644: Random Acts of History
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- This story begins with a random encounter with history. Our senior producer, Brian Reed, was spending a lot of time in Alabama a few years back during reporting. And one morning he went for a jog near his hotel. He was in Tuscaloosa, and he got to this park. - Were the ruins of the old state capital R, and then I ran down this little pathway down the hill, and I saw this marker, one of those historical markers, and I have never forgotten this thing. Like, it stayed with me, and every time I went back to Tuscaloosa, which was a number of times, I would go at some point during the trip, walk over and read it again. I brought my wife one time, I brought her to see a friend. Like, I've been there a bunch, and-- - It made an impression. - Yes. - So you have the text here, I know. - Yeah. So, the markers titled "The Indian Fires Are Going Out", in quotes, and it explains that the trail of tears led thousands of Creek Indians through Tuscaloosa back when it was the capital of Alabama, on their way to the west as they were being driven from that part of the country. - And their homelands. - Yeah, and their homelands. And that during that time, a Creek chief addressed the legislature on their way out of the state with these words, give this speech. Quote, "I come here, brothers, "to see the great house of Alabama "and the men who make the laws, "and to say farewell in brotherly kindness "before I go to the far west, "where my people are now going. "In time gone by, I have thought that the white men "wanted to bring burden and ache of heart among my people "and driving them from their homes "and yoking them with laws they do not understand. "But I have now become satisfied "that they are not unfriendly toward us, "that they wish us well. "In these lands of Alabama, "which have belonged to my forefathers "and where their bones lie buried, "I see that the Indian fires are going out. "Soon they will be cold.
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