Annie Heloise Abel

“ But this very pertinent and patent fact the officials at Washington singularly failed to realize and they went on calmly assuring the Indians that they should never be disturbed again, that the federal government would protect them in their rights and against all enemies, that no white man should be allowed to intrude upon them, that they should hold their lands undiminished forever, and that no state or territorial lines should ever again circumscribe them. ”

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

“ Our soil has not been invaded, our peace has not been molested, nor our rights interfered with by either Government. On the contrary, the people have remained at home, cultivated their farms in security, and are reaping fruitful returns for their labors. But for false fabrications, we should have pursued our ordinary vocations without any excitement at home, or misrepresentations and consequent misapprehensions abroad, as to the real sentiments and purposes of the Cherokee people. ”

“ Men have come among us, who claim to represent a New Government, who tell us that the Government represented by Our Great Father at Washington, has turned against us and intends to drive us from our homes and take away our property, they tell us that we have nothing to hope from our old Father and that all the Friends of the Indian have joined the New Government. And that the New Government is ready to make treaties with the Indians and do all and more for them than they can claim under their old treaties. ”

“ Unfortunately for the cause of pure philanthropy, the United States government was exceedingly slow in [Pg 28] adopting the plan of Indian removal; but its citizens were by no means equally slow in developing the spirit of territorial expansion. Their successful seizure of West Florida had fired their ambition and their cupidity. With Texas annexed and lower Oregon occupied, the selection of the trans-Missouri region had ceased to be judicious. How could the Indians expect to be secure in a country that was the natural highway to a magnificent country beyond, invitingly open to settlement! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It was the Indian country, rather than the Indian owner, that the Confederacy wanted to be sure of possessing; for Indian Territory occupied a position of strategic importance, from both the economic and the military point of view. The possession of it was absolutely necessary for the political and the institutional consolidation of the South. Texas might well think of going her own way and of forming an independent republic once again, when between her and Arkansas lay the immense reservations of the great tribes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You will, in an especial manner, impress upon the Creek Nation and surrounding Indian tribes the imperious fact that they will doubtless recognize, that the real design of the North and the Government at Washington in regard to them has been and still is the same entertained and sought to be enforced against ourselves, and if suffered to be consummated, will terminate in the emancipation of their slaves and the robbery of their lands. ”

“ Ross at Park Hill, he refused to enter into any arrangement with the Confederate States. He said that his intention was to maintain the neutrality of his people; that they were a small and weak people, and would be ruined and destroyed if they engaged in the war; and that it would be a cruel thing if we were to engage them in our quarrel. But, he said, all his interests and all his feelings were with us, and he knew that his people must share the fate and fortunes of Arkansas. We told him that the Cherokees could not be neutral. ”

“ The permanent disruption of the United States is now probable. The State on our border and the Indian nations about us have severed their connection from the United States and joined the Confederate States. Our general interests are inseparable from theirs, and it is not desirable that we should stand alone. The preservation of our rights and of our existence are above every other consideration. ”

“ And it will ever be our wisdom and our interest to adhere strictly to those obligations, and carefully to guard against being drawn into any complications which may prove prejudicial to the interests of our people, or imperil the security we now enjoy under the protection of the Government of the United States as guaranteed by our Treaties. In the very worst contingency that can be thought of, the great National Responsibilities of the United States must and will be provided for. ”

“ The relations of Indians with Indians need not be considered at length. Suffice it to say that many clauses were devoted to the regulation of the affairs of those tribes that were, either politically or ethnologically, closely connected with each other; as, for example, the Choctaws and Chickasaws on the one hand and the Creeks and Seminoles on the other. Still other clauses assured the tribes of protection against hostile invasion from red men and from white, and assured all the great tribes, except the Cherokees, [286] of similar protection against domestic violence. ”

“ Resolved further, That we must express the earnest desire and ready hope entertained by the entire Choctaw people, that any and all political disturbances agitating and dividing the people of the various States may be honorably and speedily adjusted; and the example and blessing, and fostering care of their General Government, and the many and friendly social ties existing with their people, continue for the enlightenment in moral and good government and prosperity in the material concerns of life to our whole population. ”

“ It is believed that the ultimate object of this organization is to interfere with the institutions of that people, and that its influences will extend to other tribes upon the Western border of Arkansas.
This scheme must be broken up: for if it is permitted to ripen, that country will, sooner or later, be drenched in blood. You are aware that there is a large slave property in the Cherokee country, and if any steps are taken by which such property will be rendered unsafe, internal war will be the inevitable result, in which the people of the bordering state will be involved. ”

“ They will settle upon your lands as fast as they choose, and the Northern people will force their Government to allow it. It is true they will allow your people small reserves—they give chiefs pretty large ones—but they will settle among you, overshadow you, and totally destroy the power of your chiefs and your nationality, and then trade your people out of the residue of their lands. Go North among the once powerful tribes of that country and see if you can find Indians living and enjoying power and property and liberty as do your people and the neighboring tribes from the South. ”

“ To avoid the friction that had always been present between the red men and their neighbors, an attempt was now made to redefine and to readjust the relations of Indians with each other both within and without the tribe; their relations with white men considered apart from any political organization; their relations, either as individuals or as tribes, with the several states of the Confederacy; and their relations with the central government. ”

“ In the years preceding the Civil War, the interest of Texas and of Arkansas in Indian Territory manifested itself, not in a covetous desire to dispossess the Indians of their lands, as was, unfortunately for national honor, the case in Kansas, but in an effort to keep the actual country true to the South, settled by slaveholders, Indian or white, as occasion required or opportunity offered. ”

“ Veterans of the Confederate service who saw action along the Missouri-Arkansas frontier have frequently complained, in recent years, that military operations in and around Virginia during the War between the States receive historically so much attention that, as a consequence, the steady, stubborn fighting west of the Mississippi River is either totally ignored or, at best, cast into dim obscurity. There is much of truth in the criticism but it applies in fullest measure only when the Indians are taken into account ”

“ Sir, we the Chiefs, Head Men, and Warriors, of the Creek Nation of Indians, in the Indian Territory, through our delegates, the undersigned desire to state to your excellency the condition of our people. Owing to the want of correct information as to condition of the Country and Government our people are in great distress. ”

“ The indians have been kept in a constant state of turmoil by false representations both in reference to myself and things affecting their individual interest. No indian reserve can be conducted in a satisfactory manner either to the government or indians without the coöperation of troops to enable the Agent to enforce the intercourse laws and eject disorderly persons from amongst them.
No funds as yet have been received to meet the current expenses of the Agency, nor has any forage been furnished except twenty four bushels of corn and twelve of oats, which were received from Commissioner Pike. ”

“ And the people of the State of Arkansas, here in sovereign convention assembled, do hereby pledge the sovereignty of the State of Arkansas, that everything in their power shall be done to compel a faithful application of all money and property now in the hands of persons or agents designed and intended for the several Indian tribes west of Arkansas. ”

“ Your demand that those people of the nation who are in favor of joining the Confederacy be allowed to organize into military companies as Home Guards, for the purpose of defending themselves in case of invasion from the North, is most respectfully declined. ”

“ The patronage of the Indian Office has always been more or less of a local thing. Communities adjoining Indian reservations usually consider, and with just cause because of long-established practice, that all positions in the field service, as for example, agencies and traderships, are the perquisites, so to speak, of the locality. It was certainly true before the war that Texas and Arkansas had some such understanding as to Indian Territory, for only southerners held office there and, from among the southerners, Texans and Arkansans received the preference always. ”