INDEX (continued 3)

Meanwhile, he had persuaded Opoth le Yahola, the Creek leader, not to join the Southern States, and had sent delegates to meet the Northern and other Indians in Council near the Antelope Hills, where they all agreed to be neutral. The purpose was, to take advantage of the war between the States, and form a great independent Indian Confederation—I defeated all that, by treating with the Creeks at the very time that their delegates were at the Antelope Hills in Council.

When I had treated with them and with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, at the North Fork of the Canadian, I went to the Seminole Agency and treated with the Seminoles. Then I went to the Wichita Agency, having previously invited the Reserve Indians to return there, and invited the prairie Comanches to meet me. After treating with these, I returned by Fort Arbuckle, and before reaching there, met a nephew of Mr. Ross, and a Captain [Keld? sic] in the prairie, bearing a letter to me from Mr. Ross and his Council, with a copy of the resolutions of Council, and an invitation in pressing terms to repair to the Cherokee Country and enter into a Treaty.

I consented, fixed a day for meeting the Cherokees, and wrote Mr. Ross to that effect, requesting him also to send messengers to the Osages, Quapaws, Shawnees, Senecas, &c. and invite them to meet me at the same time. He did so, and at the time fixed I went to Park Hill, and there effected Treaties.

When I first entered the Indian Country, in May, I had as an escort one company of mounted men. I went in advance of them to Park Hill; General McCulloch went there without an escort. At the Creek Agency I sent the Company back: I then remained without escort or guard, until I had made the Seminole Treaty, camping with my little party and displaying the Confederate flag. When I went to the Wichita Country, I took an escort of Creeks and Seminoles. These I discharged at Fort Arbuckle on my return, and went, accompanied only by four young men, through the Creek Country to Fort Gibson, refusing an escort of Creeks offered me on the way.

From Fort Gibson eight or nine companies of Colonel Drew’s Regiment of Cherokees, chiefly full-bloods and Pins, escorted me to Park Hill. This regiment was raised by order of the National Council, and its officers appointed by Mr Ross, his nephew William P. Ross, Secretary of the Nation, being Lieut. Colonel, and Thomas Pegg, President of the National Committee, being its Major.

I encamped, with my little party near the residence of the Chief, unprotected even by a guard, and with the Confederate flag flying. The terms of the Treaty were fully discussed and the Cherokee authorities dealt with me on equal terms. Mr. John Ross had met me as I was on my way to Park Hill, escorted by the National Regiment, and had welcomed me to the Cherokee Nation, in an earnest and enthusiastic speech; and seemed to me throughout to be acting in perfect good faith. I acted in the same way with him.

After the treaties were signed, I presented Colonel Drew’s Regiment a flag, and the chief in a speech exhorted them to be true to it: and afterwards, at his request, I wrote the Cherokee Declaration of Independence which is printed with the Memorial of the Southern Cherokees. I no more doubted, then, that Mr. Ross’ whole heart was with the South, than that mine was. Even in May he said to General McCulloch and myself, that if Northern troops invaded the Cherokee Country, he would head the Cherokees and drive them back. “I have borne arms” he said, “and though I am old I can do it again.”

At the time of the treaty there were about nine hundred Cherokees of Colonel Drew’s Regiment encamped near, and fed by me, and Colonel Watie, who had almost abandoned the idea of raising a regiment, had a small body of men, not more, I think, than eighty or ninety, at Tahlequah. When the flag was presented, Col. Watie was present, and after the ceremony the chief shook hands with him and expressed his warm desire for union and harmony in the Nation.

The gentlemen whom I had invited to meet me in June at the Creek Agency did not do so. They were afraid of being murdered, they said, if they openly sided with the South. In October they censured me for treating with Mr. Ross, and were in an ill humour, saying that the regiment was raised in order to be used to oppress them.

The same day that the Cherokee Treaty was signed, the Osages, Quapaws, Shawnees and Senecas signed treaties, and the next day they had a talk with Mr. Ross at his residence, smoked the great pipe and renewed their alliance, being urged by him to be true to the Confederate States.

I protest that I believed Mr. John Ross, at this time and for long after, to be as sincerely devoted to the Confederacy as I myself was. He was frank, cheerful, earnest, and evidently believed that the independence of the Confederate States was an accomplished fact. I should dishonour him if I believed that he then dreamed of abandoning the Confederacy or turning the arms of the Cherokees against us in case of a reverse.

Before I left the Cherokee Country, part of the Creeks, under Opoth-le-Yaholo left their homes, under arms and threatened hostilities. Mr. Ross, at my request, invited the old Chief to meet him, and urged him to unite with the Confederate States. Colonel Drew’s regiment was ordered into the Creek Country, and afterwards, on the eve of the action at Bird Creek, abandoned Colonel Cooper, rather than fight against their neighbours. But after the action, the regiment was again reorganized. The men were eager to fight, they said, against the Yankees; but did not wish to fight their own brethren, the Creeks.

When General Curtis entered North Western Arkansas, in February 1862, I sent orders from Fort Smith to Colonel Drew to move towards Evansville and receive orders from General McCulloch. Colonel Watie’s Regiment was already under General McCulloch’s command. Colonel Drew’s men moved in advance of Colonel Watie, with great alacrity, and showed no want of zeal at Pea Ridge.

I do not know that any one was scalped at that place or in that action, except from information. None of my officers knew it at the time. I heard of it afterwards. I cannot say to which regiment those belonged who did it. But it has been publicly charged on some of the same men who afterwards abandoned the Confederate cause and enlisting in the Federal Service were sent into Arkansas to ravage it.

After the actions at Pea Ridge and Elk Horn, the Regiment of Colonel Drew was moved to the mouth of the Illinois, where I was able, after a time, to pay them $25 cash, the commutation for six months’ clothing, in Confederate money. Nothing more, owing to the wretched management of the Confederate government, was ever paid them; and the clothing procured for them was plundered by the commands of Generals Price and Van Dorn. The consequence was that when Colonel Weer entered the Cherokee Country, the Pin Indians joined him en masse.

I had procured at Richmond, and paid Mr. Lewis Ross, Treasurer of the Cherokee Nation, about the first of March 1862, in the Chief’s house and in the Chief’s presence, the moneys agreed to be paid them by Treaty, being about $70,000 (I think) in coin, and among other sums $150,000 in Confederate Treasury notes, loaned the Nation by way of advance on the price expected to be paid for the Neutral land. This sum had been promised in the Treaty at the earnest solicitation of Mr. John Ross; and it was generally understood that it was desired for the special purpose of redeeming scrip of the Nation issued long before, and much of which was held by Mr. Ross and his relatives. That such was the case, I do not know. I only know that the moneys were paid, and that I have the receipts for them, which, with others, I shall file in the Indian Office.

In May, 1862, Lieut. Colonel William P. Ross visited my camp at Fort McCulloch, near Red River, and said to me that “the Chief” would be gratified if he were to receive the appointment of Brigadier General in the Confederate Service. I did not ask him if he was authorized by the Chief to say so; but I did ask him if he were sure that the appointment would gratify him; and being so assured, I promised to urge the appointment. I did so, more than once, but never received a reply. It was not customary with the Confederate War Department to exhibit any great wisdom; and in respect to the Indian Country its conduct was disgraceful. Unpaid, unclothed, uncared for, unthanked even, and their services unrecognized, it was natural the Cherokees should abandon the Confederate flag.

When Colonel Weer invaded the Cherokee Country, Mr. Ross refused to have an interview with him, declaring that the Cherokees would remain faithful to their engagements with the Confederate States. There was not then a Confederate soldier in the Cherokee Nation, to overawe Mr. Ross or Major Pegg or any other “loyal” Cherokee. Mr. Ross sent me a copy of his letter to Colonel Weer, and I had it printed and sent over Texas, to show the people there that the Cherokee Chief was “loyal” to the Confederate States.

Afterwards, when Stand Watie’s Regiment and the Choctaws were sent over the Arkansas into the Cherokee Country, and Mr. Ross considered his life in danger from his own people, in consequence of their ancient feud, he allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Federal troops. At the time, I believed that if white troops had been sent to Park Hill, who would have protected him against Watie’s men, he would have remained at home and adhered to the Confederacy: for either he was true to his obligations to the Confederate States, voluntarily entered into,—true at heart and in his inmost soul,—or else he is falser and more treacherous than I can believe him to be.

The simple truth is, Mr. Commissioner, that the “loyal” Cherokees hated Stand Watie and the half-breeds and were hated by them. They were perfectly willing to kill and scalp Yankees, and when they were hired to change sides, and twenty two hundred of them were organized into regiments in the Federal Service, they were just as ready to kill and scalp when employed against us in Arkansas. We did not pay and clothe them, and the United States did. They scalped for those who paid for and clothed them. As to “loyalty” they had none at all.

I entered the Indian Country in May, and left it in October. For five months I travelled and encamped in it, unprotected by white troops, alone with the four young men, treating with the different tribes. If there had been any “loyalty” among the Indians, I could not have gone a mile in safety. Opoth-le-Yaholo was not “loyal.” He feared the McIntoshes, who had raised troops, and who, he thought, meant to kill him for killing their father long years before. He told me that he did not wish to fight against the Southern States, but only that the Indians should all act together. If Mr. Ross had treated with us at first, all the Creeks would have done the same. If Stand Watie and his party took one side, John Ross and his party were sure, in the end, to take the other, especially when that other proved itself the stronger.

So far from the Watie party overawing the party which upheld Mr. Ross, I know it to be true that they were afraid to actively coöperate with the Confederate States, to organize, to raise Secession flags, or even to meet me and consult with me. They feared that Colonel Drew’s Regiment would be used to harrass them, and they never dreamed of forcing the authorities into a Treaty.

After the action at Elkhorn, murders were continually complained of by Colonels Watie and Drew, and the Chief solicited me to place part of Colonel Drew’s Regiment at or near Park Hill, to protect the government and its records. I did so. There never a time when the “loyal” Cherokees had not the power to destroy the Southern ones.

As to myself, I dealt fairly and openly with all the Indians. I used no threats of force or compulsion, with any of them. The “loyal” Cherokees joined us because they believed we should succeed, and left us when they thought we should not. At their request I wrote their declaration of Independence and acceptance of the issues of war; and if any men voluntarily, and with their eyes open, and of their own motion acceded to the Secession movement, it was John Ross and the people whom he controlled. I am, Sir, Very res^py, Your obt Svt

Albert Pike

D. N. Cooley Esq, Commissioner of Ind. Aff.

[229] In writing this letter, Pike most certainly addressed himself to Toombs officially and with the idea in mind that he was holding his commission under the Confederate State Department. That he was serving under that department and that he did not get his appointment until May seem scarcely to admit of a doubt, notwithstanding the fact that Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of War later in the year, December [14?], 1861, in reporting to President Davis, could make the following statement:

At the first session of the Congress an act was passed providing for the sending of a commissioner to the Indian tribes north of Texas and west of Arkansas, with the view of making such arrangements for an alliance with and the protection of the Indians as were rendered necessary by the disruption of the Union and our natural succession to the rights and duties of the United States, so far as these Indians were concerned. The supervision of this important branch of administrative duty was confided to the State Department, by which Brig.-Gen. Albert Pike was selected as commissioner. At a later period of the same session a Bureau of Indian Affairs was created by law and attached to this Department, charged with the management of our relations with the Indian tribes....—Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 792.

Now, if Benjamin was correct in his chronology, the appointment of Pike must have antedated that of Hubbard, a very unlikely state of affairs unless, indeed, the Confederate government from the start, taking cognizance of the very advanced condition of the Indians under discussion and of the very extreme delicacy of the situation, concluded it would be wisest to act upon the assumption that the great tribes were independent enough to be dealt with almost as foreign powers and so left everything to the discretion of the State Department.

In November, 1861, the Provisional Congress considered the advisability of transferring the whole Indian Bureau to the Department of State [Journal, November 28, 1861, vol. i, 489]. The transfer was probably suggested by the fact that the relations to date of the Confederate States with the Indians had been conducted altogether upon a basis of diplomacy. An added reason might have been, that the ordinary business of the War Department was sufficiently onerous without the details of Indian complications being made a part of it. Yet the transfer was never made.

[230] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 576-578.

[231] Hubbard’s ill-health, however, seems to have made it incumbent upon Pike to assume much the larger share of official responsibility and practically to do Hubbard’s work as well as his own; that is, so much of it as was not transacted in Richmond.

[232] Adjutant and Inspector-General S. Cooper to McCulloch, May 13, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 575-576].

[233] Hubbard to Walker, June 2, 1861 [ibid., 589-590].

[234] Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 497-498; General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515.

[235] Rhodes, op. cit., vol. iii, 237-238; also Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the Abstraction of Bonds Held by the United States Government in Trust for Indian Tribes, being House Report, 36th congress, second session, no. 78. Dole, in his Annual Report for 1861, p. 27, urged that the government make the loss good to the Indians and also appropriate money “to meet the unpaid interest on those trust bonds of the revolted States yet in custody of the Secretary of the Interior.” There ought never, either from the standpoint of national faith or of that of political expediency, to have been any hesitation in the matter.

[236] The entire letter is to be found in Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 498-499; also in General Files, Cherokee, 1850-1865, C515.

[237]

War Department, C. S. Army, Montgomery, May 13, 1861.

Major Douglas H. Cooper, Choctaw Nation:

Sir: The desire of this Government is to cultivate the most friendly relations and the closest alliance with the Choctaw Nation and all the Indian tribes west of Arkansas and south of Kansas. Appreciating your sympathies with these tribes, and their reciprocal regard for you, we have thought it advisable to enlist your services in the line of this desire. From information in possession of the Government it is deemed expedient to take measures to secure the protection of these tribes in their present country from the agrarian rapacity of the North, that, unless opposed, must soon drive them from their homes and supplant them in their possessions, as, indeed, would have been the case with the entire South but for our present efforts at resistance. It is well known that with these unjust designs against the Indian country the Northern movement for several years has had its emissaries scheming among the tribes for their ultimate destruction. Their destiny has thus become our own, and common with that of all the Southern States entering this Confederation.

Entertaining these views and feelings, and with these objects before us, we have commissioned General Ben. McCulloch, with three regiments under his command, from the States of Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana, to take charge of the military district embracing the Indian country, and I now empower you to raise among the Choctaws and Chickasaws a mounted regiment, to be commanded by yourself, in co-operation with General McCulloch. It is designed also to raise two other similar regiments among the Creeks, Cherokees, Seminoles, and other friendly tribes for the same purpose. This combined force of six regiments will be ample to secure the frontiers upon Kansas and the interests of the Indians, while to the south of the Red River three regiments from Texas, under a different command, have been already assigned to the Rio Grande and western border.

It will thus appear, I trust, that the resources of this Government are adequate to its ends, and assured to the friendly Indians. We have our agents actively engaged in the manufacture of ammunition and in the purchase of arms, and when your regiment has been reported organized in ten companies, ranging from 64 to 100 men each, and enrolled for twelve months, if possible, it will be received into the Confederate service, and supplied with arms and ammunition. Such will be the course pursued also in relation to the two other regiments I have indicated.

The arms we are purchasing for the Indians are rifles, and they will be forwarded to Fort Smith. Respectfully,

L. P. Walker, Secretary of War.

Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 574-575.

[238] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 572-574.

[239] —Ibid., 583.

[240] See McCulloch to Walker, May 28, 1861, ibid., 587; also same to same, June 12, 1861, ibid., 590-591.

[241] —Ibid., 591-592; also vol. xiii, 495.

[242] General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515; Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 596-597 and vol. xiii, 495-497.

[243] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 590-591.

[244]

Headquarters McCulloch’s Brigade, Fort Smith, Ark., June 22, 1861.

Hon. L. P. Walker, Secretary of War:

Sir: I have the honor to transmit the inclosed copy of a communication from John Ross, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Under all the circumstances of the case I do not think it advisable to march into the Cherokee country at this time unless there is some urgent necessity for it. If the views expressed in my communication to you of the 14th instant are carried out, it will, I am satisfied, force the conviction on the Cherokees that they have but one course to pursue—that is, to join the Confederacy. The Choctaw and Chickasaw regiment will be kept on the south of them; Arkansas will be to the east; and with my force on the western border of Missouri no force will be able to march into the Cherokee Nation, and surrounded as they will be by Southern troops, they will have but one alternative at all events. From my position to the north of them, in any event, I will have a controlling power over them. I am satisfied from my interview with John Ross and from his communication that he is only waiting for some favorable opportunity to put himself with the North. His neutrality is only a pretext to await the issue of events.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Ben. McCulloch, Brigadier-General Commanding.

Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 595-596.

[245] See Pike to Toombs, May 20, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 580-581].

[246] On the twenty-ninth of May, Pike wrote to Toombs again and informed him that he was leaving for Tahlequah that very morning [Ibid., fourth ser., vol. i, 359].

[247] See McCulloch to Walker, May 28, 1861 [Ibid., first ser., vol. iii, 587-588].

[248] See Pike to Cooley, February 17, 1866 [Indian Office, Miscellaneous Files].

[249] —Ibid.

[250] McCulloch to Walker, June 12, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 591].

[251] Official Records, first ser., vol. xiii, 489-490.

[252] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 585-587.

[253] —Ibid., 589.

[254] —Ibid., 587.

[255] —Ibid., 593-594.

[256] See Albert Pike to John Ross, June 6, 1861 and John Ross to Albert Pike, July 1, 1861 in General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C515.

[257] It would appear that, failing with John Ross, Pike tried to negotiate with the disaffected Cherokees under the control of Stand Watie, Boudinot, and others. See Office Letter to President Johnson, February 25, 1866. Pike himself says that he invited some of these men to meet him at the Creek Agency. See Pike to Cooley, February 17, 1866.

[258] The text of the treaties is to be found in the Confederate Statutes and also in Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, as follows:

Creek Treaty, 426-443 Comanche Treaty, 548-554

Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, 445-466 Osage Treaty, 636-646

Seminole Treaty, 513-527 Seneca and Shawnee Treaty, 647-658

Wichita Treaty, 542-548 Quapaw Treaty, 659-666

Cherokee Treaty, 669-687

[259] Although the Creek Treaty was negotiated July tenth and was the first to be negotiated, Dole was ignorant of its existence as late as October second [Report, 1861, 39], which only goes to prove how very slight was the Federal communication with Indian Territory through all that critical time.

[260] President Davis, in his message of December 12, 1861, said,

Considering this act as a declaration by Congress of our future policy in relation to those Indians, a copy of that act was transmitted to the commissioner and he was directed to consider it as his instructions in the contemplated negotiation. [Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, vol. i, 149; Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 785.]

[261] All the treaties of the First Class contain a Preamble, lacking in the others, which specifically outlines the assumption of the protectorate. In addition, those same treaties have a special clause accepting the full force of the Act of May twenty-first.

All references to these treaties, unless otherwise noted, will be page references to the treaties as found in the Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America.

[262] See Creek Treaty, Articles II and IV, pp. 289, 290; Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Articles II and VII, pp. 312, 313; Seminole Treaty, Articles II and IV, Pp. 332, 333; Cherokee Treaty, Articles II and V, pp. 395, 396.

[263]

Article viii (Creek Treaty). The Confederate States of America do hereby solemnly agree and bind themselves that no State or Territory shall ever pass laws for the government of the Creek Nation; and that no portion of the country hereby guaranteed to it shall ever be embraced or included within or annexed to any Territory or Province; nor shall any attempt ever be made, except upon the free, voluntary and unsolicited application of the said nation, to erect the said country, by itself or with any other, into a State or any other territorial or political organization, or to incorporate it into any State previously created [p. 291].

Compare with similar articles in the other treaties; viz., Article X of the Choctaw and Chickasaw, p. 314; Article VIII of the Seminole, p. 334; Article VIII of the Cherokee, p. 397; Articles VIII and XXVI of the Osage, pp. 364, 367; Articles VIII and XIX of the Seneca and Shawnee, pp. 376, 377; Article VII of the Quapaw, p. 367.

[264]

Article xl (Creek Treaty). In order to enable the Creek and Seminole Nations to claim their rights and secure their interests without the intervention of counsel or agents, and as they were originally one and the same people and are now entitled to reside in the country of each other, they shall be jointly entitled to a delegate to the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America, who shall serve for the term of two years, and be a member of one of the said nations, over twenty-one years of age, and labouring under no legal disability by the law of either nation; and each delegate shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as may be enjoyed by delegates from any territories of the Confederate States to the said House of Representatives. Each shall receive such pay and mileage as shall be fixed by the Congress of the Confederate States. The first election for delegate shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner as shall be prescribed by the agent of the Confederate States, to whom returns of such election shall be made, and he shall declare the person having the greatest number of votes to be duly elected, and give him a certificate of election accordingly, which shall entitle him to his seat. For all subsequent elections, the times, places, and manner of holding them and ascertaining and certifying the result shall be prescribed by law of the Confederate States [p. 297].

Compare with Article XXVII of Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty [p. 318], the chief point of difference between the two being that, in the latter treaty the delegate to which the two tribes, parties to the treaty, were entitled jointly, was to be elected from them alternately. The Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty also stipulated that the delegate was to be a member by birth or blood on either the father’s or the mother’s side. The corresponding provision in the Cherokee Treaty, Article XLIV [pp. 403-404], said that the delegate should be a native born citizen. The Seminole arrangement, Article XXXVII [p. 339], was, as might be expected, exactly the same as the Creek.

[265] The Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty was the only one that developed this idea. We might presume that the Creeks were even opposed to it. This is how it appears in Articles XXVIII, XXIX, and XXX, of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty [pp. 318-319]:

Article xxviii. In consideration of the uniform loyalty and good faith, and the tried friendship for the people of the Confederate States, of the Choctaw and Chickasaw people, and of their fitness and capacity for self-government, proven by the establishment and successful maintenance, by each, of a regularly organized republican government, with all the forms and safe-guards to which the people of the Confederate States are accustomed, it is hereby agreed by the Confederate States, that whenever and so soon as the people of each nation shall, by ordinance of a convention of delegates, duly elected by majorities of the legal voters, at an election regularly held after due and ample notice, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature of each, respectively, declare its desire to become a State of the Confederacy, the whole Choctaw and Chickasaw country, as above defined, shall be received and admitted into the Confederacy as one of the Confederate States, on equal terms, in all respects, with the original States, without regard to population; and all the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations shall thereby become citizens of the Confederate States, not including, however, among such members, the individuals of the bands settled in the leased district aforesaid.

Provided, That, as a condition precedent to such admission, the said nations shall provide for the survey of their lands, the holding in severalty of parts thereof by their people, the dedication of at least one section in every thirty-six to purposes of education, and the sale of such portions as are not reserved for these, or other special purposes, to citizens of the Confederate States alone, on such terms as the said nation shall see fit to fix, not intended or calculated to prevent the sale thereof.

Article xxix. The proceeds of such sales shall belong entirely to members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and be distributed among them or invested for them in proportion to the whole population of each, in such manner as the Legislatures of said nations shall provide; nor shall any other persons ever have any interest in the annuities or funds of either the Choctaw or Chickasaw people, nor any power to legislate in regard thereto.

Article xxx. Whenever the desire of the Creek and Seminole people and the Cherokees to become a part of the said State shall be expressed, in the same manner and with the same formalities, as is above provided for in the case of the Choctaw and Chickasaw people, the country of the Creeks and Seminoles, and that of the Cherokees, respectively, or either by itself, may be annexed to and become an integral part of said State, upon the same conditions and terms, and with the same rights to the people of each, in regard to citizenship and the proceeds of their lands.

[266] Abel, “Proposals for an Indian State in the Union, 1778-1878,” in the American Historical Association, Report, 1907, pp. 89-102.

[267] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 577.

[268] Articles V and VI.

[269] Article VIII.

[270] Article XI.

[271] Article XII.

[272] Article VII of the Seminole Treaty [p. 334], and Article VII likewise of the Creek Treaty [p. 291].

[273] Article IV of the Cherokee Treaty [pp. 395-396].

[274] In the matter of the guarantee of territorial integrity, the treaties of the Second Class were strictly on a par with those of the First Class. See Article VIII of the Osage Treaty [p. 364], Article XIX of the Seneca and Shawnee Treaty [p. 378], Article VII of the Quapaw [p. 387].

[275] Article XLVII [pp. 407-408].

[276] Article V [p. 348].

[277] Article III [pp. 374-375].

[278] Article V [p. 291].

[279] Article I [p. 354].

[280] For an illustration of how the Seminoles had been preferring the claim, see the following affidavit:

Be it known that on this 22d day of January, A.D. 1856, personally appeared before me, J. W. Washbourne, United States’ Agent for Seminoles, in open Council, the following named Chiefs and Head men of the Seminole tribe of Indians, and deposed to the subsequent statement.

That sometime during the war between the United States and the Seminoles, Gen. Thomas S. Jessup, then commanding the U. S. troops in Florida, issued a proclamation to the effect that all negroes belonging to the hostile Seminoles who should come in and take service under the Government against their masters, or in any way render service to the United States against the Seminoles, or induce them to sue for peace and emigrate west, they, the negroes, should be declared free: That many negroes took advantage of said illegal proclamation and did take service in Florida under Government, but that, by far the larger number of negro slaves who took refuge under said proclamation and thereby claimed their freedom, did so after the immigration west was determined or consummated: That said negro slaves, in great numbers and to the great injury of their owners, and against their orders, took refuge within the United States’ post, Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation, where they were for upwards of three years protected by the United States officers at that Post, although the Seminoles claimed them, the negroes, as their lawful slaves, and protested against this procedure of the U. S. officers: That while these negro slaves were thus protected by military officers, it was impossible to keep their slaves at home who were continually flying to Fort Gibson, where they were beyond the reach of their masters: That this occurred during the years 1845-’6-’7: That through the instrumentality of their former Sub Agent and attornies employed by them, they after long delay and at great expense and loss of slaves, presented the matter to the attention of the Secretary of War, Hon. Wm. L. Marcy, and that finally from him, as such Secretary of War, there issued an order bearing date the 5th of August 1848, directed to the commanding officer at Fort Gibson, enjoining him to protect no longer said negro slaves at that Post and commanding him to deliver all of said slaves to the Seminoles their rightful owners: That even after this order the nuisance did not abate, for another order dated July 31st 1850 required the commanding officer of Fort Gibson to give no further protection to these “Seminole negroes”: That by this order of the Secretary of War, as was just and right, the United States recognised the ownership of these said slaves as being in the Seminoles, and that they were entitled by law and right to said slaves and their service: That in consequence of the withdrawal of the protection afforded them at Fort Gibson and from their having so long considered themselves free, said slaves in great numbers escaped, some of whom reached Mexico, some were killed by the wild Indians, and the remainder were only captured at great and ruinous expense: That the owners of these said negro slaves are justly and equitably entitled to the service of said slaves, while unlawfully and against the power and protests of the Seminoles, detained at Fort Gibson for the space of more than three years, by U. S. officers: That the number of said negro slaves so unlawfully detained and kept from the service due their masters, as near as now can be estimated was Two Hundred and Thirty-four or thereabouts: That the services of these said slaves for these three years and upwards were amply worth at the time Seventy five dollars each per annum, making the sum of Fifty two Thousand Six hundred and fifty dollars ($52.650.00,) to which the Seminole owners of said slaves are fully and fairly, in law and equity, entitled, and which ought to be paid to them by the Government of the United States.

John Jumper, P. Chief Seminoles X his mark Pah suc ah yo ho lah, Speaker Council X his mark Chitto-Tusto-muggee X his mark Arhah-lock-Tusto-muggee X his mark Noke-su-kee X his mark Pars-co-fer X his mark Tesi-ki-ah X his mark Alligator X his mark Talla-hassa X his mark George Cloud X his mark Ho-tul-gee-Harjo X his mark Tar-hah Fixico X his mark

Sworn to and subscribed before me, in open Council Jany 22d 1856.

J. W. Washbourne U. S. Agent for Seminoles.

Witnesses: George M. Aud

[281] President Polk seems to have been of the opinion that negro slaves could not be freed by military proclamation [Diary (Quaife’s edition), vol. iii, 504].

[282] Slavery was not completely ignored even in the treaties of the Third Class. In Article IX of their treaty [p. 348], the Wichitas promised to do all in their power to take and return any negroes, horses, or other property stolen from white men or from Indians of the great tribes. The corresponding article in the Comanche Treaty [p. 355], was to like purpose.

[283] Article XXXVII of the Osage Treaty, Article XXVIII of the Seneca and Shawnee Treaty, and Article XXVII of the Quapaw Treaty.

[284] The following are the Creek clauses and the Choctaw and Chickasaw, Articles XLV and XLVII, the Seminole, Articles XXIX and XXXIII, and the Cherokee, Articles XXXIV and XXXVII, are similar:

Article xxix. The provisions of all such acts of Congress of the Confederate States as may now be in force, or may hereafter be enacted, for the purpose of carrying into effect the provision of the constitution in regard to the re-delivery or return of fugitive slaves, or fugitives from labour and service, shall extend to, and be in full force within the said Creek Nation; and shall also apply to all cases of escape of fugitive slaves from the said Creek Nation into any other Indian nation or into one of the Confederate States, the obligation upon each such nation or State to re-deliver such slaves being in every case as complete as if they had escaped from another State, and the mode of procedure the same [p. 296].

Article xxxii. It is hereby declared and agreed that the institution of slavery in the said nation is legal and has existed from time immemorial; that slaves are taken and deemed to be personal property; that the title to slaves and other property having its origin in the said nation, shall be determined by the laws and customs thereof; and that the slaves and other personal property of every person domiciled in said nation shall pass and be distributed at his or her death, in accordance with the laws, usages and customs of the said nation, which may be proved like foreign laws, usages & customs, and shall everywhere be held valid and binding within the scope of their operation [p. 296].

[285] P. 369.

[286] Article XVII of the Cherokee Treaty [p. 399].

[287]

Article xv (Creek Treaty). The Confederate States shall protect the Creeks from domestic strife, from hostile invasion, and from aggression by other Indians and white persons not subject to the jurisdiction and laws of the Creek Nation, and for all injuries resulting from such invasion or aggression, full indemnity is hereby guaranteed to the party or parties injured, out of the Treasury of the Confederate States, upon the same principle and according to the same rules upon which white persons are entitled to indemnity for injuries or aggressions upon them committed by Indians [p. 293].

See also Article XXI of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty and Article XV of the Seminole Treaty.

[288] Manypenny to Dean, November 30, 1855 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 53, pp. 94-95]. Dean to Manypenny, December 25, 1855 [Letter Press Book].

[289] Compare Article XX of the Cherokee Treaty and Article XXIV of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty with Article XVI of the Creek Treaty and all of these with Article XVI of the Seminole Treaty.

[290] See, for example, Article XVIII of the Seminole Treaty [p. 336].

[291] One other important right was conceded and that was the right of free transit. The concession is well stated in the Creek Treaty and occurs in connection with a prohibition against the pasturing of stock by outsiders within the Creek country.

Article xxii. No citizen or inhabitant of the Confederate States shall pasture stock on the lands of the Creek Nation, under the penalty of one dollar per head for all so pastured, to be collected by the authorities of the nation; but their citizens shall be at liberty at all times, and whether for business or pleasure, peaceably to travel the Creek country; and to drive their stock to market or otherwise through the same, and to halt such reasonable time on the way as may be necessary to recruit their stock, such delay being in good faith for that purpose.

Article xxiii. It is also further agreed that the members of the Creek Nation shall have the same right of travelling, driving stock and halting to recruit the same in any of the Confederate States as is given citizens of the Confederate States by the preceding article [p. 295].

[292] Article LXV of the Creek Treaty, Article XXVI of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Article XXXI of the Seminole Treaty, and Article XXII of the Cherokee Treaty.

[293] Article XVIII of the Creek Treaty, Article XXV of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Article XIX of the Seminole Treaty, and Article XXI of the Cherokee Treaty.

[294] Article LXV of the Creek Treaty and Article XXXI of the Seminole Treaty.

[295] Tush-ca-hom-ma at Boggy Depot and Cha-lah-ki at Tahlequah.

[296] Article XXX of the Creek Treaty, Article XLIII of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Article XXX of the Seminole Treaty, and Article XXXV of the Cherokee Treaty.

[297] Article XXVIII of the Creek Treaty, Article XLIV of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Article XXVIII of the Seminole Treaty, Article XXXIII of the Cherokee Treaty, Article XXXVI of the Osage Treaty, Article XXVII of the Seneca and Shawnee Treaty, and Article XXVII of the Quapaw Treaty.

[298] Article XXIX of the Cherokee Treaty and Article XXIII of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty.

[299]

Article xxxi (Cherokee Treaty). Any person duly charged with a criminal offence against the laws of either the Creek, Seminole, Choctaw or Chickasaw Nations, and escaping into the jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation, shall be promptly surrendered upon the demand of the proper authority of the nation within whose jurisdiction the offence shall be alleged to have been committed; and in like manner, any person duly charged with a criminal offence against the laws of the Cherokee Nation, and escaping into the jurisdiction of either of the said nations, shall be promptly surrendered upon the demand of the proper authority of the Cherokee Nation [pp. 401-402].

Note the development from the corresponding extradition clause in the earlier treaties of the series. In the Creek and Seminole treaties, extradition was as between Creeks and Seminoles exclusively. In the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, it was as between Choctaws and Chickasaws exclusively. In this treaty of the Cherokees, all the tribes were to be sharers in the extradition privilege; but it is difficult to understand how a clause in the Cherokee Treaty could be made legally binding upon other Indians than Cherokee.

[300] Article XXVI.

[301] It was also a one-sided affair in the treaties of the Second Class. See Article XXXIV of the Osage Treaty, Article XXV of the Seneca and Shawnee Treaty, and Article XXV of the Quapaw Treaty.

[302] Article XXXVII of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty [p. 320], and Article XXXII of the Cherokee Treaty [p. 402].

[303] Article XXXI of the Creek Treaty, Article XLVI of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Article XXXII of the Seminole Treaty, and Article XXXVI of the Cherokee Treaty. Note that the enjoyment of the privilege by the Seminole Nation was to be conditioned upon its own establishment of regular courts.

[304] There were also secret articles to some of the treaties. The indications are that such secret articles entailed the customary bribery of chiefs and influential men upon whose support depended successful negotiation.

[305] Article VII of the Osage Treaty [p. 364].

[306] Article XIII of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty [p. 315].

[307] Article IX of the Cherokee Treaty [p. 397].

[308] Article LXVI of the Creek Treaty, Article XLIV of the Seminole, Article LIII of the Cherokee.

[309] Article LXIV [p. 330].

[310] Article XL of the Wichita Treaty and Article X of the Comanche.

[311] Article XI of the Creek Treaty, Article XVI of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Article XI of the Seminole Treaty, Article XIII of the Cherokee Treaty, Article IV of the Osage Treaty, Article V of the Seneca and Shawnee Treaty, and Article IV of the Quapaw Treaty.

[312] Article XII of the Creek Treaty, Article XVII of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, Article XII of the Seminole Treaty, Article XIV of the Cherokee Treaty, Article V of the Osage Treaty, Article VI of the Seneca and Shawnee Treaty, and Article V of the Quapaw Treaty. After the war the posts in certain specified cases were to be garrisoned by native troops.

[313] The reference is the same as the foregoing with two exceptions; viz., Article XXVIII of the Osage Treaty and Article XX the Quapaw Treaty.

[314] Article XIII of the Creek Treaty, Article XVIII of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, and Article XIII of the Seminole Treaty.

[315] The provision in the Osage Treaty was one exception to this. It was definitely said there that there should be no compensation.

[316] The details of this will come out in the chapter following.

[317]

Article xxxviii (Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty). In order to secure the due enforcement of so much of the laws of the Confederate States in regard to criminal offences and misdemeanors as is or may be in force in the said Choctaw and Chickasaw country, and to prevent the Choctaws and Chickasaws from being further harassed by judicial proceedings had in foreign courts and before juries not of the vicinage, the said country is hereby erected into and constituted a judicial district of the Confederate States to be called the Tush-ca-hom-ma District, for the special purposes and jurisdiction hereinafter provided; and there shall be created and semi-annually held, within such district, at Boggy Depot, a district court of the Confederate States, with the powers of a circuit court, so far as the same shall be necessary to carry out the provisions of this treaty, and with jurisdiction co-extensive with the limits of such district, in such matters, civil and criminal, to such extent and between such parties as may be prescribed by law, and in conformity to the terms of this treaty [p. 320].

Articles XXXIX, XL, XLI, and XLII more specifically define the jurisdiction.

[318] See Article XXIII of the Cherokee Treaty, and, for the jurisdiction of the court, see Articles XXIV, XXV, and XXVI.

[319] Article XXXV.

[320] Article XXVI.

[321] Article XXVI.

[322] In other ways than this, the treaties with the minor tribes stressed the “peculiar institution.” Consider, for instance, in the matter of extradition, how it was not the criminal generally, but only the fugitive slave that was to be reciprocally extradited. Moreover, as a rule, the weak tribes all pledged themselves to try to return negroes and other property and were assured that negroes should come under the jurisdiction of tribal laws.

[323] Article II [p. 395].

[324] Article LII [p. 410].

[325] Article XXXIX [p. 403].

[326] Without doubt some preliminary sounding of Leeper must have preceded the accompanying document. Pike would hardly have written with such assurance or given such instructions unless he had been very sure of his ground.

Fort Smith, Arkansas, 26th May 1861.

Sir: I have been appointed by the President of the Confederate States of America Commissioner to the Indian Tribes West of Arkansas, with discretionary powers, for the purpose of making treaties of alliance with them, and of enlisting troops to act with the forces of the Confederate States.

In the exercise of the powers entrusted to me, I hereby authorize and request you to exercise the powers of Agent for the Wichitas and other Indians in the Country leased from the Choctaws and Chickasaws, until you shall receive a regular commission therefor. Your compensation will be the same as that received from the United States, to commence from the day when you resigned as agent of the United States.

And you are hereby instructed forthwith to repair to your agency, and to inform the Indians under your charge that the Confederate States of America will take you themselves and fully comply with all the obligations entered into by the United States in their behalf; securing and paying all that may be due them from injury; and especially that they will continue to supply them with rations, as it has heretofore been done, until they shall no longer need to be supplied.

You will also please inform them that I shall in a short time be among them, to enter into a treaty with them, on the part of the Confederate States.

You will impress upon them that the people of Texas are now a part of the Confederate States, and must no longer be looked upon as enemies: and if any troops from Texas should come within your jurisdiction, you will particularly warn them against doing any harm to the Indians under your charge.

You will make known to the Delawares, and if practicable to the Kickapoos, that it is my desire, and I have authority, to enlist a battalion of 350 men, of the Delawares, Kickapoos, and Shawnees, and will especially assure the Kickapoos, that if they have any cause of complaint against any of the people of Texas, it will be inquired into, and reparation made, and that they must in no case commit any act of hostility against Texas.

I shall be greatly obliged to you for all assistance you can render in securing the services in arms of the Kickapoos and Delawares. They will be paid like other mounted men, receiving 40 cents a day for use and risk of their horse, in addition to their pay, rations, and clothing.

I need not say that I place much reliance on your zeal and intelligence and assure you that your services will not fail to be appreciated by the Government of the Confederate States. Most respectfully yours

Albert Pike, Comm^r, C. S. A. to the Indian Tribes, West of Arkansas.

Matthew Leeper Esq.

Leeper Papers.

[327] It is not clear as to just when Elias Rector left the United States service or when he entered the Confederate. The Indian Office in Washington was communicating with him officially for some little time after Griffith had been notified of his appointment. There seems no reason to doubt that Rector was working in the interests of the Southern Confederacy all through the spring of 1861; and, when he went over openly to the South, he did not close his accounts with the United States Indian Office. He was accordingly regarded as a defaulter and there was talk of confiscating his property at Fort Smith [W. G. Coffin to Dole, January 29, 1864, General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1863-1864, I640; Dole to Usher, February 2, 1864, Indian Office, Report Book, no. 13, p. 297].

In the course of his official connection with the United States government Elias Rector had frequently been accused of irregularities and even of crookedness [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1222]. As touching the Seminole removal from Florida, he had much that was peculiar to explain away. Apparently he quite frequently made queer contracts, was given to making over-charges for mileage and to favoring his friends at the expense of the Indians and of the government. In 1861, he rendered a voucher showing he had paid a certain Henry Pape $6000.00 for building the Wichita Agency house. On various matters connected with his official record, see Rector’s Letter Press Book and Indian Office, Letter Books, no. 64, p. 342; no. 65, P. 49; no. 66, p. 26. In 1865, Rector made application to be allowed to straighten out his accounts [J. B. Luce to Cooley, November 2, 1865].

Returning, however, to the subject of Rector’s incumbency: on the twelfth of June, 1861, he wrote quite frankly to John Schoenmaker, principal of the Osage Mission,

... I have no connection at this time with the Indian Department under the old U. S. Government. I am now acting as Superintendent under the Government of the Confederate States, and as no treaties have as yet been concluded between the Southern confederacy and the tribes of Indians with whom you are engaged I of course can say nothing to you on the subject matter of your letter....—General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862.

The Confederate southern superintendency had not at the time been filled, but Rector seems to have been considered the most competent candidate. Johnson, in recommending various men to Walker for various positions, recommended Rector in strong terms of implied commendation,

Dr. Griffith wants to be appointed superintendent in place of E. Rector. Do not allow this to be done. Hold everything as it is until peace and unity are attained, and then make all the changes you think proper; but not now—not now, by all manner of means.

I do earnestly beg you to keep your agencies as they were. They are good and true men, and popular and qualified with the tribes and their business. Restore and commission Elias Rector, superintendent; John Crawford, Cherokee agent; William Quesenbury, Creek agent; Samuel M. Rutherford, Seminole agent; and Matthew Leeper, Wichita agent; and if Cooper has resigned (which I fear is the case), appoint Richard P. Pulliam (who is the next best living man on earth for the place, I believe) as agent of the Choctaws. With this programme you will have peace and success; without it, no one can tell your troubles or our misfortunes on this frontier....—Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 598.

[328] Dole to Robinson, April 9, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, 323].

[329] Dole to Rector, April 6, 1861 [—ibid., p. 317].

[330] General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, G463.

[331] General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, G463.

[332] Smith to Dole, May 4, 1861; Dole to Rector, May 9, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, p. 440].

[333] Johnson to Walker, June 25, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 598].

[334] Caleb B. Smith to Dole, April 6, 1861 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862].

[335] Dole to Quesenbury [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, p. 330]. In the middle of the summer, George A. Cutler became United States agent for the Creeks [ibid., no. 66, p. 200].

[336] Dole to Crawford [ibid., no. 65, p. 331].

[337] Rector to Greenwood, August 31, 1860 [Letter Press Book].

[338] November 27, 1860, he voted in the affirmative on a resolution against Lincoln’s election and against the advisability of Arkansas members of Congress taking their seats during his administration [Arkansas House Journal, thirteenth session, 1860-1861, p. 234].

[339] On the thirteenth of June, when Crawford wrote, resigning his commission, he said in extenuation of his conduct,

I only accepted through the influence of friends knowing then the Cherokee Indians was Southern in their feelings and did not wish a Northern man sent among them to act as Agent & as the Government of the Southern Confederacy has in their wisdom thought best to take charge of all the Indian Tribes south of Kansas and the Indians all being anxious to join in with the South and oppose to the bitter end the course now pursued by the Northern Government—I most respectfully decline acting as agent for the Cherokee Indians under the Administration of A. Lincoln.—Crawford to Dole, June 13, 1861 [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C1376].

[340] Crawford to Dole, May 20, 1861 [ibid.].

[341]

The excitement here is at an alarming pitch for the last few days I trust to God that those in power will do something to settle this interruption in the government and something must be done soon or War will ensue troops were drilling here last night at ten oclock, State troops, strong talk of attacking Fort Smith the President of the Convention has called the Convention to meet on the 6th day of May and the State will seceed if there is not something done immediately perhaps war will be commenced before you receive my letter though I trust not. I should very much to know that the North and South were engaged in a war, if you can do anything to have those troubles settled use your influence with the President in calling a national convention or something else to have peace....—Crawford to Dole, dated Van Buren, April 21, 1861 [General Files, Cherokee, 1859-1865, C1044].

[342] Smith to Dole, April 20, 1861 [General Files, Wichita, 1860-1861, I320].

[343] Some slight account of the Wichita Agency and of Agent Leeper’s defection has already been narrated. A number of documents elucidating the subject are to be found in the “Appendix.”

[344] Dole to Elder, April 29, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, pp. 390-391]; Mix to Elder, August 22, 1861 [ibid., no. 66, pp. 283-284].

[345] See, for instance, Stockton to Usher, February 20, 1864 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1863-1864].

[346] See Isaac Coleman, United States Indian agent, to Superintendent Elijah Sells, a copy of which letter is retained in the Office of Indian Affairs, the original having been sent to the office of the United States attorney-general, October 10, 1865.

[347] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, pp. 310, 345.

[348] The reference is, presumably, to a portion of the money that the United States government had allowed the Choctaws in satisfaction of claims arising under the treaties of 1830 and 1855 [Act of March 2, 1861, U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. xii, 238]. The episode of the Corn Contract was directly connected with the expenditure of the money. For documents bearing upon it, see Land Files, Choctaw, 1874-1876, Box 39, C1078, particularly documents labelled “N,” “O,” and “P.” Document “N” is a communication from Albert Pike to the General Council of the Choctaw Nation, received at the June session, 1861, and is most interesting as showing how Pike mixed up private and public business and, indeed, gave to private the preference.

Friends and Brothers: You are aware that since the year 1854 M^r John T. Cochrane and myself, aided by Col. Cooper your agent and by your delegates, have been engaged at Washington in prosecuting the just claims of your people under the treaty of 1830 before the Government of the United States.

We have succeeded in procuring a final award of the Senate, giving you the net proceeds of all the lands which you ceded by that treaty, and a Report from the Committee of Indian Affairs, estimating the sum due you at over two millions three hundred thousand dollars.

At the last session of Congress, we succeeded in procuring an appropriation on account of this debt of $250,000 in money and $250,000 in bonds of the United States.

Owing to the unfortunate difficulties between the Northern and Southern States, one hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars, only, of the sums, has been paid, $135,000 of which was placed in your Agent’s hands, ostensibly to purchase corn; and most of it remains unexpended.

Towards my expenses while prosecuting your claims and towards my fee, I have received the sum of sixteen hundred dollars. My expenses alone, in four years have been five thousand dollars.

I have had to abandon my other business, to attend to yours: and unless some part of my compensation is paid, or my expenses repaid me, my property will have to be sold to pay my debts. I am entirely without money, and have you only to look to.

I have labored for you very faithfully; and am sure your Delegates will tell you that, but for me your claims would never have been allowed; and but for me, after they were allowed, the appropriation would not have been obtained.

The whole of the claims will be paid whenever peace is restored, either by the United States, or by the Confederate Southern States. I shall take it in charge and never desert you until all is paid.

I respectfully and earnestly request you to cause to be paid to me, out of the moneys now in the Agent’s hands, for my expenses, and on account of my fee, such sum of money as you may think just and right; and which I hope will not be less than seven thousand five hundred dollars.

I also desire to inform you that I have been appointed by the President of the Confederate States, a Commissioner to your Nation, and all the other Nations and Tribes west of Arkansas; that I shall at the proper time come among you to counsel with you, and that I shall take your interests in charge, and see that your title to your lands, and all annuities, and other moneys due you by the United States are assumed and guaranteed by the Confederate States. On this you may implicitly rely; as it is the promise of one who never breaks his word.

Let your people therefore, and the Chickasaws remain perfectly quiet until the proper time arrives, and look to me for advice. If any emissaries from Arkansas come among you, hear them and say nothing. So it is that wise men do. The State of Arkansas has nothing whatever to do with you, and cannot protect you. The Confederate States are both able and willing to do so; and when they have guaranteed your rights, it will be time enough for you to act. Your friend

(signed) Albert Pike.

Office of the National Secretary of the Choctaw Nation.

[Endorsement] I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy from the original letter from Albert Pike on file in the National Secretary’s Office.

Given under my hand and official seal. Done at Chahta Tamaha, November 1^st A.D. 1873.

(signed) Jno. P. Turnbull, National Secretary Choctaw Nation.

[349] Pike’s programme of operations is outlined in his letter to Toombs of May 29, 1861:

Sir: I leave this morning for Tahlequah, the seat of government of the Cherokee Nation, and Park Hill, the residence of Governor Ross, the principal chief. Since 1835 there have always been two parties in the Cherokee Nation, bitterly hostile to each other. The treaty of that year was made by unauthorized persons, against the will of the large majority of the nation and against that of the chief, Mr. Ross. Several years ago Ridge, Boudinot, and others, principal men of the treaty party, were killed, with, it was alleged, the sanction of Mr. Ross, and the feud is today as bitter as it was twenty years ago. The full-blooded Indians are mostly adherents of Ross, and many of them—1,000 to 1,500 it is alleged—are on the side of the North. I think that number is exaggerated. The half-breeds or white Indians (as they call themselves) are to a man with us. It has all along been supposed, or at least suspected, that Mr. Ross would side with the North. His declarations are in favor of neutrality. But I am inclined to believe that he is acting upon the policy (surely a wise one) of not permitting his people to commit themselves until he has formal guarantees from an authorized agent of the Confederate States. These I shall give him if he will accept them. General McCulloch will be with me, and I strongly hope that we shall satisfy him, and effect a formal and firm treaty. If so, we shall have nearly the whole nation with us, and those who are not will be unimportant. If he refuses he will learn that his country will be occupied; and I shall then negotiate with the leaders of the half-breeds who are now raising troops, and who will meet me at the Creek Agency on Friday of next week. Several of those living near here I have already seen.

On Wednesday of next week I will meet the chiefs of the Creeks at the North Fork of the Canadian. I will then fix a day for a council of the Creeks, and go on to meet the Choctaws at Fort Washita. When I shall have concluded an arrangement with them I will go to the Chickasaw Country, and thence to the Seminoles.

I hope to meet the heads of the Wichitas, Caddos, Iowas, Toncawes, Delawares, Kickapoos, and Reserve Comanches at Fort Washita. I have requested their agent to induce them to meet me there. The Creek chiefs have a council with the wild Indians, Comanches and others, high up on the North Fork of the Canadian, on the 10th proximo. I shall endeavor, through the Creek chiefs, to have an interview with the heads of the wild tribes at Fort Washita and induce them to come in and settle on the reserve upon the False Washita River near Fort Cobb.

As I shall be absent from this post some six weeks or more, it is not likely that I shall be able to give you frequent advice of my movements. There are no mails in the Indian country and I shall have to employ expresses when I desire to send on letters.

We shall have no difficulty with the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, either in effecting treaties or raising troops. The greatest trouble will be in regard to arms. Not one in ten of either of the tribes has a gun at all, and most of the guns are indifferent double-barreled. I do not know whether the Bureau of Indian Affairs is a part of the Department of State, and of course whether this is properly addressed to you. I do not address the Commissioner because I understand he is on his way hither. The suggestions I wish to make are important and I venture to hope that you will give them their proper direction. I have already spoken of arms for the Indians. Those arms, if possible, should be the plain muzzle-loading rifle, large bore, with molds for conical bullets hollowed at the truncated end, which I suppose to be the minie-ball. Revolvers, I am aware, cannot be had, and an Indian would not pick up a musket if it lay in the road.

Our river is falling and will soon be low, when steam-boats will not be able to get above Little Rock, if even there. To embody the Indians and, collecting them together, keep them long without arms would disgust them, and they would scatter over the country like partridges and never be got together again. The arms should, therefore, be sent here with all speed.

No funds have been remitted to me, nor have I any power to procure or draw for any, for my expenses or for those of the councils I must hold. It has always been customary for the Indians to be fed at such councils, and they will expect it. I have borrowed $300 of Mr. Charles B. Johnson, giving him a draft on the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for incidental expenses, and if I have a council at Fort Washita shall contract with him to feed the Indians. I have seen Elias Rector, late superintendent of Indian affairs at Fort Smith, and William Quesenbury, appointed agent for the Creeks by the Government at Washington, but who did not accept, and Samuel M. Rutherford, agent for the Seminoles, who forwards his resignation immediately; and have written to Matthew Leeper, agent for the Wichitas and other Reserve Indians; and have formally requested each to continue to exercise the powers of his office under the Confederate States. They are all citizens of Arkansas and Texas and have readily consented to do so.

If we have declared a protectorate over these tribes and extended our laws over them we have, I suppose, continued in force there the whole system. Even if we have not we cannot dispense with the superintendent and agents. I shall also see Mr. Crawford, agent for the Cherokees, and request him to continue to act, as I have requested Colonel Cooper to do as agent for the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Unless all this were done there would be both discontent and confusion, and I therefore earnestly request that my action may be immediately confirmed and these officers assured that they shall be continued, and that their compensation shall be the same as under the United States and date from the day of the resignation of each or of his acceptance of office under the Confederate States. And I also strenuously urge that no changes be made in these offices. The incumbents are all good men and true, competent, and honest, and are, or will be, very acceptable to the Indians. To make changes will be to make mischief.

Mr. Charles B. Johnson is feeding the Wichitas and other Reserve Indians under a contract which ends on the 30th of June. I have instructed him to continue feeding them during the present season under the same contract, i.e., on the same terms, which I know to be reasonable.

It is very important that some funds should be at my disposition. The State of Arkansas has furnished me an escort of a company and General McCulloch has procured me transportation. To meet contingent expenses it is necessary that at least $1000 should be placed here subject to my draft; and, as I have several times urged, money should be placed in the proper hands to pay a bounty to each Indian that enlists.

I wish I had more definite instructions and power more distinctly expressed, especially power in so many words to make treaties and give all necessary guarantees. For without giving them nothing can be done, and I am [not] sure that John Ross will be satisfied with my statement or assurance that I have the power, or with anything less than a formal authority from the Congress. He is very shrewd. If I fail with him it will not be my fault.

I have the honor to be, sir, very truly and respectfully, yours,

Albert Pike, Commissioner, &c.

Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 359-361.

[350] Pike to Cooley, February 17, 1866.

[351] Official Records, first ser., vol. liii, supplement, 688.

[352] A military escort had also been furnished by the Arkansas Military Board to General McCulloch [ibid., 687].

[353] Motey, or Moty, Kennard is occasionally spoken of, in the records, as the principal chief of the entire Creek Nation. The tribe was, however, very sharply divided into the Lower and the Upper Creeks. Their differences had been accentuated by the unpleasant and even dishonorable and tragic circumstances of their removal from Georgia and Alabama. The Lower Creeks represented the faction that had stood back of William McIntosh and that had consented to the fraudulent treaty of Indian Springs, the Upper Creeks were the dissenters [Abel, History of Indian Consolidation, chapters vi and vii; Phillips, Georgia and State Rights, 56-57].

[354] Letter from Greenwood to the Delegation, February 4, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, pp. 140-141].

[355] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861. Note that as early as March 18, 1861, Secretary Smith had ordered the suspension of the issuance of all requisitions to ordinary disbursing officers in the seceding states. This order probably affected indirectly even the Indian Territory [Smith to commissioner of Indian affairs, March 18, 1861, Miscellaneous Files, 1858-1863].

[356] Governor Thomas O. Moore of Louisiana to President Davis, May 31, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 588].

[357] See letter of W. S. Robertson to the Secretary of the Interior [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, R1664].

[358] See statement of the “Loyal” Creek Delegation at the Fort Smith Council, September, 1865 [Land Files, Indian Talks, Councils, etc., 1865-1866, Box 4; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, pp. 328-329].

[359] Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la was nevertheless a very prominent man among the Upper Creeks and had been prominent even before the exodus from Georgia and Alabama. At all events he was sufficiently prominent to protest with others against the transportation contracts that had been made by the War Department [Lewis Cass to Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la and other Creek chiefs, dated Tuckabatchytown, Alabama, January 27, 1836]. Again in 1838, Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la headed a party of protest, that time against the selling of certain Creek lands left unsold at the time of emigration [Creek Reservation Papers, 25].

Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la seems to have been one of the assassins of William McIntosh; that is, if the subjoined statement of Acting-superintendent William Armstrong is to be trusted:

Choctaw Agency August 31, 1836

C. A. Harris Esqr, Com^r of Ind Affairs,

Sir: The first party of emigrating Creeks are now on the opposite side of the river Arkansas, on their way up. I shall leave tomorrow so as to meet them at Gibson; while there, I will see the McIntosh party and endeavor to learn the state of feelings amongst the several parties. Many threats have been made; and much dissatisfaction manifested by both Chilly & Rolly McIntosh, the latter has sworn to kill A-po-the-ho-lo who was concerned in taking the life of his Father. Rolly McIntosh and the other Chiefs now over, are opposed to Ne-a-math-la the Chief who is with the party emigrating, upon the ground mainly that they may probably be superseded, or their authority abridged. I will however report to you, fully, after I shall have informed myself, of the state of feeling &c., and will endeavor with Gen^l Arbuckle, to bring about a reconciliation. Respectfully Your Obt Servt

Wm Armstrong Act Supt Westⁿ Ter^y

War Department Files, A37.

Early in the forties, Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la posed as a trader in the Creek country. He was the partner of J. W. Taylor, a white man. The company so composed failed, in 1843, “to give bond and license” and so Agent J. L. Dawson closed its store [Communication of J. L. Dawson, September 5, 1843, War Department Files, I1537].

[360] G. W. Stidham was probably a half-breed. Naturally, being the official interpreter, he signed as the interpreter and not as a member of the tribe.

[361]

We the loyal Creek Indians represented by the Delegation now present, solemnly declare that the Treaty of July 10, 1861 was alone made by the rebel portion of the Creek Indians, and never was executed or assented to by the Union portion of the Nation, and is, not now, and never has been, obligatory upon them and the names to said treaty, of the loyal party, was a forgery—Land Files, Indian Talks, Councils, etc., Box 4, 1865-1866; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865, p. 330.

[362] The document herewith given presents one view of the case:

The undersigned Delegates from the Creek Nation would respectfully ask to make the following statement concerning the alliance between the said Creek Nation and the so-called Confederate States of America. To the end that the Creek Nation may be put upon a proper footing in the estimation of your honorable body and that there may be no misapprehension on the part of the Government you here represent we beg leave to state:

1st. The Alliance entered into by the Creek Nation with the Confederate Government was entered into voluntarily, and without the interference of any person or persons other than members of our tribe. In taking that step the assembled wisdom of the Nation in council, thought they were acting for the best interests of the Nation and of their posterity.

2d. Hopoethle Yoholo the far-famed leader of those members of our tribe who battled against us, was not at the time of the making of the treaty with Albert Pike Commissioner on the part of the Confederate States, a Chief, counsellor or head man in said tribe and had no voice in the council, he was however present at the making of said Treaty and give said Pike to understand that he fully concurred in the result of our deliberations. After the making of the Treaty Hopoethle Yoholo collected together his adherents, and for reasons entirely of a domestic character and in no wise connected with the National question at issue, withdrew from the country and assumed a hostile attitude. With this exception the Creeks were united as one man in action and were ever united as one man in principle on the National question then agitated.

3d. Although the Nation we represent would not attempt at this time to urge anything in palliation of the course of conduct they adopted in this matter, other than to ask your honorable body to esteem the error as one of the “head and not of the heart”—but we beg leave to state that at the time of the forming of the Alliance above refered to circumstances over which we could not possibly exercise control seemed to demand an adoption of the course taken. The protection always borne with the idea of allegiance, was taken from our Nation by the withdrawal of the United States forces from the Indian Territory. This movement left the Nations entirely without the support of the United States government, and had they desired to remain neutral or to take active measures on the side of the United States they could not possibly have done so without having their Country desolated, or by abandoning their homes. Surrounded by States, in a tumult of angry excitement attendant upon a dissolution of their connection with the United States, they were completely in the power of those States, without having United States forces to call to their aid or assistance. An alliance under such circumstances were [was] indispensible to the safety of the country. Viewing the matter in this light the Treaty was made, and once having linked our destiny with those of the Confederacy, we could not in honor betray our trust. In conclusion we beg leave to say that as long as events cannot be controlled by human wisdom and foresight and until an honorable adherence to promises made voluntarily, is dishonorable so long must we deem ourselves in one sense at least—guiltless of any criminality in this matter.—Land Files, Indian Talks, Councils, etc., Box 4, 1865-1866.

[363] They were also worried over rumors of sequestration:

Statements having found their way into some of the public prints, to the effect that supplies purchased for the use of the Choctaws, have been detained by citizens of the Northern States, which statements if uncontradicted may engender hostile feelings between those Indians and the Government, I have thought proper to forward to you the enclosed copies of official correspondence in relation to this subject, that you may be able authoritatively to contradict such statements and satisfy the Choctaws that the Government intends faithfully to preserve and perpetuate the amicable relations subsisting between itself and those people.—Dole to Rector and same to Coffin, May 16, 1861 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 65, p. 458].

[364] Particularly by means of the resolutions of the National Council, June 10, 1861.

[365] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 593.

[366] For evidence of this and for the fullest extant account of the progress of secession among the Choctaws, see letter of S. Orlando Lee to Dole, March 15, 1862.

[367] The following is found in the Fort Smith Papers:

Tishomingo, C. N. Nov. 26, 1861.

Gen. A. G. Mayers

Sir: Having been appointed as a Delegate from this Nation (the Chickasaw) to the Southern Congress, am at a loss (to know) when the Congress does meet. I have all along understood from newspaper accounts that it was to be on the 22d of February, but some seems to think it is sooner. Will you please inform me at your earliest convenience at what time the S. Congress does meet. Your attention to the above is respectfully requested. I am yours very Respectfully

James Gamble.

P.S. Please continue to send me the Parallel, I will make it all right with you when on my way to Va.

J. G.

[368] In the list of members of the Confederate congresses, given in Official Records, fourth ser., vol. iii, 1184-1191, no Indian delegate is specified until 1863.

[369] Cooper to President Davis, July 25, 1861 [ibid., first ser., vol. iii, 614].

[370] E. H. Carruth, in a letter to General Hunter of November 26, 1861 [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 47], would have us understand that the Seminoles as a tribe did not negotiate with Pike, but that the whole affair was as between Pike and Jumper, Jumper being assisted by four chosen friends. The five were probably bribed. That Pike was not averse to the use of money for such ends, his letter to Walker of June twelfth would lead us to suspect [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 590]. We have, however, no definite proof of the same. John Jumper was early rewarded by the Confederate government. By act of the Provisional Congress, January 16, 1861 [Statutes at Large, p. 284], he was made an honorary lieutenant-colonel of the army of the Confederate States. Carruth further says that the family influence of Jumper “enabled him to raise forty-six men, not all Seminoles, and Ben McCulloch authorized him to call to his aid six hundred rangers from Fort Cobb, that he might crush out the Union feeling in his tribe.”

[371] It is just possible that Rector had been with him all the time. At all events Rector subsequently entered an expense account against the C. S. A. for services from July tenth to August twenty-fourth inclusive. See Appendix A, Fort Smith Papers.

[372] See letter of Agent Snow, dated March 10, 1864, and its enclosures, one of which is a speech of Long John, who became principal chief when the aged Billy Bowlegs died, and another, a speech of Pas-co-fa, who, provided his signature to the treaty be genuine, eventually must have repented of his Confederate alliance. He was soon, with Bowlegs and Chup-co, in the ranks of Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la [General Files, Seminole, 1858-1867, S291].

[373] The report of the United States commissioner of Indian affairs for 1863 estimates the loyal Seminoles at about two-thirds of the tribe [House Executive Documents, 38th congress, first session, vol. iii, 143], that of the Confederate States commissioner of Indian affairs as fully one-half [S. S. Scott to Secretary Seddon, January 12, 1863, Official Records, fourth ser., vol. ii, 353].

[374] While at the Creek Agency, Pike had communicated, so it seems, with John Jumper and had asked him to meet him there with six others competent and authorized to make a treaty. Up to the time of hearing from Pike, John Jumper seems to have been inclined to adhere faithfully to the United States government. The excellent report of E. H. Carruth, July 11, 1861 gives full particulars of this whole affair.

[375] See supplementary Article [Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 525].

[376] See communications from Bowlegs [So-nuk-mek-ko] to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, March 2, 1863 and May 13, 1863 [General Files, Seminole, 1858-1869, B131, B317]. See also Dole to Coffin, March 24, 1863 [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 70, pp. 208-209].

[377] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1869 [House Executive Documents, 41st congress, second session, vol. iii, part 3, p. 521].

[378] See letter of E. H. Carruth.

[379] William P. Davis of Indiana had been given the United States Seminole Agency but he never reached his post [Dole to John D. Davis, April 5, 1862, Indian Office Letter Book, no. 68, p. 39]. Consequently, the Confederate States agent, Rutherford, had sole influence there. Not until George C. Snow of Indiana became United States Seminole agent, did the non-secessionist Indians get the encouragement and support they ought to have had all along.

[380] See Appendix B—Leeper Papers.

[381] The Leeper Papers, printed in the Appendix, furnish convincing proof of this. Note also that July 4, 1861, Rector wrote to Leeper from Fort Smith as follows:

In the 3rd section of the law of the Confederate Congress, regulating the Indian service connected with said government, and making provision for the continuance in office of the Superintendent and Agents heretofore connected with the original U. S. government, you will be continued upon the same terms and at the same salary, as heretofore received from the federal government, and before entering upon your duties as such it will be your duty to take an oath before a proper officer of a State of the Confederate States, to support the Constitution of and accept a Commission from the Confederate States of America....—Leeper Papers.

[382] Pike to Walker, dated Seminole Agency, July 31, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 624]. Writing to Benjamin, December 25, 1861 [ibid., vol. viii, 720], Pike said he had “64 men.”

[383] These two treaties are interesting in various particulars. They contained fewer concessions, fewer departures from established practice than any others of the nine. They were made primarily for the maintenance of peace on the Texan frontier. That fact is only too evident from their contents and from the circumstances of their negotiation. One of the chief reasons, cited by Texas, for her withdrawal from the Union was the failure of the United States to protect her from Indian ravages. It seems never to have occurred to her to mention the fact that her citizens, by their aggressions, had constantly provoked the ravages, if such we can call them. The northern counties of Texas were not “Southern” in climate or industries, so it was especially necessary to enlist their sympathy in the Confederate cause by keeping the Indians of the plains quiet and peaceful.

The Comanche treaties were also interesting in the matter of their signatures and of their schedules. The signatures included that of Rector, of the Creek chiefs, Motey Kennard and Chilly McIntosh, and of the Seminole chief, John Jumper. The schedules promised such things as the following to the Indians but in amounts that were beautifully indefinite:

Blue drilling, warm coats, calico, plaid check, regatta cotton shirts, socks, hats, woolen shirts, red, white and blue blankets, red and blue list cloth, shawls and handkerchiefs, brown domestic, thread, yarn and twine, shoes, for men and women, white drilling, ribbons, assorted colors, beads, combs, camp kettles, tin cups and buckets, pans, coffee pots and dippers, needles, scissors and shears, butcher knives, large iron spoons, knives and forks, nails, hatchets and hammers, augers, drawing knives, gimlets, chopping axes, fish-hooks, ammunition, including powder, lead, flints and percussion caps, tobacco.

Two of a kind would have satisfied most of the requirements of these schedules. The list of things is interesting from the standpoint of domesticity and general utility and also from the standpoint of the things that the same Indians had previously seemed to need in such immense quantities. For illustration it would be well to note that when Agent Leeper handed in his last accounts to the United States government, he claimed to have issued during the second quarter of 1861 to the Indians at the Wichita Agency, 550 pounds of coffee, 550 pounds of sugar, 650 pounds of soap, 600 pounds of tobacco, etc.

In conclusion, with respect to these Comanche treaties, we may say that, since the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty had put the Leased District under the jurisdiction of the C. S. A., there was very little for the reservees themselves to do, except take the protection and other things offered by the Confederacy (the Comanches of the Prairie and Staked Plain had promised to become reservees on the Leased District) and be content. Pike did not bother about promising to make them citizens eventually or about making them admit the legality of the institution of slavery. Their political status had never been high and it was no higher under the Confederacy than it had been under the Union.

[384] The Tonkawas seem to have been the ones who were the most completely persuaded of all to adhere to the South and they continued unwaveringly loyal thereafter to its failing fortunes [S. S. Scott to Governor Winchester Colbert, dated Fort Arbuckle, November 10, 1862; Colbert to Scott, same date; Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. vi, 6; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1863, House Executive Documents, 38th congress, first session, vol. iii, 143; Indian Office, Report Book, no. 19, pp. 186-188]. Apparently the Confederacy was rather careful in carrying out its obligations to the Tonkawas. Among the Leeper Papers are various documents proving this, such as an unsigned receipt for money received from Pike, July 19, 1862, to carry out the terms of Articles XVI and XVII of the treaty of August 12, 1861; and a copy of a letter, from Leeper probably, to J. J. Sturm, commissary, dated November 30, 1861, complaining that Sturm had not followed “instructions in making issues to Tonkahua Indians.”

[385] Journal, vol. i, 565.

[386] Message of Dec. 12, 1861 [Richardson, op. cit., vol. i, 149-151; Official Register, fourth ser., vol. i, 785-786].

[387] This report I have been unable to find.

[388]

The pecuniary obligations of these treaties are of great importance. Apart from the annuities secured to them by former treaties, and which we are to assume by those now submitted, these tribes have large permanent funds in the hands of the Government of the United States as their trustee. These funds may be divided into three classes: First. Money which the Government of the United States stipulated to invest in its own stocks or stocks of the States, and which has been partly invested in its own stocks and partly uninvested, remains in its Treasury, but upon which it is bound to pay interest. Second. Funds invested in the stocks of States not members of this Confederacy. Third. Money invested in stocks of States now members of this Confederacy.... By the treaties now submitted to you the first and second class are absolutely assumed by this Government; but this Government only undertakes as trustee to collect the third class from the States which owe the money and pay over the amounts to the Indians when collected. It is fortunate for the Indians and ourselves that the amounts embraced in classes one and two are relatively small, and the obligations incurred by their assumption cannot be onerous, as the amount due by States of the Confederacy on account of investments in the funds of Northern Indians considerably exceeds the amount to be assumed under this provision of the treaties. We thereby have the means to compel the Government of the United States to do justice to the Indians within the jurisdiction of the Confederate States, or to indemnify ourselves for its breach of faith.

... I also submit to you the report of Albert Pike, the commissioner, which contains a history of his negotiations and submits his reasons for a departure from his instructions in relation to the pecuniary obligations to be incurred. [The reference here is to a letter from Pike to Toombs, May 20, 1861, Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 581.] In view of the circumstances by which we are surrounded, the great importance of preserving peace with the Indians on the frontier of Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, and not least, because of the spirit these tribes have manifested in making common cause with us in the war now existing, I recommend the assumption of the stipulated pecuniary obligations, and, with the modifications herein suggested, that the treaties submitted be ratified.—Official Records, fourth ser., vol. i, 786.

[389] Official Record, fourth ser., vol. i, 785-786.

[390] Journal, vol. i, 564, 565.

[391] —Ibid., 590-596.

[392] —Ibid., 590-591.

[393] Statutes at Large, 330.

[394] Journal, vol. i, 591-592.

[395] Statutes at Large, 331.

[396] Journal, vol. i, 597.

[397] —Ibid., 593.

[398] Statutes at Large, 367.

[399] Journal, 601.

[400] —Ibid., 598.

[401] Statutes at Large, 331.

[402] Statutes at Large, 331.

[403] Journal, vol. i, 610.

[404] —Ibid.

[405] —Ibid., 632-633.

[406] —Ibid., 634.

[407] —Ibid., 635.

[408] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 574.

[409] Chief Justice M. H. McWillie of La Mesilla, Arizona, was among the number. See his letter to President Davis, June 30, 1861, quoted in Official Records, vol. iv, 96.

[410] Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 578-579.

[411] —Ibid., vol. i, 618.

[412] Letter to Johnson, May 11, 1861, ibid., vol. iii, 572.

[413] Letter to Toombs, May 20, 1861, ibid., 581.

[414] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 14.

[415] Act of March 2, 1861, U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. xii, 239.

[416] On the twenty-second of May, Whitney reported, generally, on the condition of several tribes:

Owing to the extremely dangerous state of political affairs in Missouri especially along the line of the H. & St. Jo. RR., I have refrained from writing to you.... Although the Delawares were not especially refered to in my instructions yet I visited the Mission & Agent as it was quite convenient ... and ascertained to my complete satisfaction ... that they were a wealthy tribe and that although many of their individual members were necessitous yet they were not of the destitute kind contemplated by your department: 2d. that the new agent who had heard of this movement towards relief was very anxious to make it appear that his tribe was very needy & to have large amounts of relief furnished at his residence on the Missouri River away from the agency & also from a central point....

I next visited the Osage River Agency and ascertained that all of the tribes belonging to that Agency were in rather a destitute condition, they having used and still (are) using their school fund in buying provisions: the Miamis of that agency I found to be the most needy & it might be said that they were suffering to some extent....

... In reference to the Neosho Agency, as that was such a long distance I engaged three trains of wagons before leaving Leavenworth....

Whitney speaks harshly of the Osages as lazy vagabonds and continues,

... The general famine throughout Kansas had but little to do with their sufferings as they cultivate nothing of consequence ... and therefore ... they are not morally & strictly proper objects of government charity....

... Systematic and well planned solicitations had been and are being made by Missourians to them to take up arms against the borderers to which the people throughout this entire section feared they might be induced on account of the neglect of Government [and because the whites steal their ponies]—Land Files, Central Superintendency, 1852-1869, W223.

Note that Whitney thought the reports of border ruffian inducements, though true in a measure, had been exaggerated. On the eighth of June, he reported again,

When I got within reach of the H. & St. J. R. R. it became apparent that my produce would be at best somewhat exposed to seizure by the secessionists and that such hazard would be very greatly enhanced if it was known to be government property and especially if it should be known to be going to the Indians whom the Missourians were even then as was reported upon authority endeavoring to excite against the borderers....—Land Files, Central Superintendency, 1852-1869, W223.

Slaughter had less to report; but even he, on the twenty-first of June, said, while insisting that the reports had been exaggerated,

I have no doubt overtures have been held out to them [the more northern tribes], but whether from authorized parties from [the] South no one can tell. It is all matter of conjecture. A general council of the tribes it is understood has been solicited by some of the Southern Indians, but I doubt whether it will be held.—General Files, Central Superintendency, 1860-1862, S404.

Slaughter further surmised, from personal observations, that the northern tribes would remain loyal to the United States. See his letter to Dole, June 15, 1861. Other people were of the same opinion, although, in early 1861, the various tribes had much to complain of, much to make them discontented and therefore very susceptible to bad influences. Some of the Miamis were preferring charges against Agent Clover for misapplication of funds and other things [Louis Lefontaine, etc. to Greenwood, January 13, 1861, Land Files, Osage River, 1860-1866]; the Kaws were suffering and R. S. Stevens slowly working out the details of his preposterous graft in the construction of houses for them [M. C. Dickey to Greenwood, February 26, 1861, General Files, Kansas, 1855-1862, D250, and same to same, March 1, 1861, ibid., D251]; the Shawnees were having the usual troubles over their tribal elections, Joseph White having recently been elected second chief in place of Eli Blackhoof [Robinson to Greenwood, February 19, 1861, Land Files, Shawnee, 1860-1865]; and then, even farther north, from among the Otoes, came additional complaints; for Agent Dennison, who by the way, became a secessionist and a defaulter [Dole to Thaddeus Stevens, May 26, 1862, Indian Office, Report Book, no. 12, pp. 388-386], was withholding annuities and an uprising was threatening in consequence [General Files, Otoe, 1856-1862].