Ever wonder why most American Indians fought for with the Confederacy, the largest contingency being the Cherokees, read the reason. No Indian, then or now, trusts the lying ass Federal government, who tried to wipe the Indian off the face of the earth.
“Menaced by a great danger, they exercise the inalienable right of self-defense, and declare themselves a free people, independent of the Northern States of America, and at war with them by their own act. Obeying the dictates of prudence and providing for the general safety and welfare, confident of the rectitude of their intentions and true to the obligations of duty and honor, they accept the issue thus forced upon them, unite their fortunes now and forever with those of the Confederate States, and take up arms for the common cause, and with entire confidence in the justice of that cause and with a firm reliance upon Divine Providence, will resolutely abide the consequences”.
http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/cherokee.html
Other than the thousands who fought for the Union army that is.
LOL. Up until the moment they turned renegade the cornfederate soldiers WERE part of “lying ass Federal government, who tried to wipe the Indian off the face of the earth”.
Are you saying that the indians were really that stupid?
One faction of the Cherokees fought for the confederacy under Stand Watie, who was himself a slave owner. The other faction (in a split that went back to the Trail of Tears era, when Watie essentially sold out the others), were aligned with the Union. Over the course of the war, Watie's force was plagued with desertions as his men went over to the United States side.
Apart from Watie's troops (a few thousand at their peak), I don't think you can find another Indian group of any significance aligned with the Confederacy.
The Cherokee who sided with the pretended confederacy were the same faction that signed the treaty sending them and the members of their tribe west.
John Ross, Principle Chief and his supporters did not sign the treaty of New Echota, and after early overtures to the confederacy, became and remained loyal to the US. Elias Budinot aka Buck Watie and his brother Stand Watie signed the treaty contrary to the desires of the principle chief and a majority of the tribe.
Per Wikipedia:
Prior to removal of the Cherokee to Indian Territory in the late 1830s, Watie and his older brother Elias Boudinot were among leaders who signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835. The majority of the tribe opposed their action. In 1839 the brothers were attacked in an assassination attempt, as were other relatives active in the Treaty Party. All but Stand Watie were killed.
Stand Watie led his men against the US, but also against other Cherokee. Stand Watie’s forces massacred black haycutters at Wagoner, Oklahoma during this raid. Union reports said that Watie’s Indian cavalry “killed all the Negroes they could find”, including wounded men.
Ely Samuel Parker (1828 – August 31, 1895), (born Hasanoanda, later known as Donehogawa) was a Seneca attorney, engineer, and tribal diplomat. He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel during the American Civil War, when he served as adjutant to General Ulysses S. Grant. He wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox. Later in his career, Parker rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General, one of only two Native Americans to earn a general’s rank during the war (the other being Stand Watie, who fought for the Confederacy).
Parker became the first Native American to become commissioner of Indian affairs.