Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country by Fay A. Yarbrough

Abstract

Reviewed by: Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country by Fay A. Yarbrough Nakia D. Parker (bio) Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country. By Fay A. Yarbrough. ( Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. Pp. 280. Cloth, $32.95.) Scholars are increasingly examining the Civil War and Reconstruction eras in Indian Territory, and their studies often center the Cherokee. Historian Fay A. Yarbrough contributes to this expanding scholarship with the first book about the Choctaw Nation's involvement in the Civil War. In Choctaw Confederates, Yarbrough argues that there were two primary reasons for avid Choctaw support for the Confederacy: Choctaw leaders believed that the Confederacy offered the best chance of protecting Native sovereignty, and the nation's deep investment in the institution of chattel slavery, coupled with a desire to maintain the anti-Black racial hierarchy inherent in that institution, made siding with the Confederacy a logical choice. Choctaw planters had strong economic ties to white southerners even after expulsion to Indian Territory, and their nation was surrounded by southern states, such as Texas and Arkansas. "The Choctaw experience, then" Yarbrough asserts, "was a southern experience" (6). Chapter 1 provides an overview of the political and social structure of the Choctaws in their southeastern homelands, emphasizing how the threat and later implementation of expulsion by the federal government reshaped traditional practices of kinship, gender relations, and governance. For example, Choctaw leaders created a constitutional government based on that of the United States and reshaped property rights, such as inheritance and marital laws, to favor patriarchal instead of matriarchal family lines. Chapter 2 examines the growth of slavery in the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory and the importance of the institution to economic recovery after removal and "as a part of the developing racial order" that shaped the decision of Choctaw leaders to side with the Confederacy (47). Yarbrough compares testimonies of the enslaved from [End Page 124] Indian Territory and the southern states to highlight the similarities in labor practices. She also provides an in-depth analysis of the laws created by Choctaw leaders soon after resettlement that circumscribed and surveilled almost every aspect of Black life in the nation. In some instances these laws were more restrictive or passed earlier than slave codes in southern states. At the same time, Yarbrough demonstrates that certain laws reflected the "legacy of traditional kinship affinities" and that "as the Choctaw adopted the practice of racialized slavery, they did so in a manner that preserved Choctaw identity" (65, 48). This is especially apparent in her discussion of a clause requiring people of African descent who had no kinship ties with the Choctaw and Chickasaw to leave or be enslaved for life. Chapter 3 discusses the decision of Choctaw leaders to side with the Confederacy by examining the alliance treaty and the debates between Choctaw leaders over joining the conflict. Unlike the Cherokee Nation, which tried to remain neutral and experienced its own internal civil war, the Choctaw swiftly and unambiguously sided with the seceding states. Chapters 4 and 5 chronicle the experiences and motivations of Choctaw men who enlisted to fight for the Confederate cause. Yarbrough skillfully analyzes the thousands of pages of enlistment records of the First Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles to probe motivations for joining the Confederate army, circumstances of enlistment, and patterns of enrollment. To demonstrate early Choctaw enthusiasm for the war, Yarbrough points to the records of 950 men who signed up in June and July 1861, before the Choctaw Nation formally allied with the Confederacy. Serving as soldiers and light horsemen allowed Choctaw men, particularly youth, "a way to claim, or reclaim, their identities as warriors" (173). Thus, Yarbrough asserts, the Civil War reshaped and created alternative expressions of traditional notions of Indigenous masculinity. The concluding chapter details the tensions between the Choctaw government and freedpeople in the nation during Reconstruction. The federal government stipulated land and civil rights for the formerly enslaved in the surrender treaty, which angered Choctaw leaders, who viewed these requirements as usurping Native sovereignty. In addition, the anti-Black sentiment present before the war became even more rampant, as evidenced by Black codes, the banning...