Trail of Tears 170 Years

The ethnic cleansing of the Cherokee by the US government, made use of the orderly practice established by its parent empire England in its first colony of Northern Ireland. Ironically, this custom of legalizing state-sponsored atrocity with the appearance of fair, albeit asymmetrical exchange, is what now gives the indigenous of former English colonies legal standing for their land and resource claims. Out of habit, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US are still trying to weasel out of bargains they struck in bad faith, but treaties are contracts, and betraying them today exposes perpetrators to charges of racial discrimination under international law—a consequence even bigots try to avoid.

[Jay Thomas Taber (O’Neal) derives from the most prominent tribe in Irish history, nEoghan Ua Niall, the chief family in Northern Ireland between the 4^th and the 17^th centuries. His maternal family name in Irish means champion. Jay’s ancestors were the last great leaders of Gaelic Ireland, and in 1999 he walked the fields of Kinsale where they once fought. His grandmother’s grandfather’s grandfather emigrated from Belfast to South Carolina in 1768.]