I see that the DNC started their summer camp with a land acknowledgement. Those seem to be in fashion these days among some quarters, so I thought that I would do a little research to see who we stole this land from.
As it turns out, nobody. This land was never stolen.
Sometime around 1785 a Pennsylvania trader named Fulton came to this area and set up a trading post. Over the years, he bought land from the Choctaw tribe. The Choctaw thought it was a good deal because the land was unfit for farming and would grow nothing but trees. The Choctaw moved into what is now LaSalle parish. They still have a tribal home there and a casino just down the road. The Choctaw people are not hurting.
Fulton, of course, sold bits of it to others and they subsequently sold it to yet other people, and today I own a bit of it. The damnYankees burned out Courthouse during the war, which really screwed up the land records, but we sorted it out. Then, sometime around 1898 the Courthouse burned again and we had to start over.
Lots of sketchy history in this area. David Bowie of Alamo fame was a land speculator in the area, but got into trouble when he killed the sheriff at the Sandbar Fight. He then decamped to Texas where he got involved in another fight that turned out poorly for him. The Sheriff's picture hangs in the new, rebuilt Courthouse, but np pictures of Bowie can be found.
But, we didn't steal land from the Choctaw.
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