By Carlos Rosales/reporter
The Civil War has reached its 150th anniversary, yet Native Americans are not the first thought when someone mentions the Union or the Confederacy, a SE history instructor said March 19.
In Divided Nations: Native Americans and the Civil War, Kallie Kosc explained how Eastern and Western Native tribes were affected by the split of the North and South.
“Often, Native Americans are not what comes to mind when you think of the Civil War,” she said.
Depending on where people are from, the Civil War is about many things: slavery, states’ rights and equality, Kosc said. But she said it is surprising people don’t talk about the tribes involved in the war.
“But we’re talking a thousand Native Americans who enlisted and served in the Union and Confederate armies,” she said.
Despite enlisting, Native Americans received the label “colored troops” to be distinguished from the rest. Kosc said they also had fewer rights after the war ended.
Kosc shared illustrations about the “The Great Sioux Uprising,” explaining the role of Little Crow, chief of the Dakota Sioux people, in negotiating the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.
“A lot of the promises that were made to the Dakota Sioux were not kept,” she said.
Exchanges of money and goods were promised, but money and other compensations never arrived, Kosc said.
The United States is not perfect, and it is a work in progress, Kosc said.
“We are still not there,” she said. “We are always trying to get better.”
Kosc said everyone needs to recognize diversity.
“Indigenous people are a part of us,” she said. “They are a part of America.”
