Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist: An Omitted Chapter in the Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy
Granting then that the negotiations of 1861 with the Indian nations constitute a phase of southern diplomatic history, it may be well to consider to what Indian par ticipation in the Civil War amounted. It was a cir cumstance that was interesting rather than significant; and the majority will have to admit that it was a cir cumstance that could not possibly have materially af fected the ultimate situation. It was the Indian coun try, rather than the Indian owner, that the Confederacy wanted to be sure of possessing; for Indian Territory occupied a position Of strategic importance, from both the economic and the military point of view. The possession of it was absolutely necessary for the political and the institutional consolidation of the South. Texas might well think Of going her own way and of forming an independent republic once again, when between her and Arkansas lay the immense reservations of the great tribes. They were slaveholding tribes, too, yet were supposed by the United States government to have no interest whatsoever in a sectional con?ict that involved the very existence of the peculiar institution. Thus the federal government left them to themselves at the critical moment and left them, moreover, at the mercy of the South, and then was indignant that they betrayed a sectional affiliation.
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