Book Review: American Indian in Civil War
by Lawrence M. Hauptman
This thoroughly researched book reveals the full extent of Native American
participation in the Civil War. Indians were involved on a tribal level as
well as on an individual level.
Lawrence Hauptman details Indian involvement for both North and South and
explores motivations for joining both sides of the war. Readers will
discover cases of real patriotism, political reasons (either Union or
Confederate) and of course, financial reasons as well as following warrior
tradition. It is understood that the warrior's spirit lives on eternally.
Warriors do not fear death, but rather regard it as the ultimate sacrifice
for their own and their people's continued survival.
During the years,
1861 to 1865, Native Americans throughout the USA, were struggling for
independence, for their own culture, and life-style. Some
tribes, like the Cherokees, were directly involved in the war. Other
Native Americans living in the war-torn areas of the East made individual
decisions as to whether they wished to have anything to do with the
situation. Still others, living in the mountains, prairies, and deserts of
the rest of the country, suddenly realized they had a chance to take back
some of their own land, as they saw fewer and fewer U.S. Army soldiers
assigned to forts in their tribal areas.
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