19th Century Native American History I - The US Civil War and Native Scouts
Here in the US, we are fast approaching Thanksgiving, a holiday that for many years carried with it the imagery of pilgrims sitting down and feasting with native americans, a scene capturing a spirit of brotherhood between all people, no matter their religion, culture or skin tone. Although this scene is powerful in its own way, we now know that it is in fact completely false, that there were likely no native americans who participated in the large fall harvest feasts alongside the European pilgrims in those early days of American settlement.
This brings with it a good opportunity to create a post covering, however briefly, Native American history in the 19th century. There will certainly be more Native American history posts in the future, although I cannot say when. Consider this 'Part I' of a running series.
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US Civil War
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The US Civil War was a long, bloody conflict that destroyed much of the United States. It was, simply put, the most destructive conflict ever fought in the western hemisphere. It is no surprise then that it came to involve almost everyone in the United States in one way or another, even the Native Americans. The very existence of the United States threatened the natives way of life. The conflict between the Native Americans and the 'Americans' (in modern parlance) had been taking place since before there even was a United States to speak of. Many Native Americans had genuine sympathy for the secessionist South, and most acknowledged that it would be more advantageous for their own way of life if the Confederacy won the war.
One of the most prominent examples of Native American involvement in the US Civil War comes from Stand Watie. Stand Watie was a Cherokee Indian, born in the Cherokee Nation, whose traditional homeland was the southern Appalachian mountains. The Cherokee Nation was large and at one time very strong, although by 1860 the US had severely crippled its power. It became apparent very quickly that a major issue in the US Civil War was that of slavery. The Cherokee, along with numerous other tribes, had traditionally practiced slavery, albeit in a very different form than the large plantation style slavery so commonly envisioned in modern times. In many cases, a slave was either a war captive or a kindof lifetime servant, but the slave in question was treated more like family and less like property. The Cherokee naturally felt that supporting the South was the best course of action, not only to protect their cultural tradition, but also because the war was being fought quite literally on their doorstep.
By the time the war had broken out in 1861, Stand Watie was already known as a brave warrior and strong leader. Stand Watie recruited dozens of young Cherokee warriors into his warband, with the initial intent of defending their homeland. This approach quickly changed, however, as the Confederacy offered to make him a commander of cavalry in their army. Stand Watie accepted, and created a unit of Indian Cavalry to fight alongside the Confederate armies against the North. Stand Watie's cavalry proved themselves to be a very effective fighting force. They even became something of a legend among Union soldiers; many flat out rejected the idea that the Confederacy had created a unit of cavalry with Native American troopers, believing it to be nothing more than a myth. Stand Watie himself was one of the last Confederate commanders to surrender, a testament to his dedication, stubbornness, but also a testament to how strongly the Cherokee felt that the Confederate cause was their own cause. In some respects they felt that they had more to lose, because in their eyes the war was not just about ideology or even a traditional practice, but about the survival of their culture as a whole.
Native Scouts
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
After the conclusion of the US Civil War, 'Manifest Destiny' took hold in the American mindset in full force. Much in the same way that the Confederacy had to be defeated because, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, a southern US and a northern US would completely undermine the idea of the 'United' States, so too did it make sense in the minds of many that the United States, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, should not have areas where native tribes hold more influence than the Americans. They did not acknowledge the Native American nations, and believed that there cannot be 'nations' within a nation. The 30 years following the end of the US Civil War saw the settling of the west and the last of the so-called 'Indian Wars'. The numerous tribes west of the Mississippi were affected in numerous different ways in this period. Some of these tribes were effectively wiped out. Others were affected in far smaller ways.
One distinctive feature of the conflicts between the US Army and the native tribes before and after the US Civil War is that in many cases, the US Army was far less effective in dealing with them decisively after the Civil War than before. This had nothing to do with the US Army itself; in fact, it had drawn many lessons from the Civil War and had updated its weaponry almost immediately after its conclusion. This ineffectiveness had to do directly with both the terrain and the nature of the enemy. Large, flat, open plains, coupled with opponents who are nomadic and can rapidly relocate themselves with the aid of horses to another area, make things decisively more difficult. Even the Romans had difficulty dealing with such opponents, and in fact it was nomads who eventually became their undoing. The US Army, however, quickly began to adapt to be able to better fight back against these horse riding natives so dreaded for their hit-and-run attacks and ruthless raids. The Comanche, for example, were better horse riders than the Americans, and often rode bare back. Infantry were quickly phased out and replaced with cavalry and mounted infantry in the west. Revolvers became standard issue for all cavalry units and proved very valuable. Emphasis on sabre training decreased and emphasis on the use of carbines increased.
The US soon realized that in areas of difficult terrain, the use of native scouts would be very advantageous, much as Louis and Clark had relied on native scouts in their own voyages through the American west. The US army soon began utilizing native americans as scouts in great numbers, and eventually an executive order from the president of the United States approved the creation of entire units of native scouts to aid the US Army in the Indian Wars. This idea of native americans helping the US army fight against other native americans may seem strange to us now, but in all cases they had their own motivations for doing so, usually pragmatic, sometimes noble, and sometimes anything but. One famous example of native scouts comes in the form of the Pawnee Scouts. The Pawnee were traditional enemies of the Sioux, and the Sioux had been raiding their lands for countless years. The Pawnee saw the creation of the native scout units as an opportunity. It allowed them not only to strike back against the Sioux, something which they had never truly had the strength to do effectively, but also to potentially secure the future of their tribe, as they were well aware that the United States would soon bring the land traditionally held by the natives under their direct control, and so by helping them they hoped that their descendants would receive better treatment at their hands.
The Pawnee are, however, but one example of native scouts utilized by the US army. The Apache scouts are another example, but it is worth mentioning that individual native americans from numerous tribes served in these units. The native scouts disappeared shortly after the end of the Indian wars and the settling of the west, but Native American service in the US military continued into the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and truthfully every conflict the US has ever engaged in from then until the present day. The treatment of the native americans is a sad scar that rests in the history of our country, but for most of the Native Americans that have served in the military, their reasons for doing so are the same as those of anyone else.
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