The Slaveholding Indians is a three volume series dealing with the slaveholding Indians as secessionists, as participants in the Civil War, and as victims under reconstruction. The series deals with a phase of American Civil War history which has heretofore been almost entirely neglected or, where dealt with, either misunderstood or misinterpreted. Contents The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist General Situation in the Indian Country, 1830-1860 Indian Territory in Its Relations With Texas and Arkansas The Confederacy in Negotiation With the Indian Tribes The Indian Nations in Alliance With the Confederacy The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War The Battle of Pea Ridge, or Elkhorn and Its More Immediate Effects Lane's Brigade and the Inception of the Indian The Indian Refugees in Southern Kansas The Organization of the First Indian Expedition The March to Tahlequah and the Retrograde Movement of the "White Auxiliary" General Pike in Controversy With General Hindman Organization of the Arkansas and Red River Superintendency The Retirement of General Pike The Removal of the Refugees to the Sac and Fox Agency Negotiations With Union Indians Indian Territory in 1863, January to June Inclusive Indian Territory in 1863, July to December Inclusive Aspects, Chiefly Military, 1864-1865 The American Indian Under Reconstruction Overtures of Peace and Reconciliation The Return of the Refugees Cattle-driving in the Indian Country The Muster Out of the Indian Home Guards The Surrender of the Secessionist Indians The Peace Council at Fort Smith, September, 1865 The Harlan Bill The Freedmen of Indian Territory The Earlier of the Reconstruction Treaties of 1866 Negotiations With the Cherokees
Annie Heloise Abel describes the 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, a bloody disaster for the Confederates but a glorious moment for Colonel Stand Watie and his Cherokee Mounted Rifles. The Indians were soon enough swept by the war into a vortex of confusion and chaos. Abel makes clear that their participation in the conflict brought only devastation to Indian Territory. Born in England and educated in Kansas, Annie Heloise Abel (1873?1947) was a historical editor and writer of books dealing mainly with the trans-Mississippi West. They include The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist (1915), also reprinted as a Bison Book. Abel's distinguished career is noted in an introduction by Theda Perdue, the author of Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society (1979), and Michael D. Green, whose Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis (1982) was published by the University of Nebraska Press.
It is the purpose of this publication to assist those interested in medicinal plant identification and to furnish other useful information in connection with the work.
In Indian Territory the Civil War is a story best told through shades of gray rather than black and white or heroes and villains. Since neutrality appeared virtually impossible, the vast majority of territory residents chose a side, doing so for myriad reasons and not necessarily out of affection for either the Union or the Confederacy. Indigenous residents found themselves fighting to protect their unusual dual status as communities distinct from the American citizenry yet legal wards of the federal government. The Civil War and Reconstruction in Indian Territory is a nuanced and authoritative examination of the layers of conflicts both on and off the Civil War battlefield. It examines the military front and the home front; the experiences of the Five Nations and those of the agency tribes in the western portion of the territory; the severe conflicts between Native Americans and the federal government and between Indian nations and their former slaves during and beyond the Reconstruction years; and the concept of memory as viewed through the lenses of Native American oral traditions and the modern evolution of public history. These carefully crafted essays by leading scholars such as Amanda Cobb-Greetham, Clarissa Confer, Richard B. McCaslin, Linda W. Reese, and F. Todd Smith will help teachers and students better understand the Civil War, Native American history, and Oklahoma history.