Via
SHNV
Many
have no doubt heard of the valor of the Cherokee warriors under
the command of Brigadier General Stand Watie in the West and of
Thomas' famous North Carolina Legion in the East during the War
for Southern Independence from 1861 to 1865. But why did the Cherokees
and their brethren, the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws
determine to make common cause with the Confederate South against
the Northern Union? To know their reasons is very instructive as
to the issues underlying that tragic war. Most Americans have been
propagandized rather than educated in the causes of the war, all
this to justify the perpetrators and victors. Considering the Cherokee
view uncovers much truth buried by decades of politically correct
propaganda and allows a broader and truer perspective.
On
August 21, 1861, the Cherokee Nation by a General Convention at
Tahlequah (in Oklahoma) declared its common cause with the Confederate
States against the Northern Union. A treaty was concluded on October
7th between the Confederate States and the Cherokee Nation, and
on October 9th, John Ross, the Principal Chief of the
Cherokee Nation called into session the Cherokee National Committee
and National Council to approve and implement that treaty and a
future course of action.
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A good friend of mine who is now gone, most
unfortunately, especially for the history of the Cherokee, as he wrote
what I consider THE book on Stand Watie.
(He was working on another book when he died and his worthless daughter
and son were not interested and would not even let me have his
writings, so that I could do something with them. I have no use for
people that don't love their families.) His wife's grandfather
rode with Watie. The book is called Red Fox, Stand Watie's Years in
Indian Territory, by Wilfred Knight. He begins the book with this poem
that he wrote:
No monuments or marble shafts
Keep silent record of the time
When grey clan ranks of warriors rode
The Indian Nation line.
But mists of time have not eclipsed
The ancient stories of the day,
And still the whispered words are heard,
"Stand Watie passed this way."
The noon of darkness casts its spell:
Dutch Billy's bugle sounds once more
And Watie heads his column out
To ride through legend's door.
Now once again the muskets fire
While "Eagle" Buzzard spirits soars,
And smoothbores spew their deadly hail
As Watie leads to war.
But now - the Red Fox rides no more,
No bands of men, with muffled sound
Slip through the night to strike at dawn;
The fight is thru, the moon is down.
Now who will sing old Watie's song,
And who will tell his tale,
And who will keep the rendezvous
Along the Texas Trail?
(Hollywood Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA Confederate Memorial Day 1992?
I'm wearing my father's blue seersucker suit on the left standing beside
my friend in the blue blazer, Wilfred Knight, a true Confederate and a
gentleman. BT)
