Staff Reports
Cherokee Phoenix
CHECOTAH – On Saturday, at 1 p.m., Aug. 16 the Honey Springs Battlefield will host a program on “The Cherokee Nation and the Civil War.”
Cherokee Nation citizen David Fowler, OHS regional director of the museums and historic sites division, will lead this program.
During the course of the American Civil War Cherokee people fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. Within the Cherokee Nation, factions such as The Gold Cloak Society, composed mainly of mixed slave owners, supported the confederacy, while members of the Keetoowah Society organized in opposition to that support. At the war’s outbreak in April 1861, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief John Ross attempted to keep the CN neutral. However, under pressure, the tribe would briefly ally with the confederacy, and was penalized for that support by the U.S. government after the war.
Confederate Cherokee Stand Watie led primarily Native Confederate forces in the Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. For the duration of the war, a series of small battles and constant guerrilla warfare were waged by Cherokee in the Indian Territory. Stand Watie officially became the last Confederate general to surrender on June 25, 1865, at Fort Towson, in the southeast portion of the Indian Territory.
Next to the Trail of Tears, the American Civil War was one of the most devastating times for Cherokee people in the loss of life and property in the 1800s.