Most students learn about the Civil War though the lens of segregation in the South, the Confederate States, and the Union North, which was not segregated, but far from non-racist.
But what about other minority groups in America at the time, such as Native nations? They'd been lied to by the Union, treaties with them repeatedly broken, and in many cases forced off their land and marched (with deadly results) by US soldiers and representatives of the American government.
None were considered to be U.S. citizens at the time of the Civil War. Why fight for a country that treated them and their relatives so poorly? How did they feel about the Civil War? Whose side -- either side -- offered them anything they could trust?
This book delves the reasons why the men from three tribes -- Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi -- signed up and fought for Company K of the First Michigan Sharpshooters. It was the largest all-Native U.S. Army (Union) company east of the Mississippi, although it had a white commander.
It's written in a totally accessible style through the stories of individual men, using their letters, interviews with family members, enlistment papers and more documents to show the many reasons these men fought for the Union.
It's a fascinating non-fiction read that will intrigue students and get them considering the Civil War in ways they hadn't prior to reading.
Teacher's Note: I really wished either the author or publisher offered free lesson plans or an educator's guide for this book. It's a fantastic non-fiction resource for teaching Civil War Common Core standards in Social Studies, but with so few resources to teach it, and knowing how daunting it can be to create resources for a book from scratch, I felt I couldn't recommend it in Teachers.
