Ely Samuel Parker and Stand Watie: The Life and Legacy of the Civil War's Most Famous Native American Officers, Charles River Editors
  • $4.96
    • Facebook Share
    • Twitter Share
    • Pinterest Share

Details

Ely Samuel Parker and Stand Watie: The Life and Legacy of the Civil War's Most Famous Native American Officers

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Bill Caufield

Unabridged: 3 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook

Publisher: Findaway Voices

Published: 01/20/2024

Genre: History - Native American

Synopsis

One of the best known of the six nations is the Seneca, and arguably the most famous Seneca chief was Ely Samuel Parker. Over the course of his life, he was a Seneca chief, a civil engineer, a close friend and adjutant to General Ulysses S. Grant, an advocate for the Indian peoples, and the first Native American Commissioner of the Department of Indian Affairs. His marriage to a much younger socialite scandalized Washington, and he made a fortune on Wall Street and lost it all. He ended his life in genteel poverty, working for nearly 20 years in an obscure position for the New York City Police Department. Parker was a largely self-taught engineer, who worked on various canal projects, and was hired by the Department of the Treasury to supervise the construction of several buildings in Galena, Illinois, where he met a shy salesclerk named Ulysses S. Grant. At the age of 18, he dined with President Polk, later talked with President Lincoln, and had the commanding general of the U.S. Army as the best man at his wedding. 

Stand Watie’s life connects the traditional Cherokee homeland in Tennessee and Georgia, the fight within the tribe over leaving for the West or staying on their homeland and trying to resist, and the Trail of Tears. At the same time, his life also includes the ongoing split between mixed-blood and full-blood Cherokee in the Cherokee Nation, and the chaos of Indian Territory during the Civil War. Like the country as a whole, the Cherokee Nation was split over the question of slavery, and with an estimated 100 slaves owned, Watie was the biggest native slaveholder in the region. At the start of the war, Watie was commissioned as a colonel in Confederate service and later as a brigadier general. His 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles Regiment fought more engagements than any other Confederate unit west of the Mississippi River. As a result, Watie is perhaps the most famous figure of a widely overlooked aspect of the Civil War.

Recommended

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
by United States Supreme Court

In 1831, the Cherokee Nation brought a case against the state of Georgia to the Supreme Court. They argued that as a separate foreign nation, certain Georgia laws overstepped their jurisdiction and wrongfully stripped Cherokees of their rights. The ...

Narrator: Anthony N. Damian
Published: 05/06/2018

The Pursuit and Capture of Chief Joseph
The Pursuit and Capture of Chief Joseph
by Charles Erskine Scott Wood

In 1877, the U.S. government ordered the Nez Perce Indians to leave their tribal lands in the Pacific Northwest for a reservation in Idaho. Though this mandate violated previous treaty agreements, the Army forced the Indians to flee. Led by Chief Jo...

Narrator: Larry G. Jones
Published: 05/24/2018

Report on the Sioux Outbreak of 1890
Report on the "Sioux Outbreak of 1890"
by General Nelson A. Miles

In 1890, the US government feared an imminent Indian uprising among the displaced Sioux people. General Nelson A. Miles reported from the field summarizing the issue at hand. The government was failing to fulfill the terms of the treaty they had coe...

Narrator: Anthony N. Damian
Published: 05/10/2018

The Battle of Little Bighorn
The Battle of Little Bighorn
by Chief Red Horse

Red Horse, a Lakota chief, recorded a detailed eyewitness account of the Battle of Little Bighorn. He recalls seeing a rising cloud of red dust just before US soldiers charged their camp. With the hot sun bearing down on them, the Sioux took no pris...

Narrator: Anthony N. Damian
Published: 04/30/2018

The Messiah Letter
The Messiah Letter
by Wovoka's Message

Pauite leader Wovoka founded the Ghost Dance movement in the late 1880s as conditions for Native Americans became increasingly hopeless. Wovoka declared himself the messiah and spread the news that Indians were to prepare themselves for salvation th...

Narrator: Larry G. Jones
Published: 05/27/2018

Lakota Accounts of the Massacre at Wounded Knee
Lakota Accounts of the Massacre at Wounded Knee
by Commissioner of Indian Affairs

On December 29, 1890, the U.S. military entered the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with the intention of disarming the natives. When met with resistance, the cavalry opened fire on the Lakota in a massacre that killed several hundred men, wome...

Narrator: Larry G. Jones
Published: 05/27/2018

The Ghost Dance Among the Lakota
The Ghost Dance Among the Lakota
by Mrs. Z.A. Parker

Preserving Native American culture is an effort that is pervading the anthropological and cultural work of today, and without the work of past observers like Z.A. Parker – certain pieces of history could have been missing from books permanentl...

Narrator: Caelen Phillips
Published: 07/08/2018

Quetzalcoatl: The History and Legacy of the Feathered Serpent God in Mesoamerican Mythology
Quetzalcoatl: The History and Legacy of the Feathered Serpent God in Mesoamerican Mythology
by Charles River Editors

As archaeologists quickly learned, there are numerous temples dedicated to Quetzalcoatl all across Mesoamerica. From the Aztec to the Maya, Quetzalcoatl - the Feathered Serpent - rears his beautiful head from magnificent relief carvings in temples ...

Narrator: Bill Hare
Published: 07/16/2019

An Account of Sitting Bull's Death
An Account of Sitting Bull's Death
by James McLaughlin

James McLaughlin worked as an Indian agent for most of his life. His most infamous act, however, was ordering the arrest of Sitting Bull for fear that his participation in the Ghost Dance movement would inspire Indian rebellion. “The newspaper...

Narrator: Anthony N. Damian
Published: 05/08/2018
{"id":"9802268","ean":"9798868778605","abr":"Unabridged","title":"Ely Samuel Parker and Stand Watie: The Life and Legacy of the Civil War's Most Famous Native American Officers","subtitle":"","author":"Charles River Editors","rating_average":"0","narrator":"Bill Caufield","ubr_id":"9802268","abr_id":"0","ubr_price":"7.95","abr_price":"0.00","ubr_memprice":"4.77","abr_memprice":"0.00","ubr_narrator":"Bill Caufield","abr_narrator":"","ubr_length":"Unabridged: 3 hr 22 min","abr_length":"Abridged: "}