As we’ve all heard, the US Treasury wants to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman. While a great choice, I think that Sitting Bull would be a better choice simply because of one event: The Trail of Tears.
In 1830 a group of Native American Tribes referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole, were living as autonomous nations in what would be later called the American Deep South. The Trail of Tears began when Andrew Jackson was able to gain Congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the government to extinguish Native American title to lands in the Southeast.
By 1837, 46,000 Native Americans from the southeastern states had been removed from their homelands. By the end, nearly 4,000 members of the Cherokee Nation had died during their relocation.
I see Sitting Bull replacing Jackson on the $20 Bill as a reparation to the Native American people for what happened during the Trail of Tears.
SOURCE
SOURCE
