Horrific raid cleared native Indians out of Fort Worth area. How we can honor the past

Spring in the Dallas-Fort Worth area brings reflections on freedom, ranging from Passover to Texas Independence Day and Memorial Day.

I find myself thinking about a fight for freedom that took place here in Tarrant County and ultimately made possible my birth in Fort Worth, my mother graduating from Poly High School, my grandfather working as a Fort Worth fireman and my father’s presence as an air traffic controller at Dallas Love Field on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

This struggle extends beyond me, though. It made possible all we enjoy in North Texas.

May 24, 1841, is a historical turning-point for all of us who call this area home. While not all the facts are clear, we know this: Mirabeau B. Lamar, the Republic of Texas president, had declared an “exterminating war” against the Indian inhabitants aimed at “their total extinction or total expulsion.”

Consequently, Gen. Edward H. Tarrant organized a group of Texas militia who attacked Native American settlements on Village Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River near today’s Fort Worth and Arlington city limits. Accounts suggest that Cherokees, Muscogees/Creeks, Seminoles, Kickapoos, Shawnees, various Caddo groups, various Wichita groups and perhaps others lived there.

The Texans plundered and destroyed the settlements and took prisoners. Several Native Americans died trying to repel these foreign invaders. Denton County’s namesake, Captain John B. Denton, also died.

The raid achieved its goal. Native peoples were unjustly forced from their homes and the area and soon Texans and Americans moved in. The Telegraph and Texas Register proclaimed, “A vast region of fertile territory has thus been redeemed from the savage domination.”

It laid the foundation for our lives here. Everywhere you walk today, where you work, where you eat, where you play with your children, where you will sleep tonight is where Indian peoples walked, worked, ate, played with their children, and slept for centuries before our ancestors violently took it.

Our lives and happiness are built on the deaths and sorrows of Native American peoples. Our liberty is built on their subjugation.

Unfortunately, we can’t change the past, but we can live responsibly with it. How? Here’s a few suggestions:

Don’t be afraid of history’s facts. Great nations, great people, take responsibility. The American invasion of Indian lands was not about bringing freedom.

As a Kiowa elder once said to me, “We were free before the Americans ever came.” They also were happy, prosperous, sophisticated — and definitely not “savage” or “uncivilized.” Make sure that gets taught in our schools.

Become aware of Indian peoples. Listen to them. Learn from them. Try giving their voices equal time, rather than making them invisible.

How many Native Americans are in positions of power or influence at your work or school or government? There are plenty of qualified Native peoples living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Get rid of Indian mascots. They don’t honor Indians, and they are racist — just ask Indian people. Instead, see Indian peoples as they are today: modern, resilient, smart, and diverse.

If you live or work in a school district that tolerates these mascots, take responsibility for getting them changed.

May 24, 1841, lives on, creating responsibility for all North Texans. We benefit every day from past and ongoing dispossession of Native Americans. We can, however, use our privilege in respectful and meaningful ways. After all, we are really guests in their homelands.