William Walker, head chief of, 22, _footnote_;
initiate movement for organization of Nebraska Territory, 34;
interested in Kansas election troubles, 34, _footnote_;
Methodism, 38
Yancton Sioux: Agent Burleigh suggests that garrison Fort Randall, 227,
_footnote_
Young, William C: 100
Yulee, David L: 238, _footnote_
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Confessedly much to its discredit, the United States government has
never had, for any appreciable length of time, a well-developed and
well-defined Indian policy, one that has made the welfare of the
aborigines its sole concern. Legislation for the subject race has almost
invariably been dictated by the needs of the hour, by the selfish and
exorbitant demands of pioneers, and by the greed and caprice of
politicians.
[2] There were, of course, other indigenous tribes to the westward, in the
direction of Colorado and Texas, and to the northward, in southern
Nebraska; but only the latter were more than remotely affected, as far as
local habitation was concerned, by the coming of the eastern emigrants and
the consequent introduction of the reservation system.
[3] Kansas Historical Society _Collections_, vol. viii, 72-109.
[4] In scarcely a single case here cited was the old home of the tribe
limited by the boundaries of a single state nor is it to be understood
that the state here mentioned was necessarily the original habitat of the
tribe. It was only the territorial headquarters of the tribe at the time
of removal or at the time when the policy of removal was first insisted
upon as a _sine qua non_. Some of the Indians emigrated independently of
treaty arrangements with the United States government and some did not
immediately direct their steps towards Kansas or Oklahoma; but made,
through choice or through necessity, an intervening point a
stopping-place. The Kickapoos, the Shawnees, and the Delawares tarried in
Missouri, the Choctaws and the Cherokees, many of them, in Arkansas but
that was before 1830, the date of the removal law. After 1830, there was
no possible resting-place for weary Indians this side of the Ozark
Mountains.
[5] Some of the more insignificant southern Indians eventually found their
way also to Oklahoma. In 1860 there were a few Louisiana Caddoes in the
northwestern part of the Chickasaw country, most likely the same that, in
1866, were reported to have been driven out of Texas in 1839 by
bushwhackers and then out of the Washita country at the opening of the
Civil War. They continued throughout the war loyal to the United States.
In 1853 the Choctaw General Council passed an act admitting to the rights
of citizenship several Catawba Indians; and from that circumstance, the
Office of Indian Affairs surmised that the Choctaws would be willing to
incorporate Catawbas yet in the Carolinas. In 1857 there were about
seventy Catawbas in South Carolina on a tiny reservation. They expressed
an ardent wish to go among the Choctaws. In 1860 the Catawbas were in
possession of the northeastern part of the Choctaw country.
[6] For the detailed history of events leading up to Indian removals,
particularly the southern, see American Historical Association, _Report_,
1906, 241-450.
[7] Not all of the southern Indians had emigrated in the thirties and
forties. A considerable number of Cherokees removed themselves from the
country east of the Mississippi to Texas. This was immediately subsequent
to and induced by the American Revolution [Texas Historical Association,
_Quarterly_, July, 1897, 38-46 and October, 1903, 95-165]. Many Cherokees,
likewise, took the suggestion of President Jefferson and moved to the
Arkansas country prior to 1820. Moreover, there were "Eastern Cherokees"
in controversy with the "Western Cherokees" for many years after the Civil
War. Their endless quarrels over property proved the occasion of much
litigation. In the late fifties active measures were taken by the Office
of Indian Affairs to complete the removal of the Seminoles and to
accomplish by intrigue and diplomacy what the long and expensive Second
Seminole War had utterly failed to do. Elias Rector of Arkansas
superintended the matter and the Seminole chief, John Jumper, gave
valuable assistance, as did also the Creeks, who generously granted to the
Seminoles a home within the Creek country west [Creek Treaty, 1856,
Kappler's _Indian Laws and Treaties_, vol. ii, 757]. Billy Bowlegs was the
last Seminole chief of prominence to leave Florida [Coe's _Red Patriots_,
198]. In 1853 there were still some four hundred Choctaws reported as
living in Alabama and there must have been even more than that in
Mississippi. In 1854 steps were taken, but unsuccessfully, for their
removal. In 1859 Representative John J. McRae presented a petition from
citizens of various Mississippi counties asking that the Choctaws be
removed altogether from the state because of their intimacy and
intercourse with the negroes. The Office of Indian Affairs refused to act.
Perchance, it considered the moment inopportune or the means at hand
insufficient. It may even have considered the charge against the Choctaws
a mere pretext and quite unfounded since it was commonly reported that the
Choctaws had a decided aversion to that particular kind of race mixture.
In that respect they differed very considerably from the Creeks who to-day
are said to present a very curious spectacle of an almost complete
mixture. Choctaws from Mississippi and Cherokees from North Carolina and
Catawbas from South Carolina fought with the South in the Civil War.
[8] Other Indians made trouble during the progress of the Civil War, as,
for instance, the Sioux in the summer of 1862. The Sioux, however, were
not fighting for or against the issues of the white man's war. They were
simply taking advantage of a favorable occasion, when the United States
government was preoccupied, to avenge their own wrongs.
[9] The existence of the "Cherokee Neutral Land" out of which the
southeastern counties of Kansas were illegitimately formed was not exactly
an exception to this. The Neutral Land, eight hundred thousand acres in
extent, was an independent purchase, made by the Cherokees, and was not
included in the exchange or in the original scheme that forced their
removal from Georgia. It was a subsequent concession to outraged justice.
[10] By far the best instance of missionary activity in behalf of slavery
among the northern Indian immigrants is to be found in the case of the
Reverend Thomas Johnson's work at the Shawnee Mission [Ray's _Repeal of
the Missouri Compromise_, footnote 207]. Johnson, like William Walker,
head chief of the Wyandots, was an ardent pro-slavery advocate [_ibid._,
footnote 205] and took a rather disgracefully prominent part in the
notorious election frauds of early Kansas territorial days [House
_Report_, 34th congress, first session, no. 200, pp. 14, 18, 94, 425].
[11] Buchanan's _Works_, vol. iii, 348, 350, 353.
[12] Siebert's _Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom_, 284.
[13] The most interesting case that came up in this connection was that of
the so-called Beams' Negroes, resident in the Choctaw country and
illegally claimed as refugees by John B. Davis of Mississippi [Indian
Office, _Special Files_, no. 277]. The Reverend S. A. Worcester interested
himself in their behalf [Jefferson Davis to Worcester, October 7, 1854]
and a decision was finally rendered in their favor. Another interesting
case of similar nature was, "In re negroes taken from Overton Love and
David Wall of the Chickasaw Nation by Citizens of Texas, 1848-'57"
[_ibid._, no. 278].
[14] Under the Intercourse Law of 1834, the Indian Territory had been
annexed for judicial purposes to the western district of Arkansas. The
Indians were much dissatisfied. They felt themselves entitled to a federal
court of their own, a privilege the United States government persistently
denied to them but one that the Confederate government readily granted. As
matters stood, prior to the Civil War, the red men seemed always at the
mercy of the white man's distorted conception of justice and were,
perforce, quite beyond the reach of the boasted guaranties of theoretical
Anglo-Saxon justice since the very location of the court precluded a trial
by their peers of the vicinage. The journey to Arkansas, in those early
days, was long and tiresome and expensive. Complications frequently arose
and matters, difficult of adjustment, even under the best of circumstance.
Among the Creeks and Seminoles, the status of the free negro was
exceptionally high, partly due, with respect to the latter, to conditions
growing out of the Second Seminole War. As already intimated, the Creeks
had no aversion whatsoever to race mixtures and intermarriage between
negroes and Indians was rather common. The half-breeds resulting from such
unions were accepted as bona fide members of the tribe by the Indians in
the distribution of annuities, but not by the United States
courts--another source of difficulty and a very instructive one as well,
particularly from the standpoint of reconstructionist exactions.
Occasionally the presence of the free negro within the Indian country was
a source of grave danger. The accompanying letters outline a case in
point:
HEAD QUARTERS 7TH. MIL: DEPT. FORT SMITH, March 5th. 1852.
SIR: By direction of the Colonel commanding the Department I transmit
herewith copies of a communication from George Folsom, Chief of the
Pushmataha District, to Colonel Wilson Choctaw Agent and one from
Colonel William Wilson Choctaw Agent to Brevet Major Holmes commanding
Fort Washita asking aid from the Military force.
As the letter from the Choctaw Agent is not sufficiently explicit as
to what he wishes done by the Military authority the subject is
referred to you, and if on investigation it be found that Military
interference is necessary to enforce the intercourse law, prompt
assistance will be rendered for the purposes therein specified, under
the direction and in presence of the Choctaw Agent. Respectfully Yr
Obt. Servt.,
FRANCIS N PAGE, Asst. Adjt. Genl.
Colonel John Drennen, Superintendent W. T.
_Inclosure_
CHOCTAW AGENCY, February 9th 1852
SIR: The enclosed copy of a letter from Colonel George Folsom Chief of
Pushmataha District of the Choctaw Nation will put you in possession
of the facts and reasons why I address you at this time.
As the position of the free Negros and Indians alluded to in the
Chief's letter seems to be of rather a hostile character, having built
themselves a Fort doubtless for the purpose of defending themselves if
interupted in their present location, it seems to me necessary that
they should be driven away if necessary by Military authority; and, as
your post is the most convenient to the place where the Negroes and
Indians are Forted I have thought that a command could be sent with
less trouble and at less expense to the government by you than any one
else. I would therefore most respectfully call upon you to take such
steps as you may think most advisable to remove from the Choctaw
country the persons complained of by the Chief, and if necessary call
upon Chief Folsom to aid you with his light horse, who may be of much
service to you in the way of Guides. Very Respectfully Yr. Obt Servt.
(Signed) WILLIAM WILSON, Choctaw Agent
[Endorsement] A true Copy, Francis N Page, Asst. Adjt. Genl.
_Inclosure_
PUSHMATAHA DISTRICT, January 23. 1852.
DEAR SIR: I spoke to you about those free negroes upon the head waters
of Boggy, when I last saw you, requesting to have something done with
them. I have just learned that the negroes and some Indians are banded
together and have built themselves a little Fort. There is no doubt
but that they will be a great trouble to us. One of our country judges
sent for the light-horse-men to go and seize the negroes, but I have
forbid them going, and many of our people wish to go and see them. I
have forbid any body to go there with intentions to take them. It will
no doubt be hard to break them up. You have probably just returned
home, and it may seem tresspassing upon you to write you about those
negroes and Indians, but you are our agent and we have the right to
look to you for help. It seems to me this affair wants an immediate
action on it.
I have simply stated to you how these negroes and Indians are Forted
up that you may better know how to deal with them. In purforming your
duties if I can in any way render you any assistance I shall always be
happy to do so. Very respectfully Your friend
(Signed) GEORGE FOLSOM, Chief Push: Dist:
Col: William Wilson, Choctaw Agent [Endorsement] a true Copy, Francis
N Page, Asst. Adjt. Genl.
[15] Buchanan's _Works_, vol. x, "the Catron letter," 106; "the Grier
letter," 106-107.
[16] This was as it appeared to N. G. Taylor, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, as he looked back, in 1867, upon events of the past few years. He
was then of the opinion that the very existence of slavery among the
southern tribes had most probably saved their country from being coveted
by emigrants going westward.
[17] One agency under the Southern Superintendency, the Neosho River
Agency, was, however, included in the scheme preliminary to the
organization of Kansas and Nebraska. See the following letters found in
Thomas S. Drew's _Letter Press Book_:
(a) OFFICE SUPT. IND. AFFAIRS FORT SMITH, ARKS., Dec. 21, 1853.
SIR: Inclosed herewith you will receive letters from Agent Dorn, dated
the 1st and 2nd instant; the former in relation to the disposition of
the Indians within his agency to meet Commissioners on the subject of
selling their lands, or having a Territorial form of Government extend
over them by the United States: and the latter nominating John Finch
as Blacksmith to the Great and Little Osages. Very respectfully Your
obt. servt.
A. H. RUTHERFORD, Clerk for Supt.
Hon. Geo. W. Manypenny, Com{r} Ind. Affairs
Washington City.
(b) OFFICE SUPT. INDIAN AFFAIRS FORT SMITH, ARKS. Dec. 29, 1853.
SIR: ... I have also to acknowledge the receipt of letters from you of
the 2nd instant to the Commissioner of Ind. Affrs. upon the subject of
the Indians within your Agency being willing to meet Commissioners on
the part of the U. S. preparatory to selling their lands, or to take
into consideration the propriety of admitting a Territorial form of
Government extended over them &. ...
A. H. RUTHERFORD, Clerk for Supt.
A. J. Dorn, U. S. Indian Agt., Crawford Seminary.
[18] In this connection, the following are of interest:
(a) The Choctaws, it is understood, are prepared to receive and assent
to the provisions of a bill introduced three years since into the
Senate by Senator Johnson of Arkansas, for the creation of the
Territories of Chah-la-kee, Chah-ta, and Muscokee, and it is greatly
to be hoped that that or some similar bill may be speedily enacted....
Their country, a far finer one than Kansas.... The Choctaws have
adopted a new constitution, vesting the supreme executive power in a
governor.... It is understood that this change has been made
preparatory to the acceptance of the bill already mentioned.
The foregoing is taken from the _Annual Report_ of the southern
superintendent for 1857 and in that report, Elias Rector who was then the
superintendent, having taken office that very year, argued that all the
five great tribes ought to be allowed to have delegates on the floor of
Congress and to be made citizens of the United States; for the
constitutions of the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws would compare
favorably, said he, with those of any of the southwestern states [Senate
_Documents_, 35th congress, first session, vol. ii, 485].
(b) The Fort Smith _Times_ of February 3, 1859 printed the following:
SAM HOUSTON AND THE PRESIDENCY
The following we take from a printed slip sent to us by our Doaksville
correspondent, who informs us that it was sent to that office just as
he sends it. We presume that it is the programme laid down by some of
the Texas papers, friendly to the election of Sam Houston to the
Presidency....
_Re-organization of the Territories_
1. The organization of the Aboriginal Territory of Decotah, from that
part of the late Territory of Minnesota, lying west of the State of
Minnesota.
2. To fix the western boundaries of Kansas and Nebraska, at the
Meridian 99 or 100; and to establish in those Territories, Aboriginal
counties, for the exclusive and permanent occupation of the Aboriginal
tribes now located east of that line and within those Territories;
also to provide, that said Territories shall not be admitted into the
Union as States unless their several Constitutions provide for the
continuation of the Federal regulations adopted for better government
and welfare of the Aboriginal tribes inhabiting the same.
3. To organize the Indian territory lying west of Arkansas, as "the
Aboriginal Territory of Neosho," under regulation similar to those
proposed by Hon. Robert W. Johnson of Arkansas in 1854 for the
organization of the Indian territory of Neosho.
4. To purchase from the State of Texas all that portion of the State
lying north of the Red river and include the same in the Aboriginal
territory of Comanche or Ouachita.
5. The territory of New Mexico.
6. From the western portion of New Mexico to take the Aboriginal
territory of Navajoe.
7. From the western portion of Utah, to take the Aboriginal territory
of Shoshone.
Re-organize the eastern part of Utah, (the Mormon country), as an
Aboriginal territory.
Organize the western territory of Osage.
From Nebraska, west of the M.100, and south of the 45th parallel take
the Aboriginal territory of Mandan.
Organize the eastern half of Oregon, as the Aboriginal territory of
Umatilla.
Washington east of the M.118 to be the Aboriginal territory of
Okanagan.
Nebraska, north of the 45th parallel to be the Aboriginal territory of
Assinneboin. Emigration into these territories to be prohibited by law
of Congress, until the same shall have been admitted into the Union as
States.
In each territory, a resident Military Police to preserve order....
(c) Henry Wilson, in the _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, vol. ii,
634-635 says,
In the Indian Territory there were four tribes of Indians--Cherokees,
Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks. Under the fostering care of their
governments slavery had become so firmly established that slaveholders
thought them worthy of political fellowship, and articles in favor of
their admission began to appear in the southern press. "The progress
of civilization," said the New Orleans "Picayune," "in several of the
Indian tribes west of the States will soon bring up a new question for
the decision of Congress.... It cannot fail to give interest to this
question that each of the Indian tribes has adopted the social
institutions of the South." To concentrate and give direction to such
efforts, a secret organization was formed to encourage Southern
emigration, and to discourage and prevent the entrance into the
Territory of all who were hostile to slaveholding institutions. It was
hoped thus to guard against adverse fortune which had defeated their
purposes and plans for Kansas....
[19] With reference to the proposed organization the subjoined documents
are of interest:
C. STREET, July 2.
MR. MIX,
Dear Sir, Please have the western boundary of Mis. laid down on this
map, and the _outline_ of the Pawnee, Kanzas & Osage purchases, and
the reservations, as they now stand within that _outline_. You need
not show each purchase, but the _outline_ of the whole. Yours truly
THOMAS H. BENTON.
Letter of July 2, 1853, Indian Office _Miscellaneous Files, 1851-1854_.
WASHINGTON CITY, August 5th, 1854.
Hon. G. W. MANYPENNY Esq., Com Indian Department, Washington City.
Dear Sir, Many people of Ohio, as well as of the states west of it,
have for a long time been most anxious to learn through your
Department, the nature of the several treaties made by yourself in
behalf of the Government, with the several tribes of Indians occupying
the Territories of Nebraska & Kansas: particularly as to the
_reservation_ of _land_ made by such Tribes, _its extent_, _where_,
_when_, & how to be _located_, & _within what time_,--and also what
lands in both of said Territories by virtue of said treaties _are now
subject to location_?
I regret to inform you that much censure has attached to your
Department, in consequence of the delay which has attended the
promulgation of the above information, but which from my long
knowledge of you personally, and of the very prompt manner in which
you have invariably discharged your public duties, I believe to be
most unjust.
I seek the above information, not only for myself (contemplating a
removal to Kansas) but also in behalf of many persons in the western
states, who have solicited my intervention in that matter on my visit
to this City. Very respectfully your friend
S. W. WHITE
Indian Office _Miscellaneous Files, 1851-1854_.
C. STREET, Aug. 19, '53.
To GEO. W. MANYPENNY ESQ., Com. of Indian Affairs,
Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of
yesterday with the accompanying copy of a letter to the Hon. Mr.
Atchison, and make my thanks to you for this mark of your attention.
The reply will be immediately forwarded to Meas Ami, to be published
in the same paper in which your note to me covering the map on which
the Indian's cessions & reserves west of Missouri, was published. Very
respectfully, Sir, Yr. obt. servant,
THOMAS H. BENTON.
Indian Office _Miscellaneous Files, 1851-1854._
[20] Ray, _op. cit._, 86; Connelley, in Kansas Historical Society,
_Collections_, vol. vi, 102; Connelley, _Provincial Government of Nebraska
Territory_, pp. 24, 30 _et seq._
The Wyandots took an active part in the Kansas election troubles. For some
evidence of that, see, House _Reports_, 34th congress, first session, no.
200, pp. 22, 266.
[21] By the treaty of 1837 [Kappler, _op. cit._, vol. ii, 486], the
Choctaws, for a money consideration as was natural, agreed to let the
Chickasaws occupy their country jointly with themselves and form a
Chickasaw District within it that should be on a par with the other
districts (Moo-sho-le-tubbee, Apucks-hu-nubbe, and Push-ma-ta-ha), or
political units, of the Choctaw Nation. The arrangement meant political
consolidation, one General Council serving for the two tribes, but each
tribe retaining control of its own annuities. The boundaries of the
Chickasaw District proved the subject of a contention, constant and
bitter. Civil war was almost precipitated more than once. Finally, in
1855, the political connection was brought to an end by the terms of the
Treaty of Washington [Kappler, _op. cit._, vol. ii, 706], negotiated in
that year.
[22] See Report of C. C. Copeland to Cooper, August 27, 1855.
[23] A secret society is said to have been formed in Missouri for the
express purpose of gaining the Shawnee land for slavery.
[24] Dean wrote to Butler, November 29, 1855 [_Letter Press Book_] saying
that the disturbed state of things in Kansas was having a very serious
effect upon the Cherokee Neutral Land. Early in 1857, Butler reported that
he had given notice that if intruders had not removed themselves by spring
he would have them removed by the military [Butler to Dean, January 9,
1857]. Manypenny approved Butler's course of action which is quite
significant, considering that the federal administration was supposed to
be unreservedly committed to the pro-slavery cause and the intruders were
pro-slavery men from across the border.
[25] Andrew Dorn took charge of the Neosho Agency, to which these
reservations as well as the Quapaw, Seneca, and Seneca and Shawnee
belonged, in 1855 and regularly had occasion to complain of intruders.
White people seem to have felt that they could with impunity encroach upon
the New York Indian lands because they were only sparsely settled and
because the Indian title was in dispute.