I'm sure Jim was flatterred ;-) Jim and I have ancestors in Watie's regiments and, being Cherokee and from Oklahoma, the Indian Territory is my primary interest. The biographies I've read on Watie tended to be much folklore and exaggeration but, like you said, they did spark people's interest to know more, written at a time when very little was in print regarding the Indian Territory during the American Civil War. If you're interested in the history of what became the Watie faction or "Southern Cherokee", an excellent source is Wilkin's "Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People". The Ridge Party, of which Watie was a leader, became know as the Treaty Party who signed the removal treaty with the US in 1835. After the Trail of Tears, the leaders of the Treaty Party were targeted for assassination -- Watie's uncle The Ridge (aka Major Ridge), his cousin John Ridge, and his brother Elias Boudinot (aka Buck Watie) were assassinated. Watie killed his would-be assassin in a fight at a roadhouse on the Arkansas border, was tried in Arkansas court, and ruled self-defense, much to the anger of the Ross faction of the tribe who wanted him tried in Cherokee courts and executed. These events during what is sometimes called the Cherokee Civil War are the core of the violence and hostility between the two factions and their choice to ally themselves with the Union or Confederacy. You may also be interested in Gaines' "Confederate Cherokee" which is about Drew's Regiment (1st Cherokee Mtd Rifles -CSA) which defected to the Union and became the 3rd Indian Home Guard (July 1862), known as the "Pin Regiment". Prior to the defection of Drew's Regiment, Watie's and Drew's regiments had to be kept separated to avoid open warfare between them.