Native Americans: The Other Civil War

Bradlie Johnson

Honors Humanities 11
Mr. Barclay & Ms. Hou
23 May 2014

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Native Americans: The Other Civil War
While most Americans are familiar with the Civil War and its dividing lines, few are
aware of the role of Americas indigenous peoples in the seemingly exclusive internal affair.
Native Americans are often dismissed as a staple of a time prior to the war, predating America or
fading out at the time of its continental expansion. In truth, while Native Americans had little
interest in the feuds of the White Men, they found a great number of reasons to involve
themselves in the war. Entirely for their own benefit, Native Americans played key roles in the
Civil War and were in turn greatly affected by its progression. The years surrounding the
American Civil War was a particularly crucial time for Native Americans, as it demonstrated
their strong will to preserve their own way of life.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, relocation of Native Americans increased
dramatically. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and ensuing policies aimed to move Native
Americans out of the path of an ever-expanding America. The Office of Indian Affairs, which
was meant to be the federally mandated protector of Native rights, championed the cause of
removal (Confer 18). Individual states annexed Indian Territory in spite of treaties, uninhibited
by the Office of Indian Affairs. Authorized by state laws, many American citizens moved onto
Indian Territory. The Homestead Act of 1862 even encouraged such encroachment; it offered 160
acres of free land to whoever was able to occupy it for five years. While it was a gross violation
of dozens of pre-existing treaties, it did its job of furthering expansion (Brownlee 47). Native
Americans were increasingly pushed away both by settlers and the hundreds of treaties set forth
by the United States. The mass relocation starting with the Indian Removal Act pushed Native
Americans both gradually and abruptly westward. The largest concentration of Indian Territory
became what is now Oklahoma. Many Indian Nations, finding that all the White Man desired

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was land, used it for bargaining. The Dakota signed a treaty giving away much of the new land
they had been relocated to in exchange for annuities they were in desperate need of (Nichols
134). Often unlike the land they had come from or simply barren, Native Americans found life
on Indian Territory difficult. Most nations suffered from dire poverty and survived only on the
federal annuities, and cholera and other diseases that Native Americans were unadjusted to
spread. The condition of Indian Nations would leave them vulnerable and submissive to future
solutions.
Pushed from their homelands into foreign territory ripe with conflict, Native Americans
found themselves acting in compliance for the sake of peace. The common American idea that
Indians must either assimilate or leave perpetuated white influence on Native Americans,
many of whom attempted to integrate themselves into white society (Indian Warriors). Exposure
due to encroachment and relocation influenced many even within Indian Territory. For example,
the Temperance Movement found its way to Indian Territory, and English academics became a
part of Native American education. From this influence emerged a generation of young Native
Americans educated in English and married to white women. Another effect of encroachment
and of the proximity of white society to Indian Territory was far more harmful. Pioneers of the
western United States often crossed through Indian Territory and found themselves caught in
violent confrontations with American Indians. The United States government began to take
action to protect pioneers, starting with the Treaty at Fort Laramie in 1851. The treaty allowed
the federal government to build roads and forts through Indian Territory in order to protect
crossing pioneers. In exchange, the United States would protect the tribes from travelers and
grant individual Indian Nations annuities for at least ten years. While the annuities were a
necessity for the greatly struggling nations, the treaty obviously favored pioneers. Fewer than

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400 had died before 1860, and the majority of the remainder never encountered Native
Americans on their journeys at all (Nichols 130). The various Nations allowed the forts to be
erected despite the complications it brought. As Native Americans crossed Indian Territory to
reach the forts and pick up their annuities, they crossed paths either with pioneers or armed
soldiers. Still, they complied with the terms of the treaty for the sake of peace with the United
States, an idea which would influence the actions of Indian Nations in the coming years.
The mass relocation and history of restraint stirred its fair share of internal conflict within
the Indian Nations, a dilemma which would prompt a desire for unity for the sake of survival.
The Cherokee Nation in particular demonstrated a strong division amongst its leaders due to
relocation. Within the Cherokee Nation, the generation of Native Americans educated in white
society developed into a group known as the Ridge Faction in the early 1800s, led by John Ridge
and Elias Boudinot. A rift existed between the Ridge Faction and the official government of the
Cherokee under Chief John Ross. While the Ross Faction believed in neutrality for the sake of
peace, the Ridge Faction believed that the only means for survival was alliance with the White
Men. Under the reasoning that the United States government rewarded those who sided with its
interests, the two signed The Treaty of New Echota on December 29, 1835, calling for the
complete relocation of the Cherokee Nation to Indian Territory (Confer 19). It was an ambitious
move on the part of the Ridge Factionfrom then on known as the Treaty Partyespecially
considering they were officially unauthorized to speak on behalf of their entire nation. The treaty
lacked the signature of Chief John Ross, who would in turn wage his own war to keep his
peoples land. Ross refuted the treaty by sending a petition signed by 16,000 citizens of the
Cherokee Nation. Despite the opposition of the majority of the Cherokee Nation under Ross, the
United States government enforced the treaty, and the Ridge Faction, hoping their actions would

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earn them future favor, complied. The remainder of the Cherokees would stay until the two-year
deadline, upon which time they were forcibly removed via the well-known Trail of Tearsa
journey which would lose the Ross Faction 25% of its population. Their return signaled the years
of feuding that would continue on well into and passed the Civil War. Relocation grudges
prompted the enactment of Blood Law, the responsibility of a clan to bring blood punishment
down on murderers within the clan. Under Blood Law, the opposing Ridge and Ross Factions
carried out back-and-forth assassinations (Indian Warriors). Following the assassination of the
Ridge Faction leaders in 1839, Elias Boudinots brother Stand Watie filled his position as a
leading member of the Party. Watie would go on to lead a raid on the home of John Ross himself.
The opposing Ridge-Watie and Ross Factions drew and deepened the bitter divide within the
Cherokee Nation. Reconstruction in Indian Territory became neigh on impossible and survival
was an everyday struggle.
The internal divide extended past even standard political and familial differences and into
the values of entire nations; these they would uphold with their lives. Amid the Ridge, Ross, and
other assorted political factions arose a number of secret societies which upheld unique values.
Many slaveholding American Indians joined the Knights of the Golden Circle, an Indian
Southern Rights organization. Also known as the Blue Lodges, the Knights pledged to, for the
support of slavery, support any person that [they] may be instructed to by the Mother Lodge for
any office in the Cherokee Nation (McLoughlin 155). The Knights and other groups extended
their influence across nations neighboring their origin in the attempts of uniting the many divided
peoples under common goals. Membership records for Cherokee Lodge #21 even list members
of both the Ross Party and Treaty Party, (Minges 72). Despite past differences, some Native
Americans were able to join together to discuss and create the changes they desired for the sake

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of the continued existence of their nations. Ultimately, though, the creation of such secret
societies only prompted greater division. In response to the Knights, the Keetoowah Society
emerged as an opposing faction. The Keetoowah Society named themselves after an ancient
Cherokee group of spiritual and political elders of the same name. Much like the members of
their namesake, the Keetoowah Society wished to keep the Cherokee Nation united under
traditional values, directly opposing the Knights and their Southern influence. Membership was
exclusive to full-bloods and non-English speakers, but the Society still managed to sway
Cherokee legislation with their great numbers. A Northern Baptist missionary named Evan Jones
hoped to unite the full-bloods [of his church] into a well-informed, cohesive, and politically
active force that could prevent the radical proslavery voters from controlling the electoral
process; at the same time, Jones feared that a divisive spirit was at work among the
Cherokees (McLoughlin 154). Many shared this manner of thinkingunity was the only means
for survival, but the conditions it would be accepted under destined it to never come to fruition.
The Knights and the Keetoowah Society would each only accept unity under their own
respective values and power. In the attempts to find brotherhood in a time of division, Native
American secret societies only revealed greater rifts within Nations. For all the harmony with
which American Indians are associated, their Nations were crumbling from the inside out.
Almost to the dismay of Native Americans, this increasingly extreme conflict within
Indian Nations went largely unnoticed by the white population of America. To them, Native
Americans were a dying race. Many believed in the Vanishing American theory, which stated
that the disappearance of Native Americans was simply the natural effect of one race replacing
another (Nabokov 188). Native Americans were fading both in number and importance as far as
the American population was concerned. If anything, they reasoned that decreasing numbers of

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Native Americans meant potential expansion for the United States. American Indians had in the
past been considered obstacles to American expansion, and with their demise the United States
could prosper. Some even theorized that the decline of Native Americans signaled the presence
of either a divine or biological causality that would seem to guarantee their eventual
ascendency (Brownlee 54). Indeed even paintings and journals of the time seemed to encourage
these feelings of superiority and victory over an obstacle of the past. The famous Last of the
Mohicans painting depicts the last of a tribe overlooking a large valley. They are, in the words of
Peter Brownlee, rendered insignificant by the truly epic matter of America (54). The vastness
of Americathe potential for expansiondemoted Native Americans to a people of small
canvas spaces and little consideration. America was prepared to move on and most certainly
prepared to leave Indians behind. To the white population, Native Americans were in fact already
almost gone.
While the white population of America had already begun regarding Indian Nations as
such, Native Americans would not so easily be forgotten. The Vanishing American theory so
popular of the time ignores the fact that over 300 thousand Native Americans of various tribes
and Nations were alive even up to 1865 (Nabokov 188). In the early years of the Civil War in
1862, the Sioux tribes of the Northeastern Plains proved just how alive and active they were. The
Dakota, who had previously given up much of their land for annuities and the assurance that no
more land would be taken from them, were angered to find that their primary trader had
exhausted their annuity with overcharged goods. The trader Myrick commented, So far as I am
concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass (Brownlee 60). The Union would not intervene
and the Dakota, badly in need of the money for supplies, initiated the yearlong Dakota War. In a
series of raids on traders, towns, and pioneer homes, the Sioux tribes set out to reclaim the

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money and the land they had lost in signing the broken treaty. One of the first victims of this war
was Myrick, who was found dead with grass stuffed into his mouth. The brutality of the war
prompted Union action. By the end of the war, 1700 Indian prisoners had been captured and
confined at Fort Snelling; 300 of these were sentenced to death, and 39 were executed in the
largest public hanging in American history (Nichols 134). While the Sioux did not reclaim their
land, the Dakota War not only sent a statement to the federal government, but also earned them a
spot in American history. Native Americans were in fact declining in number and area of
occupation, but they were far from gone and determined to prove it.
The approaching American Civil War was initially viewed by Native Americans as an
obstacle to their revival, thus discouraging their involvement. As the name suggests, the Civil
War was strictly American, but it was certain to affect the indigenous people of the land it was
fought on. The war itself, which spanned from 1861 to 1865, was the bloody split of the United
States into two independently-intentioned nations: the Union and the Confederacy. The common
reasoning for the start of the war is that the peculiar institution of slavery led to the succession
of slavery-dependent Confederate states, though numerous other influences exist (Slavery in the
United States). Whatever the cause of the Civil War, Native Americans of the time had little
interest. Their sole concern was the preservation of their own lands and people. Indian Territory,
though most densely located in the eastern half of the United States, was placed precariously on
the border between the two opposing sides. Native Americans feared the foreseeable destruction
of their homes in Indian Territory. As John Ross said in 1861, We do not wish our soil to
become the battleground between the states and our homes to be rendered desolate and miserable
by the horrors of civil war (Confer 43). His words could not have been more prophetic.
Colorado to California became strategic objectives for both sides of the Civil War, with Indian

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Territory being the perfect location for invasion. Native Americans found themselves caught in
the buffer zone of a war not even of their own making. In spite of this, the opposing sides of
America continuously attempted to recruit Indians. When asked for aid by the Confederacy or
Union, many Indian Nations refused to participate. One Indian Chief replied to a requested
alliance with the Confederacy, [We] are your friends and the friends of your people, but we do
not wish to be brought into the feuds between yourselves and your Northern Brethren. Our wish
is for peace (Confer 171). As war approached between North and South, peace seemed harder to
achieve. Those Indian soldiers who chose to sign onto the White Mans war did so out of no
personal desire to aid in the war, simply a wish for tribal survival.
While the Civil War was initially of little concern to Native Americans, especially given
the struggles they were managing internally at the time, it became apparent that the Civil War
was perhaps a final means to achieve peace for their own people. The White Mens rationale for
the war meant little to them, but their own interests led Indian Nations to involve themselves in
different ways. The causes of their involvement ranged from protection to respect to revenge and
all things in between. Any and all alliances which Native Americans made with either side
remained a personal and Indian Nation issue, not a matter of Confederate or Union loyalty
(Confer 85). As the war progressed, the decisions of alliance would reveal a great deal about the
needs of each nation. The American Civil War may have been a white mans war, but the
overwhelmed Native American Nations would find their own beneficial reasons for entering this
chapter of American history.
As war loomed on the horizon, one of the motivations for Native American entrance into
the war was the simple determination not to be forgotten as a people. Most feared the prevalence
of the Vanishing Americans theory as it would mean the eventual loss of their identity, rights,

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and lands; participation in the Civil War was often an active means of proving the theory wrong.
For example, an engineer and High Sachem Chief named Ely Parker became a representative of
Indian involvement in the war through his own hard-fought entrance into it. Ely Parkers was not
allowed to enlist in the Union army, as both the Union and Confederacy initially did not accept
Native American soldiers. The approaching Civil War was a war between Americans, after all,
and Indians were not considered American citizens. Parker, thinking otherwise, resolved not to
be left behind. His appeals to the federal government were rejected because, while he had skills,
education, and experience in the New York militia, he [was] also a member of the Tonawanda
Seneca Nation (Indian Warriors). Parker was indeed a High Sachem Chief, but he was also a
determined individual and a friend of men in high places. After approaching his long time friend
Ulysses S. Grant, Parker was promptly made Grants Military Secretary. While Parker fought for
his rights, other Native Americans would not be accepted for military service until the war
needed them most. Due to the surprising notion of the war becoming longer than predicted,
Native Americans did not have to wait long; Indian recruitment for the Confederacy started as
early as May of 1861. Native Americans made the most of their opportunity to gain the respect of
the white men. Not only did a sizable number sign on immediatelythe first Indian Regiment
coming from the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nationsbut Native Americans also used the war as a
means to display their self-governance. Chickasaw Governor Harris claimed the right to hold
undisputable possessions of land and forts lately occupied by Federal forces and have the same
garrisonedby troops acting expressly under and by virtue of the authority of the Chickasaw or
Choctaw nations (Confer 165). By asserting this, Harris guaranteed the wartime protection of
his people. He and other Native Americans firmly carved out their wartime rights. Individuals

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and entire Indian Nations used the war to make their names known; through their actions, Native
Americans would not become Vanishing Americans so soon, as many had feared.
The Knights of the Golden Circle, for instance, allied themselves with the Confederacy in
order to preserve their way of life through slavery. This branch of the divided Cherokee Nation,
mostly outnumbered in legislation but influential in other Indian Nations, acted for its own
survival. The Cherokee practiced agriculture by growing corn, wheat, oats, and cotton; many
relied on slaves for harvesting. Without slaves, they would have to rebuild their entire way of
life. In order to protect their country from the ravishes of abolition, the Knights of the Golden
Circle naturally signed on with the Confederacy (McLoughlin 159). Under the alliance, they
were assured that they would be able to keep their slaves and, at least in some regard, would be
fighting alongside like-minded individuals. The Knights, like all other Indian Nations and
societies, chose their alliances in the Civil War based on their own survival interests.
Many Indian Nations joined the Confederacy not only for the sake of slavery, but for the
sake of escaping the Union. The Union represented the United States government which had
relocated Native Americans and worsened the condition of their own internal politics and
livelihoods. The Confederacy, many thought, was a chance for a change in the relationship with
the white man. At the very least, they would be free of the Union should the Confederacy
succeed. The Confederate Superintendent of Indian Affairs encouraged and inspired these
feelings by warning of the future under Union control, saying, First your slaves they will take
from you, then they will settle their squatters or free-soil homesteaders in the nation; they will
allocate small plots to Indian families but totally destroy the power of your chiefs and of your
nationality (McLoughlin 174). Native Americans feared powerlessness under the Union for these
very reasons. Under the Confederacy, they were promised the supplies they needed to defend

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their borders. The Confederacy promised power and prestige, as well as the guns, rations, and
uniforms unavailable to those who remained loyal to the distant Union government (Confer 54).
The Unions location in relation to Indian Territory when compared to the Confederacy left many
Indian Nations feeling cutoff. In order to gain favor with them, the Union offered annuities, but
was often unable to deliver given the distance and the danger of war. While the Union
proclaimed that it would honor treaties, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs feared passing
through the South in wartime and was unable to reach much of Indian Territory to confirm with
Indian Nations. He sent word to Chief John Ross of the Cherokee stating that he would be
gratified if [Ross] could go up thereto confer with him as to the money due to the Cherokee
(McLoughlin 178). Ross himself was unable to leave, as problems within the Cherokee Nation
required him to stay. The inability for the Superintendent to reach Indian Territory was in itself a
bad sign for Ross, though. It demonstrated weakness within the Union; if one man was unable to
cross through to intended allies, there was no guarantee the Indian Nations would receive the
supplies they needed throughout the war should they side with the Union. While the decision for
Union or Confederate alliance was often based on individual needs, the over encompassing
concern for Indian Nations was for protection amongst themselves.
Unity within and between Indian Nations was yet another goal for many Native
Americans. The Cherokee, who had previously exemplified the divisive spirit at work among
Indian Nations, continued to pursue unity well into the Civil War. While neutrality was the
outwards appearance of the Nation, the war offered Stand Watie of the Ridge-Watie Faction a
chance to take back the Cherokee Nation (Indian Warriors). He and 300 of his followers entered
into the Confederate army in July of 1861 without Cherokee authorization in order to instigate
action under his command. Due to Waties actions, Chief John Ross essentially lost control of the

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Cherokee Nation. Such disunity would, if it became apparent to the Union or Confederacy, make
the separated nation a target for wartime recruitment or postwar expansion. While the division
was similar to that of the divide within the Creek and Seminole Nations, the Cherokee
independently attempted to remedy their situation. Chief John Ross and the Cherokee Executive
Committee decided in August of 1861 that in order to display the final power of decision over
the Watie Party, they needed to pledge Confederate support; such an action would finally allow
unity and strength for the Cherokee Nation (McLoughlin 182-183). Unity, however, was shortlived. John Ross was captured by Union forces in 1862 and taken to Washington D.C. There he
claimed, like many other nations charged with Confederate support, that his nation had resorted
to siding with the Confederacy because the Union had failed to protect them (Confer 81-82).
Ross pled loyalty to the Union and continued to lead the remainder of his supporters from the
safety of Washington D.C. While complete unity was nearly impossible for many Indian Nations,
opposing sides always intended for it. In general, an alliance with the Union or Confederacy was
a promise which united at least a portion of collapsing Indian Nations.
Native Americans united under either side joined for the promises the Union and
Confederacy presented. While the Confederacy offered weapons and freedom from the previous
constraints of the United States government, the Union offered its own incentives. Among these
were the protection of Indian Territory and the promise of greater annuities. The war was an
expectedly lucrative investment for some nations for this reason, but many of these promises
would be broken. In any case, Native Americans were often inclined to hope. One Nez Percs
Chief said of his tribes interaction with the United States, Whenever the Government has asked
us to help them against other Indians, we have never refusedthinking then we could have
peace (Nabokov 133). The Nez Percs and other Indian Nations complied with the United

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States before and during the Civil War to achieve a state of reconciliation, not of wealth. Peace
was considered the only viable means of survival for many, and they chose sides to support in the
Civil War based on the most possible victor or the most favorable to their people. Union
sympathizers, for example, were particularly swayed by the promises of Abraham Lincoln, who
claimed, If we get through this war and I live, this Indian system shall be reformed (Nabokov).
Lincoln, unfortunately, did not live long enough past the end of the war to implement any
remarkable changes. Despite a long history of broken promises, Native Americans involved
themselves in the Civil War because promises were often all they had to believe in outside of
their own people.
Even accounting for the promises of annuity and land, the progression of the Civil War
would leave Indian Territory in a worse state than prior to the war. While the concentration of
fighting during the Civil War was mostly on the eastern side of the United States, its progression
would bring more struggles to the already weakening Indian Territory in the West; among these
would be poverty and the destruction of their new home. The process of drawing soldiers away
from Indian Territory to fight left the forts held in Indian Territory vacant. Pioneers who had
previously encroached on land travelled with even less federal enforcement along their journeys,
and violent encounters with Native Americans increased. Along with this, the absence of federal
forces left many Nations cut off from the annual annuities promised to them by the government.
The federal government was preoccupied with war in the East even as Native Americans fought
for them in the West, and Indian Nations suffered without the necessary supplies (Nichols 132133). Those confined to barren lands in Indian Territory experienced starvation and disease
without the annuities. This poverty so common in Indian Territory was a driving factor for many
Native American soldiers, who justified the destruction of their countryout of their own

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necessity to feed and clothe themselves and their families (McLoughlin 212). Involvement in
the Civil War was thus unwanted by some, but necessary to keep them alive. Indian Nations
became drawn into the war for the basic survival of their own people, and left it only in greater
ruins.
Ultimately, the time after the Civil War would return Native Americans to the state of a
forgotten people. Even before the conclusion of the Civil War, the Metropolitan Fair of 1864
exemplified the lack of understanding of Native American peoples. The Indian section of the fair,
which hosted partially fabricated performances of the Buffalo Dance, Scalp Dance, and
Thanksgiving Dance from an unnamed tribe, consisted mostly of novelties and walls covered
in strange furs. On record, many of the curiosities are said to have been brought from the
Pacific Coast, which belongs to the Six Nations (Brownlee 142). This record demonstrates the
lack of knowledge both spread to the people and possessed by even the experts of the fairs
Indian Department, who set up the Indian displays. The Six Nations are, unlike the record states,
not from the Pacific Coast. All sixthe Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Tuscarora, Mohawk, and
Cayuga Nationshave always resided on the East Coast (Six Nations). Public and scholarly
knowledge was not the only extent of this waning remembrance, though. Government legislation
continued to push Indian Territory away and American expansion proceeded. While some Indian
Nations continued to fight against the White Men, other Native Americans simply mourned. One
Native American man wrote, I see but shadows and hear only the roar of the river; and tears
come into my eyes. Our Indian life, I know, is gone forever (Nabokov 182). Despite their
involvement in the Civil War for the sake of their physical and historical survival, Native
Americans became little more than a mistakenly remembered novelty to the white American
population.

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The years before, during, and even long after the American Civil War reveal the ultimate
desire of Native Americans to preserve their way of life. When the White Mans War encroached
on Indian Territory and threatened their people, Native Americans transformed it into an
opportunity for Indian Nations to uphold their culture, their values, and even simply their lives.
They fought not only to restore unity to their own struggling people, but also to regain the
respect of the White Men. By fighting either for the Union or the Confederacy, Native Americans
hoped to reclaim their lands and their identity as a people in the eyes of those who had mistreated
them for so long. While their reasons for entering the American Civil War and hopes for the time
after it were met only with continued relocation and a forgetful American populace, their
involvement displayed the intense will of Indian Nations.

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Works Cited
Brownlee, Peter John, et al. Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2013. Print.
Confer, Clarissa W. The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2007. Print.
Indian Warriors: The Untold Story of the Civil War. The History Channel. A&E Television
Networks, 2006. DVD.
McLoughlin, William G. After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees Struggle for Sovereignty.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Print.
Minges, Patrick Neal. Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetoowah Society and the
Defining of a People. New York: Taylor & Francis Books, 2003. Print.
Nabokov, Peter. Native American Testimony. New York: Penguin Books, 1978. Print.
Nichols, Roger L. American Indians in US History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
2003. Print.
"Slavery in the United States." . Civil War Trust, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014.
<http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/slavery.html>.
"The Six Nations of the Iroquois." The Herald Company, 22 July 1990. Web. 18 May 2014.
<http://tuscaroras.com/pages/six_nations_ex.html>.