Choctaw Confederates

The American Civil War evokes images of white men, though now many acknowledge the participation of black soldiers. The Civil War was more than a rupture between Northern and Southern states and Americans over the issue of slavery; other regions and other groups were drawn into the dispute.  Several American Indian nations, including the Choctaw Nation, officially sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War.  This talk will approach a familiar topic, the American Civil War, from a less familiar vantage point by focusing on the Choctaw Nation and the experience of Choctaw soldiers fighting for the Confederacy in particular. 

Professor Yarbrough's research interests focus on the native populations of the southeastern United States and Indian Territory during the nineteenth century, particularly the interactions between indigenous peoples and people of African descent. Her first book, Race and the Cherokee Nation: Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century, explores the complex relationship between the construction of sexual boundaries and the formation of tribal and racial identities. Professor Yarbrough also co-edited a collection of essays titled Gender and Sexuality in Indigenous North America, 1400-1850 with Sandra Slater (University of South Carolina Press, 2011). The anthology addresses how indigenous people have responded to European attempts to impose gendered cultural practices that clashed with native thinking.  Currently, Professor Yarbrough is working on a project that considers the participation of Choctaw Indians in the American Civil War.