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Reviews
| The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War, by Clarissa W. Confer. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. 199 pages. $24.95, cloth.
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| Most Americans are familiar with the impact that the Civil War had on whites and African Americans living in the North and in the South during that horrific conflict. Few realize, however, the devastating experiences the war had on Native Americans living in Indian Territory. Clarissa W. Confer, an Assistant Professor of History at California University of Pennsylvania, examines the wartime hardships the Cherokee Nation, one of the major tribes removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s, endured in this fascinating study. |
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Still attempting to recover from the tragedies they suffered during removal, the Cherokee people would once again face another major, destructive stage in their history during the Civil War years. Many Cherokee, especially their leaders, still harbored extreme resentment towards each other regarding removal issues. With the coming of the Civil War, violence, bloodshed, and murder intensified. Confer offers many examples of the political, economic, and social conflict among the Cherokee during war. Indeed, animosities arose between the Treaty Party—those favoring removal, and whose leadership included Stand Watie, a Cherokee who holds the distinction of being the last Confederate officer to surrender during the Civil War—and the Ross (Anti-Treaty) Party, led by Cherokee President John Ross, who hoped initially to keep his people neutral but then supported an alliance with the South during the conflict. However, Ross ultimately became associated with the Union cause. Regarding Ross, the Cherokee leader endured the loss of his home, property, and beloved wife during the war years. He died in Washington, D.C. in August 1866, succeeding in his efforts to keep the Cherokee Nation as one instead of two entities. At war's end, estimates indicate a Cherokee population loss at about 33 percent, and the Cherokee Nation had to cede more land to the federal government. Confer deftly details these important issues without demonstrating a prejudice towards Watie or Ross. |
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High school and college teachers can effectively use this book in their U.S. history and Native American courses to demonstrate how the Civil War impacted Indian peoples much in the same manner as it did whites in the North and in the South. For example, families split in their loyalties to the Union and to the Confederacy, guerrilla warfare caused serious damages to both sides, and enemy occupation seriously affected standards of living and human suffering. Additionally, students can also do activities that involve federal Indian policy, Cherokee removal, Cherokee leadership issues and rivalries, and the war's effects on such Cherokee women as Hannah Hicks and Sarah Watie. |
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The Cherokee Nation should be read by all serious students of Native American history. The book contains several appropriate illustrations and useful maps. Confer succeeds in explaining and analyzing the many hardships the Cherokee, both males and females, suffered during this tragic period in our nation's history. |
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| Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas |
Raymond Wilson |
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