Local champion for the civil rights of women (cough) and Native Americans (cough cough sorry; theres something in our throats), Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, wants the government to remove Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill because of the part he played in Native American relocation.
The Administration has already announced they will place a woman on the $10 bill in 2020, Lankford said in a Jan. 21 press release. I support recognition of a historic American woman on the $20 bill and the removal of Andrew Jackson, since he began the Indian removal policies that forced thousands of American Indians off their ancestral homelands.
As president, Andrew Jacksons Indian removal policies led to the forced relocation of millions and the death of thousands of American Indians, the press release said.
Everyone likes $20 bills, but who likes Andrew Jackson anyway?! To be fair, his mother probably liked him and we dont really know what he was like outside of work, but thats beside the point.
Anyways, what we really want to say is we think it would be great if the woman on the $20 bill was a Native American from Oklahoma, and we have recommendations.
Wilma Mankiller was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, serving 1985-1995. During her tenure, she supported community development and business projects and worked to improve relations between the tribe and the federal government. Bill Clinton awarded Mankiller the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998.
Native American activist Suzan Shown Harjo is a poet and writer and is also president of the Morning Star Institute, a Native American rights organization. She helped pass the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act and 1990s Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.
Alice Brown Davis, the first female Principal Chief of the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma, and activist Roberta Lawson, who served on the National Committee for the Mobilization for Human Needs and was president of the Oklahoma State Federation of Womens Clubs, would also be great candidates.
Lankford is a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
Print headline: Native support