A former president and principal founder of the Democratic Party should not be glorified in the White House a U.S. presidential hopeful said in Iowa on Aug. 19. Also, his medals should be stripped,
“If and when I’m president of the United States, we will begin by taking that picture of Andrew Jackson off the wall of the Oval Office.” Williamson was speaking at the Frank LaMere Presidential Candidate Forum at the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, to an audience of Native Americans. “I am not a Native American woman, but I find it one of the greatest insults.”
After being elected as the nation’s seventh president, Jackson was often commended on his rise from being the humble son of immigrants to getting elected to the highest office in the country. He achieved many military victories in battles against the United Kingdom in the War of 1812.
However, spiritual author Williamson accused Jackson of causing violent conflicts between Native Americans and the U.S. government during the 1830s after he signed the controversial Indian Removal Act. The legislation authorized the president to discuss the relocation of southern Native American tribes to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in return for white people settling on their ancestral lands.
She expressed her dissatisfaction with Jackson’s decision to relocate the Native Americans along what is dubbed the “Trail of Tears.”
“It is one of the great shames, the great pockmarks on the heart of the psyche of American history,” she said, according to CNN. “This is not a president who should be shown the honor of his portrait hanging in the Oval Office.”
Williamson hopes removing the portrait and medals will be a step towards national “atonement” for the past treatment of Native American people. She also promised to withdraw military medals of honor from Jackson and others who fought against Native American people.
“You will not be insulted, you will be more than not insulted,” Williamson said, according to CNN. “If I am president of the United States, there will be a level of atonement, there will be a level of making amends.”
She promised to bring a “new era of American history” with Native Americans.
Although Williamson has previously supported compensation for victims of slavery, she did not promise any financial reparations for Native Americans. She described their history as a “more complicated situation.”
She is keen for the United States to follow the German example in reconciling with persecuted Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust. She described it as a “template of our national repair” that could be used for the United States to reconcile with Native Americans.
Williamson would also like the education system to teach children about how the United States mistreated Native Americans.
“It is time for us to do some very important, deep, and powerful repair work,” she said, according to Fox News.
