Lewis Downing, Baptist Minister and Cherokee Chief

Baptists and the American Civil War: September 8, 1865

Today in Fort Smith, Oklahoma, a preliminary post-war, intertribal peace conference between the Cherokee nation and United States commissioners begins. While most Cherokees allied with the United States during the second half of the war, some remained with the Confederacy, thus creating competing leadership factions within the nation. Representing the Cherokee nation today is Chief…

Lewis Downing, Baptist Minister and Cherokee Chief

Baptists and the American Civil War: February 21, 1863

Since the previous summer, the Cherokee nation in Indian Territory, once solidly aligned with the Confederacy, has largely switched loyalties and aligned with the United States, although a dissenting faction remains aligned with the Confederate States. Thanks to Baptist mission efforts among Native Americans, many of the Cherokees are Baptists, including Lewis Downing, Baptist minister…