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181 eight v The Continuing Mission The official opening of Kansas to white settlement, in 1854, put pressure on Indian commissioner George W. Manypenny to settle Indian claims in the territory. From 1854 to 1855, Manypenny signed a number of treaties with tribes in eastern Kansas, including the Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Miamis, Wyandots , and Sauks and Foxes. With the lands given up by the Otoe-Missouris, Omahas , and Iowas in northern Kansas, over the course of two years the United States reduced Indian claims to Kansas land from 15 million acres to just over 1 million acres.1 Although this was a significant clearing of claims in the territory, it would still not be enough for Kansans. By early 1863, officials were trying to remove even more Indians from the state, often to make room for railroad construction.2 During the war, however, claims could command only minimal attention, because a different threat was on the horizon. In the aftermath of the firing on Fort Sumter, Kansans feared a ConfederateIndian invasion, but the first American Indians who crossed the border were seeking succor, not conquest. With war imminent between the North and the South, American Indians caught in the middle had a choice to make: would they support the federal government, an often untrustworthy ally, or wager on a better outcome with the unknown Confederate States of America? When war broke out, the Union and the Confederacy responded distinctly to the challenge posed by Indian Territory. While the Union stopped disbursing tribal annuities and withdrew from its forts, the Confederacy sent officials to negotiate new treaties and recruit military forces.3 In return for offers of protection and representation, Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes organized three regiments for the defense of Indian Territory: a Choctaw-Chickasaw regiment, a Creek-Seminole regiment, and a Cherokee regiment composed largely of Cherokee chief John Ross’s supporters. In addition, Confederate colonel Stand Watie, a Cherokee, organized a second regiment of Cherokees opposed to Ross. Altogether, these regiments numbered five thousand men. By the end of the war, some ten thousand Indian troops had fought for the Confederacy.4 Although the Confederacy successfully courted these tribes and signed a July 1861 treaty, not all of them wanted to participate in the Americans’ war. Most 182 kansas’s war significantly, Opothleoholo, an important Creek leader, chose to remain loyal and led his followers north. He was pursued by Confederate Indian forces and Texas cavalry commanded by Colonel Douglas Cooper and, on November 19, they fought at Round Mountain, the first engagement of the Civil War in Indian Territory. Two more engagements at Chusto-Talasah and Chustenahlah followed. This last battle on December 26 resulted in devastating losses, forcing these loyal Indians to continue their exodus with scant supplies in the middle of a particularly severe winter. They would begin the new year in Kansas in desperate need of food, clothing, and medicine. By April, more than seven thousand Indians had sought refuge in the state.5 In June 1862, the Union sent an expedition of six thousand men—American Indians as well as Kansas and Wisconsin regiments—under Colonel William Weer of the Tenth Kansas Infantry, into Indian Territory in order to drive out Confederate forces and restore these refugee Indians to their homes. Initially, this expedition was successful: they captured Tahlequah, capital of the Cherokee nation, and were moving toward Fort Gibson, the most important fort in Indian Territory. However, led by Colonel Frederick Salomon of the Ninth Wisconsin Regiment, Weer’s troops mutinied, and the white soldiers returned to Fort Scott, leaving the Indian regiments behind. Only the timely arrival of Brigadier General James Blunt resulted in the reinforcement of the abandoned Indian troops. Nonetheless, the Indian expedition was successful and resulted in the permanent occupation of the upper portion of Indian Territory.6 Once the Confederates had been driven out of the area of Indian Territory north of the Arkansas River, the Union organized the loyal Indians of the Cherokee , Creek, and Seminole nations into three regiments, each with one thousand men, for defense of their country. The Indian Home Guards were officered by white men. William A. Phillips of Kansas was active in organizing the regiments and was in command throughout the war. These regiments saw action at Locust Grove, Honey Springs, and Perryville in the Cherokee nation; Newtonia in Missouri ; and Maysville and Prairie Grove in Arkansas. Among the most notable engagements in Indian Territory itself was that at...

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