Stand Watie, a leader of the Cherokee Nation, was born December 12, 1806 in Calhoun, Georgia. Watie was one of a minority of Cherokee leaders who signed the Treaty of New Echota, which established the terms for the removal of the Cherokee people from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Although the treaty was not approved by the Cherokee National Council, it was ratified by the U.S. Senate and became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears.
During the Civil War, Watie served as Primary Chief of the Cherokee Nation after nearly two decades on the Cherokee Council. A majority of the Cherokee supported the Confederacy although only about a tenth of the tribe owned slaves. They were distrustful of the Union government and feared the creation of a new state from their semi-sovereign territory. Watie organized a cavalry regiment, and in October 1861, he was commissioned a colonel in the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles. Watie's men fought both Union troops and the pro-Union tribes, including a Cherokee minority, in Indian Territory
Watie was promoted to brigadier general in 1864. He then commanded the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, which was composed of two regiments of the Rifles and three battalions of Cherokee, Seminole and Osage infantry.
On June 23, 1865, Watie signed a cease-fire agreement with Union officials in the Choctaw Nation. He was the last Confederate general in the field to surrender. After the war, Watie was a delegate to the Southern Treaty Commission, which renegotiated treaties between the United States and the tribes which sided with the Confederacy.
Stand Watie died September 9, 1871 in what is now Delaware County, Oklahoma. He was the only American Indian general in the Confederate States Army, and one of only two in the war along with Union General Ely Parker of the Seneca Nation.
This is a typical road sign cache.