What Teachers Didn't Know... In 1936, Congress formed a Commission to locate American Conquest trails. Dr. John R. Swanton of Harvard chaired it. Nine months later the Commission - six citizens from six Southern States - presented a report describing Conquest trails through their states. Published in 1939, "The Final Report of the United States DeSoto Expedition Commission" still stands as our main source of Native American intelligence in classrooms across the country, despite the fact that casual reading shows the Commission's complete neglect of statements made in original Conquest documents.All of those documents have been translated since the Trail Theory of 1857, which the Commission adopted, was hypothesized. Conquistadors went to Chicago , NOT where the "Official" Commission said they did. Midwestern Native Americans, described by Conquistadors at places which are cities again today, were unlike any we learned about in school.
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