Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country

by Fay A. Yarbrough

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.

Genres: History, Civil War, American, Indigenous, Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2021

About the author

Fay A. Yarbrough is an associate professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and the author of Race and the Cherokee Nation: Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessary gap was filled in Civil War literature when this volume was written. The author portrays the struggles of the indigenous peoples during the War Between the States. I found the book to be very engaging and well written. One can only hope that this book induces others to write about the war through the eyes of Native people.

[Rosa Angelone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first heard about this book because of a podcast interview with the author on the New Books Network. It has been in my to buy list for a while and I am very glad I used my x-mas gift card and got it.

From disagreements in Mississippi among the Choctaw on staying in the face of enourmous pressure to sell or leaving on a dangerous journey to an unproven land to building that land into often profitable plantations complete with black men, women and children forced into slavery The author pulls out resources from the archives to make the Choctaw's world as vivid and fully realized as possible

Just like the interview the book opens up a whole new way of looking at the Civil War (which means American History). The historical figures in the book never feel like props pushing one view of the world against another. Just people who lived and breathed like you or I do dealing with the circumstances of the Times.

She helpfully lays those cirucumstances out plain. The Choctaw Nation had to figure out how to maintain their identity and saftey against a world defined by white Americans hungry for land. Which meant defining black people in the same light and understanding Kansas was full of abolitionists that not only wanted to end slavery but also wanted to take all of their land and destroy the political and social identity of their Nation.

Yardbrough walks the reader through the sources she used and the realities that The Choctaw story is a puzzle that has to be pieced together. There is no single document that explains everything or is without bias. I especially appreciated how she contextualizes the WPA interviews with people who had been enslaved

Above all else this book has given me a whole new avenue to scramble down. I am looking forward to re-reading about the U.S-Dakota war or diving more into the conflicting opinions of various Cherokee tribal members as they decided how to deal with the massive war on their doorstep.
Because I read ths book I feel more confident wading into those waters.

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[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid bit of scholarship working to fill the gaps left in traditional Civil War history by highlighting the Choctaw Nation and their enthusiastic support of the Confederacy, largely born out of concerns over Tribal Sovereignty, citizenship rights, and the issue of thousands of African Americans enslaved by Choctaw elites that would be freed by the US Government if the North won.

Yarbrough does a great job highlighting these motivating factors in the negotiating process with the Confederate government, as well as shows how these questions of status became increasingly important to Choctaw leadership even beyond simply the status of enslaved African Americans - women’s marriage was limited, property was redefined, and literacy was made more exclusive - all in part because concerns about Choctaw Sovereignty were deeply anxious for elites and non-elites alike.

However, Yarbrough does even more important work in the later half of the book, where she discusses how Choctaw leadership did everything they could to not give any rights or recognition to freed former slaves in the Choctaw Nation and in many instances sought to expel them entirely. The complex legacy of White, Choctaw, and African American peoples during the Civil War and Reconstruction is fully on display here, complicating a narrative that is entirely too easily made a black and white issue. Yarbrough sought to complicate understandings of the American South and Native People’s relationship with American Slavery, and in this book she does a solid job of it.

My only criticisms relate to Yarbrough needing to supplement Choctaw non-elite narratives with narratives of other Nations, as this feels fairly fraught in a generalizing Native Experiences kind of way.

However, I highly recommend this book to those looking to learn more on little known history or specifically Native history.

[Jason S · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read that argues that this particular tribe played a much larger role in the south’s plans during the civil war that previously explored. Argues that gender differences account for how Choctaw men viewed service in the war and how a lack of matrilineal connections shaped the Reconstruction period in Indian country for freed slaves.

[Kevin Keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a laborious read, but it was on a unique subject that really piqued my interest. Every chapter illuminated things I had never really considered -- a look at the Civil War and later Reconstruction from the point of view of the Choctaws, who for various logical reasons joined the Confederacy and fought for the South. I learned about under-studied theaters of the war, diplomacy of the South, Choctaw matrilineal heritage, and the USA and CSA diplomacy with sovereign nations of Indians. It was well-written and extremely interesting, although it was written a bit too academically for my taste. You just have to read it slowly. "People formerly enslaved by the Choctaws" would have been much smoother as "former Choctaw slaves"; freedpeople reads easier as freedmen. I understand the reason why she uses today's more respectful terms, but it tends to make the writing a little clunky after a while. The conclusion was great and I even enjoyed reading the author's acknowledgements. I recommend it heartily to anyone looking for new perspectives, and especially academic readers. I applaud the author for tackling the subject thoroughly -- every chapter was enriching and increased my knowledge. And for not treating the subject simplistically, but giving context to the decisions made from all sides. I was left not just thinking Choctaw good or Choctaw bad. They, like the Indians in the French and Indian War, and Revolutionary War, were between a rock and a hard place and made good and bad decisions in the period from 1861-1890

[Michael Paone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book that, as others have pointed out, fills in gaps in scholarship regarding Native Americans (in this case, Choctaw and Chickasaw) and experience in the Civil War, in this case fighting for the Confederates. Most if not practically of all this information was new to me & very interesting but I can't help feel the book is a little scattershot in its topics. The book reads more like a related series of essays rather than one scholarly monograph.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish this book. While I learned something new about Indians that actually owned slaves, the academic stiff writing made it very difficult to read, so stopped less than midway through.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[Nate Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a very scholarly treatment of one of the most mysterious parts of the Civil War: How and why did Native Populations react?

No spoilers... but the answer is not exactly what you think it is.