How to Use
the Map

Table of
Contents

Map 1: Indian Territory.

Note 1: Figures for the Seminole Nation are not available, but this tribe is known to have held slaves.

Native American tribes were, and continue to be, recognized as sovereign nations by the federal government. What is marked on maps as the Indian Territory was not an official territory of the United States such as Dakota Territory or Colorado Territory.

Questions for Map 1 & Table 1

1. Locate a map of the United States. How many miles is it from Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia? As the Civil War began, what methods did people in the territory have to communicate with the two capitals? How closely connected to the East do you think people in the Indian Territory felt?

2. Examine Map 1. Make note of the states surrounding the Indian Territory. Which state/states were slaveholding? Which state/states were free?

3. Now examine Table 1. Write on Map 1 the slave population of each Native American tribe.

4. Which of the Five Civilized Tribes would seem most likely to be sympathetic to the Confederacy? Why? Be sure to consider both location and lifestyle. Which would be least sympathetic? Why?

Table 1 is compiled from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Eighth Annual Census (1860), National Archives; Annie Heloise Able, The American Indian as a Slaveholder and Secessionist (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1992) 211; R. Haliburton, Red Over Black: Black Slavery Among the Cherokee Indians (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977) 117.

* The map on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Map 1, but be aware that the file may take as much as 25 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.