Tragically, the Cherokee is one of America’s best-known tribes due to the trials and tribulations they suffered by being forcibly moved west along the “Trail of Tears”, but that overlooks the contributions they made to American society well before the 19th century. The Cherokee began the process of assimilation into European America very early, even before the establishment of the Unites States, and by the early 19th century, they were one of the “Five Civilized Tribes.” Despite all of the hostilities and the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee ultimately became the first people of non-European descent to become US citizens en masse, and today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, boasting over 300,000 members.

Before then, however, the Cherokee were riven by the Civil War, and what happened in and to Indian Territory, now part of the state of Oklahoma. There was a parallel civil war in Indian Territory, with the Cherokee nation splitting in two. Just as the full-blood Cherokee resisted leaving the Southeast, they also resisted joining the Confederacy, and this old animosity seems to have intensified the violence between the two sides. While the 100,000 inhabitants of Indian Territory represent most of the experiences during the Civil War, many others were affected by it all over the country. In fact, men from more than two dozen tribal peoples actively participated in the Civil War by fighting for one side or the other. There were full-size Indian regiments fighting for the Confederacy, and full-size Indian regiments fighting for the Union. Indians joined sharpshooter regiments, functioned as scouts, piloted Union ships, and served as guerrillas, while some joined units of United States Colored Troops. Recent estimates are that more than 28,000 Indians served as Civil War soldiers. One difference between Confederates and Union Indian troops is that Confederate Indian units were generally officered by Indians, and Union formations were usually led by white officers, but some Indians in the Union forces did eventually work their way into command.

The total population of Indian Territory in 1861 was about 100,000. There was a small population of non-Indians that included tradespeople, missionaries, blacksmiths and so on, the largest of which were about 8,000 slaves. An unknown number of free blacks lived in the territory, and some of the Indian groups were racially mixed. Most of the population was settled, meaning that subsistence farming, ranching, and even plantation agriculture were all to be found. The far western region of the territory was nearly empty, but sometimes frequented by Plains Tribes. In general, the pre-War Indian inhabitants were probably the most prosperous and safest of all the country’s Indians.

About 10,000 Native Americans are thought to have died in Indian Territory as a result of the Civil War, including soldiers, but also as a consequence of a total breakdown of law and order and chronic guerilla war. That estimate could be low, because the Cherokee population alone dropped from 21,000 before the Civil War, to 15,000 after it.

Stand Watie’s life connects the traditional Cherokee homeland in Tennessee and Georgia, the fight within the tribe over leaving for the West or staying on their homeland and trying to resist, and the Trail of Tears. At the same time, his life also includes the ongoing split between mixed-blood and full-blood Cherokee in the Cherokee Nation, and the chaos of Indian Territory during the Civil War.

At the start of the war, Watie was commissioned as a colonel in Confederate service, and later as a brigadier general. His first Cherokee mounted rifles regiment fought more engagements than any other Confederate unit west of the Mississippi River.