Native American history 1492 on: "And somehow, things got worse."

*Any video about Native Americans:* In the end they got shafted by the government

One of the things so many seem to forget is that the Natives owned plenty of slaves as well, so I'm glad someone brought attention to it.

I asked my Full Blood Choctaw Indian friend, who lives in Oklahoma, if his family lived on a Reservation; He told me the Choctaw Indians owned slaves before the Civil War and fought on the side of the Confederates. He said that when the war was lost, the government took away their land and divided it into 500 acre tracts to be dispersed for individual claims, Red or White. I believe it was his Great Grandfather who was able to lay claim of 500 acres, along with other Choctaw Indians, and over the years, that property has been past down to family members. My Choctaw Indian friend lives in a very comfortable cabin, near his aged mothers home (he is in his mid to late 60's), in the Southeast hills of Oklahoma surrounded by many Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.

Revolutionary War: Let's side with the British so we can get our lands back. Civil War: Let's side with the Confederacy so we can get our lands back. They never could catch a break.

"Do your people even celebrate Thanksgiving?" "We did. Once."

Natives can't pick a right side to save their lives lol. French-Indian War: Well, the French were nice to us. They seem like a good choice. Revolutionary War: The British won last time, there's no way these Rebels could beat them! Civil War: Well, the British actually lost, so this time we'll back the Rebels!

As a specialist in Native American history, thank you for covering this!

Everytime one of your videos pop up I am like "Oh yeah, never thought of that". This is one of the best history channel on yt.

This channel evolved from "Well known events in history explained in 10 min" to "Obscure parts of history you've never even thought about but will find absolutely amazing in 4 min or less". And I love it 😀

There were natives who volunteered in several Wisconsin regiments, the soldiers were given tips by them as how to use natural foilage for camouflage They spoke well of them and their courage

I think it's interesting how many people today forget that Native Americans aren't just one group. They are dozens of different tribes that often fought one another, owned slaves, conquered land, etc. Europeans merely brought a whole new set of issues to an already turbulent landscape. Sadly, one of the greatest issues was the introduction of European diseases (intentional and unintentional) from which natives had virtually no immunity to.

The Five Civilized Tribes sided with the Confederacy. This angered the Union, who punished them severely.

1:23 You can still hear the thud when a person dies. I love it. Like we don’t see Opothleyaholo die but we heard the sound and it’s hilarious

As a Navajo, what's neglected to be mentioned that during the American Civil War, We Navajos partake into the war. However during Lincoln's Presidency the union army invaded our territory, years before Arizona and New Mexico were born, we were attacked, and forced for what is now known as "The Navajo Long Walk" to Bosque Rodondo and we're kept imprisoned from 1864-1868. If anyone wants to correct or add anymore info than I gave I love to learn more as well.

Robert E Lee: "It's good to see a real American here" Ely Parker: "We are all Americans"

1:01. Nice Indiana Jones reference.

I always find it amazing how just a little bit of historical context lets you recognize who are lot of these block figures are supposed to look like.

Fun fact, the final military operation east of the Mississippi was the so called Battle of Waynesville, where the Eastern Cherokee and the Confederate home guard used psy-ops to trick the Union commander in Waynesville to believe himself surrounded. He was all set to surrender the town, but they, having learned first of the capitulation of General Johnston, surrendered to him instead.

You forgot to mention General Ely S Parker. The first Native American General in the US Army Parker was. Seneca Indian from upstate New York and had a degree in engineering. He was denied entry into the Union Army on account of his race and so he wrote to his friend who he’d known before the war, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant needed engineers and knew Parker and so he commissioned him as a Colonel. Parker would then stay beside Grant for the rest of the war and would help Grant engineer many victories such as his victory at the Siege of Vicksburg. When Grant was promoted to commander of all Union armies Parker went with him to the East to face Lee. As such when Lee finally surrender Parker was in attendance as was al of Grant’s staff and he actually wrote he surrender document. When Less entered Appomattox he was surprised to see a Native American General as he simply wasn’t expecting that since it had never happened before in American history. Lee then walked over to Parker and our stretch his hand saying “At least there is one real American here.” Parker shook Lee’s hand and replied “We are all Americans here.”

Comanche and Cyam: We did good Union brothers what are our rewards? America: Rewards?

Stand Watie had a crazy life, I only have surface level knowledge about him but his early life was hijacked by intrigue, he was the only confederate general who was also native, and he was apparently a genius when it came to hit and run tactics.

You forgot about General Eli Parker a Seneca Indian who was on Grant’s staff and wrote the terms of surrender for Robert E. Lee At Appomattox Lee would remark (somewhat jokingly) “At least there is one true American here.” Parker responded “We are all Americans here.”

If anyone's interested, the children's novel Rifles for Watie is all about the American Civil War in the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma). I read it like 3 times as a child and loved it.

Most Native Americans sided with the Confederacy *This enraged the Union, who punished them severely*

General: Wattya wanna do with the Natives who did nuttin. President: r e s e r v a t i o n s

As an additional note, one of the worst massacres against Natives in US history occurred during the war, in November 1864 in the Colorado territory. A territorial militia commanded by John Chivington annihilated a village of peaceful, pro-US Cheyenne and Arapahoe people. As the men were mostly away hunting, the victims were largely women, children, and elders. Not content to just kill them, the white militia also mutilated the corpses of the women, cutting off breasts and vulvas, and bringing these to Denver to proudly display in public. Chivington was tried for the crime, but was later acquitted.

As someone from Oklahoma, we learned this is school. But I’m surprised how many people aren’t aware of all this.

the question no one asked, but now that they know about it they need an answer for

You forgot talk about Ely S Parker the Seneca lieutenant colonel secretary of General Grant. He wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox

00:59 - "you chose poorly" love the crusader knight!!!

Can you do a how Switzerland became a country even though the ethnic groups have only a few things in common when it grew even when the ethnolinguistic groups started having nation states of their own (Germany, France, Italy)?

Wasn't the last Confederate general a Cherokee

Great stuff as always thanks for the material and the work you put into this always a pleasure to see what you have put out

I remember having an illustrated book as a child about Cochise. There was a page devoted to the fact that the white men he had been fighting and some he had befriended left for a period to fight each other with an illustration of union and confederate troops. I had and read this book prior to learning about the civil war, so it was kind of my introduction to it

I've actually always wondered this but have never been in a position to look it up at the times I remember or think about it. Loved this thank you

I really enjoyed this mature adult oriented content that spoke to me as someone over 13. There’s no mistaking this for any other type of content.

3:20 Aaaaaaay, my favourite ‘Spinning Three Plates’ is still mentioned. :)

What I like about your videos is no bs!

Thanks for sharing the information.

Well done. Also, on the Minnesota/Dakota frontier, there was a "Dakota War" that pushed the frontier eastward after Federal troops were withdrawn to fight the main war.

Haven’t watched the video as of yet but I’m so glad you did this topic. People don’t know that they even had representation too. Also the confederate senate is also interesting because it didn’t run like the US senate did.

I love your channel keep up the great stuff!!!

Thanks for covering the history of the Civil War in Oklahoma. It’s a theater of the war that’s often ignored, even though over 170 battles and at least 3 major battles took place there.

Unfortunately, the Natives were never united from the get go. So the division isn't surprising.

One good thing about growing up in Oklahoma is we actually learned about this stuff in school.

Thanks I was curious about this

I was just thinking about googling this lately. Thankfully you did my research for me lol.

Another outstanding vid. Stand Watie held out his last days just outside my hometown. (Also it is pronounced “Wait-ee”, but no biggie)

He should talk about the Minnesota- Sioux War that happened in Minnesota while the civil war was going on.

loved that last crusade reference

Very good topic idea, can't believe I never thought of them....

The native Americans did, stuff.

When will get a 10 minute video again!???

Interesting topic. I never thought about this aspect of the Civil War before.

Thank you so much I've always wondered. I would like to hear more of what each tribe did.

On the topic of natives in the Americas, do you know if it would be possible to do a video or two on the Aztecs and the Incas?

And of course, how all this turned would eventually pave the way for the formation of the state of Oklahoma (part 2, please!), and from where I am typing this now. . Thanks for the wonderful new video today, History Matters!

This is related with my presentation topic in college. Always want to know US history from natives American perspective. Thank you for this

I can tell there is much worthwhile knowledge coming from this video/channel. Now if only i could tell if you say "should" or "shouldn't", etc. It changes the information quite a bit if a person says "we should get into the war" versus "we shouldn't get into the war". But i can't tell what is being said in a number of points in the video. I can tell you know your content very well; i just can't understand the words very well. Perhaps that's a "my problem", but perhaps not. Maybe some instances could be said a different way, like "should not" instead of "shouldn't". Excellent content, can't understand it all. Please keep your channel going.

1:00 - I like the Indiaian Jones reference here.

You forgot to mention some of the why... you didn't mention the spaces that native americans recieved in Confederate Congress

Me and the boys waiting for this year's Q&A (if it is coming eventually :)

Stable video 👍

A 10 minute history over the Plains War would be a cool video.

Finally someone tells the truth. You never really hear about how the natives sided with the confederacy or how quite a few tribes practiced slavery.

Thanks, this explains a lot.

Would love for you to cover more about the split in the Cherokee tribe that happened.

One part not mentioned-the Dakota Uprising of 1862. The Dakota tribes in eastern Dakota territory and western Minnesota took advantage of the chaos and attacked white settlements. The Union ended up sending troops and the end result was the defeat of the Dakota and the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato, MN. This was the largest mass execution in US history.

Feel bad for native Americans.

I love history, not always pretty but always interesting and a place where knowing means wisdom.

just look what happened to the Iroquois, even if they helped the side that won, they weren't going to come out well

Aside from the ones mentioned in the video, how various Tribes reacted largely depended on which side of the Mason-Dixon Line they were.

Native American Stand Watie was the last confederate General to stop fighting.

I’ve never known any of this , very interesting

I like involving Native American history in more American History topics. They're sort of portrayed as a bastion of good will at all times who ultimately always got the shaft due to their noble sacrifices and hated the Americans, but that's a really simplified over-exaggeration. It detracts from their rich history, which is just as diverse, beautiful, and horrific as European and Asian history with all sorts of legends and massacres of their own. Even when European settlers arrived and Americans ended up the nation on land, tribes still fought to have primary access to these colonials in order to create preferential trade routes. For some, this lead to the lessening of the burden to hunt sparse resources, and for others was a way to stock up on more advanced military hardware in order to dominate in inter-tribal warfare. That "first-contact" is an entire chapter in history that is incredibly fascinating to me especially from the tribal side.

Appreciate a topic on this subject just wish it was longer literally only covered part of the Cherokee, the part that fought with the south Edit: yes I'm a card carrying choctaw, would you do a video of the codetalkers? The choctaw code talkers of WWI

Please do more Native American videos, I absolutely love Ben and they help me so much with my exams. I seriously appreciate it

a great video

When you really think about it, everyone in history at one point or other did something horrible to someone else. No one country is truly innocent or humane really.

As a Cherokee myself I can say this is pretty accurate, but I have some critiques. Really all it is is that not all native Americans sided with the confederacy the keetoowah tribe which is an offspring of the Cherokee was a major union tribe which made a civil war in the Cherokees which has made ripples to this day, but that's really all. Also its way-tie not what-tie 😅

Hi History Matters, could you do the Romance of the Three Kingdoms some time in the future? =]

That "Soon" is insane !

2:21 that sounds like a good thing

~0:49 can potentially leave many 'in the current day 3 sides' nonplussed and deserves many video essays of its own..but thankfully 0:53-0:58 is a relief

Mark 0:22. Before I view the video, as a Chickasaw Citizen, I feel compelled to state that, I never understood why, that just because CC thought that he had found India rather than North America, that calling the native population, "Indians", would be allowed to last for centuries, with the correction efforts being only a relatively recent movement. Also, since I did view the former "NBC" sitcom, "Outsourced", I wonder how actual Indians, feel about it. On a related note, I know that the citizens or residents of, Lesbos Isle, who are called, "Lesbians", resent that others use that term to refer to, or to describe, female homosexuals, and want people to stop doing so. But in the sitcom, the Indians asked their Caucasian boss, why Native Americans, resent being called, "Indians". Without thinking through his answer, he replied that it is a derogatory term, and that hurt his employees' feelings. Well, actually, people need to use labels to identify everything. So if you are going to use them, just have the courtesy to use the correct ones, and also, don't use labels as insults to people that aren't such, so that the people who are such, won't have their feelings hurt! 🤔

There were also Southern Natives who battled the Confederacy as well.

In Argentina, during the cup of 2002 when Brazil faced England, a sport's magazine run the cover "Que Percan Los Dos" "May both lose". I get a feeling that the natives felt like that...

I'd really like to see you do a video on the Black Hills War between the Lakota (Teton) Sioux and the United States

I never knew that native Americans owned slaves. That is an eye openner.

“These divisions ripped many tribes apart, and led to many families fighting for both sides.” When it comes to the American Civil War, this was true of everyone. As they say: the floor here is made of floor.

Love the Indiana Jones reference at 00:58 😂👍

Very interesting

You totally left out the Sioux wars against the US in 1863-65. Resulting in the forced use of confederate prisoners of war to fight the Natives in Minnesota / Iowa. The losses pushed the Sioux even further west.

I quite enjoyed the Indiana Jones 3 reference in there with the knight looming behind Lincoln at 1:00. Jesus Christ be with you friends.😊

I never thought this would happen

Stand Watie and John Ross is basically the best example of two of the same character with drastically different ideologies on a subject.

Texas: Annex me, please! US:Ok. *2 seconds later* Texas: Fuck you, we are doing our own thing!

The "and then it got worse" should really be removed from Russia and applied to Native Americans.

*stars go here* love it