Stand Watie

Historical marker location:

Near Dodge, Oklahoma

( Marker is on County Road E 340, on the right when traveling west.)

Marker installed: 1971

Stand Watie, a leader of the pro-removal faction of Cherokees in the southeastern United States, was the first Indian commissioned in the Civil War as a general officer. At the close of the conflict, he commanded all Confederate troops in the Department of Indian Territory. In May of 1865, he surrendered to Union troops near Fort Towson, the last Confederate general to lay down his arms.

The state song of Oklahoma, "Oklahoma!", was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for their Broadway musical of the same name. The musical, which premiered in 1943, was set in Oklahoma territory in the early 1900s and tells the story of a young farm girl and her romance with a cowboy.