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 Osage Treaty, 636-646
Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, 445-466 Seneca and Shawnee Treaty,
Seminole Treaty, 513-527 647-658
Wichita Treaty, 542-548 Quapaw Treaty, 659-666
Comanche Treaty, 548-554 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].