Opothleyaholo and the Loyal Muskogee: Their Flight to Kansas in the Civil War

In 1861, Lt. William Averell was dispatched to Indian Territory on a secret mission intended to close the forts that protected the Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Cherokees. The South immediately seized the opportunity to woo the Indian nations to the Confederacy. The South anticipated some trouble with John Ross, the Cherokee chief, but expected little difficulty from the other tribes. But they had forgotten about a leader of the Muskogees, called Creeks by the whites, named Opothleyaholo. Opothleyaholo had endured the "Trail of Tears" in 1836, when the Creek had been uprooted from their homelands in Alabama and Georgia and sent to Arkansas. Despite hardships, they eventually prospered in the new territory. As the Civil War approached, Opothleyaholo fully understood the strategic importance of the Indian Territory to the Confederacy and knew that an alliance with its government would undoubtedly lead to the demise of his people. Despite his distrust of the American government, which consistently broke their promises to the Indian nations, he sided with the United States and fought bravely, only to be deserted by its troops when he needed them most. Retreating to southern Kansas during the worst winter in memory, most of his followers-men, women, and children-died in Wilson County, Kansas, in 1862. This is the story of a little-remembered part of the years leading up to the Civil War and the bravery and misfortune of the Indian tribes in the conflict.