'Respect us or expect us': Andrew Jackson statue vandalized in front of White HouseA statue of former President Andrew Jackson outside of the White House was vandalized Monday during a protest over a pipeline.
"Expect us" was written on the statue's base and part of a chant protesters shouted against a pipeline in Minnesota. The full chant, "respect us or expect us," protests Line 3 , which runs through lands owned by Indigenous tribes. According to the protesters' website , the concern is that the pipeline could spill and ruin some of the land Indigenous people use to farm.
Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 , which took land away from the Natives and gave it to the states. The act led to the "Trail of Tears," in which approximately 4,000 Cherokees died as they were forced to vacate their land. Jackson was no longer the president during the Trail of Tears, though it was the direct enforcement of the Removal Act.
The protest was brought to the nation's capital on Columbus Day, which has become a contentious day for some, especially among Indigenous peoples, who view Christopher Columbus as a colonizer as opposed to a discoverer. .........
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