Ft. Smith, AR

Back at the turn of the century this place defined the law of the Wild West. "Indian Territory" had a lot of problems – not so much whites vs. natives, but rather natives vs. natives. (Local tribes weren’t extremely welcoming when entire tribes from the Southeast were plopped down in their backyards. Incidentally, the new arrivals from the Everglades weren’t very thrilled to be living in Oklahoma.) This was the time of Judge Parker, who ordered over 300 hangings in an attempt to keep order in the chaos of this area. We learned that he actually had a good side, too. He believed that being an Indian didn't make you a criminal, and he supported Women’s suffrage.

This National Park went right over the kids heads, although Peanut managed to earn yet another Junior Ranger Badge. Clearly, I hadn’t been teaching them enough about hangings and relocations on the road. Quite frankly, I was ignorant about Ft. Smith's history before arriving. When we got here, I didn't even realize that Ft. Smith was nearly the final stop on the Trail of Tears route. How embarrassing! At least I'm teaching my kids that one can continue to learn...

The small bit I knew, came from a favorite Linguistics professor, who did extensive research on the Choctaw language. A somber experience indeed. It's interesting to see the kids try to rationalize our actions. I'm sincerely trying to teach accountability to the kids and I'll simply respond to Peanut, "Look, this is a terrible part of our history. We failed at this and in many ways we're still failing here. But accept that it's a piece of our history and let's just keep trying to be better humans." Little Man will say things like, "Well, we were the Native Americans." He'll come up with anything to imagine holding the power in a bow and arrow. So I just shake my head, "Nope, we were the Europeans."

I’ll tell you one thing, Ft. Smith wins the prize for Best Ranger. John Boy Walton’s brother Jason greeted us and then took the kids under his wing, showing them pelts and cowboy gear. He answered a million questions and provoked even more. We were discussing Arkansas hillbilly stereotypes, and he told us this hilarious story (I think it’s actually a song):

"Once there was a traveler going through Arkansas and it started to rain. He found a family who took him in, but there was a big hole in the ceiling. The rain was just pouring in! So, he looked at the man and said, “Why don’t you fix that hole in the roof?” He replied, “Well, I can’t very well fix it when it’s raining!” The man answered back, “I know, but why don’t you fix it when it’s not raining?” The man simply said, “Well, it ain’t leaking then!”

To hear the Ranger tell this story in his slurred speech, had us in hysterics!