I will respond via email personally to Sylvia in re to these messages on behalf of Margie and Chuck. If anyone has any information to contribute to the Military pages, please send it to them, they will be happy to have a well-rounded collection of items from all counties. Thanks, Brenda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sylvia Caldwell Rankin" <sylvia@studiosr.com> To: <GAGEN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 8:14 AM Subject: [GAGEN] Georgia's Military Page/Indian Wars page issue... Gosh. I almost wish I had never asked for a little correction on the inaccurate info on Trail of Tears to be revised in a manner more objective and respectful of the Native American point of view (also)! I noted this morning that the Indian Wars link now points to a new page that says: "Indian Wars - If you have any records, Rosters, massacres, diaries, bibles pertaining to the Indian Wars please send to me and I will add them here...Do you have stories or family history of Troops or settlers that were massacred by or fled from the Indians..." Georgia was home to the Native Americans before some of our folks came here. Additionally, some of our ancestors married Cherokee. I am asking that we please think of the Native American folks who may be also researching here. If we ask for folks to send in for posting stories of Indian depredations---then would we also want to ask for stories about our ancestors killing Indians and forcing them from their lands?? I don't think we really want to go there. Please! I am only asking for us to consider "Fair & Balanced" reporting here! (original email below--) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- I keep coming back to the Georgia Military Records section on the State page ( http://www.rootsweb.com/~gagenweb/records/military.htm ) -- just poking around for information, etc. I am wondering about this page and some information contained therein: (BTW -- the link should say something like War Time Line, instead of 'wartimeine', perhaps) http://www.rootsweb.com/~gagenweb/records/wartimeline.htm Notwithstanding this statement -- which is condensed down to now being totally incorrect and should be revised or removed---- "1836 War of Texas Independence More than 30,000 American settlers in Texas fight Mexico for independence." (There were a lot more Irish and Mexicans and Texicans who were there fighting than Americans.) This is the one that really worries me: "1838-39 Trail of Tears More than 7,000 soldiers relocate Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Chickasaw Indians from their lands in North Carolina and Georgia to territory in present-day Oklahoma. More than 4,000 Indians die during the journey." .....................Here we have a page on our state site that is titled "A Chronology of Conflict" and it lists the Trail of Tears with all of these "wars"? I feel that we might be sounding just a little insensitive here! I just completed a course at Emory on the history of the Cherokee, and we learned that the last of the Cherokee to leave this area agreed to remove themselves and were led by their own leadership. The 7,000 troops under General Winfield Scott did not "relocate" them, as stated here. Additionally, I spent a week in Tahlequah, OK in February---learning a lot about the Cherokee people, their life in "Old Cherokee Nation", and their forced migration to Indian Territory in the West. While I do not subscribe to re-writing history, I do think that we might be more objective in telling the story or presenting the "facts", perhaps. I have seen the website that this information possible came from -- but just because it's posted someplace, doesn't make it right. Additionally, I am wondering about this Military History section. It doesn't all pertain to Georgia. (Perhaps we could say that a lot of it doesn't pertain to Georgia?) What is our position in GAGenWeb relative to the Georgia pages actually containing Georgia information? See also: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gagenweb/records/IndianWars.htm ==== GAGEN Mailing List ==== Got a problem? Contact your RC or ASC at GAGENWEB-L@rootsweb.com