The Lumbee of North Carolina had complex relationships with both sides.

The Ojibwe and other Great Lakes communities provided men to Union forces.

Native military service in the Civil War was substantial in the aggregate but has received relatively little historical attention compared to the service of white and African American soldiers.

The reasons include the diversity of the experience — with different Native communities serving on different sides for different reasons, it is harder to construct a single narrative — and the continued marginalization of Native history in the broader American historical memory.

Parker’s story cuts across this broader pattern because of the specific position he occupied.