Gloria Jahoda: The Trail of Tears

Gloria Jahoda

The Trail of Tears

The story of the American Indian Removals 1813-1855

Wings Books, New York, 1995

356 s.

 

We are going with Washington.

Which boat do we get in?

 - Seminole Removal Song

Kuten teoksen alaotsikko kertoo tämä teos on kertomus amerikan alkuperäiskansojen pakkomuutoista omilta asuinpaikoiltaan toisaalle. Kaiken kaikkiaa karua ja kylmäävää historiankertomaa, jonka mielenkiintoisin anti on alkuperäiskansojen omissa "kirjoituksissa" sekä julmien sota- ja taistelukuvien vastapainona upea ja kaunis luonnonkuvaus. 

It was a world of high grasses that sang in the wind, of riverbanks thick with willows and cottonwoods, of the eroded oak-filled Ozark Mountains. On the uplands scurried prairie chickens. From south to north, in summer, ranged the great buffalo herds which had already disappeared from Tahlonteskee's country in the East. Ruddy rivers became choked with them as they swarm across. In the mud of buffalo wallows they rubbed their hides free of incsects and vermin. Their calves fattened on the abundance of forage. Their meat fed the Osages and Blackfeet and Piegans and Mandans and Hidatsas and host of other tribes. But there was surely enough for all, Tahlonteskee resoned. He wathched river hackberries shimmering in the sunlight; he heard the beating wings of golden eagles and the jumping of catfish. Magpies and crows shouted to each other. At night Nahquisi, the evening star, hung low, and coyotes howled. It was a good country, Tahlonteskee argued with himself. The rivers flowed as bright as the brocades that rich white planter's wives wore back home. Wild turkeys ran in the buffalo and gram grasses, and at twilight the whippoorwills called softly. The smells were those of blossoming violet prairie clover and black earth and the bluestem grasses that were so tough they cold exhaust  a man walking through them. The sweetish smell of gypsum-rich river water was borneon long wind swells that combed the prairies and mountain maples and rippled the waters. Elk herds moved slowly as far south as the river Long Knives called the Red. There were deer and jackrabbits and prairie dogs, squirrels and cottontails. In autumn the migrating geese arrived, their silhouttes swift against orange moons.

Koska teos oli englanninkielinen ja erikoissanastoa oli paljon, jäi minulta paljon ymmärtämättäkin. Tässä oli kuitenkin paljon uutta tietoa ja pohdituttavaa, johon mahdollisesti haluan palata. Olisi hienoa, jos joku asianharrastaja saisi innoituksen kääntää tämän teoksen suomenkielelle. Taitaa vain olla niin, että asianharrastajien ja kiinnostuneiden joukko taitaa olla kovin harvalukuinen ja ne, jotka erityisesti ovat kiinnostuneita osaavat englantia paremmin kuin minä.