Because Oct. 10 was Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I want to share a few thoughts about an article I read the other day on ushistory.org concerning the Trail of Tears. It stated that Andrew Jackson wanted to remove “native peoples” from their lands to “make room for settlers and often for speculators who made large profits from the purchase and sale of land.”

If this was the case, why not point settlers and speculators to the lands (modern-day Oklahoma) where the State of Georgia and Andrew Jackson wanted to expel natives? If the land was as good as Jackson made it out to be, why not take it for themselves? Was not this land already available? Would it not be easier for all parties involved to send “settlers” and “speculators” to the unpopulated lands, rather than to force a nation out of its territory, and then deal with a “Trail of Tears”’?