USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. I > Part 29
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Another consideration is your debts, annuities, &c., school funds due you. Nearly all are in bonds of Southern States and held by the Government at Washington, and these debts are nearly all for- feited already by the act of war made upon the States by that Government. These we will secure you beyond question if you join us. If you join the North they are forever forfeited, and you Vol. 1-18
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been unalterably opposed to the westward migration, twenty-five years before. It is not improbable that this hesitancy due rather
have no right to believe that the Northern people would vote to pay you this forfeited debt. Admit that there may be some danger take which side you may, I think the danger tenfold greater to the Cherokee people if they take sides against us than for us. Neutral- ity will scarcely be possible. As long as your people retain their national character your country cannot be abolitionized, and it is to your interest therefore that you should hold your possessions in perpetuity.
I have the honor to be, respectfully &c., your obedient servant, DAVID HUBBARD, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Executive Department, Cherokee Nation, Park Hill, June 17, 1861.
HON. DAVID HUBBARD,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Confederate States,
Fort Smith, Ark.
SIR: Your communication dated at Fort Smith, 12th instant, has been received. The questions presented by you are of grave importance and I have given them the best consideration I am capable. As the result of my deliberations, allow me to say, with the highest respect for the Government you represent, that I feel constrained to adhere to the line of policy which I have heretofore pursued, and take no part in the unfortunate war between the United and Confederate States of America.
When you were one, happy, prosperous and friendly, as the United States, our treaties were made from time to time with your Government. Those treaties are contemporaneous with that Govern- ment, extending from the Confederacy of the United States previ- ous to the adoption of the Constitution down to the present time. The first of them was negotiated at Hopewell in 1785 and the last at Washington in 1846. Some of them were the result of choice, others of necessity. By their operations the Cherokees surrendered large and valuable tracts of lands to the states which compose an important part of your Government. They came to the country now occupied by them with the assurance from the Government of the United States that it should be their home and the home of their posterity.
By the treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokees placed themselves under the protection of the United States and of no other sovereign whatever. By the treaty of Holston, 1791, the stipulation quoted was renewed and extended so as to declare that-
The Cherokee Nation will not hold any treaty with any foreign power, individual State or with Individuals of any State.
This stipulation has not been abrogated, and its binding force on the Cherokee Nation is as strong and imperative now as at any time
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to a lingering resentment toward the people of Georgia, Mississippi and other southern states who had forced the issue of the removal of
since its adoption. I feel it to be so and am not willing to disregard it even at the present time. You are well aware that a violation of its letter and spirit would be tantamount to a declaration of hos- tility toward the Government. There is no reason to doubt that it would be viewed in that light and so treated. There is no reason why we should wantonly assume an attitude and invoke upon our heads and upon the heads of our children the calamities of war between the United and Confederate States, nor do I think you should expect us without a sufficient cause. If our institutions, locality and long years of neighborly deportment and intercourse do not suffice to assure you of our friendship, no mere instrument of parchment can do it. We have no cause to doubt the entire good faith with which you would treat the Cherokee people; but neither have we any cause to make war against the United States, or to believe that our treaties will not be fulfilled and respected by that Government. At all events, a decent regard to good faith demands that we should not be the first to violate them.
It is not the province of the Cherokees to determine the char- acter of the conflict going on in the States. It is their duty to keep themselves, if possible, disentangled, and afford no grounds for either party to interfere with their rights. The obligations of every character, pecuniary and otherwise, which existed prior to the present state of affairs between the Cherokee Nation and the Government are equally valid now as then. If the Government owes us, I do not believe it will repudiate its debts. If the States cm- braced in the Confederacy owe us, I do not believe they will repudi- ate their debts. I consider our annuity safe in either contingency.
A comparison of Northern and Southern philanthropy, as illus- trated in their dealings toward the Indians within their respective limits, would not affect the merits of the question now under consid- eration, which is merely one of duty under existing circumstances. I therefore pass it over, merely remarking that the "settled pol- icy" of former years was a favorite one with both sections when extended to the acquisition of Indian lands, and that but few Indians now press their feet upon the banks of either the Ohio or the Tennessee. The conflict in which you are now engaged will possibly be brought to a close by some satisfactory arrangement or other before proceeding to active hostilities. If you remain as one government our relations will continue unchanged; if you sepa- rate into two governments upon the sectional line, we will be con- nected with you; if left to the uncertain arbitrament of the sword, the party holding, succeeding to the reins of the General Govern- ment, will be responsible to us for the obligations resting upon it.
I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
JNO. Ross,
Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation.
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these tribes than to a feeling of unwavering attachment to the Fed- eral Union. Thus, John Ross, of the Cherokee Nation, Opothleyo- hola, of the Creek Nation, and Peter P. Pitchlynn,5 of the Choctaw Nation, all of whom had opposed the removal of the people of their respective tribes to the West, now held aloof from the movement to align their tribes and people with the elements which were en- gaged in organizing the government of the Confederates States of America. Although a few of the Choctaws and Chickasaws were opposed to an alliance with the seceding states, they were in a hope- less minority.6 Among the Cherokees and Creeks, however, there was a more pronounced division of sentiment. Most of the mixed blood members of the last mentioned tribes were in favor in taking a decided stand on the side of the South. On the other hand, most of the full blood Indians of these tribes who were informed as to what was transpiring east of the Mississippi River, regarded the impending conflict as a white man's quarrel and therefore one in which the Indians should take no part. Their natural and logical attitude under the circumstances was that of neutrality. John Ross, although himself of mixed blood, was the leader of the full blood element in the Cherokee Nation and in his diplomatic declarations in favor of neutrality lie was but reflecting the overwhelming senti- ment of his followers. Opothleyohola, the Creek full blood leader, was more outspoken in his support of the Union.
At the outbreak of the Civil war, there were three garrisoned military posts in the Indian Territory, namely, Forts Washita, Arbuckle and Cobb. In addition to these, Fort Smith, on the east- ern border, was still occupied by Federal troops. Lieut. Col. Wil- liam H. Emory, First United States Cavalry, was in command of
5 Peter P. Pitchlynn, a leading citizen of the Choctaw Nation, was in Washington shortly after the inauguration of Abraham Lin- coln as President of the United States. During the course of an interview with President Lincoln he expressed the hope that the Choctaw people might be held true to the existing treaties with the United States and promised to use his personal influence to persuade them to pursue such a course. The probabilities are that Pitchlynn had been absent from home for some weeks and did not realize the change that had taken place in public sentiment among the Choc- taw people during that time.
6 It is said that there were seventeen Choctaws who not only refused to enter the Confederate service but made their way through the lines and enlisted in the Union Army. It is officially stated that forty families among the Chickasaws adhered to the cause of the Union.
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the district embracing all of these posts, the garrisons of which, all told, aggregated but eleven companies (infantry and cavalry ).7 Hitherto, Fort Smith had been the base through which the other three posts had drawn their supplies. The certainty that in event of the secession of the State of Arkansas, supplies could no longer be transported up the Arkansas River for the maintenance of these posts, rendered the question of their continued occupancy one of great gravity and concern.
The Government arsenal at Little Rock was seized by the au- thorities of the State of Arkansas, February 8, 1861-nearly three months before the adoption of the ordinance of secession. A few days later, a consignment of ordnance stores, en route by steamboat to Fort Smith, was seized by the Arkansas authorities at Napolon, Arkansas. About the middle of April, two consignments of sub- sistence stores, intended for the use of the garrison at Fort Smith and the posts in the Indian Territory were captured and appro- priated by the forces of the State of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. At the same time an expedition was being organized at Little Rock for the capture of Fort Smith. The post commander, Capt. Samuel D. Sturgis, gave orders for the evacuation of that post, which was abandoned on the 23d of May, and none too soon, for two steam- boats, bearing 300 armed men and ten pieces of artillery, arrived an hour later. Captain Sturgis marched his command (consisting of two troops of cavalry) to the vicinity of Fort Washita, where he reported to Colonel Emory, who had already abandoned the last mentioned post.8 Colonel Emory then marched to the relief of Fort
7 Colonel Emory was in Washington early in March and, just before he left for his station in the Indian Territory, he was ordered to concentrate the garrisons of all posts under his command at or near Fort Washita. His orders included a great deal of discre- tionary power, however, and it was well that such was the case for no one in authority at Washington could form an intelligent idea as to the proper course to pursue in such distant outposts amid surroundings that were uncertain if not openly hostile.
8 Colonel Emory's situation was a trying one, indeed. Beside the officers of the command who were absent on leave or on detached service, a number of others had resigned to enter the service of the seceding states. Several companies in his force were commanded by non-commissioned officers and Fort Arbuckle seems to have been surrendered by a first sergeant. In addition to the weight of re- sponsibility devolving upon him, Colonel Emory (who afterward became a justly distinguished general in the Union Army) had per- sonal reasons for regarding his task as an unpleasant one. Under
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Arbuckle but did not arrive in its vicinity until after it had been surrendered (on the morning of May 5th) to a strong force of Texas troops under the command of Col. William C. Young. The garrison, which had been disarmed and released, joined the column of Colonel Emory on the east side of the Washita on the evening of the same day.
The retreating Federal troops were followed from Fort Washita by a strong force. By a sudden movement, Colonel Emory suc- ceeded in capturing the advance guard of this pursuing force, with- out firing a shot. As a result of a parlcy with these captives, they were released and the pursuit was ended. Colonel Emory then put his column in motion for the purpose of relieving the garrison at Fort Cobb, the abandonment of which he had already ordered. Hc found this command at a place about thirty-five miles northeast of Fort Cobb. From that point the united command, embracing the garrisons of four recently abandoned military posts and consisting of eleven companies of infantry and cavalry-about 750 officers and men in all-took up the line of march, by the most direct prac- ticable route to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where it arrived three weeks later without the loss of any equipment and with but two desertions to be reported in the loss of strength.ยบ
date of April 13th, he wrote from Fort Smith to Adjutant General Townsend, at Washington, in part as follows :
"Owing to the turn affairs have recently taken, the position of an officer from a southern state out here on duty has become extremely embarrassing; so much so as to impair his efficiency. Therefore I urgently request that I be allowed to turn over this command, with my instructions, to Major Sacket or such other offi- cer as may be selected, and that I be permitted to return to Wash- ington City where I can explain my reasons for the step. If these reasons should prove unsatisfactory, I am prepared to resign my commission. I respectfully suggest that it has never been the policy of any government to employ officers to operate against their own section of the country."
Colonel Emory, who was a native of Maryland, did resign his commission in the army immediately after reaching Fort Leaven- worth and reporting. He then went to Washington, where, in the reorganization of his regiment (thenceforth designated and known as the Fourth United States Cavalry), he was promptly recom- missioned.
9 The Fort Cobb Garrison probably effected a junction with Colonel Emory's column somewhere near the present Town of Minco, in Grady County. It is a fact not generally known that the trail which was broken by this column of Federal troops in with- drawing from the Indian Territory was the one whose faint trace
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Shortly after the withdrawal of the Federal forces from the Indian Territory, the Chickasaw Legislature adopted a lengthy resolution in support of the Confederate States.10 The Indian Affairs office of the newly organized Confederate government took steps to effect alliances with the various tribes in the Indian Ter- ritory and its war department was urged to encourage the organi- zation of volunteer regiments to be recruited among the people of these tribes. Thus the Indians of the five civilized tribes werc drawn into a war in which they had nothing to gain and much to lose.
was followed nearly four years later by Jesse Chisholm on his trading trip southward from the mouth of the Little Arkansas. The writer has this information directly from George Chisholm, adopted son of Jesse Chisholm, who accompanied the latter on the trading trip in question. George Chisholm, who is still living (1915), states that, though the trail received its name from Jesse Chisholm, the latter merely followed the one made by the troops of Major Emory's command as it marched out of the Indian Territory in the spring of 1861. Captain Black Beaver, the noted Delaware Indian scout, was Major Emory's guide on this journey and he, more than any one else, was responsible for the selection of the route traversed. Probably none of the officers and men of the command had ever been over that part of the country before, since all travel between the states and the posts recently abandoned had been by way of the Arkansas River as far as Fort Smith. Black Beaver, who was re- sourceful as well as experienced in the ways of the wilderness, was prevailed upon by Colonel Emory to undertake to guide his com- mand through to the settlements in Kansas only after considerable persuasion. He had a fine farm on the Washita, not far from the present site of Anadarko, where he had considerable property, espe- cially in the way of horses and cattle. Upon his return, after guid- ing the Federal troops out of the territory, he found that a Confed- erate force had invaded the Delaware settlement and had destroyed all of his property that could not be appropriated. Although he had thus sacrificed all of his belongings in its service the Govern- ment had not reimbursed him at the time of his death, nearly twenty years later.
10 The resolutions adopted by the Chickasaw Legislature were in striking contrast with those which had been adopted by the Choc- taw Council. The pronouncement of the Chickasaws was not only lacking in the dignity and fairness which distinguished the declara- tion of the Choctaws but it was so immoderate in some of its expres- sions as to lead to the suspicion that it might have been formulated by a white man. For the 'text of the Chickasaw resolutions see "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," Series I, Vol. III, pp. 585-7.
CHAPTER XXXVI
CONFEDERATE TREATIES WITH INDIAN TRIBES
May 13, 1861, Col. Ben McCullochi, of Texas, was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army and was assigned to the command of a military district embracing the Indian Territory. About the same time, Capt. Albert Pike, of Arkansas, was appointed a special commissioner of the Confederate states for the negotiation of treaties with the various tribes of Indians in the same region. To the command of General McCulloch were assigned three regi- ments which had already been recruited and mustered into the serv- ice in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. This force was to be augmented by three regiments of Indian troops, one of which was to be composed of Choctaws and Chickasaws, one of Creeks and Seminoles and one of Cherokees. The instructions issued to the commander of the newly created military district emphasized espe- cially the desirability of capturing Fort Washita and the Federal troops which were under the command of Major Emory. These, however, succeeded in eluding capture, though all of the abandoned posts with some military supplies fell into the hands of the Confed- erates.1
1 As a matter of fact, Forts Arbuckle, Cobb and Washita had all been abandoned by their Federal garrisons and had been occu- pied by Confederate troops prior to the commission and assignment of General McCulloch to the command of the Indian Territory military district. Col. Earl Van Dorn, who was in command of all of the Confederate forces in Texas, also issued orders (May 25th) to Col. H. E. McCulloch, of the First Texas Mounted Riflemen, to take command of an expedition for the purpose of capturing these three posts, but the retreating Federal garrisons had already been followed and the abandoned posts occupied by Texas volunteers (or militia) under the command of Col. William C. Young. The lat- ter seems to have acted independently of instructions or orders of Confederate military authorities, though whether upon his own ini- tiative does not appear. That there was a division in the councils of this invading force from Texas, as well as a lack of military disci- pline, is indicated by the following extract from a letter written at.
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As a special commissioner for the Confederate states, Albert Pike promptly began the work of negotiating with the leaders and officials of the various tribes and nations of Indians in the Indian Territory for the purpose of persuading them to enter into treaties of alliance with the recently established government of the seceding states. His efforts in this line were seconded by David Hubbard, who had been appointed as superintendent of Indian affairs for these tribes, and of Gen. Ben McCulloch, the district military com- mander. He personally visited the chiefs and maintained an active correspondence with them between visits. No difficulties were an- ticipated or encountered in the course of the negotiations with the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, though the treaties with these tribes were not signed immediately. That such action was deferred for a time in the hope that all of the five civilized tribes might be induced to enter into such an alliance at the same time, is evident from the fact that the treaty with the Choctaws and Chickasaws was not con- cluded within the bounds of their own country but at North Fork Town (Eufaula), in the Creek Nation.
John Ross, who was the leader of the dominant faction of the Cherokee Nation, as well as the recognized head of the tribal gov- ernment, warily opposed a treaty of alliance with the Confederate states and contended for a neutral attitude on the part of his people. In the Creek Nation, Opothleyohola, the leader of the Upper Creeks, stubbornly refused to consider the proposition at all. General McCulloch and Commissioner Pike went together (May 28th) to see the Cherokee chief. Diplomatically but firmly, he held to his deter- mination to keep his people neutral and thus avoid being drawn into the war. General McCulloch, for the time being, agreed to re- spect the neutrality of the Cherokee Nation. Shortly afterward (June 12th), however, he addressed a letter to Chief Ross, demand-
Bonham, Texas, May 14th, by Capt. S. T. Benning, of the Fannin County Company, in Colonel Young's command :
"Colonel Young has formed a treaty of peace with the Reserve Indians (i. e., Caddoes, Wichitas and affiliated tribes), conditioned that the Southern Confederacy feed and protect them, as heretofore done by the United States Government at a very heavy expense, and that, too, without the approval of but very few people in this State. It is considered by the sovereigns here as a worse than need- less expense."
The Reserve Indians, to which allusion was thus made, were the same tribes (with the exception of the Wichitas) which had been driven from the reservations on the Brazos River less than two years before.
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ing the privilege of raising and organizing troops in the Cherokee Nation for the Confederate service. To this demand Ross refused to submit. Meanwhile Commissioner Pike had gone on a tour of the Indian Territory for the purpose of visiting the other tribes and opening negotiations with them.
John Ross had the hearty co-operation and support of Opoth- leyohola, the leader of the Upper Creeks, in his stand for neutral- ity; otherwise the situation was such as to give cause for apprehen- sion and uneasiness. The activity of Albert Pike, who had been sent as a diplomatic commissioner to treat with the various Indian tribes, was fully equalled by that of Gen. Ben McCulloch, the com- mander of the military district of the Indian Territory, who was marshaling a force of troops on the border of the Cherokee coun- try. At the same time, the partisans of the Confederacy within the Cherokee Nation-mostly intermarried white men and mixed blood Indians-were planning, under the direction of a secret or- ganization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, to bring about an alliance with the Confederacy. Apparently, the Federal Govern- ment had abandoned the people of these tribes; its troops had been withdrawn from the Indian Territory, its former Indian agents had either resigned and left or had entered the service of the Confed- erate States and, as yet, no successors had appeared. Thus threat- ened, perplexed and troubled, Ross and Opothleyohola took the ini- tiative in calling a general council of all of the tribes of the Indian Territory and those of the adjacent region of the Great Plains to the westward. This council was held at or near the Antelope Hills (within the present limits of Roger Mills County) in July, 1861. While the delegates representing the Cherokees and the Upper Creeks were attending this council and urging that all of the tribes should join in forming a neutral confederation and have no part in the white man's war, the leaders of the Lower Creeks, in council at North Fork Town, July 10th, entered into a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with Commissioner Pike as the representative of the Confederate states. As each of these factions professed to represent the entire Creek Nation, the result of the signing of this treaty was not only confusing to the newly formed neutral con- federation of Indian tribes but also destructive.
Within three weeks after the consummation of the Creek Treaty, similar agreements were concluded and duly signed by representa- tives of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations jointly and with the Seminoles. Ten days later the Federal Army under Gen. Nathaniel Lyon suffered defeat at the hands of the Confederate Army under
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the command of Gen. Ben McCulloch. It then became apparent that the pressure in favor of a new alliance could no longer be witli- stood. Reluctantly, Chief Ross called a general council of the Cherokee people to convene at Tahlequah August 21st. To this call for a mass convention, most of the men of the Cherokee Nation re- sponded. John Ross faced this vast audience and in a brief address explained why the people had been called together.2 He reminded them of their friendly relations with the Government of the United States; he told them of the evil times which had befallen that great Government; of the war that was then raging, the duration and results of which could not be foretold; of the efforts which had been put forth to induce their tribal authorities to enter into an alliance with the Government which had been set up by the seceding states and of his own efforts to preserve the neutrality of the Cherokee Nation. He then concluded as follows :
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