Did you know that during the Civil War, the majority of American Indians sided with the Confederacy?

It's true. In particular, the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, the largest and most powerful of Indian tribes, all sided with the Confederacy against the Union.

The reasons Indians sided with the Confederacy were twofold:

1. Many Indians owned slaves. (Yes, nonwhites owned slaves. Surprised?)

2. Indians hated the federal government for forcibly relocating them and were sympathetic to the idea of states' rights.

The most famous Indian Confederate was Stand Watie, the leader of the Cherokee. He commanded a regiment of Cherokee, Muskogee, and Seminole Indians who won many victories against the Union, enough that Jefferson Davis made him a general in the Confederate army.

Indians were more devoted to the Confederate cause than the Confederates themselves. After Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Watie continued waging a guerrilla war in Oklahoma before surrendering some months later. He was the last Confederate general to surrender in the Civil War.

The Union was not pleased at Indians aligning with the Confederacy and punished the Five Civilized Tribes and other Indian Confederates by seizing more territory from them. Watie was forced into exile in the Choctaw Nation and died in 1871.