Indians to the north and Atakapa Indians to the south on both sides of the Sabine River. The area at various times was No Man’s Land for a variety of reasons.

The Coushatta remained friendly with the Caddo. The Caddo were descendants of the Mississippian people living at the mounds near Spiro, now Oklahoma before 1400.

In 1835, the Caddo in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and Miller County, Arkansas, were forced from the United States and subsequently joined their new neighbors, the Coushatta between the Sabine and Brazos Rivers in Tejas/Mexico.

In 1859, after Texas became a part of the U.S., the Caddo were relocated again to Indian Territory, except for those who headed south to Mexico. Does their relocation make any sense? Since 800 A.D., the hereditary home of the Caddo was southeastern Oklahoma woodlands. They had been driven twice. Now they are forced to the arid southwestern Oklahoma and their homeland given to the Cherokee and Choctaw.

Harken back to the Cherokee migration. Where did Cherokee Chief Dangerous Man migrate? To the precise same land on either side of the Sabine, then on to Mexico. Now we are full circle.

But we need to add the 1788 migration of Cherokee to Spanish Louisiana. When the Coushatta moved out of Tennessee, who do you supposed moved in and took over the northern part of their land? You would be correct if you said their Cherokee neighbors.

Now when those same Cherokee are forced out of the United States, where did they go? To the region of Spanish Louisiana and Texas as their former neighbors.

Why was along the Sabine River so inviting to migrating Native Americas? It was across the Mississippi River from the United States, in a very isolated region between French speaking Louisiana and Spanish speaking Tejas/Mexico.

As we continue looking at the tribes moving into the region, we find that many settled into enclaves away from society, others began assimilating as white, and others merged into a different tribe.

Much of this activity is happening well before the final forced migration to Indian Territory. Then that land reserved for Indians was lost when oil was found.

In no rational world can a reasonable, cogent person justify the erratic treatment of the original people by the government.

There was adequate room and land for both societies. The southeastern woodlands tribes up to this point had largely assimilated as English- speaking farmers and ranchers and intermarried with Europeans.

However, some government leaders, such as President Andrew Jackson in the United States and his contemporary, President Mirabeau B. Lamar in Texas, were arrogant, rash and scheming with little regard for law. These two were driven by hatred to the same ethnicity their predecessors had supported and made treaties. Well-meaning leaders made pacts in good- faith, which were subsequently broken by political opportunists.

Think about how one political administration can undo the work of generations. How can we address that problem? How do we relate to people who we perceive are different in some way?

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Excerpts from our book:

No Man’s Land Pioneers, Louisiana’s Wild, Wild West, ISBN: 9781694632128.