Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 Meeting for June 2022

Members, friends and wives of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 met on Thursday evening June 22 at the Prattville Masonic Lodge for their monthly meeting.  !st Lt Commander Rob Schwartz provided some wonderful guitar playing and singing in the half hour before the meeting started.  He then led everyone in an Invocation to start the meeting followed by Color Sgt John Dennis leading everyone in the pledges and salutes to the flags.  Commander Waldo then recited the SCV Charge and highlighted upcoming events and announcements including the annual state and national conventions and the camp's annual fundraiser.  

The guest speaker for the meeting was retired Colonel and Law Professor John Eidsmoe who spoke of the role of the native American tribes during the War for Southern Independence.  Col. Eidsmoe grew up in Sioux City South Dakota so he was interested in Indian tribes from a young age.  As a youth in grade school, he read a textbook about the War wherein Daniel Webster declared "the Union should endure forever".  But after reading the opposing viewpoint of John C. Calhoun espousing states' rights, he appreciated the latter even at a young age and a Confederate was born.  Col. Eidsmoe is of German descent but growing up in Lakota territory in South Dakota he was exposed to much Indian history.  He recalled one of his teachers reading the book "Rifles for Waite" about Gen. Stand Waite, a Cherokee who fought for the Confederacy and this peaked his interest in the CSA.  

For perspective, Col. Eidsmoe spoke of the impressive history of the American Indians including the Aztecs and Mayas of South America, civilizations which developed in pre-history, architecture and temples, astronomy including observatories, writing systems (both pictorial and phonetic), schools, governments with judiciaries as well as institutions of slavery and ceremonial human sacrifices.  In North America, the Indians were more decentralized tribes, a structure more aligned with that of the Confederate States of America.  But, there were advanced civilizations such as the Iroquois which had a balance of power between the integral tribes, a governmental structure with "Nations" with laws/rules akin to that described by our 10th Amendment with much power at the local level.  Some Northern tribes practiced slavery, often getting slaves thru conquests of neighboring tribes.  He cited the book "American Indian as Slave Holder and Secessionist" in providing a statistic that around 2-4% of Indians  in the American South owned black slaves, a figure roughly in line with white slave owners.  This certainly in contrast with the PC narrative regarding the institution of slavery in the antebellum period and that all minorities are disadvantaged.  (Of course, there were also many black slave owners in the antebellum period.)

So the Indian perspective on slavery may have influenced their support for the Confederate States of America in their War for Independence.  The native American Indians throughout history have had to figure out who to support to guard their interests from the Revolutionary period, often at the local tribe level.  It is estimated that around 18000-20000 Indians fought in the War Between the States and that around 12000-13000 fought for the Confederacy.  Col. Eidsmoe provided five reasons which may be considered as justification for the Indians supporting the CSA:

1) many of the Indian tribes had very decentralized government structures and were against a strong central federal government which was obviously Lincoln's viewpoint

2) the oppression of the Indians especially in the sad story of the Trail of Tears was largely blamed on the federal government of the North

3) Seward of the Lincoln administration favored settling westward including Oklahoma which was viewed as violating treaties

4) among the five civilized tribes, there were many who were slave holding so they wanted the western territories to allow for slaveholding in these Indian lands

5) Jefferson Davis saw great value in the native Indians - as a young Lieutenant, Davis was assigned to escort Chief Blackhawk to Fort Monroe and he came to know and respect him and attempted to gain him preferential treatment as a prince when providing him to the authorities at the fort; as Confederate President, Davis appointed a Secretary of Indian Relations who also did much to align the CSA with the native American Indians.  

The Indians who fought for the Confederacy often fought with bow and arrow and even tomahawks but many also had rifles.  Stand Waite was appointed Brigadier General and was the last Confederate officer to cease hostilities during the War for Southern Independence, two months after Lee's surrender. Waite said he never surrendered, he just agreed to stop fighting.  Confederate General Joseph Wheeler said of Waite he never met a braver man.  Of course, after the War, the fears of the western Indians were confirmed with the decimation by Union Generals Sherman and Sheridan of the tribes and the bison on which they depended.