AllMovie

While the American Civil War is largely viewed in terms of black and white, many don't realize that some twenty- to thirty-thousand Native Americans fought in that defining struggle. In this illuminating documentary, originally aired on The History Channel, filmmakers explore the complicated truth behind the war that shaped a nation. The Native Americans had already inhabited this land long before the North and the South ever came to blows, and the manner in which they reacted to and participated in the Civil War has long been a key discussion point for historians. Discussions with the descendants of Indian Civil War soldiers reveal the impact that such combatants as Stand Watie, Ely Parker, and Henry Berry Lowery had on the battlefield, and reveal the intensely personal reasons that some Native Americans were drawn into what is often painted as a "White Man's Folly."