This week was focused on a lot of negatives as a part of Native American history and culture. The Native removals were the most prominent portion of this week and rightly so. They destroyed communities and cultures by relocating mass amounts of natives across the country. Some of these removals hit close to home, literally. The Blackhawk War was fought very close to my home in northern Illinois. There is a famous statue of Chief Blackhawk in a neighboring town and the Battle of Stillman’s Run was fought in another neighboring town, which was a victory for Blackhawk’s warriors and cost Illinois militia a few lives in the process. The commander of the militia was named Isiah Stillman, which is where the town’s name came from. There are also stories and rumors that a volunteer militia member named Abraham Lincoln was present at the battle, which is a big claim to fame for the town, which happens to be our high school sports rival. I have an interesting perspective from that side of the removal and I am glad I know and care to share that information. In general, I think I was most interested this week in the Marshall Trilogy, which were Supreme Court cases that we focused on in Wednesday’s class. These are a lot more prominent than people think and these cases were the groundwork for what followed in native American policy and how they were viewed as a culture at that point. The most prominent of the cases now is Worcester v Georgia and I personally recognize it as a landmark case in the Supreme Court’s history although others would not agree with me. I have a real fascination with legal history, especially analyzing landmark cases and what roles they played in society outside of what you would expect them to. This case took away state control over native affairs, which furthermore gave Jacksonian democracy a forefront in American politics, something that it did not deserve. The eagerness and attitude of Jackson is something I will never personally understand, as many of his policies and ideas contradict each other. I have always established and believed he put personal attention and glory ahead of anything he did outside or inside the White House. Regardless, native relations with the federal government at least became a little more regulated with the Worcester decision. Week eight has come and gone. Here’s to week nine!