DID YOU KNOW THAT the Cherokee Nation Allied Themselves With the Confederate States of America in 1861.
Many
have no doubt heard of the valor of the Cherokee warriors under
the command of Brigadier General Stand Watie in the West and of
Thomas' famous North Carolina Legion in the East during the War
for Southern Independence from 1861 to 1865. But why did the Cherokees
and their brethren, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws
determine to make common cause with the Confederate South against
the Northern Union? To know their reasons is very instructive as
to the issues underlying that tragic war. Most Americans have been
propagandized rather than educated in the causes of the war, all
this to justify the perpetrators and victors. Considering the Cherokee
view uncovers much truth buried by decades of politically correct
propaganda and allows a broader and truer perspective.
On
August 21, 1861, the Cherokee Nation by a General Convention at
Tahlequah (in Oklahoma) declared its common cause with the Confederate
States against the Northern Union. A treaty was concluded on October
7th between the Confederate States and the Cherokee Nation, and
on October 9th, John Ross, the Principal Chief of the
Cherokee Nation called into session the Cherokee National Committee
and National Council to approve and implement that treaty and a
future course of action.
The
Cherokees had at first considerable consternation over the growing
conflict and desired to remain neutral. They had much common economy
and contact with their Confederate neighbors, but their treaties
were with the government of the United States.
The
Northern conduct of the war against their neighbors, strong repression
of Northern political dissent, and the roughshod trampling of the
U. S Constitution under the new regime
and political powers in Washington soon changed their thinking.
The
Cherokee were perhaps the best educated and literate of the American
Indian Tribes. They were also among the most Christian. Learning
and wisdom were highly esteemed. They revered the Declaration of
Independence and the U.S. Constitution as particularly important
guarantors of their rights and freedoms. It is not surprising then
that on October 28, 1861, the National Council issued a Declaration
by the People of the Cherokee Nation of the Causes Which Have Impelled
them to Unite Their Fortunes With Those of the Confederate States
of America.
The
introductory words of this declaration strongly resembled the 1776
Declaration of Independence:
"When
circumstances beyond their control compel one people to sever
the ties which have long existed between them and another state
or confederacy, and to contract new alliances and establish new
relations for the security of their rights and liberties, it is
fit that they should publicly declare the reasons by which their
action is justified."
In
the next paragraphs of their declaration the Cherokee Council noted
their faithful adherence to their treaties with the United States
in the past and how they had faithfully attempted neutrality until
the present. But the seventh paragraph begins to delineate their
alarm with Northern aggression and sympathy with the South:
"But
Providence rules the destinies of nations, and events, by inexorable
necessity, overrule human resolutions."
Comparing
the relatively limited objectives and defensive nature of the Southern
cause in contrast to the aggressive actions of the North they remarked
of the Confederate States:
"Disclaiming
any intention to invade the Northern States, they sought only
to repel the invaders from their own soil and to secure the right
of governing themselves. They claimed only the privilege asserted
in the Declaration of American Independence, and on which the
right of Northern States themselves to self-government is formed,
and altering their form of government when it became no longer
tolerable and establishing new forms for the security of their
liberties."
The
next paragraph noted the orderly and democratic process by which
each of the Confederate States seceded. This was without violence
or coercion and nowhere were liberties abridged or civilian courts
and authorities made subordinate to the military. Also noted was
the growing unity and success of the South against Northern aggression.
The following or ninth paragraph contrasts this with ruthless and
totalitarian trends in the North:
"But
in the Northern States the Cherokee people saw with alarm a violated
constitution, all civil liberty put in peril, and all rules of
civilized warfare and the dictates of common humanity and decency
unhesitatingly disregarded. In the states which still adhered
to the Union a military despotism had displaced civilian power
and the laws became silent with arms. Free speech and almost free
thought became a crime. The right of habeas corpus, guaranteed
by the constitution, disappeared at the nod of a Secretary of
State or a general of the lowest grade. The mandate of the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court was at naught by the military power
and this outrage on common right approved by a President sworn
to support the constitution. War on the largest scale was waged,
and the immense bodies of troops called into the field in the
absence of any warranting it under the pretense of suppressing
unlawful combination of men."
The
tenth paragraph continues the indictment of the Northern political
party in power and the conduct of the Union Armies:
"The
humanities of war, which even barbarians respect, were no longer
thought worthy to be observed. Foreign mercenaries and the scum
of the cities and the inmates of prisons were enlisted and organized
into brigades and sent into Southern States to aid in subjugating
a people struggling for freedom, to burn, to plunder, and to commit
the basest of outrages on the women; while the heels of armed
tyranny trod upon the necks of Maryland and Missouri, and men
of the highest character and position were incarcerated upon suspicion
without process of law, in jails, forts, and prison ships, and
even women were imprisoned by the arbitrary order of a President
and Cabinet Ministers; while the press ceased to be free, and
the publication of newspapers was suspended and their issues seized
and destroyed; the officers and men taken prisoners in the battles
were allowed to remain in captivity by the refusal of the Government
to consent to an exchange of prisoners; as they had left their
dead on more than one field of battle that had witnessed their
defeat, to be buried and their wounded to be cared for by southern
hands."
The
eleventh paragraph of the Cherokee declaration is a fairly concise
summary of their grievances against the political powers now presiding
over a new U. S. Government:
"Whatever
causes the Cherokee people may have had in the past to complain
of some of the southern states, they cannot but feel that their
interests and destiny are inseparably connected to those of the
south. The war now waging is a war of Northern cupidity and fanaticism
against the institution of African servitude; against the commercial
freedom of the south, and against the political freedom of the
states, and its objects are to annihilate the sovereignty of those
states and utterly change the nature of the general government."
The
Cherokees felt they had been faithful and loyal to their treaties
with the United States, but now perceived that the relationship
was not reciprocal and that their very existence as a people was
threatened. They had also witnessed the recent exploitation of the
properties and rights of Indian tribes in Kansas, Nebraska, and
Oregon, and feared that they, too, might soon become victims of
Northern rapacity. Therefore, they were compelled to abrogate those
treaties in defense of their people, lands, and rights. They felt
the Union had already made war on them by their actions.
Finally,
appealing to their inalienable right to self-defense and self-determination
as a free people, they concluded their declaration with the following
words:
"Obeying
the dictates of prudence and providing for the general safety
and welfare, confident of the rectitude of their intentions and
true to their obligations to duty and honor, they accept the issue
thus forced upon them, unite their fortunes now and forever with
the Confederate States, and take up arms for the common cause,
and with entire confidence of the justice of that cause and with
a firm reliance upon Divine Providence, will resolutely abide
the consequences.
The
Cherokees were true to their words. The last shot fired in the war
east of the Mississippi was May 6, 1865. This was in an engagement
at White Sulphur Springs, near Waynesville, North Carolina, of part
of Thomas' Legion against Kirk's infamous Union raiders that had
wreaked a murderous terrorism and destruction on the civilian population
of Western North Carolina. Col. William H. Thomas' Legion was originally
predominantly Cherokee, but had also accrued a large number of North
Carolina mountain men. On June 23, 1865, in what was the last
land battle of the war, Confederate Brigadier General and Cherokee
Chief, Stand Watie, finally surrendered his predominantly Cherokee,
Oklahoma Indian force to the Union.
The
issues as the Cherokees saw them were 1) self-defense against Northern
aggression, both for themselves and their fellow Confederates, 2)
the right of self-determination by a free people, 3) protection
of their heritage, 4) preservation of their political rights under
a constitutional government of law 5) a strong desire to retain
the principles of limited government and decentralized power guaranteed
by the Constitution, 6) protection of their economic rights and
welfare, 7) dismay at the despotism of the party and leaders now
in command of the U. S. Government, 8) dismay at the ruthless disregard
of commonly accepted rules of warfare by the Union, especially their
treatment of civilians and non-combatants, 9) a fear of economic
exploitation by corrupt politicians and their supporters based on
observed past experience, and 10) alarm at the self-righteous and
extreme, punitive, and vengeful pronouncements on the slavery issue
voiced by the radical abolitionists and supported by many Northern
politicians, journalists, social, and religious (mostly Unitarian)
leaders. It should be noted here that some of the Cherokees owned
slaves, but the practice was not extensive.
The
Cherokee Declaration of October 1861 uncovers a far more complex
set of "Civil War" issues than most Americans have been
taught. Rediscovered truth is not always welcome. Indeed some of
the issues here are so distressing that the general academic, media,
and public reaction is to rebury them or shout them down as politically
incorrect.
The
notion that slavery was the only real or even principal cause of
the war is very politically correct and widely held, but historically
ignorant. It has served, however, as a convenient ex post facto
justification for the war and its conduct. Slavery was an issue,
and it was related to many other issues, but it was by no means
the only issue, or even the most important underlying issue. It
was not even an issue in the way most people think of it. Only about
25% of Southern households owned slaves. For most people, North
and South, the slavery issue was not so much whether to keep it
or not, but how to phase it out without causing economic and social
disruption and disaster. Unfortunately the Southern and Cherokee
fear of the radical abolitionists turned out to be well founded.
After
the Reconstruction Act was passed in 1867 the radical abolitionists
and radical Republicans were able to issue in a shameful era of
politically punitive and economically exploitive oppression in the
South, the results of which lasted many years, and even today are
not yet completely erased.
The
Cherokee were and are a remarkable people who have impacted the
American heritage far beyond their numbers. We can be especially
grateful that they made a well thought out and articulate declaration
for supporting and joining the Confederate cause in 1861.
The largest force in Indian Territory was commanded by Confederate
Brig.Gen. Stand Watie, who was also a chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Dedicated to the Confederate cause and unwilling to admit defeat, he
kept his troops in the field for nearly a month after Lt. Gen.E.Kirby
Smith surrendered the Trans- Mississippi May 26. Finally accepting the
futility of continued resistance, on June 23 Watie rode into Doaksville
near Fort Towson in Indian Territory and surrender his battalion of
Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, and Osage Indians to Lt.Col.Asa C.Matthews,
appointed a few weeks earlier to negotiate a peace with the Indians.
Watie was the last Confederate general officer to surrender his
command.
Certainly the most famous
American Indian of the War of Northern Aggression and the first American
Indian to ever earn the rank of a general officer was Stand Watie. On
the wild frontier of the Trans-Mississippi west he earned a reputation
as one of the most daring and courageous warriors to ever ride a horse.
He was born on December 12, 1806 near Rome, Georgia to David Uwatie and
Susanna Reese who was of mixed Cherokee and European blood. He was named
Isaac S. Watie or Degataga which can be translated as "standing
together as one" or "stand firm" which in either event led to him being
known as Stand Watie. Educated by missionaries and instilled with a
sense of his southern as well as Indian heritage, he and his brother
Buck Watie, along with Major Ridge and John Ridge were in favor of
moving the Cherokee to Oklahoma but were opposed in this by their Chief
John Ross though both sides knew that their position in Georgia was
unsustainable. Ultimately the Cherokees were moved to Oklahoma in 1838,
but the feud between the Ross and Ridge factions and of the two Ridge
brothers and two Watie brothers Stand was the only one not assassinated
by Ross partisans.
Stand Watie became a prominent man in the Indian Territory (as
Oklahoma was called) where he established a flourishing plantation on
the Spavinaw Creek (numerous Native American elites were slave owners)
and from 1845 to 1861 he served on the Cherokee Council. When the War
Between the States commenced in 1861 the Indian tribes were somewhat
divided. Some feared that a failure to support the Union would lead to
the revocation of the treaties they had signed with the federal
government while others were quick to take up arms against the
government which had already broken numerous treaties and seemed to
regard them as enemies anyway. Questions of states' rights and other
political controversies also existed, though not to the same degree
since the Indian Territory was not a state and there were relatively few
slaves west of the Mississippi. 
Ultimately, most of the Cherokees favored the Confederacy, but fear
of having their treaties with the Union nullified led Chief John Ross
to try to remain neutral in the conflict. For Stand Watie, however,
there could be no neutrality and he left no doubt about his sympathy
being with the Confederate States. As more Chickasaw, Choctaw and Creek
Indians expressed their desire to ally with the Confederacy, Chief John
Ross altered his position and the Cherokee Council voted for an alliance
with the Confederate States of America. Stand Watie had pushed for this
development and had constantly urged his countrymen to join with the
Confederacy in fighting their common enemy; the United States
government. As soon as the choice was official Stand Watie organized the
First Cherokee Mounted Rifles of which he was commissioned colonel in
October of 1861. He was on his way to becoming the most legendary
American Indian of the war.
With his hard fighting Cherokee cavalry Stand Watie battled Union
incursions into the Oklahoma territory was well as Creek and Seminole
Indians who had sided with the United States. His first major engagement
and rise to notoriety came at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas where
the Confederate Army of the West attempted an attack on Union forces
that would allow them back into southern Missouri. The battle was a
southern defeat, but Stand Watie and his men acquitted themselves
bravely, charging Union artillery and fighting hard to cover the retreat
of Confederate forces. On the home front, however, there was to be no
unity to back up the heroic actions of Stand Watie and his men. Many of
the Indians dropped their support of the Confederacy at the first
indication that the north might win, nonetheless, others remained
committed to the cause they endorsed and in 1862 the Confederate
sympathizers or Southern Cherokee elected Stand Watie their chief. In
1863 pro-Union Cherokees captured the tribal council headquarters at
Tahlequah which Watie and his men later burned.
Stand Watie led his cavalry in constant raids against Union forces,
tying down thousands of federal troops that could have been employed
elsewhere. He was so successful that General Samuel B. Maxey promoted
him to brigadier general, the first American Indian to achieve that
rank, and gave him command of a brigade of two regiments of mounted
rifles, three Cherokee, Seminole and Osage infantry battalions based
just south of the Canadian River. General Watie led these men in daring
attacks all across Oklahoma and into parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas
and Texas. No brigade west of the Mississippi fought more battles that
General Stand Watie and his Indians. All Confederate units were
undersupplied but the situation was even worse on the western frontier
and Watie had to sustain his men almost totally off of captured Union
supplies. One raid saw the capture of a federal supply train loaded down
with 16,000 pounds of bacon which his troops put to good use. On
another occasion General Watie was wearing a captured Union overcoat
that was much too large for him. As he sat outside his tent with his
head down one of his soldiers tried to make off with the prize only to
be startled when Watie shouted, "Hold on! There's a man in this coat!"
Despite all of the efforts of the vastly more numerous Union
forces, they could never catch or defeat General Watie and his men and
his harassment continued until the end of the war. Ultimately, Stand
Watie fought on longer than any other Confederate general of the war. It
was not until June 23, 1865 that he signed a cease-fire agreement with
Union forces at Fort Towson in the Choctaw area of Oklahoma, bringing
his troops in to lay down their arms worn and weary but never defeated.
After the war, Stand Watie continued to work on behalf of his people as
Chief of the Southern Cherokee and negotiated the 1866 Cherokee
Reconstruction Treaty which aimed at helping the Indian Territory
recover from the devastation of the war. He died in 1871 and is buried
in Polson Cemetery, Oklahoma. Among all of the accounts of the Civil War
out west the name of General Stand Watie will always be remembered for
his boldness, courage and dogged determination which knew no equal in
the territory.
Source: Crisp Confederacy
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Sergeant Swimmer. NC Cherokee, Thomas Legion
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Col. Tandy Walker, CSA
Choctaw
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Col. John Jumper, CSA
Seminole
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PRINCIPAL
REFERENCES:
- Emmett Starr,
History
of the Cherokee Indians, published by the Warden Company,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1921. Reprinted by Kraus Reprint Company,
Millwood, New York, 1977.
- Hattie Caldwell
Davis, Civil
War Letters and Memories from the Great Smoky Mountains, Second
Edition published by the author, Maggie Valley, NC, 1999.
