Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country

✍ Scribed by Fay A. Yarbrough

• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 282
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

When the Choctaw Nation was forcibly resettled in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma in the 1830s, it was joined by enslaved Black people--the tribe had owned enslaved Blacks since the 1720s. By the eve of the Civil War, 14 percent of the Choctaw Nation consisted of enslaved Blacks. Avid supporters of the Confederate States of America, the Nation passed a measure requiring all whites living in its territory to swear allegiance to the Confederacy and deemed any criticism of it or its army treasonous and punishable by death. Choctaws also raised an infantry force and a cavalry to fight alongside Confederate forces.

In Choctaw Confederates, Fay Yarbrough reveals that, while sovereignty and states' rights mattered to Choctaw leaders, the survival of slavery was what determined the Nation's support of the Confederacy. Mining service records for approximately 3,000 members of the First Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles, Yarbrough examines the experiences of Choctaw soldiers and notes that although their enthusiasm waned as the war persisted, military service allowed them to embrace traditional masculine roles--including that of slaveholder--that were disappearing in a changing political and economic landscape. By drawing parallels between the Choctaw Nation and the Confederate states, Yarbrough looks beyond the traditional binary of the Union and Confederacy and reconsiders the historical relationship between Native populations and slavery.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Maps and Figures
Introduction
Chapter 1. Before the White People Came in Large Numbers and Brought Their Customs: Choctaws in the Southeast
Chapter 2. Even If the Master Was Good the Slaves Was Bad Off: Slavery and Racial Ideology in the Choctaw Nation
Chapter 3. The Choctaws and Chickasaws Are Entirely Southern and Are Determined to Adhere to the Fortunes of the South: Choosing Sides in the Conflict
Chapter 4. We Know Dey Is Indians: Red Soldiers in Gray
Chapter 5. Earning One’s Name: Warfare and Choctaw Masculinity
Chapter 6. Dis Land Which Jines Dat of Ole Master’s: Reconstruction in the Choctaw Nation
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
Back Cover