The Daily History Chronicle

On June 23, 1865, seventy-five days after Appomattox, the last Confederate general surrendered in Indian Territory and he was Cherokee. Stand Watie's story fractures every simple narrative about the Civil War: a man who signed away his own people's land, commanded a brigade of Native soldiers, and fought with more tenacity than almost anyone else in the Confederacy. This is the surrender history forgot, and the question it leaves behind is the one we're still not willing to answer.