FORT SMITH, JUDGE PARKER and THE TRAIL OF TEARS

We left Oklahoma yesterday and stopped off at Fort Smith.
I had always wanted to see this place because it was on the "frontier" between the white lands and indian lands. It was a lawless area until a severe and able Federal Judge, Issac Parker was appointed to dispense justice.


He was nicknamed "The Hanging Judge" because of the many men he sent to the gallows.

During his 21 years on the bench at Fort Smith, Judge Parker sentenced 160 men to die and hanged 79 of them. It didn't take Parker long to get going. On May 10, 1875 -- only 8 days after he arrived at Fort Smith -- he opened his first term of court. Eighteen persons came before him charged with murder and 15 were convicted. Eight of them were sentenced to die on the gallows on September 3, 1875. One was killed trying to escape and a second had his sentence commuted to life in prison because of his youth.

To capture the bad guys, Judge Parker deputized marshals
who would go into the Indian territories with a mini wagon train and a pocketful of warrants. It was a risky job and about a 1/3 of them lost their lives on the job.

For every 7 white men captured this way, there would be 3 afro-americans and 1 Indian.

His court room has been recreated but the ambiance is missing. He was no friend to the defence and justice was heavily weighted in favour of the prosecution.

Fort Smith was also important in a dark part of American history,
the "ethnic cleansing of the South".


In 1831, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, and Seminole were living in the American Deep South. But the white man wanted their lands. So they had their lands taken from them under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. They were rounded up and placed in concentration camps, before being sent on a forced march west to Oklahoma.This became known as the trail of tears.

The Seminoles in Florida were the only tribe who tried hard to resist this. The war cost over $20 million and even now there are a small group who maintain that they won!

Perhaps they did as thay have the right to run casinos on their lands and the slogan is "Taking back America, one nickel at a time."