Monday, April 20, 2009

History

History is one of my favorite things to read and learn about. It is always interesting to think about how the world would be different if something had gone another way. Especially when those changes could have had a personal effect on my own life.

I was watching American Experience tonight and they are showing this series called "We Shall Remain." In a nut shell it is about the Native American and there struggle to hold on to the land. In the second episode shown tonight, there was a warrior named Tecumseh.

Tecumseh was the leader of the Shawnee tribe of Indians, that has a vision about a Indian confederacy that would encompass more than half of what we know as the United States. After the sale of 3 mil. acres of land to the American government, Tecumseh was able to rally together the leaders of several different tribes. He and the other leaders launched a campaign against the American armies, and fought for the land. When the war of 1812 started Tecumseh made an alliance with the British army to not only protect the British's Canadian interests but also help the Indians by keeping the Americans from taking any more of the land. I won't go into great detail, but the British fell through on there end of the bargain and bailed out on the Indians in the end. Though in the beginning of the campaign the Indians had real promise and it looked as though they would pull off there dreams.

It just makes me wonder what my life would look like if Tecumseh and the other leaders had succeeded. Being part Cherokee Indian that could have changed my life dramatically. This country would be very different from what is is today. I don't know those kind of thing just are so intriguing to me and my mind goes on wild tangents. I just imagine how things might have been different.

If you wanted to chech out the series:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/episode_2_trailer