Civil War Times, April, 2015, pages 24-25

In this question and answer format article Mary Jane Warde, who has written the book, When the Wolf Came: The Civil War and the Indian Territory covers nine aspects of Indian involvement in the conflict. Her focus is on the civilized tribes who had been moved west after Jackson put a fork in their hopes. Basically the Indian choice was throw dice with the Confederacy in hopes of keeping their land, or honor their treaties with the Union, which had not been abiding by its obligations and would not after the war.

This is a fascinating area and Mary Jane Warde knows her subject intimately.

Here is one excerpt that might lead one to decide that Crazy Horse had a cooler head than we give him credit for when he decided to scalp Custer, and thereby exponentially increase the value of his own scalp:

“When the federal government refused to pay annuities in the spring of 1861, it created severe hardship. Also, when the federal government pulled its troops out of the forts on the frontier, that left the Five Civilized Tribes exposed to threats from the Western tribes and non-Indians.”

For those interested another good book on this period and theatre is Between Two Fires. I cannot recall the author’s name but it was a good read.