Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #33: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)

 

This is another revision of an earlier review I made. This time, however, my opinion of the movie was greatly changed on my rewatch. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a television movie from HBO, is based on Dee Brown’s famous history of the fall of the American Indians in the latter half of the 19th Century. Brown’s book is too widely focused to make a single movie, so HBO limited itself to the story of the Sioux, from their last great victory at Little Bighorn to the fallout of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, charting their decline from a proud warrior people on the western plains to dependents on a reservation. Overall it’s a pretty accurate film, but accuracy does not always translate into a great movie.

The movie tries for a balanced account of events, though both of the primary protagonists are Sioux Indians. The first is Charles Eastman (Adam Beach). Eastman is the biggest inaccuracy of the movie. As in real life he has a Sioux father who converted to Christianity and changed his name to Jacob Eastman. For a while Charles, as Ohiyesa, lived with his mother’s people, but they were not part of the group under Sitting Bull, so Eastman’s presence at Little Bighorn is completely fictional. He was put in a mission school before having an American education program. Though the movie doesn't have him go to one of the controversial boarding schools, it still shows how Indian children were made to abandon their cultural heritage, down to adopting western names. The movie gets inaccurate with Eastman again, however, in giving him a close relationship with Henry Dawes which didn't exist, and also making him figure more in the other Sioux's lives earlier in the timeline.

What is true is that he was the first American Indian to master western medicine and became a doctor on the Great Sioux Reservation. At least in the movie his character is torn between two worlds. He can’t help but sympathize with his own people but also has a friendship with Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn) and a romantic relationship with poet and future wife Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin, who played Rogue in the X-Men films). By the end of the movie he has grown disgusted with health conditions on the reservation as well as the misguided aspects of the Dawes Act, which forced the Sioux to become farmers and also sell off more of their already shrunken lands. Eastman was not present for most of the events in the movie and certainly did not have as many personal interactions with other major characters, but he is used to show the tensions the Sioux face between preserving some of their culture and adopting the whites’ ways.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #25: Dances with Wolves (1990)

Dances with Wolves is one of the more important films on my 250^th anniversary watchlist. While movies sympathetic to American Indians had been made, it had never been done on such a scale, and certainly had not drawn as much commercial and critical success. This came as a surprise because everyone thought the director and actor, Kevin Costner, was wasting his time on a guaranteed failure. He literally spent five years of his life trying to get the movie made, turning down major movie roles while he sank his own money into the project. It was seen as a vanity project doomed to fail. Instead it was a vanity project that succeeded.

The movie is said to be based on a novel by Michael Blake, but actually the novel originated as a screenplay by the same author. It was turned into a book so that Costner could have better luck attracting support for his film. That being said, there is a stark difference. The novel is set in the American Southwest with the Comanches, but it turned out they couldn’t get enough buffalo in that region to film, so the location was turned to the northern Great Plains with the Lakota Sioux. However, there’s a scene where an old Indian holds up a conquistador helmet to explain previous European incursions. This is an obvious holdover from the earlier script and novel, as 15^th-16^th Century Spaniards never clashed and likely never even met the Sioux.

Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #11: The Far Horizons (1955)

The Lewis and Clark Expedition is one of the most fascinating adventures in American history. President Thomas Jefferson had just overseen the Louisiana Purchase, an incredibly cheap acquisition of French lands to the west. Eager to have it explored, he had his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, lead a collection of soldiers and civilians to explore the new American lands. They would map out the territory, describe and collect flora and fauna, and forge peaceful relations with the various Indian peoples. William Clark, a former soldier, would help lead this group, known as the Corps of Discovery.

Surprisingly, the Lewis and Clark Expedition received little attention for much of America’s history, but exploded in recognition in the 20^th Century. There have been numerous novels, documentaries, and references, not to mention Stephen Ambrose’s bestseller Undaunted Courage. However there has been only one actual movie, the 1955 Far Horizons, and boy, could we use another attempt.

Far Horizons is based on a novel called Sacajawea of the Shoshones, written by Della Gould Emmons. I cannot say how closely the movie follows the novel, so I won’t rag on Emmons, but this could explain some of the issues with the story. The movie begins with an ahistorical love triangle (I’m getting a lot of love triangles on this watchlist) between Lewis, Clark, and Julia Hancock. Meriwether Lewis (Fred MacMurray), gets permission to court Julia (Barbara Hale), but when he’s called in by the President, William Clark (Charlton Heston) unknowingly steals her from him. I can’t speak too much about the actors’ abilities to play Lewis and Clark, because the script doesn’t dwell on their actual real-life personalities.

The movie then skips the entire first act of the Expedition to get them to the Minnataree camp, where Shoshone Sacagawea is a slave. After she helps them avoid an ambush, she joins the expedition, where she and Clark fall in love (in real life Clark was affectionate towards her, but not in that way). And that’s the rest of the movie. Everybody is trying to get their hands on Sacagawea or commenting on how Clark is love with her. Oh, and the young Shoshone woman is played by a mid-30s Donna Reed in brown face. If the filmmakers couldn’t find a Native American actress to their liking, they could have at least gone for an Asian or Latina. To make things worse, Donna Reed’s brown eyes still aren’t dark enough, so the brown face is more noticeable. Many know that the real Sacagawea was pregnant at the time and would give birth in the middle of the expedition. The pregnancy is conveniently omitted, even though the fact that she went on the expedition with a child is what makes her even more awesome as a historical figure.

Clark gets mushy with Sacagawea

But I suppose the pregnancy was too inconvenient for Hollywood, who wanted her free for romantic plotting. As a result her real-life husband Charbonneau, a French trapper, is reimagined as a greasy, fat villain who is trying to make her his wife while also sabotaging the expedition. I’m all for a Sacagawea-centric movie, as she was legitimately a badass who turned out to be invaluable to the expedition. But what we get here is an emotional, weepy character. If you want a cool Sacagawea, check out the Night at the Museum movies. There she’s a wax figure brought to life at night, and she ends up as a couple with Teddy Roosevelt. Now that’s a power couple.

Back to this crummy movie. History buffs will notice that most of the real-life members of the expedition are absent. Aside from the aforementioned characters, we have Sergeant Glass (William Demarest), who’s more of a stock sergeant character than anything. Most notable by his absence is York, Clark’s slave. As a black man, York was fascinating to the Indians and very popular with the ladies (I’ll spare you the details). The filmmakers might have been trying to sanitize Clark by removing the presence of a black slave.

Almost every moment of this movie left me frustrated. Historically inaccurate movies can be good or even great if the changes lead to an engrossing story (special shout-out to Last Samurai). But this one was just painful. The Lewis and Clark Expedition famously suffered only one fight with the Indians and one fatality, a poor soldier who got his appendix ruptured. It’s incredible how almost nobody died when they faced grizzly bears, sickness, dangerous rapids, and tense confrontations with the Natives. Actually, a ruptured appendix sounds like a far worse way to go. The movie has several shootouts with the Natives, and to add tension at least a few of the explorers are killed.

The true story was so fascinating and exciting that it’s just baffling how Hollywood had to make so many changes. We get barely anything about the Expedition’s objectives. Nobody is observing animals, we get barely any time on the scenery, and literally the only discussion of mapping out rivers has to include the romance. Upon hearing that Clark named one branch of a river Sacagawea, Lewis reminds him of his engagement by naming the other branch Julia.

Lewis and Clark meet with a chieftain (https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-far-horizons)

I’m noticing that most of the weaker movies on my watchlist are from the 50’s. One could say that Hollywood was too formulaic and risk-averse in this period, churning out uninteresting historical films that failed to stand the test of time, but this was also the era of the big swords-and-sandal epics.

Anyways, this movie was trash. For a history buff it’s torture, and I imagine it’s boring for anybody who doesn’t care. The plot was so mind-bogglingly inaccurate and awful that I’ll describe it after my rating.

Rating: 1/10

So Lewis is depressed after learning that Julia Hancock went for Clark. Despite having the top billed actor, Lewis turns into a supporting character for Clark. At the Minnataree settlement, Charbonneau agrees to lead the expedition into a trap so the Minnataree men can kill them. Sacagawea escapes enslavement to warn the explorers, who set up a trap of their own. She gets to come along, as she can guide them.

The box of maps falls overboard during a rough moment on the river. Sacagawea dives into the river to save it. She did this in real life (while still pregnant) and earned massive respect from the men. Unfortunately the movie has her caught in a current so Clark can save her, undermining her defining moment of bravery.

Sacagawea starts to bond with Clark. He nicknames her “Janey” (an actual accurate touch from history), but Charbonneau wants his paws on her. After a knife fight, Charbonneau gets kicked off the expedition (in real life he went with them the whole way). Lewis is starting to get angry about Sacagawea, as she’s making Clark unfaithful to Julia. They reach the Shoshone. As in real life the Shoshones and Americans establish firm relations since Sacagawea was brought back to them. The movie has other plans, too. It turns out that Sacagawea was promised to a young warrior named Wild Eagle (Larry Pennell). Uh-oh!

Lewis demands that Sacagawea stay behind, because he doesn’t like the effect she has on Clark. Sacagawea runs along the bank like a dog who doesn’t want to be left behind. She tires out and has to be brought back on board. At the same time Wild Eagle, who wants Sacagawea back, stalks the Expedition, picking off men when they separate from the main body. It gets to the point where Wild Eagle helps out with an assault on the Expedition while they’re on the river. After a big shootout, we skip forward to the Pacific Ocean (and we don’t’ see any interactions with the native peoples there).

Then we zip right to Washington DC. Since Charbonneau has been separated from Sacagawea by the plot and she has no baby boy, she’s free to come back with Lewis and Clark. Julia Hancock doesn’t like how Clark has fallen for this Indian woman, but fortunately for her Sacagawea realizes she doesn’t fit in white society and after tearfully breaking things up heads back west.

Don’t watch this movie.

Trail of Blood on Ice Part III: Descent into Tragedy

 

Chustenahlah (December 26)

James McIntosh

Colonel Cooper received word that Colonel James McIntosh had forwarded part of his men to him so that he would have more numbers and ammunition to get back on the trail of Opothleyahola. The plan was that Cooper would travel up the Arkansas River and get in front of the rebellious Indians. McIntosh would go up the Verdigris River and head west, trapped the target between two forces. But it would be some time before Cooper was ready. McIntosh, a highly aggressive officer who often put himself at risk, knew that to wait would give Opothleyahola respite from pursuit and worse more distance. He thus resolved to move at once.[1] McIntosh had at his disposal 4 companies of his own 2^nd Arkansas Mounted Riflemen, 5 companies of the South Kansas-Texas Regiment, the 3^rd Texas Cavalry, 6^th Texas Cavalry, and a single company of Texans under Captain Bennett. Like Cooper, he led a mounted force ideal for moving quickly across large stretches of uninhabited territory. He had 1,380 men in total. These soldiers were surprised to be in action. With the first phase of winter having come, the men were busy constructing comfortable wood cabins near Van Buren. But winter rest would not come quite yet.[2]

Back on Fort Gibson, on December 24, Cooper received the ammunition he had ordered. He moved out, but sent Stand Watie and the 2^nd Cherokee ahead to link up with McIntosh. Watie was of the pro-Confederate Cherokee faction and so were the men in his regiment. Unlike Drew’s 1^st Cherokee, this regiment was in no danger of defecting.[3] Despite his quickness to move upon gaining ammunition, Cooper would miss out on the climactic battle of the Trail of Blood on Ice.

Trail of Blood on Ice Part II: Cooper Gives Chase

 

Round Mountain (November 19)

Though Opothleyahola talked of neutrality and letting the whites slaughter each other, his grand scheme was seen in a different light by the Confederacy and its allies. The McIntosh Creeks, aside from their usual political and cultural antipathy towards the traditionalists, thought this exodus would encourage their human property to run away. Slaveholders in other Indian nations felt the same. Of more strategic concerns was that instead of staying out of the “white man’s war” as stated, at least many of the males in the exodus would form Union units and improve the probability of a major Federal invasion from Missouri.[1]

The commander of the Confederate forces was Colonel Douglas Cooper (left). He long had relations with the Nations of Indian Territory, with Opothleyahola’s faction accusing him or stealing. In fact, there was a rumor that he wanted to catch up with Opothleyahola not to fight him, but to bribe him to reveal the location of a supposed great treasure that the chief’s slaves had buried. Such beliefs seem to be more the creation of spiteful Indians. While such planned thievery is not confirmed, Cooper did have a true reputation for drunkenness that would dog his Civil War career.[2]

Trail of Blood on Ice Part I: A Creek Nation Divided

 

In the American Civil War the Union Army did not hit Indian Territory until well into 1862, and only in full force in mid-1863. However, there was one major campaign, perhaps the most tragic one of all. In a period 35-45 years earlier the members of the Five Civilized Tribes and been driven off their land in the East by the executive and unconstitutional power of US President Andrew Jackson. For the Cherokees, the forced relocation to what is now Oklahoma became known as the Trail of Tears. The events at the end of 1861 would be known as the Trail of Blood on Ice.

 

Primary sources for the campaign are somewhat scarce for somebody running a blog out of Illinois. I was limited to letters contained in The Prairie Was on Fire, a wonderful source for anybody who wants firsthand accounts of the Civil War in Indian Territory, and the official battle and campaign reports. Aside from a letter in which Indian agent Carruth communicates with Creek chief Opothleyahola, they are all from the Confederate perspective. As for the secondary sources, the best was Now the Wolf Has Come, a book that seeks to reframe the campaign entirely from the Creek’s perspective. The two authors of the book, Christine and Benton White, do alert the reader that the Creeks’ biases come to the fore, so keep that in mind when some heavy accusations are made against white figures such as General Douglas Cooper. I also tried to flesh out the sources with web sources, chiefly from the Oklahoma Historical Society, but I decided not to include them because the information was so brief and already covered in the books.

The Creek chief named in the image and below (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Opothle_Yaholo.jpg)

Opothleyahola

When the Civil War began to take shape, the Confederacy was keen to make the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations allies. They hoped they would serve as a buffer force between Kansas and Texas. The task for many of these nations was actually not too hard, thanks to shared cultural traditions and the Federal Government’s abandonment of protection and services. The latter factor was caused by the Union’s prioritization of beating Confederates further east.

However, many Indians also opposed an alliance with the Confederacy because they preferred the Union, or, in the case of the following individual, did not want to get wrapped up in a “white man’s war.” His name was Opothleyahola. He was of the Creek Nation (their official names is Muscogee, but for the sake of lining up with my sources I will refer to them as Creek). His name stood out in stark contrast to the other major Creek chiefs, who had taken up western names. This was very symbolic. Opothleyahola was a deeply conservative traditionalist who despised much of white culture. To him whites were demons responsible for all that had befallen the Creeks. He was more not likely to be seen in the suit and shirt of the whites, and he rejected Christianity.

Opothleyahola was old enough to have been present when the great Pan-Indian Shawnee Tecumseh visited the Creeks. Tecumseh had preached that the Indians must return to their old ways of living and makes themselves pure of both the physical and cultural encroachments of the white men. Opothleyahola was struck by Tecumseh’s words and had been on the side of the Red Sticks in the Creek Civil War. It was during this event that he gained a dislike for the opposing Creeks’ white American allies. Now he saw himself as the protector of the Creeks’ old ways.[1]

His arch-enemies were the McIntosh family. Back during the days of Indian removal, the McIntosh faction had voluntarily decided to head west. Their journey west was not the mournful procession that the rest of the Creeks would face. They even entered their new lands on steamboats, and brought their slaves with them. Having first dibs at their new home, they quickly grabbed much of the best farmland and set up farms and plantations.[2]

By contrast the rest of the Creeks, the majority of them, had a miserable time of it when they were forced out of what is now Alabama. As they trekked west they fell into destitution, constantly cheated by more unsavory whites, exposed to the elements, forced to endure long marches in rough conditions. When they finally arrived the McIntosh faction was wary. They agreed to let this second wave of migration stay as long as they accepted the laws they had already set up.[3]

It took time to adjust to the new country. The majority of Creeks built settlements along the rivers, but, being unfamiliar with the weather and natural cycles of Indian Territory, found themselves hit by flooding that wrecked their homes, drowned valuable livestock, and propagated the spread of diseases. Through it all Opothleyahola sought to do what he could to revive his peoples’ prosperity.[4]

Helping the Creeks rebuild were Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian missionaries. Most were white, though at least one was black. They set up schools at which the Creek children could receive education and learn how to read and write. For this case Opothleyahola made an exception, as he understood that such talents would help his people deal with further intrusions from the United States. Despite his efforts, the mixed-bloods were more willing or likely to attend the new schools. Not only did this tie them more to American culture, it guaranteed that they would have educational advantages over the other Creeks.[5] Opothleyahola also held black slaves, just like most wealthier Creeks. It should be noted, however, that slavery by the Creeks had existed before the arrival of the whites. The only adjustment made to it was that only blacks could be held in bondage.

When these mixed-bloods began to respond positively to an alliance with the Confederacy, it was only natural that Opothleyahola would stand in opposition.

Planning the Exodus

During the pre-war Secession crisis, militant Texans surged into Indian Territory, keen to seize Federal property. Colonel William Emory of the Federal forces entered the territory to determine if the Union should maintain their handful of scattered posts: Forts Arbuckle, Cobb, Gibson, and Washita. As it turned out, soldiers had already evacuated Fort Cobb. For his part Emory, fearing an attack on Fort Washita, evacuated that site as well, and the garrison of Fort Arbuckle joined him without orders. The Union was abandoning Indian Territory and with it protection from the Comanches and Kiowa. The new Confederate forces assumed command of the forts.[6]

It did not help that the government agent assigned to the Creeks was an Alabamian secessionist named William Garrett. He ensured that none of the Creeks could easily and directly communicate with the Federal government. At the same time the federal government was aware of Garrett’s duplicity and withheld the promised annuities for fear that the agent would divert them to the Confederacy. They may as well have sent them, for by withholding them the Creeks felt further abandoned by the government and more open to Confederate overtures.[7] As bonds between the Creeks and white southerners tightened, the Creek General Council passed a law requiring all free blacks to go into servitude. They were allowed to choose their master, but that could not have been much of a relief.[8]

Opothleyahola looked on these developments in dismay. Already hostile to the whites, he did not want to see his people risk their lives and their nation in an alliance with the same people who had dispossessed them a generation earlier. He and others held the mixed-bloods back from making such an alliance. One Creek, James Scott, was ten when he saw aged chief. He recounted that his “heart was sad at all the war talk. He visited the homes of his followers or any of the Indians and gave them encouragement to face all these things, but above all things to stay out of the war. It was no affair of the Indians.”[9] In June he and many of the full-blooded chiefs left to attend a council of Great Plains Indians. This was a major political mistake. With most of their opposition out of the way, pro-Southern mixed-blood chiefs were able to meet with Confederate officials and other Indian leaders. Naturally they allied with the Confederacy, and the new deals they struck were actually more favorable than those made with the Federal government.[10]

John Ross letter to Opothleyahola

Feeling betrayed, neutral and Unionist Creeks joined with like-minded people from the other Indian groups to seek aid from the Union. William Garrett noted these developments with alarm. Technically the Creek Nation was allied with the Confederacy, but according to his estimates there was a severe division. The Lower Creeks were mostly pro-Confederate, but the Upper Creeks largely went against. Overall he counted 1,675 “Southern” Creek warriors and 1,575 “Northern” Creek warriors, a nearly-50-50 division though the Confederate faction was now better armed. John Ross, President of the Cherokee Nation, was sympathetic to Opothleyahola and had previously backed his efforts to keep Indian Territory neutral. But Ross had to cave in to pressure when a rival faction of pro-Confederate Cherokees threatened to supersede his authority. Now he begged the aged Creek not to give the Confederates and their Indian allies any pretext to attack him. But his pleas went ignored. Indian vs. Indian violence looked more likely every day. In her history of the creeks, the historian Angie Debo noted that this was a tragic repeat of history, as earlier in the century Creeks had divided in a larger conflict between a still young United States and the older European powers in the War of 1812.[11]

Opothleyahola was encouraged by a response to his messages north. It was from E.H. Carruth, another US Indian agent. “I am authorized to inform you that the President will not forget you. Our Army will soon go South, and those of your people who are true and loyal to the Government will be treated as friends…The commissioners from the Confederates States have deceived you. They have got two tongues. They wanted to get the Indians to fight, and they would rob and plunder you if they can get you into trouble…His soldiers will soon drive these men who have violated your homes from the land they have treacherously entered.” Carruth sent further letters to various loyal leaders among the Indian peoples. Each letter requested that some of their best men be sent to Kansas to meet with Federal authorities and then to Washington to meet President Lincoln. Each letter also promised protection for whoever refused to ally with the Confederacy and the short arrival of Federal troops.[12]

The anti-Confederate Creeks had a plan on how to gather without attracting premature attention. Some Creek families with herds of pigs and cattle would round up their animals and slaughter a large portion of them. The dead animals’ meat was dried preserved. Families and small groups would leave their homes and take planned out routes to a great gathering place. Each had a bundle of sticks. Each morning they would dispose of a stick until there was none left. As the sticks were thrown away, these small groupings began to converge.[13]

Opothleyahola went with a rearguard of armed, mounted men. One night while they camped in a grove of oak, a white man named John Taylor rode to them. The Confederates were aware that something was happening and had sent Taylor, a merchant and trader, to talk the Creek chieftain into surrender. He warned that if he and the others continued on their course, there would be war and suffering in Indian Territory. Opothleyahola, who had been sitting on a log, met Taylor’s words with silence. At this moment the White learned that he was surrounded by Creeks, their rifles leveled at him. Opothleyahola declared him their prisoner. He hoped that by taking Taylor with him, he would cause confusion among the Confederates as to what had happened.[14]

The size of Opothleyahola’s exodus has been estimated as high as 8,000 people, with 1,500 of those men armed for battle. It was not entirely a Creek affair. Inspired by Tecumseh, Opothleyahola had reached out to others unwilling to ally with the Confederacy. To quote Now the Wolf Has Come, “Let the white men slay one another until the earth was soaked in their venomous blood…Let the many peoples join as brothers of the same fire; Let them all shun the white man’s war, and the gods would protect them.” Many had already been looking for a way out of the war. Among those who heeded the Creek chief’s call were Delawares, Kickapoos, Seminoles, and Shawnees. There were also hundreds of enslaved and free blacks. Although Opothleyahola had no abolitionists aspirations, there were runaway slaves in his group, riding ponies they had stolen from their masters. Seeing an anti-Confederate exodus, this was an opportunity to escape enslavement for free-soil Kansas. The massive body of people moved north as one unified body on November 15.[15]

Actually, Opothleyahola had another option on his mind, one that might remove any need to interact with US government. To the west of Indian Territory were the Comanche. The Comanche are rightly among the most well-known Indian peoples. After mastering the horse, they dominated the western plains for centuries. Maps in 1861 showed the western borders of Texas and Indian Territory, but in reality these regions often fell into Comancheria. The fierce Comanche warriors, often alongside their Kiowa allies, constantly warred on their neighbors, including the displaced nations in Indian Territory. Now Opothleyahola called for a great alliance. As Indians, they should all stand together, staying free of the emerging Civil War. A few Comanches were moved by his entreaties and some would even join his exodus. The rest, however, were dismissive. The Comanche had reigned supreme and could not imagine their destruction by the Americans, much less if they were busy slaughtering each other.[16]

https://buchananej.wixsite.com/7-
cherokee-clans/the-wild-potato

So Kansas it was. As it moved the north, the great exodus absorbed several smaller groups, such as the Yuchis and Alabamas. Naturally with all these culture mingling together, tensions rose. Some of the Indian peoples would refuse to interact with traditional enemies. The Delawares killed a fox, a sacred animal of the Cherokee Potato Clan (emblematic mask pictured left). Fortunately Opothleyahola had the natural presence and ability to defuse these situations before they broke his movement apart. [17] So far the great chief had quelled fighting among those in his charge, but soon he would need to manage fighting against the true enemies. The Confederates and their Indian allies would not allow these differing Creeks and their friends to reach Kansas unmolested.

Next: Two battles erupt on the Trail of Blood on Ice.

---

[1] Christine Schultz White and Benton R. White, Now the Wolf Has Come: The Creek Nation in the Civil War, (Texas A&M University Press, 1996), 19-20.

[2] Angie Debo, Road to Disappearance: A History of the Creek Indians, (Oklahoma Press, 1941), 95.

[3] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 100-102.

[4] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 108.

[5] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 120; Mary Jane Warde, George Washington Grayson and the Creek Nation, 1843-1920, (University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 41-42.

[6] Thom Hatch, The Blue, the Gray, & the Red: Indian Campaigns of the Civil War, (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole, 2003), 2.

[7] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 142.

[8] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 143.

[9] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 151.

[10] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 144-146.

[11] Debo, Road to Disappearance, 149-150; Hatch, Indian Campaigns, 7.

[12] United States, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies Vol. VIII. (Washington D.C. 1883), 25-26.

[13] White, Wolf Has Come, 15; Debo, Road to Disappearance, 151.

[14] White, Wolf Has Come, 20-22.

[15] Hatch, Indian Campaigns, 8; White, Wolf Has Come, 23; Warde, George Washington Grayson, 60; Edwards, Prairie was on Fire, 13.

[16] White, Wolf Has Come, 24-25.

[17] White, Wolf Has Come, 36-38.

Peter Stark's Gallop Toward the Sun (book review)

 Stark, Peter. Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation. Random House, 2023.

In Gallop Toward the Sun, writer and historian Peter Stark argues the importance of the on-and-off war between Tecumseh's Pan-Indian movement and the aggressive American land drive headed by William Henry Harrison. He believes that this was the critical moment where the Indians, uniting under Tecumseh's strong political and military leadership and his brother Tenskwatawa's revolutionary religion, could have halted America's westward drive. Stark obviously sides with the Indians, understandably so as their lands are invaded and their health and culture eroded by the proximity of American settlements and whiskey. To his great credit Stark, while sympathizing with the Indians, does not shy away from some of their more barbaric attacks on settlers. In a way this makes him admire Tecumseh more, as the great chief abhorred torture and excessive cruelty and actually halted and prevented massacres of captured American soldiers. Tecumseh was also a great traveler, visiting other Indians as far afield as the Deep South and Kansas (the central action in this book takes places in Northwest Territory, or the Midwest).

Indian Territory, 1862 Part III: Battle of Old Fort Wayne

 

Newtonia Taken

Newtonia was a big battle in terms of the Trans-Mississippi and the victors were enthused. A history of Shelby’s cavalry claimed that their victory “was decisive.”[1] This was hardly the case. While Salomon had been roundly beaten, his defeat did nothing to halt Union operations. He had simply gotten far ahead of thousands of other troops under his superior blunt and under Totten. The next day, October 1, General Blunt arrived with reinforcements. Schofield also departed Springfield and caught up with Totten’s division. Schofield took charge and ordered Blunt and Totten’s divisions to converge on Newtonia with their 12,000 men. An attack was projected at dawn on October 4. Colonel Douglas Cooper, aware of the oncoming Federals, called on General Rains for reinforcements. Rains said none could arrive. On October 3 part of Shelby’s brigade rode out and captured a few pickets, only to learn that Totten’s division was bearing down on them. On the same day Rains ordered Cooper to withdraw from Newtonia.

Nearby at Granby, Major Buster, who had barely made it in time to participate in the battle of September 30, also encountered advance elements of the Union and put up a short fight before retreating to Newtonia. Buster could not find any superior officer and took command himself, ordering Howell to deploy. Shelby showed up and prepared a defense. The civilians who had found themselves in the center of the last fight heard what was coming and fled into the prairie with their valuables. As it turned out Shelby wisely decided to retreat and he and the others headed south. Thus the Confederates abandoned the town that they had fought so long and hard to keep just a few days earlier.[2] These events also undid the Confederate concentration in southwest Missouri. General Hindman now planned to collect his forces in Northern Arkansas and then return to its northern neighbor. In the meantime Blunt had his eyes on the Arkansas-Indian Territory border.

Indian Territory, 1862 Part II: Battle of Newtonia

 

Road to Newtonia

While the Federals lost their foothold in Indian Territory, the rest of the Department of Kansas focused on developments in Missouri and Arkansas. Major General Samuel R. Curtis held overall command in this portion of the Trans-Mississippi, with General John Schofield managing affairs in the field with Blunt’s Frontier Division and General James Totten’s Missouri Division.  Southern forces under General Thomas Hindman had fortified Arkansas and by the end of August had formed a line along the border with Missouri. At any time they could make forays there to take advantage of that state’s forage and mills. Cooper played a role in this. Taking advantage of the Federal withdrawal in the latter half of July, he occupied a space in northeastern Indian Territory ten miles west of its border with Missouri. In response Blunt ordered Colonels Salomon and Weer to take their brigades south and look for possible signs of invasion. These various forces were in position for a small, but notable battle at the town of Newtonia. Though this town was in Missouri, not Indian Territory, I feel that it should be included because it shows how the Confederate Indians participated with the territory again back in their hands. It also set the stage for the next Federal entry.[1]

In preparation for his planned campaign in Missouri, Hindman directed several of his subordinates, including those in Indian Territory, to gain a foothold in the southwestern corner of the state, with an eye towards acquiring the Granby lead mines (helpful in creating ammunition).[2] The Confederates occupied a line across southern Missouri that paralleled the Arkansas border. One notable site was of course Granby and its lead mines. Newtonia lay east, to the south, and further south of that was Camp Coffee, where Shelby’s Missourians gathered. Roughly north of Newtonia was Sarcoxie, where in a few days Union army and militia units concentrate. The general area was noted for its mills, which produced vital cereal crops for man and animal alike.[3]

Indian Territory, 1862 Part I: The Summer Expedition

 

When it comes to the Civil War in Indian Territory, historians tend to gloss over or sometimes ignore the events between the Battle of Pea Ridge and the expedition of summer 1863. However there were many important developments in the territory during this period that saw momentum shift continually between the Union and Confederacy and also escalated various forms of violence within the territory. These events were also influenced by actions across the border in Missouri and Arkansas. This series covers three periods of Indian Territory, 1862. The first section covers the plight of Indian refugees in Kansas and the attempt to establish a strong Union presence in the summer of 1862. The second centers around the Battle of Newtonia, which was actually in Missouri, but saw heavy involvement by Indian troops. The third covers the Federal incursion of late 1862, which finally established a strong Union presence in the territory.

 

The Refugee Crisis

In the early days of the war in 1861, the Confederacy obtained alliances with most of the Indian peoples in Indian Territory. The issue was that, like the borderlands to the east, the inhabitants were deeply divided as to what course they should take. While most of the leadership sided with the Confederacy (they shared many cultural traits such as slavery), many favored the Union and others did not want to get involved at all. In a series of battles, Confederate Indians, backed by white troops from neighboring states, assaulted pro-Union Indians. Thousands of refugees escaped to Kansas in the midst of winter. The suffering exiles wanted to get back to their homes. Many within the Federal government and army were keen on seeing that happen.

The Scalpings at Pea Ridge

The involvement of American Indians in the Civil War is a subject that has gradually gotten more attention in recent years. One incident with them, however, has long had a place in the American consciousness, albeit an incident reduced to an amusing or exotic anecdote to a lesser-known major battle in the West. The Battle of Pea Ridge, fought from March 7-8, was the largest battle west of the Mississippi River and also the largest to involve Indian units. Nearly 900 Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians marched out of Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) to fight alongside Confederate units. After the Battle of Pea Ridge these Indian troops became the center of a controversy: the mutilation and scalping of killed and wounded Federal soldiers.

Historians have identified the culprits of these mutilations as the two Cherokee Regiments, the 1^st Cherokee Mounted Rifles under Colonel John Drew and the 2^nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles under Colonel Stand Watie. To understand why these Indians joined ranks with the Confederates, one would have to go back decades to the removal of Cherokees from their land in northwestern Georgia. The controversial treaties and resultant Trail of Tears towards the designated Indian Territory created antagonistic political divisions within the Cherokee Nation. On one side was Stand Watie and the Southern Rights Party. The Southern Rights Party consisted mostly of mixed-blood Cherokees who supported black slavery (which was practiced in the Cherokee Nation). With ties to white southern families and wealthier social status, they held significant political influence and were naturally inclined to pitch in with the Confederacy. On the other side was the National or Pin Party. Its members were more likely to be full-blooded Cherokees and more hostile to the idea of slavery. Ironically Stand Watie, the most prominent member of the Southern Rights Party, was three-quarters Cherokee while President John Ross, who relied on the support of the Pins and opposed an alliance with the Confederacy, was mostly white and a slaveholder himself. These two factions had in the past engaged in vicious blood feuds within Indian Territory. Wishing to end the fractious bloodshed and preserve his people, John Ross was able to soothe tensions with a general amnesty.[1] The divisions remained, however, and the Southern Rights Party eventually maneuvered the Cherokee Nation into the Confederate camp.

Movie Review: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)

 

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is based on Dee Brown’s famous history of the fall of the American Indians in the latter half of the 19th Century. It’s a television movie from HBO and focuses only on the sections dealing with the Sioux. The film starts with the last hurrah of the Sioux at Little Bighorn in 1876 and concludes with the fallout of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, charting their decline from a proud warrior people on the western plains to dependents on a reservation. Overall it’s a pretty accurate film.

HBO tries to present a balanced account of events, though both of the primary protagonists are Sioux Indians. The first is Charles Eastman (Adam Beach, who has some internet meme fame as Slipknot, the man who can climb anything). Eastman was a Sioux youth whose father converted to Christianity. His father came to pick him up and send him to a school where he assumed Western values and his western name. He was the first American Indian to master western medicine and became a doctor on the Great Sioux Reservation. His character is torn between two worlds. He can’t help but sympathize with his own people but also has a friendship with Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn) and marriage with poet Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin who played Rogue in the X-Men films). By the end of the movie he has grown disgusted with health conditions on the reservation as well as the misguided aspects of the Dawes Act, which will force them to become farmers and also sell off more of their already shrunken lands.