--- PATKRAM@aol.com wrote: > As to it not being a great leap from American > Indians serving in the > Confederacy to Blacks serving. American Indians > were not enslaved. Blacks were. What I was mostly referring to was the perception by people who tend to "clump" minorities together. Anyway aside from that -- back in the day "savage" Indians were (by some people) considered "worse" than Black Slaves. However, while maybe not all Indians were enslaved some most certainly were and many were even shipped off to foreign countries. The Cherokee were luckier than most by the fact they were considered more "civilized" (hence the term the 5 Civilized Tribes) and "English" Europeans tended to leave them more alone and pick on the less "civilized" tribes (read: smaller and more vulnerable tribes) -- well til they wanted the Cherokee's stuff. Anyway my point is yes Indians were enslaved so perhaps you should google and see some of the history. Crystal (also of Cherokee heritage) Additionally - in Missouri (specifically) it was ILLEGAL to even be in the state if you were Indian. You could be hanged.

--- Crystal <mywebtree@yahoo.com> wrote: > so perhaps you > should google and see some of the history. Sorry I wrote that poorly.. what I meant by my last statement was that if you are not aware that Indians were enslaved you can google and see some information on it - if you want - it is not commonly presented in schools. (I think I sounded rather harshly know-it-all which is not how I meant it.)