Cherokee General: Stand Watie, the Cherokee Nation, and the Civil War

The Civil War continues to provide new discoveries, and people at Tully Entertainment have come up with a doozy that will take most war buffs by surprise. It's the story of a Cherokee chief who became a Brigadier General in the Army of the Confederacy, the only Native American to achieve this rank. Stand Watie became the leader of the Cherokee in the 1830s, following a divisive internal struggle with another chief who disagreed with him over the relocation of the Five Civilized Tribes from Georgia to Oklahoma. This inter-tribal rivalry was to influence the decision of Stand Watie more than 30 years later when he became the first chief to declare war against the United States and join the South. Although many of the battles in which his troops fought ended up as victories for the Union Army, Watie and his men fought bravely and fiercely. Tully Entertainment has done an admirable job in presenting the life and times of a man who not only played an important role in the Native American involvement in the Civil War, but was also pivotal in the successful re-establishment of the Cherokee Nation after years of heartache and turmoil. Certainly all Oklahoma public libraries and those with strong Native American history collections will want this video. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Carlson)