Star Trek: 10 Things You Never Knew About Chakotay
6. Journey's End Was A Backdoor Pilot To Chakotay's Character
Star Trek The Next Generation's seventh season was wrapping up as Voyager was gearing up to go into production. While Ro Laren's storyline alluded to Chakotay as a character, Journey's End was effectively the backstory to the man that was never subsequently mentioned again.
The forced relocation of the Dorvan V colonists deliberately played very close parallels to Native American history, with Chakotay confirmed as hailing from the planet. This would serve as the catalyst for his anger toward Starfleet, while his hatred of the Cardassians came from obvious reasons.
Though it was never explicitly stated on-screen, the Enterprise-D was tasked with removing Chakotay's people from the planet, despite the fact it now belonged to the Cardassians, in the wake of the armistice that ended that war. They elected to remain behind, becoming citizens of the Cardassian Union.
It did not end well.
However, the episode Tattoo contradicts this information, as it states that Chakotay's colony was established 'hundreds of years ago', while the Dorvan V colony was only established twenty years or so before the events of Star Trek: Voyager. The beta canon novels have returned to the original plan, so Tattoo could simply be a blip in the character's arc.