“The Cherokee leaders didn’t decide submission to the USA was a good idea and force it on their people.”
BTW, the Cherokee leaders submitted to ‘American civilization’ fully 30 years before the Trail of Tears. They were better educated and more eloquent than you or I ever will be. Many were rich. They won supreme court decisions in their favor, but it didn’t matter. Just like it doesn’t matter now. Do you own your property? No. The state does. And I’ve had to uproot and leave my home because of a barrio moving in. Millions of US citizens are having to leave their home for work, yet the aliens and visa holders work in our home towns.
All our protests are as hollow and ineffective as they were 200 years ago and we have no more rights than those folks did. We can’t get the government’s support or protection against invasion any more than they could. And if another amnesty is given, that’s exactly what it’s going to be.
I don't think that the Cherokee considered themselves to be fully US citizens, but could be wrong.
Any small nation (as I think the Cherokee could be considered) that depended on the goodwill of the US has generally gotten shafted at some point, especially if they had something that some business interest wanted.