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18 million is the max with other estimates being much lower. That's certainly not a fact. And the only source for deaths on the trail of tears is the US govern
by merpnderp 11y ago
18 million is the max with other estimates being much lower. That's certainly not a fact. And the only source for deaths on the trail of tears is the US government which gives 4000.
- protomyth 11y agoYou quote a government source on the deaths cause by said government? "And the only source for deaths on the trail of tears is the US government" No, they are not the only source. "Cherokee Population Losses during the Trail of Tears: A New Perspective and a New Estimate" gives the loses as double. Not counting the subsequent increase in loses where they ended up. I doubt we would take German official's word at numbers during WWII, so I'm not sure why the US's word is valid in this instance. The US couldn't even keep the land ownership and payments straight for the tribes and lost a massive lawsuit because of it.
- merpnderp 11y agoYou are missing my point. I'm not saying the US government is correct, I'm saying no one else was counting the dead. And at the time, the US government had no reason to downplay the numbers since the voting population mostly didn't care. And I don't have time to read your book, but I'm going to guess that the book relies upon the official government numbers and their extrapolates additional deaths based on some criteria. I doubt someone just magically found a new as yet undiscovered accurate death list.
- protomyth 11y agoA lot of work has gone into ancestry by the tribes and finding old records along with tribal sites not destroyed, but quoting old numbers without current research is just wrong.