Probably not. Unfortunately, the role of Indians throughout US History - not just during the Civil War - is often ignored or minimized. Did you ever hear Al Gore or George W. Bush mention them during the Presidential campaign? Have you seen anything about them in the news lately? I haven't, and I've been looking! So imagine my reaction when I was told to find out how they participated during the war that divided a nation. Where to go? What to do? Help!

Stephanie and I started out in Oklahoma, home of the Cherokee (one of the most active tribes during the Civil War). There, we learned about a few of the myths surrounding their role in the war. Ready? There are quite a few: First, all Indians were pro-Confederacy. Second, they ran away as soon as they lost a battle. Third, they were lazy and uncooperative. No, no, no! Far from the truth! Hogwash! Let me explain…

For most tribes, choosing a side was not a matter of ideology; it was a matter of survival. While Southerners fought to preserve slavery and Northerners fought to abolish it, Indians fought to survive. At the onset of the war, the Cherokees, for instance, were torn right down the middle. Their territory was bounded by the strong pro-Union state of Kansas on the north, on the northeast by the divided state of Missouri, and on the east by the Confederate state of Arkansas. Its southern boundary was the pro-Confederate Choctaw and the Creek nation. Although the leader of the Cherokee, John Ross, was pro-Union, he had to deal with the tribe's other major player, Stand Watie, who was very much pro-Confederacy. Their quarrels led to all sorts of trouble, but eventually Ross had to give in and sign a treaty with the Confederacy.

The Cherokee weren't the only ones caught between a rock and a hard place. The Choctaw and Chickasaws were located between Texas and Arkansas and were also forced to "choose" the Confederate side. By the end of 1861, the Creeks, Seminoles, Quapaws, Senecas, and Great Osages also signed with the South. For the most part, these tribes were divided between Northern and Southern sympathizers. The Civil War caused irreparable rifts between blood brothers.

The tribes that fought for the Union included the Caddos, Wichitas, Osages, Shawnees, Delawares, Senecas, and Quapaws, most of whom had a long history of allegiance to the government. The Pimas, a tribe who lived off agriculture in Arizona, not only sent some of its men to defeat Confederate troops, but also provided much of the fresh supplies for the western front of the war. All in all, about 3,600 Native Americans served in the Union army.

Mechanics nedded!

The consequences for the pro-Confederate (and neutral) tribes were devastating. They were considered traitors to the Northern cause and treated as such. The Union commander in New Mexico, for example, presented a plan to bring all hostile Indians under control by placing them on reservations where they would be Christianized and taught agricultural skills. He appointed Kit Carson to the task. Carson managed to defeat the Mescalero Apache and the Navajo (by destroying their food supply) and confine both tribes at the new Bosque Redondo Reservation, even though the Mescalero Apache and the Navajo were enemies!

The Union also used Indian support of the Confederacy as an excuse to take their lands. Unofficially, the US practiced a policy of 50-50 genocide - the idea was that if 50% of the warriors were killed or destroyed, then the rest of the tribe would have to give in to a permanent peace. Given these atrocities, it's amazing any Indians would fight in the first place!

But fight they did, and valiantly, at that. One of the bravest soldiers was Black Beaver, a Delaware Indian scout who volunteered his services to the Union and whose help made it possible for Colonel Emory to capture a contingent of Texas Mounted Rifles at the start of the war. Black Beaver then guided everyone - Union troops and their Confederate prisoners - on a 500-mile trek across open prairie to northeastern Kansas, without the loss of a single man, horse or wagon.