Monuments to General Stand Watie . . .

[redcliffsw]

Attention: Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr.,                                                                  6/13/20

In the Tahlequah Daily Press you stated the following, "Cherokee Nation's association with the Union and the Confederacy is a complicated one, and a story that needs to be taught and understood."
Your statement was correct and the TRUTH needs to be told.  It is very sad to see you in support of removing Confederate monuments to Cherokee General Stand Watie. The Cherokee Nation drew up a Declaration of Independence and allied with the Confederacy when they saw the evil intentions of the Union against the Confederacy.  Lincoln's illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional invasion of the South, and the systemic rape, looting, arson, and murder committed against the Southern people was only practice for what the Union armies were to later carry out against the Native American Indians in this country. Numerous brave men consisting of blacks, whites, Mexicans, Jews, Irish, and Native American Indians fought to defend their homes and families from the hoards of devils dressed in blue. Our Confederate monuments have been under attack for a number of years now and are being destroyed and removed due to the collective ignorance of millions of Americans who have no clue as to the truth about our history. Our flags and monuments are called "racist" and "symbols of slavery" which is beyond ridiculous, and the liberal media helps to keep this false narrative of 150+ years stirred up. Our history was rewritten during Reconstruction when Yankee school teachers were sent South to indoctrinate Southern children about how "traitorous" and "evil" their Confederates were for legally seceding from the Union and forming their own country. The false narrative that the war was "all about freeing the slaves" is beyond ridiculous and easily debunked. If it was about "freeing the slaves" as we so often hear, why did the Union not first free the more than 429,000 slaves that it held in bondage?  Why was the Corwin Amendment used to try to entice the South back into the Union? This amendment would have forever made it illegal to abolish slavery if the South would just return to the Union and ratify it. This would have been the original 13th Amendment. Numerous letters from soldiers on both sides prove that the war was not about slavery, as well as the "Official Records: War of the Rebellion".  Our Confederate ancestors fought for the same reasons as their colonial ancestors did against the British. Excessive taxation, oppression, and tyranny were the principle reasons our ancestors withdrew from the Union and formed their own country. Had Lincoln not invaded, there would have been no war.  But Lincoln could not bear to lose the revenue being extracted from the South (85% of the federal revenues came from the South).  The false narrative parroted by the media, politicians, Hollywood, PBS, and the History Channel is all Marxist propaganda to cover up the real reasons for the war and to destroy the history, culture, symbols, and heritage of the people of the South. If the same things were being done against any other group of people in this country, the outcry would be so loud and so long that it could not succeed, but since this cultural genocide is being committed against the "bad and evil Southerners" it is tolerated, and the flames of hatred are fanned by the media and local politicians. I implore you to reverse the decision of removing the monuments of General Stand Watie and help to get the true version of our/your history spread across the land.  I leave you with a quote from Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee:

"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations."
- Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General,  United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1906

Unreconstructed,
Jeff Paulk                                                                                                                                                               Tulsa, OK