Speaking of bigotries and atrocities, we as a nation and a region are inching closer to partially righting a similar political "war" wrong perpetrated here in the Chattanooga area nearly 200 years ago - the time when the Cherokee people were forcibly removed from Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina in what eventually became the Trail of Tears.
A bill introduced in the House in September by U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, the Republican representing Tennessee's 3rd District, could return 76 acres of tribal land to the Cherokee homeland in Monroe County near the confluence of the Tennessee and Little Tennessee rivers.
That's where the tribe once was headquartered, and Patrick Lambert, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, said the Eastern Band Cherokee Historic Lands Reacquisition Act would be historic for the descendants of the Overhill Cherokee - so named for those who crossed the Appalachians to live in East Tennessee and the Little Tennessee River Valley.
The bill seeks to place the land in trust status, a designation Lambert said has been used by other tribes for similar purposes. It also stipulates gambling operations cannot be established on the land, and any shoreline work would be subject to TVA approval.
Any recognition of the Cherokee Removal as a low point in our history is, and should be, applauded.