A spectator with a Confederate flag at the annual recreation of the Battle of Centralia in Missouri, in which participants restage a Confederate guerilla victory over Union forces, Sept. 13, 2014. Ryan Schuessler

When NAACP demonstrators marching from Ferguson, Missouri, to the state capital, Jefferson City, passed through Gasconade County last month, they found anything but a warm welcome from the residents of Rosebud, a tiny town of about 400 in the eastern midsection of the state. A Confederate flag was raised. Some left fried chicken, watermelon and 40-ounce cans of beer.

St. Louisans have found themselves more polarized than ever over the police shooting and death of teenager Mike Brown in Ferguson. However, the rifts that plague the city originate not in Ferguson or St. Louis but from Missouri’s long-standing identity crisis, still unresolved 150 years after the American Civil War.

Missouri was claimed by both the Union and the Confederacy and is the 24th and 12th star on their respective flags.

It’s an odd tale of dual historical narratives that can manifest as harmlessly as old men re-enacting Civil War battles and as ominously as masked residents of Rosebud flying the Confederate flag for black marchers. But perhaps this story is best told through the words of two heritage groups, one Union and one Confederate, both pushing to have their hallowed sites recognized by a state that has found itself as divided as ever.

This is a story of two Missouris: a “Missour-ee” and a “Missour-uh.”