Forts and bases tend to repeat themselves. The territorialization of settler colonialism at one point in time becomes the grounds for both ongoing possession and expansion elsewhere. That said, I still need to better understand the relationship between Chaffee and Fort Smith, some 15 miles west.
Because of course, in the 19th century, Fort Smith was the fort on the frontier, on the edge of US territory. Fort Smith was established on the banks of the Arkansas River in 1817. (The next year, the Quapaw people ceded their lands to what would Jackson would later declare a reservation at Hot Springs). A few short years later, Fort Smith served as a transit point and stockade for the forced resettlement during Indian Removal. That is, it became part of Trail of Tears for some of the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole peoples whom the federal government was relocating.
Because of course, in the 19th century, Fort Smith was the fort on the frontier, on the edge of US territory. Fort Smith was established on the banks of the Arkansas River in 1817. (The next year, the Quapaw people ceded their lands to what would Jackson would later declare a reservation at Hot Springs). A few short years later, Fort Smith served as a transit point and stockade for the forced resettlement during Indian Removal. That is, it became part of Trail of Tears for some of the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole peoples whom the federal government was relocating.
The National Park Service at Fort Smith does go to some efforts to relate this history of empire's border to contemporary visitors, for whom this being the boundary between sovereign territories may seem unimaginable.
Still, the commemoration of the Trail of Tears and ongoing white land grabs sits uneasily beside the far more dominant narrative of brave men extending law and order to a wild frontier. (Historical marking is probably a better term as compared to the Native commemorations of forcible relocation at, say, Bosque Redondo in New Mexico or the Cherokee Heritage Center in Oklahoma [created in conjunction with the NPS], which seem like stronger efforts to link histories of forced removal to the present and future of these nations rather than treating this 'past' as a regrettable moment in 'our nation's history.')
While the NPS goes to great lengths to portray “Hangin’ Judge Parker” in a liberal light--including an installation entitled “Building a better jail?” detailing the efforts to upgrade the jail known as the Hell on the Border—the introductory video and justice tend to repaint the boundary between lawlessness and civilization and valorize the strong men of the Marshals Service.
That is, the narrative is one in which lawlessness produces the lawmen, rather than a narrative in which 'the lawmen' are part of the establishment of the colonizer's terms of the law and territorial acquisition.
Still, I was glad to see the efforts to bring these stories together, however uneasily, and I would like to know more about the design of the installations here, and how visitors approach them.
And there is one more reason why I think about Forts Smith and Chaffee at the center of US empire. In addition to their important location for continental colonialism, Chaffee is the namesake of Adna Chaffee, grandson of another military man named Adna, who prosecuted the Spanish-American War. That nineteenth century imperial quest, in turn, laid the groundwork for US acquisitions in the Pacific and Caribbean, which in the Cold War would come back in the form of refugee movements from both regions. And so Guantanamo and Arkansas are connected.
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