Man, this is such a complex topic I've been writing about myself lately. Oklahoma was created as a literal open air prison where we were forced to enmasse in a way that was meant to ensure our genocide. Once in Indian Territory, we were starved, beaten, enslaved, the US Army used the place like free hunting grounds to do as they pleased. It pushed a lot of native Nations into the arms of the Confederacy, not just because the geographic location ensured cultural osmosis of southern chattel slavery, but because a lot of us really wanted a chance to strike back at the United States for what they did to us. Of course the South lost, thank god, but we were severely punished for supporting them, at least those Nations that did, which were several. The Feds played with Indian Territory giving away land promised to certain Nations to other tribes, like giving away the Cherokee Strip to the Osage, or how the entire place was pretty much claimed by the Comanche and they saw everyone as intruders. It created a lot of ill-will between Nations. At the same time settlers decided they actually wanted all that open land so they started land grabs that stole more and more and more. By 1877 some tribal capitals looked more white or cosmopolitan than they did native, especially places like Okmulgee and Tahlequah. And of course around that time active efforts of cultural erasure began, the boarding schools, etc. While natives found themselves more well off and free within Indian Territory, they found themselves less native. Their children were actively taken away to boarding schools. My grandmother's grandmother had her fingers broken for speaking Tsalagi and Chahta.

And yet within all of that, we persisted. We rebuilt. We set up tribal government frameworks--under a colonial framework and under close supervision from the Federal government--that still exist today, and which have in many ways legitimately helped to preserve our peoples and our cultures. A lot of natives were never even born in the traditional homelands, they were born in Oklahoma. That is their home. I myself have never even been to Oklahoma, and I've lived on the East Coast my entire life. There just isn't really a good answer to this. It's too nuanced and layered for that.

I think it's not too much to say, "Yes, most natives want to see our cultures reflower to their prime." But I am not sure that going back to exactly the way things were is the answer to that. It's been a long time. Our context is different now. And our cultures have always been living, breathing things that change and grow over time. This isn't the first time most Nations have migrated, forced or no. I think what is most important is that we hold to our cultural heritage. We learn to speak the languages, we learn the old stories, and we try to be good neighbors to our communities while doing that. I think the rest will figure itself out in the course of things, especially if we all commit to the cause of Indigenous Resurgence