The End of Indian Kansas by H. Craig Miner

In other words, men from the Five Tribes fought-or refused to fight-with respect to their Indigenous national political loyalties rather than from a sense of devotion to the Union or Confederate causes. Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles divided into groups reflecting pre-existing cultural schisms many of those who characterized their spiritual, political, and social affiliations as “traditional” sought neutrality or continued alliance with the Union. government’s abandonment of their treaty responsibility to protect the Choctaws from invasion. The Chickasaws and Choctaws sided with the Confederacy for a variety of reasons, including their slaveholding history, geographic pressure from bordering states, and the U.S. There slavery was a divisive issue as some tribes practiced slavery. To the west in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) the Five Tribes experienced the war differently. In South Carolina, men of the Catawba tribe served in Confederate regiments and their service was honored by a statute erected to them in 1900.

In Michigan, men of the Odawa, Ojibway and Pottawatomie tribes enlisted with the First Michigan Sharpshooters creating an opportunity to create relationships with non-Indian leaders and secure their support for maintaining land, hunting, and fishing rights for their people. Other Native people in the North saw their service in the war as an opportunity to improve the conditions faced by their communities. The Lowry War arising from the murder of an Indian community leader saw a campaign of revenge that gave Lumbees a new kind of interaction with non-Natives and resulted in new Native institutions and political leverage. Pro-union Lumbee families were conscripted to help build Confederate Fort Fisher. In a war dividing brother against brother, North Carolina members of the Lumbee tribe reflected this with some serving and supporting the Confederacy and others the Union, influenced by the need to cast their fortunes with or against their more powerful white neighbors and experiencing the war as heated personal conflicts as a result.

In combat and on the home front, American Indian people experienced the war in terms of both opportunities and threats and geographic location, prior experiences of warfare with non-Indians, economic ties to particular industries, specific political alliances and treaties, cultural values, community needs, and individual preferences all informed American Indian peoples’ varied responses. Many American Indian people saw the Civil War as an opportunity for men’s military service to foster ties with non-Indians, reinvigorate the value they invested in men’s role as warriors in defense of their people, and bring badly-needed resources into American Indian communities.

The End of Indian Kansas by H. Craig Miner