A po
werful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the
forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation&rsquo\
;s earliest days\, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supr
eme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a centur
y later
Before 2020\, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres a re reserved for National Forests&mdash\;in the emergence of this great nat ion\, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peo ples.
\nIn the 1830s\, Muscogee people were rounded up by the US mil itary at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At t he time\, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Okl ahoma was created on top of Muscogee land\, the new state claimed their re servation no longer existed. Over a century later\, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of hi s tribe\, and therefore Oklahoma didn&rsquo\;t have the jurisdiction to ex ecute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In th e summer of 2020\, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the l and in Oklahoma\, including Nagle&rsquo\;s own Cherokee Nation.
\nHe re Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and s overeignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance\, By the Fire We Ca rry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country.
\n\nCoffee an d tea will be provided.
\n\nIf you have any questions about this program\, including accommodations\, please contact N atalie at ftprograms@cc-pl.org. \;Please see all our program offerings in our online newsletter at cc-pl.org/connections.
\nhttps://ccpl.libn et.info/event/17144626 URL;VALUE=URI:https://ccpl.libnet.info/event/17144626 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR