An American Holocaust

What other term could accurately describe the near-extermination of Native Americans, now almost completely forgotten? One count in the indictment:

President Andrew Jackson gave the order that started the Trail of Tears, the cruel removal of American Indians to west of the Mississippi River. Now Jackson's plantation home near Nashville, the Hermitage, has been named as an official site along the historic trail that commemorates the Trail of Tears.

Hermitage Executive Director Patricia Leach said the recognition Wednesday opens a new chapter in Jacksonian history by acknowledging one the darkest periods in his presidency.

Jackson issued the order in 1830 to forcibly remove more than 16,000 Cherokee from their homes in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia. Hundreds died during the trip west in 1838 to what is now Oklahoma; thousands more died after relocation.

Whether you're packed into a traincar in Poland or forced to walk a thousand miles from your home in Alabama--is there a real difference?

To this day the American government has never chosen to deal honestly or fairly with Native Americans. At least in the past few decades, they've started to be slightly more forthright about this choice.