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 35
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"In testimony of our sincerity and good faith in entering into this compact, we have smoked the pipe of peace and extended to each other the hand of friendship, and exchanged the tokens and emblems of peace and friendship peculiar to our race, this 26th of May, 1865." (Signatures omitted)
The foregoing compact is copied from the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. XLVIII, Part II, pages 1102-3. It is to be regretted that the editors saw fit to omit the sig- natures appended to this remarkable document, as it would have at least disclosed the identity of those who took a leading part in the deliberations and discussions of the council at Camp Napoleon.
Although the Confederate Government had no part in the final action of the peace council at Camp Napoleon, it was represented by two commissioners. Generals James W. Throckmorton, of Texas, and Albert Pike, of Arkansas, were selected as commissioners to at- tend the council. The latter declined, whereupon Col. W. D. Rea- gan, an officer on duty at the headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department, was appointed. Detailed instructions to these commis- sioners were outlined in the letter of Gen. E. Kirby Smith to Gen. Albert Pike, Ibid., pp. 1266-9.
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The Confederate Creeks and Seminoles held a council at Chata Tamaha, in the Choctaw Nation, June 15, at which resolutions were adopted inviting the Indians of the tribes and parts of tribes in alliance with the Federal Government to join in aiding those which
ARMSTRONG ACADEMY, CHOCTAW NATION. BUILT IN 1852
had been allied with the Confederate States in "efforts to contract anew friendly relations with the United States Government." 31 Three days later, Principal Chief Pitchlynn, of the Choctaw Nation, after consultation with Colonel Matthews, the Federal pcace com- missioner, issued a proclamation calling for the convening of a general council of all of the tribes to be held at Armstrong Acad- emy on the first of September following.32 As a result of the con-
31 Ibid., pp. 1103-4.
32 Chief Pitchlynn's proclamation was closed in the following language :
"The importance of a grand council of the character of the one contemplated at this juncture of our history, under the circum- stances that surround us, cannot be overestimated. Our late allies in the war, the Confederate armies, have long since ceased to resist the national authorities; they have all either been captured or sur- rendered to the forces of the United States. It therefore becomes us as a brave people to forget and lay aside our prejudices and prove ourselves equal to the occasion. Let reason obtain, now that the sway of passion has passed, and let us meet in council with a
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ference of the Federal commissioners with Principal Chief Pitch- lynn and Gen. Stand Watie, it was agreed that all hostilities should cease pending the conclusion of formal articles of capitulation, the same being but a reiteration of a clause in the agreement previously made between Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, of the Federal Army, and Gen. E. Kirby Smith, May 26th.
Gen. Douglas H. Cooper surrendered all Confederate forces in the Indian Territory except those of the several Indian tribes. These claimed to have entered the war as independent allies of the Confederate States and they therefore reserved the right to sur- render when they saw fit.33 The Union forces at Fort Gibson re- mained under the command of Col. William A. Phillips until the end of the war but, aside from occasional scouting expeditions, they were not actively engaged during the winter and spring of 1865.34
The military forces of the Choctaw Nation were formally sur- rendered by Principal Chief Pitchlynn, at Doaksville, June 19th. Four days later, near the same place, Gen. Stand Watie surrendered the Cherokee forces, together with the Creek and Seminole troops and the Osage Battalion. It was not until July 14th-over three
proper spirit and resume our former relations with the United States Government."-Official Records of the Union and Confed- erate Armies, Vol. XLVIII, Part II, p. 1105.
33 In a letter to Lieut .- Gen. S. B. Buckner (Ibid., pp. 1097-9), General Cooper stated that it was not only impracticable for him to surrender the Indian troops but that his own life would be en- dangered if he were to attempt to do so.
34 William Addison Phillips was born at Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, January 14, 1824. He received an academic education prior to the immigration of his father's family to America, in 1839. He grew to manhood on a farm in Southern Illinois. At the age of twenty-two he was engaged in newspaper work, and a few years later began the study of law. In 1855 he moved to Kansas as the special correspondent of the New York Tribune. He volunteered for service at the outbreak of the war, was commissioned major of the First Indian Regiment and soon promoted to colonel. He commanded the Indian Brigade and for a time commanded a divi- sion, though he was never promoted above the grade of colonel. From 1873 to 1879 he represented the First Kansas District in Congress. After his retirement he served as an attorney for the Cherokee Nation. He died at Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, November 30, 1893. Colonel Phillips was easily one of the largest figures in the history of the Civil War in the Indian Territory. The position which he filled at Fort Gibson was one which called for energy, tact, diplomacy and administrative ability of a high order as well as a large degree of military skill.
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months after the surrender of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia-that the Chickasaw troops were formally surrendered by Governor Winchester Colbert; also the Caddo Battalion. Thus was ended the Civil war in the Indian Territory.
Vol. I-22
SIXTH PERIOD
RECONSTRUCTION AMONG CIVILIZED TRIBES AND THE PACIFI- CATION OF THE INDIANS OF THE PLAINS
CHAPTER XLI
CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR
The end of the war found conditions in the Indian Territory all but chaotic. The Cherokee, Creek and Seminole tribes had been sundered by the war and the bitterest hatred existed between the factions which had adhered to the Union and those who had cast their fortunes with those of the seceding states.1 Most of the Indians of these tribes who had sided with the Federal Govern- ment were living in refugee camps in the immediate vicinity of Fort Gibson, though a few of them still remained in Kansas, whither they had fled during the first year of the war. The members of these tribes who had sided with the South were mostly living in refugee camps in the Red River region. The Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes had been almost unanimous in their attachment to the Confederacy.2 Comparatively little of their tribal domain had been overrun by the Federal forces. However, the war had been scarcely less demoralizing, for their industry had been paralyzed, many of their people whose homes had been in the northern part of their country had fled to the refugee camps near the Red River, and the presence of Cherokee, Creek, Seminole and Osage refugees in their midst had helped to impoverish even
1 About 10,500 of the Cherokees had ultimately adhered to the Federal cause, 2,200 of this number were soldiers in the Federal Army. Six thousand Creeks declined to recognize the alliance of their tribe with the Confederacy and were joined by 1,200 Semi- noles in aligning themselves on the side of the Union .- Report of Elijah Sells, superintendent of Indian Affairs, Annual Report, Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, pp. 254, 5.
2 Two hundred and twelve Choctaws remained friendly to the United States, and twelve young Choctaws were in the Federal military service .- Ibid., p. 257. The author was personally in- formed by a Choctaw Indian (Willis King) that he was one of seventeen members of the Choctaw tribe who were regularly en- listed in the Union Army. The tribal agent of the Choctaws and Chickasaws (Isaac Colman) reported that there were 225 Chicka- saw refugees in Kansas in 1863 .- Ibid., for 1863, p. 184.
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the Choctaws and Chickasaws who would have been otherwise well supplied.3
When hostilities ccased, the representatives of all of the tribes were anxious to meet the representatives of the Federal Govern- ment in council for the purpose of ascertaining upon what terms they might be restored to its good graces.
On its part, the Government was in no haste to begin such negotiations. The death of President Lincoln and the succession of a new administration, with new officials in the Indian service, doubtless helped to delay action in the matter also.4 The Indians, as indicated by the proclamation of Principal Chief Pitchlynn, of the Choctaw Nation, were willing and even anxious for an early conference with the representatives of the Federal Government. The peace council was called to meet at Armstrong Academy (Chatah Tamaha) on the first of September, 1865. It convened at Fort Smith one week later than that date.
In the meantime, the Indians who had been allied with the Confederacy remained in their refugee camps in the valley of Red River. The bitter enmity existing between them and their fellow tribesmen who had continued their adherence to the Union was such that it was not safe for them to attempt to return to their old homes. All was in a state of suspense pending the nego- tiation of new treaties and agreements whereby the intra-tribal breaches might be healed or compromised. The greater part of the Indian Territory north of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations remained as it had been during the greater part of the war, prac- tically uninhabited. But, if all was uncertainty and suspense among the Indians, it was the time of harvest for the men who were making a systematic business of cattle stealing. Stealing Indian cattle was not only popular but even a respectable calling in those days, only the men who were engaged in it were by courtesy, termed "cattle brokers." Congress had already passed an act imposing heavy penalties in the way of fine and imprisonment
3 Six thousand Cherokees, 6,500 Creeks and 950 Seminoles were aligned with the South .- Ibid., 1865, pp. 254-6. .
4 James Harlan, of Iowa, succeeded John P. Usher as Secretary of the Interior; D. N. Cooley was appointed to succeed William P. Dole, as commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Elijah Sells replaced William G. Coffin as superintendent of Indian affairs for the South- ern Superintendency. All of the tribal agents for the five civilized tribes were also replaced soon after the adjournment of the council at Fort Smith, if not done before that time.
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for the theft of cattle from the Indians,5 but powerful influences in the state of Kansas were interested in the profits which were to be made from this nefarious business. It was not a case of military confiscation of contraband property belonging to those who were at enmity with the Government but was rather a case of wholesale plundering from the Indians, regardless of whether they were friends or foes, and that, too, for private profit. Civil author- ities and even courts seemed to be in league with the "cattle brok- ers" and the Indian agents were powerless to cope with the condition until troops were sent to aid them in preventing further thievery. Even then, the possible profits were so alluringly large that it was difficult to prevent its continuance. In his report to the Commis- sioner of Indian Affairs, Superintendent Sells described the method of operations as follows :
"There are two classes of operators connected with cattle driv- ing from the Indian country. The first and those who take the risk of driving from their original range-the home of the owners- who are generally men of no character and wholly irresponsible. They usually drive the cattle to the southern border of Kansas, where the second class are waiting, through their agents, to receive the stolen property.
"These cattle brokers, claiming to be legitimate dealers, pur- chase at nominal prices, taking bills of sale, and from thence the cattle are driven to market, where enormous profits are made. These brokers have met with such unparalleled success that the mania for this profitable enterprise has become contagious. The number directly and remotely engaged is so numerous, the social standing and character of the operators secure so much power, that it is almost fatal to interpose obstacles in the way of their success."
The newly appointed Seminole agent, George A. Reynolds, writing to Superintendent Sells, from Neosho Falls, Kansas, under date of July 23, 1865, stated the conditions as follows :
"I have been subject to untold annoyances and trouble in dis- charging my duties under your instructions. I do not receive the moral support of the people in this branch of the service. On my arrival here I found writs of replevin and orders for my arrest, awaiting my advent into this place. I pursued a conciliatory course, and by that means avoided a direct conflict of authority.
5 Letter of J. P. Usher, secretary of the Interior, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, pp. 269, 270.
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I have direct and undeniable proof that my life has been threat- ened, time and again, for simply discharging my duties under your instructions. I have just received information that a man in Emporia, Kansas, a stranger to my friends there, but minutely described, publicly threatened to kill me on sight, because the troops, acting under my orders, had taken a lot of cattle while in transit from the Indian country.
"If I know myself intimately, I have no personal fear about me; but these things are unpleasant, and go to show that the people are in sympathy with these cattle thieves. *
"The people of Western Kansas [i. e., of the then western settlements of Kansas] have large herds of Indian stock, and to a great extent sympathize with cattle thieves. They fear their turn will come next in being deprived of their stolen stock, in accordance with your wholesome instructions."
It was estimated that over 300,000 head of cattle belonging to the Indians and valued at upwards of $4,500,000, were stolen and driven out of the territory during and immediately after the close of the Civil war. The interior department asked for the co-operation of the war department with the result that troops were sent to aid the Indian agents in breaking up the cattle steal- ing business. Although it became more risky thereafter, there is reason to believe that it was continued in a small way, on the sly, for several years after most of the thieves had been discouraged and driven out of the business.6
The war had wrought many changes. Many of the men had been killed or died of disease in the camps. The mortality had also been large among the women and children who had been forced to flee from their homes and to live in the crowded, unsanitary conditions which prevailed in the refugee camps. When the war had ended there was considerable shifting from the old centers of population. Those who did return to their old homes found them in ruins. For a time they had to be subsisted on Government rations. Some of the survivors of that time still tell how thankful they were when they could replow the fields that had been aban- doned and allowed to grow up in weeds. The bread of dependence became distasteful. The appearance of the first growth of the herbs whose leaves could be cooked in the form of "greens" was a signal for rejoicing. The corn was planted and in the due course
6 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, pp. 253-93.
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of time it germinated and pushed its first tiny blades through to the light. Seasonable rains followed and the fields, which had been forced to lie fallow through the years of war, yielded an abundant harvest.
While war is a stern teacher, it is a teacher none the less. Most of the men in the five civilized tribes had been soldiers in one army or the other. As soldiers they had been subjected to the restraints of discipline-not always as strict as it might have been, it is true, but much more than most of them had ever expe- rienced before. Many if not most of these Indian soldiers had seen service outside the Indian Territory. All of them had served with white soldiers from the states and, in the case of the Creeks, Seminoles and Cherokees of the three Indian Home Guard regi- ments, all had served in companies, part of the officers of which were white men. In the building of fortifications, roads and bridges, they had learned to work as some of them had never done before. With a greater degree of industry and efficiency and their natural love of home, they immediately addressed them- selves to the work of restoration with commendable energy. While the Indian Territory was destined to remain closed to some lines of progress for forty years longer, it was never again as isolated and provincial as it had been before the outbreak of the Civil war.
TROUBLE WITH NEGROES
For a time, immediately after the close of the Civil war, the people of the Indian Territory, and especially those of the Choc- taw and Chickasaw nations, had considerable trouble with intrud- ing negroes from adjoining states. Some of the land owners and planters, who were anxious to rid themselves of a portion of their former slaves encouraged those of a shiftless disposition to move to the Indian Territory, where there was supposed to be an abun- dance of unoccupied land. Along with such parties there camnc also others of the more unruly sort.
Most of these intruding negroes formed settlements in the southern portion of the territory, in the region of the Red River. As the Indian country was sparsely settled, and as there were some settlements of the freedmen who were former slaves of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, the intruders attracted little if any attention at first. The Indians were poor. Most of their live stock had been lost during the war. There was no demand for labor of any kind whatever. The intruding negroes had to secure the
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means for a livelihood from some source and, as there was appar- ently nothing else for them to do, they resorted to stealing. Each of these negro settlements had a leader who directed the operations of the rest in their depredations upon the property of the Indians.
Corn cribs, smokehouses, hen roosts and small trading establish- ments suffered at the hands of these plundering bands of negroes. They also stole horses and killed hogs and cattle. When they wanted fresh meat they killed indiscriminately any eow or steer that they happened to find on the open range and, after removing a few choiee pieces that were desired for the day, left the rest for the vultures and wolves. Naturally, such wanton wastefulness would not have been tolerated, even in a land of plenty. The Indians soon began to consult as to the best means to put an end to an evil which threatened to destroy even the small remnant of their floeks and herds that had escaped the destruction and spoilia- tion of war.
A secret organization, known as "the Vigilanee Committee," was formed. It consisted of about 500 members in the Choctaw and Chiekasaw nations and it was closely identified with similar organ- izations in other Indian nations. The people of these tribes, like those of most other Indian tribes, were and are, by nature, very reserved and prone to a certain degree of mysterious secrecy as to their own movements and intentions. The people of these tribes are said to have had in ancient times a form of free-masonry, based upon their beliefs in the supernatural. Then, too, they had that demoeratie and altruistic idea of all working for the common good. These conditions greatly favored the development and operation of such an organization as "the Vigilance Committee."
The members of the Vigilance Committee kept constantly in touch with the organization and with each other. Meetings for the discussion of matters of interest were held in the open, usually during the day time on the prairie, with sentinels and guards so posted that no person unauthorized might approach. Communica- tions with similar organizations among the other Indian nations were frequent, all such messages being sent by eouriers, who trav- eled at night. These couriers or secret messengers were so organ- ized in relays that no one of them ever had to ride far from his own neighborhood.
The methods or plans of operation adopted by the members of the Vigilanee Committee were simple and severe. The range was constantly patrolled by mounted men who were on the lookout for suspicious characters. When one of these was found and
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apprehended he was required to give an account of himself. If one of the intruding negroes was found on the range, and away from his settlement, he was taken into custody and severely whipped. When he was liberated he was enjoined never to be caught away from his settlement again. If a negro was caught with a killed beef or hog, or with a stolen horse, he was summarily executed, usually by hanging.
When one of the settlements of the intruding negroes became undesirable by reason of the predatory disposition or habits of its residents, they were usually informed of the fact or by the verbal announcement of some ghostly visitor in the dark hours of the night, though sometimes written proclamations gave notice that the settlement should be abandoned by a given time. The date set for such an exodus was final and not subject to any postpone- ment. If no attention was paid to such a notice, on the following night a few bullets fired promiscuously at the cabins of the negro settlement added new emphasis to the warning previously given and an immediate exodus followed.
As these incidents happened during the years immediately following the Civil war, and early in the reconstruction era, the sympathies of the Federal authorities were entirely on the side of the negroes, thus adding to the risk and danger of the Indians who were involved in the operations of the Vigilance Committee. Apparently, the Vigilance Committee of the Choctaws and Chicka- saws antedated by several years the organization and operation of the Ku Klux Klan, by which the aggressive political aspirations of the negroes were overawed in several of the states of the South. Though organized for a different purpose primarily, its methods greatly resembled those which were later adopted and used by the Ku Klux, and the results were quite as effective.
The work of the Vigilance Committee did not end with the expulsion of the lawless negro intruders, however. Renegade white men, fleeing from justice in the states, sought a refuge in the wilds of the Indian Territory. Like the intruding negroes, they, too, sought to eke out an existence by stealing. Horse thieves and cattle rustlers were all too common and against these the members of the Vigilance Committee had to wage incessant war. Here again the perfect, though simple, scheme of organization and the system of rapid transmission of intelligence by means of relays of couriers, greatly facilitated the work of the members of the Vigilance Com- mittee in capturing and exterminating such marauders. If a horse was stolen in one part of the country the fact, together with a
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description of the animal, was known in some other part of the country by the time that the thief appeared with it. In some instances the trail of a horse thief was followed into some of the adjacent states. Sometimes, when the pursuers overtook the thieves, pitched battles followed, in the course of which there were casualties on both sides. More than one place in Oklahoma still bears the suggestive name of "Robbers' Roost," in consequence of the local traditions which date from that period when outlaws hid in the hills or followed dim paths to the rendezvous that was known only to themselves and their fellows in crime and violence. Old men sometimes tell the stories of the exploits of those days. when, in their youth they rode as couriers or, as young men, they helped to chase and battle with the bandits. Few of these talcs- as true as they are thrilling and romantic-have ever been reduced to writing, though there are many of them that would furnish the ground-work for interesting literary effort. Tragedies were all too common under such conditions, for the work which the Vigilance Committee of the Choctaws and Chickasaws undertook to do in those days was a man's work in that it called for a high degree of courage and sometimes for the sacrifice of life itself.7
MAKING A NEW START
The Seminoles, having relinquished their former reservation and having had a new one assigned to them, were under the neces- sity of opening up new farms. In his annual report for the year 1867, Agent George A. Reynolds told of their first year's effort in this line, in part as follows:8
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