The Civil War resulted in internal strife among the Five Civilized Tribes and as they sought to rebuild, they were once more challenged by the post-war United States.
During the Civil War, the transplanted tribes of the southeast (known as the Five Civilized Tribes) fought to maintain their neutrality in what was, to many, a white man’s war. At the same time, the Confederate government sought to draw their native neighbors into the conflict as allies. Confederate emissary Albert Pike met with Indian leaders and tried to convince them that joining the south would greatly benefit their people. Pike’s mission was to convince the five tribes that they should sever all ties with the United States (or, Union) and create regiments of native soldiers loyal to the Confederacy. While the Indians in question felt no particular fealty towards the United States, especially given the fact that wounds of their relocation were still apparent, the idea of joining a rebellion against the government gave many cause for concern. It was the issue of breaking the tenuous link with the Union and supporting the southern states, many of whom had brought pressure on the federal government to effect their displacement in the first place, that would rend the very fabric of the five tribes and contribute to future displacement.
Although many rejected his overtures, Pike eventually succeeded in gaining the support of the five tribes for the Confederate cause. However, the alliance with the CSA caused internal friction and resulted in many Indians joining the Union as well. Nowhere was this more evident than within the Cherokee Nation, which not only fractured over this decision, but endured its own equally destructive civil war. The five tribes fought on both sides during the conflict, and they also fought among themselves. In the end, Indian Territory was chaotic with civil unrest and intertribal conflict. Even after the Confederate government ceased to exist and the war among the whites had ended, the fighting continued in Indian Territory. The Cherokee capital of Tahlequah was sacked and burned by Cherokee whose loyalties had been divided. Conversely, the Indian nation which had given the United States the most trouble, the Seminole, contributed one of its greatest leaders to the Union cause. Holata Micco (also known as Billy Bowlegs) served as a Captain in the First Indian Regiment, resisting the attacks of pro-Confederate tribes.
After the Civil War, the five tribes once again pledged their loyalty to the United States in hopes that they would remain in possession of their lands. Through the efforts of Colonel Ely Parker, a Seneca chief in the Union Army, the tribes of the Indian Territory were guaranteed their former holdings in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the decision to support the Confederate cause would raise the ire of many post-war government officials, who soon turned an eager, and expansionist, eye toward the Indian Territory. In 1866, despite the efforts of individuals like Parker, the territory was once again partitioned along its southern border—forcing the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations to once again relocate to the north. Subsequent legislation legalized the government seizure of Indian land for the purpose of white settlement, thus nullifying all native land claims.
As in the years before the war, poverty, and all of its ill-effects, plagued the tribes of Indian Territory—making the financial benefits of ceding their land even more appealing to tribal leaders. Indian Territory shrunk throughout the 1870s and 80s. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act, which provided for the division of native lands into 160 acre plots—in effect, ending the policy of treating Indian tribes as sovereign nations and redistributing their lands among the individual tribesmen. These Indians had the option of selling their individual plots to whites, which often resulted in land going for a fraction of its actual worth. The remaining land was to set side for white settlement.
Sources:
Mark C Carnes, Ed, U.S. History. (New York: MacMillan Library Reference, 1996).
Norman A. Graebner, et al., A History of the United States: Vol. II. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1970).
Carl Waldman, Atlas of the North American Indian. (New York: Checkmark Book, 2000).
