Posted on 07/12/2016 6:42:54 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
--SNIP-- By signing these treaties, the tribes severed their relationships with the federal government, much in the way the southern states did by seceding from the Union. They were accepted into the Confederates States of America, and they sent representatives to the Confederate Congress. The Confederate government promised to protect the Native American’s land holdings and to fulfill the obligations such as annuity payments made by the federal government.
Some of these tribes even sent troops to serve in the Confederate army, and one Cherokee, Stand Watie, rose to the rank of brigadier general.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_American_Civil_War
If I recall correctly, while an officer in the U.S. Army, Jefferson Davis established Fort Gibson, Indian Territory. In doing so, he established strong relationships with the Cherokee Nation therefor, he already had their trust.
“Ironically, many of these tribes had been expelled from the Southern states in the 1830s and 1840s but still chose to ally themselves with those states during the war. “
Ironically! Ironically?
The five tribes were expelled from the south by the FEDERAL government, not by the “southern states”.
Just to be accurate for the history deficient amongst us, there was NO Confederate States of American in the 1830s and 1840s.
It was believed that the Confederacy had agents stirring up the tribes from Canada to Mexico against the Union.
When S-s-s-Chivington destroyed the so-called “peaceful” Indians at Sand Creek there were TWO CONFEDERATE AGENTS captured in the camp, along with fresh scalps of white people.
Just something interesting, before we were a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, we were a CONFEDERACY under the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.
Yea, it didn’t work then either.
The Cherokee freedmen controversy is still ongoing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_freedmen_controversy
AND--the people of North Carolina welcomed the Cherokees who returned illegally. They lived in peace together forever after.
Dixie Ping
The Eastern Band of the Cherokee was not comprised of people who returned illegally. They refused to leave in the first place, retreating into the wilderness of the Smokies.
Many Choctaws served in the CSA army as spies, scouts and even soldiers. When captured, they were taken to New York City and exhibited in cages in Central Park. When they didn’t look “savage” enough they took away their cloths! The CSA protested this action and only international pressure took the Choctaw off display and gave them status as POWs. After the war—the Choctaw who were living in swamps in Mississippi illegally—were given their swamp (where cotton would not grow) as a reservation by the people of Mississippi. They remember who stood up and fought for the Confederacy.
Some went to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears but returned. When I said that they returned “illegally” it was because according to U.S. Federal Law, they should have remained in Oklahoma, and it was illegal for them to return to North Carolina. The white people of North Carolina objected to their removal, and insisted that they be allowed to remain in North Carolina.
I’m descended from some of the Moravians who ministered to them and have some Cherokee ancestry, I’m aware of the history. The Eastern Band is comprised of people who refused to leave. If there were some who returned from Oklahoma, it was a small number.
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