Shifting Winds of War is a continued expansion of the previous book titled Dust in the Wind: The Civil War in Indian Territory. The information regarding these turbulent years in the Territory has been expanded to include source notes from The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, maps of significant actions, and speeches and correspondence of some of the principal parties during the war. In 1830, just a year after taking office, Andrew Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions. But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave. This period in what would eventually become the state of Oklahoma was already tense with internal conflicts resulting from the forced removal of the Five Indian Nations from the southeast United States. Internal conflicts simmered between those that had signed treaties trading their lands in the east for those west of the Mississippi. The coming Civil War divided them further as feuding political factions took sides with either the United States or the Confederate States. This ripped the Nations apart, bringing the seething conflicts to the surface. As a result, there were two wars being fought in Indian Territory. Over 30,000 Western and Eastern Indians were drawn into the conflict of the Civil War as soldiers or auxiliaries of the United States or the Confederate States. Ethel Crisp Taylor 2010, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, 238 pp.ISBN: 9780788451799 101-T5179
