ABSTRACT
Stand Watie was an outspoken Confederacy advocate, and one of the chiefs responsible for Cherokee removal. Watie joined the Confederate cause and had supporters from other nations within the territory. By 1861, there were regiments of Choctaws and Chickasaws, a mixed battalion of Creeks and Seminoles, and a regiment of Creeks. Confederate leaders promised to protect the Cherokee Nation from Union invasion, to never seize Cherokee land and property, particularly the slaves, and pay the annuities previously doled out to the Cherokees by the United States.
