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Shifting Winds of War: Indian Territory 1861-1865 - Ethel Crisp Taylor.
Shifting Winds of War is a continued expansion of
the previous book titled
Dust in the
Wind: The Civil War in Indian Territory. The information regarding these
turbulent years in the Territory has been expanded to include source notes
from The War
of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, maps of significant actions, and speeches and correspondence
of some
of the principle parties during the war. In 1830, just a year after taking
office, Andrew Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian
Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power
to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi.
Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi
in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would
become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern
nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary
and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions.
But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave. This
period in what would eventually become the state of Oklahoma was already tense
with internal conflicts resulting from the forced removal of the Five Indian
Nations from the southeast United States. Internal conflicts simmered between
those that had signed treaties trading their lands in the east for those west
of the Mississippi. The coming civil war divided them further as feuding political
factions took sides with either the United States or the Confederate States.
This ripped the Nations apart, bringing the seething conflicts to the surface.
As a result, there were two wars being fought in Indian Territory. Over 30,000
Western and Eastern Indians were drawn into the conflict of the Civil War as
soldiers or auxiliaries of the United States or the Confederate States. 2010,
5½x8½, paper, 238 pp.
T5179
ISBN: 0788451790
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