The Civil War is most often thought of as a “white man’s” war, yet many American Indians joined the troops, saying good-bye, perhaps for the last time, to their families who would face the challenges of the war years without them. Among them was Union General Ely S. Parker, Aide to Ulysses S. Grant, who grew up as a middle child in a remarkable Seneca Indian family. Well educated in preparatory schools and colleges, the six Parker brothers and their sister Caroline have left a unique legacy of correspondence that provides a window into the singular dilemma of American Indian soldiers, fighting to preserve the Union that would disinherit them. Meanwhile, at home on the Tonawanda Reservation, Caroline struggled to maintain the family farm amidst the political turmoil around her. This multi-media presentation gives a glimpse into their world of fractured allegiances, intimate yearnings and the family loyalties that gave them strength.

Deborah Holler is a Mentor/Lecturer at Empire State College and teaches in Cultural Studies, Literature and the Arts. She has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Empire State and an MA in Environmental Arts from Syracuse University. She is currently working on projects concerning the life and times of 19^th-century Seneca Caroline G. Parker Mountpleasant.

Free and open to the public, this lecture is supported by Speakers in the Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities. Speakers in the Humanities lectures are made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Legislature, and through funds from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.