The US should not honor it now. There are no Cherokees alive today that had their land taken that way, there are no US authorities alive today that took it. At this point to change the ownership of that land would create chaos. It would spread to every state and tribe. There were many treaties that were broken on both sides with many tribes. That is all water under the bridge and going back now to do anything about it is nonsense.
People used to start countries by conquering other people, that is how it once worked. Native Americans conquered each other for better areas to live, or hunt. In many cases we did acquire the land by trade, purchase, agreement. As was done all over. Who is going to research the land further back to find the supposed actual owners and find their descendants? How far do we go? We have DNA now so I guess we could look for descendants of the earliest known group in each area and give all the land to them. Of course we would have to repeat that every time there is proof of earlier inhabitants.
Are you willing to just give up your home? Wherever it is there were people before you there that claimed that same land.
This is all craziness...every inch of land that is owned in the world was once owned by others. I am sure the descendants of those that came before would love to be able to get that land back but really?
What really needs to happen is Native Americans, and African Americans need to just become Americans. Time for them to assimilate and not worry about what happened to their ancestors. As much as I love history I disagree with getting mired in it today. We need to move forward and deal with today’s issues, we have plenty of them to deal with.
That is dishonorable. A treaty is a treaty, most were broken. The Indian Nations have sovereignty, the slaves did not.
Who is going to research the land further back to find the supposed actual owners and find their descendants? How far do we go?
Right straight to the treaties. This is a nation of laws.