The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War

By Annie Heloise Abel, Ph.D.

Professor of History, Smith College

1919

X. NEGOTIATIONS WITH UNION INDIANS

As though the Indians had not afflictions enough to endure merely
because of their proximity to the contending whites, life was made
miserable for them, during the period of the Civil War, as much as
before and after, by the insatiable land-hunger of politicians,
speculators, and would-be captains of industry, who were more often
than not, rogues in the disguise of public benefactors. Nearly all
of them were citizens of Kansas. The cessions of 1854, negotiated
by George W. Manypenny, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, were but a
prelude to the many that followed. For years and years there was in
reality never a time when some sort of negotiation, _sub rosa_
or official, was not going on. The order of procedure was pretty much
what it had always been: a promise that the remaining land should be
the Indian's, undisturbed by white men and protected by government
guarantee, forever; encroachment by enterprising, covetous, and
lawless whites; conflict between the two races, the outraged and the
aggressive; the advent of the schemer, the man with political capital
and undeveloped or perverted sense of honor, whose vision was such
that he saw the Indian owner as the only obstacle in the way of
vast material and national progress; political pressure upon the
administration in Washington, lobbying in Congress; authorization of
negotiations with the bewildered Indians; delimitation of the meaning
of the solemn and grandly-sounding word, _forever_.

When the war broke out, negotiations, begun in the

border warfare days, were still going on. This was most true as
regarded the Osages, whose immense holding in southern Kansas
was something not to be tolerated, so the politicians reasoned,
indefinitely. Petitions,[622] praying that the lands be opened to
white settlement were constantly being sent in and intruders,[623] who
intended to force action, becoming more and more numerous and more
and more recalcitrant. One of the first official communications of
Superintendent Coffin embodied a plea for getting a treaty of cession
for which the signs had seemed favorable the previous year.
Coffin, however, discredited[624] a certain Dr. J.B. Chapman, who,
notwithstanding he represented white capitalists,[625] had yet found
favor with the Osages. To their

[Footnote 622: For example, take the petitions forwarded by M.W.
Delahay, surveyor-general of Kansas [Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Neosho_, D 455 of 1861]. One of the petitions contains this
statement: "... The lands being largely settled upon and improved and
those adjacent being all claimed and settled upon by residents--while
a large emigration from Texas and other rebellious States are forced
to seek homes in a more northern and uncongenial climate greatly
against their interests and inclinations...."]

[Footnote 623: Intruders upon the Osage lands, as upon the Cherokee
Neutral, were numerous for years before the war. Agent Dorn was
continually complaining of them, chiefly because they were free-state
in politics. He again and again asked for military assistance in
removing them. See his letter to Greenwood, February 26, 1860,
_Neosho_, 1833-1865, D 107. Buchanan's administration had
conceived the idea of locating other Kansas Indians upon the huge
Osage Reserve. See Dorn to Greenwood, March 26, 1860, Ibid., D
119. Apparently, the fragments of tribes in the northeastern corner of
Indian Territory had been approached on the same subject, but they did
not favor it and Agent Dorn was doubtful if the Osages would [Dorn to
Greenwood, April 17, 1860, Ibid., D 129].]

[Footnote 624: He described him as a self-appointed guardian of the
Osages, as a scamp and a nuisance [Coffin to Dole, June 17, 1861,
Ibid., C 1223 of 1861].]

[Footnote 625: Chapman, August 26, 1860, inquired of Greenwood whether
there was any prospect of a treaty being negotiated with the Osages
and whether the capitalists he represented would be likely to secure
railroad rights to the South by it. He asserted that the Delawares had
been "humbugged" by their treaty, it having been negotiated "in the
interests of the Democrats at Leavenworth" [Ibid., C 702 of
1860].]

everlasting sorrow and despoliation, the Indians have been fated to
place a child-like trust in those least worthy.

The defection of portions of the southern tribes offered an undreamed
of opportunity for Kansas politicians to accomplish their purposes.
They had earlier thought of removing the Kansas tribes, one by one,
to Indian Territory; but the tribes already there had a lien upon
the land, titles, and other rights, that could not be ignored. Their
possession was to continue so long as the grass should grow and the
water should run. It was not for the government to say that they
should open their doors to anybody. An early intimation that the
Kansans saw their opportunity was a resolution[626] submitted by James
H. Lane to the Senate, March 17, 1862, proposing an inquiry into "the
propriety and expediency of extending the southern boundary of Kansas
to the northern boundary of Texas, so as to include within the
boundaries of Kansas the territory known as the Indian territory."
Obviously, the proposition had a military object immediately in view;
but Commissioner Dole, to whom it was referred, saw its ulterior
meaning and reported[627] adversely upon it as he had upon an earlier
proposition to erect a regular territorial form of government in the
Indian country south of Kansas.[628] He was "unable to perceive any
advantage to be derived from the adoption of such a measure, since the
same military power that would be required to enforce the authority
of territorial officers is all-sufficient to protect and enforce the
authority of such officers as are required in the management of our
present system

[Footnote 626: _United State Congressional Globe_, 37th congress,
second session, part ii, p. 1246.]

[Footnote 627: Dole to Smith, April 2, 1862, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 353-354.]

[Footnote 628: Dole to Smith, March 17, 1862, Ibid., 335-337.]

of Indian relations."[629] And he insisted that the whole of the
present Indian country should be left to the Indians.[630] The honor
of the government was pledged to that end. Almost coincidently he
negatived[631] another suggestion, one advocated by Pomeroy for the
confiscation of the Cherokee Neutral Lands.[632] For the time being,
Dole was strongly opposed to throwing either the Neutral Lands or the
Osage Reserve open to white settlers.

Behind Pomeroy's suggestion was the spirit of retaliation, of meting
out punishment to the Indians, who, because they had been so basely
deserted by the United States government, had gone over to the
Confederacy; but the Kansas politicians saw a chance to kill two birds
with one stone, vindictively punish the southern Indians for their
defection and rid Kansas of the northern Indians, both emigrant and
indigenous. The intruders upon Indian lands, the speculators and the
politicians, would get the spoils of victory. Against the idea of
punishing the southern Indians for what after all was far from being
entirely their fault, the friends of justice marshaled their forces.
Dole was not exactly of their number; for he had other ends to serve
in resisting measures advanced by the Kansans, yet, to his credit be
it said that he did always hold firmly to the notion that tribes like
the Cherokee were more sinned against than sinning. The government
had been the first to shirk responsibility and to violate sacred
obligations. It had failed to give the protection guaranteed by
treaties and it was not giving it yet adequately.

[Footnote 629: Dole to Smith, March 17, 1862, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 335.]

[Footnote 630: Report of April 2, 1862.]

[Footnote 631: Dole to Smith, March 20, 1862, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 12, 343-344.]

[Footnote 632: _Daily Conservative_, May 10, 1862. Note the
arguments in favor of confiscation as quoted from the _Western
Volunteer_.,]

The true friends of justice were men of the stamp of W.S.
Robertson[633] and the Reverend Evan Jones,[634] who went out of
their way to plead the Indian's cause and to detail the extenuating
circumstances surrounding his lamentable failure to keep faith.
Supporting the men of the opposite camp was even the Legislature of
Kansas. In no other way can a memorial from the General Assembly,
urging the extinguishment of the title of certain Indian lands in
Kansas, be interpreted.[635]

It is not easy to determine always just what motives did actuate
Commissioner Dole. They were not entirely above suspicion and his
name is indissolubly connected with some very nefarious Indian
transactions; but fortunately they have not to be recounted here. At
the very time when he was offering unanswerable arguments against
the propositions of Lane and Pomeroy, he was entertaining something
similar to those propositions in his own mind. A special agent,
Augustus Wattles, who had been sufficiently familiar and mixed-up with
the free state and pro-slavery controversy to be called upon to give
testimony before the Senate

[Footnote 633: Robertson wrote to the Secretary of the Interior,
January 7, 1862, asking most earnestly "that decisive measures be
not taken against the oppressed and betrayed people of the Creek and
Cherokee tribes, until everything is heard about their struggle in the
present crisis" [Department of the Interior, _Register of Letters
Received_, "Indians," no. 4]. The letter was referred to the
Indian Office and Mix replied to it, February 14, 1862 [Indian Office
_Letter Book_, no. 67, p. 357]. The concluding paragraph of
the letter is indicative of the government feeling, "... In reply
I transmit herewith for your information the Annual Report of this
Office, which will show ... what policy has governed the Office as to
this matter, and that it is in consonance with your wish...."]

[Footnote 634: Jones wrote frequently and at great length on the
subject of justice to the Cherokees. One of his most heartfelt appeals
was that of January 21, 1862 [Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Cherokee_, J 556 of 1862].]

[Footnote 635: Cyrus Aldrich, representative from Minnesota and
chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs referred the
memorial to the Indian Office [_Letters Registered_, vol. 58,
_Southern Superintendency_, A. 484 of 1862].]

Harper's Ferry Investigating Committee[636] and who had been on the
editorial staff of the New York Tribune,[637] had, in 1861, been sent
by the Indian Office to inspect the houses that Robert S. Stevens had
contracted to build for the Sacs and Foxes of Mississippi and for the
Kaws.[638] The whole project of the house-building was a fraud upon
the Indians, a scheme for using up their funds or for transferring
them to the pockets of promoters like Stevens[639] and M.C.
Dickey[640] without the trouble of giving value received.

From a letter[641] of protest, written by Stevens against Wattles's
mission of inspection, it can be inferred that there was a movement on
foot to induce the Indians to emigrate southward. Stevens, not wholly
disinterested, thought it a poor time to attempt changes in tribal

[Footnote 636: Robinson, _Kansas Conflict_, 358.]

[Footnote 637:--Ibid., 370. For other facts touching Wattles
and his earlier career, see Villard, _John Brown_, index; Wilson,
_John Brown: Soldier of Fortune_, index.]

[Footnote 638; On the entire subject of negotiations with the Indians
of Kansas, see Abel, _Indian Reservations in Kansas and the
Extinguishment of Their Titles_. The house-building project is
fully narrated there.]

[Footnote 639: For additional information about Stevens, see _Daily
Conservative_, February 11, 12, 13, 28, 1862. Senator Lane
denounced him as a defaulter to the government in the house-building
project. See _Lane_ to Dole, April 22, 1862; Smith to Dole, May
13 1862; Dole to Lane, May 5, 1862, _Daily Conservative_, May 21,
1862. In July, Lane, hearing that certificates of indebtedness were
about to be issued to Stevens on his building contract for the
Sacs and Foxes, entered a "solemn protest against such action" and
requested that the Department would let the matter lie over until the
assembling of Congress [Interior Department, _Register of Letters
Received_, January 2, 1862 to December 27, 1865, "Indians," no. 4].
Governor Robinson's enemies regarded him as the partner of Stevens
[_Daily Conservative_, November 22, 1861] in the matter of some
other affairs, and that fact may help to explain Senator Lane's bitter
animosity. The names of Robinson and Stevens were connected in the
bond difficulty, which lay at the bottom of Robinson's impeachment.]

[Footnote 640: Dickey's interest in the house-building is seen in
the following: Dickey to Greenwood, February 26, 1861, Indian Office
General Files, _Kansas_, 1855-1862, D250; same to same, March 1,
1861, Ibid., D 251.]

[Footnote 641: Stevens to Mix, August 24, 1861, Indian Office Special
Files, no. 201, _Sac and Fox_, S439 of 1861.]

policy. His conclusions were right, his premises, necessarily
unrevealed, were false. Wattles became involved in the emigration
movement, if he did not initiate it, and, subsequent to making his
report upon the house-building, received a private communication from
Dole, asking his opinion "of a plan for confederating the various
Indian tribes, in Kansas and Nebraska, into one, and giving them
a Territory and a Territorial Government with political
privileges."[642] This was in 1861, long before any scheme that Lane
or Pomeroy had devised would have matured. Wattles started upon a tour
of observation and inquiry among the Kansas tribes and discovered
that, with few exceptions, they were all willing and even anxious to
exchange their present homes for homes in Indian Territory. Some had
already discussed the matter tentatively and on their own account
with the Creeks and Cherokees. On his way east, after completing his
investigations, Wattles stopped in New York and "consulted with our
political friends" there "concerning this movement, and they not only
gave it their approbation, but were anxious that this administration
should have the credit of originating and carrying out so wise and so
noble a scheme for civilizing and perpetuating the Indian race."
Would Wattles and his friends have said the same had they been fully
cognizant of the conditions under which the emigrant tribes had been
placed in the West?

In February of 1862, the House of Representatives called[643] for the
papers relating to the Wattles mission[644] and, in March, Wattles
expatiated upon the

[Footnote 642: Wattles to Dole, January 10, 1862, Indian Office
Special Files, no. 201, _Central Superintendency_, W 528 of
1862.]

[Footnote 643: Department of the Interior, _Register of Letters
Received_, "Indians," no. 4, p. 439.]

[Footnote 644: The papers relating to the mission are collected in
Indian Office Special Files, no. 201.]

emigration and consolidation scheme in a report to Secretary
Smith.[645] Then, yet in advance of congressional authorization, began
a systematic course of Indian negotiation, all having in view the
relieving of Kansas from her aboriginal encumbrance. No means were too
underhand, too far-fetched, too villainous to be resorted to. Every
advantage was taken of the Indian's predicament, of his pitiful
weakness, political and moral. The reputed treason of the southern
tribes was made the most of. Reconstruction measures had begun for the
Indians before the war was over and while its issue was very far from
being determined in favor of the North.

As if urged thereto by some influence malign or fate sinister, the
loyal portion of two of the southern tribes, the Creeks and the
Seminoles, took in April, 1862, a certain action that, all unbeknown
to them, expedited the northern schemes for Indian undoing. The action
referred to was tribal reoerganization. Each of the two groups of
refugees elected chiefs and headmen and notified the United States
government that it was prepared to do business as a nation.[646] The
business in mind had to do with annuity payments[647] and other dues
but the Indian Office soon extended it to include treaty-making.

[Footnote 645: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Central
Superintendency_, W 528 of 1862; Department of the Interior,
_Register of Letters Received_, "Indians," no. 4, p. 517.]

[Footnote 646: Ok-ta-ha-ras Harjo and others to Dole, April 5, 1862,
Indian Office General Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869, O 45; Coffin to
Dole, April 15, 1862, transmitting communication of Billy Bowlegs
and others, April 14, 1862 ibid., _Seminole_, 1858-1869, C1594;
_Letters Registered_, vol. 58.]

[Footnote 647: On the outside of the Seminole petition, the office
instruction for its answer of May 7, 1862, reads as follows: "Say that
by resolution of Congress the annuities were authorized to be used to
prevent starvation and suffering amongst them and that being the only
fund in our hands must not be diverted from that purpose at present."]

Negotiations with the Osages had been going on intermittently all this
time. No opportunity to press the point of a land cession had ever
been neglected and much had been made, in connection with the project
for territorial organization, of the fact that the Osages had
memorialized Congress for a civil government, they thinking by means
of it to prevent further frauds and impositions being practiced upon
them.[648] Coffin and Elder, suspicious of each other, jealously
watched every avenue of approach to Osage confidence. On the ninth of
March, Elder inquired if Coffin had been regularly commissioned to
open up negotiations anew and asked to be associated with him if he
had.[649] A treaty was started but not finished for Elder received a
private letter from Dole that seemed to confine the negotiations to
a mere ascertaining of views.[650] Then the Indians grown weary of
uncertainty took matters into their own hands and appointed several
prominent tribesmen for the express purpose of negotiating a treaty
that would end the "suspense as to their future destiny."[651] From
the treaty of cession that Coffin drafted, he having taken a miserably
unfair advantage of Osage isolation and destitution, the Osages turned
away in disgust.[652] In November, some of their leading men journeyed
up to Leroy to invite the dissatisfied Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la to winter
with them.[653] Coffin seized the occasion to reopen the subject of a
cession and the Indians manifested

[Footnote 648: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, A
476 of 1862. See also Indian Office report to the Secretary of the
Interior, May 6, 1862. The Commissioner's letter and the memorial were
sent to Aldrich, May 9, 1862.]

[Footnote 649: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, E 94.
of 1862.]

[Footnote 650: Coffin to Dole, April 5, 1862, Ibid., C 1583.]

[Footnote 651: Communication of April 10, 1862, transmitted by Chapman
to Dole, Ibid., C 1640.]

[Footnote 652: Elder to Coffin, July 9, 1862, Ibid., E 114.]

[Footnote 653: Coffin to Dole, November 16, 1862, Ibid., C
1904.]

a willingness to sell a part of their Reserve; but again Coffin was
too grasping and another season of waiting intervened.

With slightly better success the Kickapoos were approached. Their
lands were coveted by the Atchison and Pike's Peak Railway Company
and Agent O.B. Keith used his good offices in the interest of that
corporation.[654] Good offices they were, from the standpoint of
benefit to the grantees, but most disreputable from that of the
grantors. He bribed the chiefs outrageously and the lesser men
among the Kickapoos indignantly protested.[655] Rival political and
capitalistic concerns, emanating from St. Joseph, Missouri, and from
the northern tier of counties in Kansas,[656] took up the quarrel and
never rested until they had forced a hearing from the government. The
treaty was arrested after it had reached the presidential proclamation
stage and was in serious danger of complete invalidation.[657] It
passed muster only when a Senate amendment had rendered it reasonably
acceptable to the Kickapoos.

Not much headway was made with Indian treaty-making in 1862.[658] In
March, 1863, an element

[Footnote 654: Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Kickapoo_, I
655 of 1862 and I 361 of 1864.]

[Footnote 655:--Ibid., B 355 of 1863 and I 361 of 1864.]

[Footnote 656: Albert W. Horton to Pomeroy, June 20, 1863 and O.B.
Keith to Pomeroy, June 20, 1863, Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Kickapoo_, G 59 and P 64 of 1863.]

[Footnote 657: Lane and A.C. Wilder requested the Interior Department,
September 1, 1863, "that no rights be permitted to attach to R.R.
Co. until charges of fraud in connection with Kickapoo Treaty are
settled." Their request was replied to, September 12, 1863 [Interior
Department, _Register of Letters Received_, January 2, 1862 to
December 27, 1865, "Indians," no. 4, 361].]

[Footnote 658: Dole, however, seems to have become thoroughly
reconciled to the idea. He submitted his views upon the subject once
more in connection with a memorial that Pomeroy referred to the
Secretary of the Interior "for the concentration of the Indian tribes
of the West and especially those of Kansas, in the Indian country ...
" [Dole to Smith, November 22, 1862, Indian Office _Report Book_,
no. 12, pp. 505-506; Department of the Interior, _Register of
Letters Received_, vol. D, November 22, 1862]. (cont.)]

conditioning a greater degree of success was introduced into the
government policy.[659] That was by the Indian appropriation act,
which, in addition to continuing the practice of applying tribal
annuities to the relief of refugees, authorized the president to
negotiate with Kansas tribes for their removal from Kansas and with
the loyal portion of Indian Territory tribes for cessions of land
on which to accommodate them.[660] As Dole pertinently remarked to
Secretary Usher, the measure was all very well as a policy in prospect
but it was one that most certainly could not be carried out until
Indian Territory was in Federal possession. Blunt was still striving
after possession or re-possession but his force was not "sufficient to
insure beyond peradventure his success."[661]

Scarcely had the law been enacted when John Ross and other Cherokees,
living in exile and in affluence, offered to consider proposals for
a retrocession to the United States public domain of their Neutral
Lands. The Indian Office was not yet prepared to treat and not until
November did Ross and his associates[662] get any

[Footnote 658: (cont.) December 26, 1862, Dole wrote to Smith thus:
"... It being in contemplation to extinguish the Indian title to lands
... in Kansas and provide them with homes in the Indian Territory ...
I would recommend that a commissioner should be appointed to negotiate
... I would accordingly suggest that Robt. S. Corwin be appointed ..."
[Indian Office _Report Book_, no. 13, pp. 12-13]. Now Corwin's
reputation was not such as would warrant his selection for the post.
He was not a man of strict integrity. His name is connected with many
shady transactions in the early history of Kansas.]

[Footnote 659: Presumably, Lane was the chief promoter of it. See
Baptiste Peoria to Dole, February 9, 1863, Indian Office General
Files, _Osage River_, 1863-1867.]

[Footnote 660: _U.S. Statutes at Large_, vol. xii, 793.]

[Footnote 661: Dole to Usher, July 29, 1863, Indian Office _Report
Book_, no. 13, p. 211.]

[Footnote 662: His associates were then the three men, Lewis Downing,
James McDaniel, and Evan Jones, who had been appointed delegates with
him, (cont.)]

real encouragement[663] to renew their offer, yet the Cherokees had
as early as February repudiated their alliance with the southern
Confederacy. That the United States government was only awaiting a
time most propitious for itself is evident from the fact that, when,
in the spring following, refugees from the Neutral Lands were given
an opportunity to begin their backward trek, they were told that they
would not be permitted to linger at their old homes but would have to
go on all the way to Fort Gibson, one hundred twenty miles farther
south.[664] That was one way of ridding Kansas of her Indians and a
way not very creditable to a professed and powerful guardian.

Almost simultaneously with Ross's first application came an offer from
the oppressed Delawares to look for a new home in the far west, in
Washington Territory. The majority preferred to go to the Cherokee
country.[665] Some of the tribe had already lived there and wanted to
return. Had the minority gained their point, the Delawares would have
traversed the whole continent within the space of about two and a half
centuries. They would have wandered from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
from the Susquehanna River to the Willamette, in a desperate effort to
escape the avaricious pioneer, and, to their own chagrin, they would
have found him on the western coast also. Never again would there be
any place for them free from his influence.

In the summer of 1863, negotiations were undertaken

[Footnote 662: (cont.) by the newly-constructed national council, for
doing business with the United States government [Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, _Report_, 1863, p. 23].]

[Footnote 663: See Office letter of November 19, 1863.]

[Footnote 664: David M. Harlan to Dole, December 20, 1864, Indian
Office General Files, Cherokee 1859-1865, H 1033.]

[Footnote 665: Johnson to Dole, May 24, 1863, ibid., _Delaware_,
1862-1866.]

in deadly earnest. A commencement was made with the Creeks in May,
Agent Cutler calling the chiefs in council and laying before them
the draft of a treaty that had been prepared, upon the advice
of Coffin,[666] in Washington and that had been entrusted for
transmission to the unscrupulous ex-agent, Perry Fuller.[667] The
Creek chiefs consented to sell a tract of land for locating other
Indians upon, but declared themselves opposed to any plan for
"sectionizing" their country and asked that they might be consulted as
to the Indians who were to share it with them. The month before they
had prayed to be allowed to go back home. Well fed and clothed though
they were, and quite satisfied with their agent, they were terribly
homesick.[668] Might they not go down and clean out their country for
themselves? It seemed impossible for the army to do it.[669]

Coffin next came forward with a suggestion that Indian colonization in
Texas would be far preferable to colonization elsewhere, although if
nothing better could be done, he would advocate the selection of the
Osage land on the Arkansas and its tributaries.[670] Why he wanted to
steer clear of the Indian Territory is not

[Footnote 666: "... I would most respectfully suggest that a Treaty be
gotten up by you and the Sec. of the Interior, and sent to me and Gov.
Carney and some other suitable com. to have ratified in due form and
returned. And you will pardon me for saying that the Treaty should
be a model for all that are to follow with the broken and greatly
reduced, and fragmental tribes in the Indian Territory, and may
be made greatly to promote the interests of the Indians and the
Government especially in view of the removal of the Indians
from Kansas and Nebraska as contemplated by recent Act of
Congress."--COFFIN to Dole, March 22, 1863, Ibid., Land Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870, C 117.]

[Footnote 667: Cutler to Dole, May, 1863, Ibid., General Files,
_Creek_, 1860-1869, C 240.]

[Footnote 668: Ok-ta-ha-ras Harjo and others to "Our Father," April 1,
1863, (Indian Office General Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869).]

[Footnote 669: Same to same, May 16, 1863, Ibid., O 6.]

[Footnote 670: Coffin to Dole, May 23, 1863, Ibid., Land Files,
_Southern Superintendency_, 1855-1870.]

evident. The Pottawatomies[671] asked to be allowed to settle on the
Creek land,[672] but the Creeks were letting their treaty hang fire.
They wanted it made in Washington, D.C., and they wanted one of their
great men, Mik-ko-hut-kah, then with the army, to assist in its
negotiation.[673] Opoeth-le-yo-ho-la had died in the spring[674] and
they were seemingly feeling a little helpless and forlorn.

Thinking to make better progress with the treaties and better terms
if he himself controlled the government end of the negotiations,
Commissioner Dole undertook a trip west in the late summer.[675] By
the third of September the Creek treaty was an accomplished fact.[676]
Aside from the cession of land for the accommodation of Indian
emigrants, its most important provision was a recognition of the
binding force of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In due course,
the treaty went to the Senate and, in March, was accepted by that body
with amendments.[677] It went back to the

[Footnote 671: A treaty had been made with the Pottawatomies by W.W.
Ross, their agent, November 15, 1861 [ibid., _Pottawatomie_,
I 547 of 1862]. Its negotiation was so permeated by fraud that the
Indians refused to let it stand [Dole to Smith, January 15, 1862].
At this time, 1863, Superintendent Branch, against whom charges of
gambling, drunkenness, licentiousness, and misuse of annuity funds
had been preferred by Agent Ross [Indian Office General Files,
_Pottawatomie_, R 21 and 143 of 1863], was endeavoring to
persuade Father De Smet to establish a Roman Catholic Mission on their
Reserve. De Smet declined because of the exigencies of the war. His
letter of January 5, 1863, has no file mark.]

[Footnote 672: Cutler to Dole, June 6, 1863, Indian Office General
Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869.]

[Footnote 673:--Ibid.]

[Footnote 674: Coffin to Dole, March 22, 1863.]

[Footnote 675: Proctor's letter of July 31, 1863 would indicate that
Dole went to the Cherokee Agency before the Sac and Fox. Proctor was
writing from the former place and he said, "Mr. Dole leaves to-day
for Kansas ..." [Indian Office General Files, _Southern
Superintendency_, 1863-1864, C 466].]

[Footnote 676: Indian Office Land Files, _Treaties_, Box 3,
1864-1866.]

[Footnote 677: Usher to Dole, March 23, 1864, Ibid.,]

Indians but they rejected it altogether.[678] The Senate amendments
were not such as they could conscientiously and honorably submit
to and maintain their dignity as a preeminently loyal and
semi-independent people.[679] One of the amendments was particularly
obnoxious. It affected the provision that deprived the southern Creeks
of all claims upon the old home.[680] Dole's Creek treaty of 1863 was
never ratified.

Other treaties negotiated by Dole were with the Sacs and Foxes of
Mississippi,[681] the Osages, the Shawnees,[682]

[Footnote 678: Its binding force upon them was, however, a subject
of discussion afterwards and for many years [Superintendent Byers
to Lewis V. Bogy, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, February 7, 1867,
Ibid., General Files, _Creek_, 1860-1869, B 94].]

[Footnote 679: For an interpretation of the treaty relative to the
claims of the loyal Creeks, see Dole to Lane, January 27, 1864
[ibid., _Report Book_, no. 13, pp. 287-291]. It is interesting to
note that a certain Mundy Durant who had been sixty years in the Creek
Nation, put in a claim, February 23, 1864, in behalf of the "loyal
Africans." He asked "that they have guaranteed to them equal rights
with the Indians ..." "All of our boys," said he, "are in the army and
I feel they should be remembered ..." [Ibid., General Files,
_Creek_, 1860-1869, D 362].]

[Footnote 680: Article IV. Both the Creeks and the Seminoles, in
apprising the Indian Office of the fact that they had organized as a
nation, had voiced the idea that the southern Indians had forfeited
all their rights "to any part of the property or annuities ..."]

[Footnote 681: The Sacs and Foxes brought forward a claim against
the southern refugees, for the "rent of 204 buildings," amounting to
$14,688.00 [Indian Office Land Files, _Southern Superintendency_,
1855-1870, Letter of May 14, 1864. See also Dole to Usher, March 25,
1865, Ibid., also I 952, C 1264, and C 1298, Ibid.,].
Coffin thought the best way to settle their claim was to give them a
part of the Creek cession [Coffin to Martin, May 23, 1864, and Martin
to Dole, May 26, 1864, Ibid., General Files, _Sac and
Fox_, 1862-1866, M 284]. The Sac and Fox chiefs were willing to
submit the case to the arbitrament of Judge James Steele. Martin was
of the opinion that should their treaty, then pending, fail it would
be some time before they would consent to make another. This treaty
had been obtained with difficulty, only by Dole's "extraordinary
exertions with the tribe" [Martin to Dole, May 2, 1864, Ibid.,
M 270].]

[Footnote 682: Negotiations with the Shawnees had been undertaken in
1862. In June, Black Bob, the chief of the Shawnees on the Big Blue
Reserve in Johnson County, Kansas, protested against a treaty then
before Congress. He claimed it was a fraud (cont.)]

and the New York Indians. He attempted one with the Kaws but
failed.[683] The Osages, who had

[Footnote 682: (cont.) [Telegram, A.H. Baldwin to Dole, June 4, 1862,
ibid., _Shawnee_, 1855-1862, B 1340 of 1862], which was the red
man's usual appraisement of the white man's dealings. A rough draft
of another treaty seems to have been sent to Agent Abbott for the
Shawnees on July 18 and another, substantially the same, December 29.
One of the matters that called for adjustment was the Shawnee contract
with the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Dole affirming that "as the
principal members of that corporation, and those who control it are
now in rebellion against the U.S. Government, the said contract is
to be regarded as terminated...." [Indian Office Land Files,
_Shawnee_, 1860-1865, I 865]. Usher's letter to Dole of December
27, 1862 was the basis of the instruction. Dole's negotiations of 1863
were impeached as were all the previous, Black Bob and Paschal Fish,
the first and second chiefs of the Chillicothe Band of Shawnees,
leading the opposition. Agent Abbott was charged with using
questionable means for obtaining Indian approval [Ibid.,
General Files, _Shawnee_, 1863-1875]. Conditions at the Shawnee
Agency had been in a bad state for a long time, since before the
war. Guerrilla attacks and threatened attacks had greatly disturbed
domestic politics. They had interfered with the regular tribal
elections.

"Last fall (1862), owing to the constant disturbance on the border of
Mo., the election was postponed from time to time, until the 12th of
January. Olathe had been sacked, Shawnee had been burned, and the
members of the Black Bob settlement had been robbed and driven from
their homes, and it had not been considered safe for any considerable
number to congregate together from the fact that the Shawnees usually
all come on horseback, and the bushwhackers having ample means to know
what was going on, would take the opportunity to make a dash among
them, and secure their horses.

"De Soto was designated as the place to hold the election it being
some twenty miles from the border ..."--Abbott to Dole, April 6, 1863,
Ibid., Land Files, _Shawnee_, 1860-1865, A 158. In the
summer, the Shawnees made preparations for seeking a new home. Their
confidence in Abbott must have been by that time somewhat restored,
since the prospecting delegation invited him to join it [ibid.,
_Shawnee_, A 755 of 1864]. A chief source of grievance against him
and cause for distrust of him had reference to certain depredation
claims of the Shawnees [Ibid., General Files, _Shawnee_,
1855-1862, I 801].]

[Footnote 683: The Kaw lands had been greatly depredated upon and
encroached upon [Ibid., Land Files, _Kansas_, 1862]. Dole
anticipated that troubles were likely to ensue at any moment. He,
therefore, desired to put the Kaws upon the Cherokee land just as soon
as it was out of danger [Dole to H.W. Farnsworth, October 24, 1863,
ibid., _Letter Book_, no. 72, p. 57]. Jeremiah Hadley, the agent
for a contemplated Mission School among the Kaws, was much exercised
as to how a removal might affect his contract and work. See his letter
to Dole, November 17, 1863.

An abortive treaty was likewise made with the Wyandots, whom Dole
(cont.)]

recently[684] so generously consented to receive the unwelcome

[Footnote 683: (cont.) designed to place upon the Seneca-Shawnee
lands. Both the Wyandots and the Seneca-Shawnees objected to the
ratification of the treaty [Coffin to Dole, January 28, 1864, Indian
Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, C 639 of 1864].]

[Footnote 684: They had recently done another thing that, at the time
of occurrence, the Federals in Kansas deemed highly commendable. They
had murderously attacked a group of Confederate recruiting officers,
whom they had overtaken or waylaid on the plains. The following
contemporary documents, when taken in connection with Britton's
account [_Civil War on the Border_, vol. ii, 228], W.L. Bartles's
address [Kansas Historical Society, _Collections_, vol. viii,
62-66], and Elder's letter to Blunt, May 17, 1863, _Official
Records_, vol. xxii, part ii, 286, amply describe the affair:

(a)

"I have just returned to this place from the Grand Council of the
Great and Little Osage Indians. I found them feeling decidedly fine
over their recent success in destroying a band of nineteen rebels
attempting to pass through their country. A band of the Little Osages
met them first and demanded their arms and that they should go with
them to Humboldt (as we instructed them to do at the Council at
Belmont). The rebels refused and shot one of the Osages dead. The
Osages then fired on them. They ran and a running fight was kept up
for some 15 miles. The rebel guide was killed early in the action.
After crossing Lightning Creek, the rebels turned up the creek toward
the camp of the Big Hill Camp. The Little Osages had sent a runner
to aprise the Big Hills of the presence of the rebels and they were
coming down the creek 400 strong, and met the rebels, drove them to
the creek and surrounded them. The rebels displayed a white flag but
the Indians disregarded it. They killed all of them as they supposed;
but afterwards learned that two of them, badly wounded, got down a
steep bank of the creek and made their escape down the creek. They
scalped them all and cut their heads off. They killed 4 of their
horses (which the Indians greatly regretted) and captured 13, about 50
revolvers, most of the rebels having 4 revolvers, a carbine and
saber. There were 3 colonels, one lieutenant-colonel, one major and 4
captains. They had full authority to organise enroll and muster into
rebel service all the rebels in Colorado and New Mexico where they
were doubtless bound. Major Dowdney [Doudna] in command of troops at
Humboldt went down with a detachment and buried them and secured the
papers, letting the Indians keep all the horses, arms, etc. I have no
doubt that this will afford more protection to the frontiers of Kansas
than anything that has yet been done and from the frequency and
boldness of the raids recently something of the kind was very much
needed. The Indians are very much elated over it. I gave them all
the encouragement I could, distributed between two and three hundred
dollars worth of goods amongst them. There was a representative at the
Council from the Osages that have gone South, many of them now in the
army. He stated that they were all now very anxious to get back, and
wished to know if they should meet the loyal Osages on the hunt on the
Plains and come in with them if they could be suffered to stay. I gave
him a letter to them promising them if they returned immediately and
(cont.)]

refugees on the Ottawa Reserve,[685] were distinctly overreached by
the government representatives, working in the interest of corporate
wealth. In August, the chief men of the Osages had gone up to the Sac
and Fox Agency to confer with Dole,[686] but Dole was being

[Footnote 684: (cont.) joined their loyal brethren in protecting the
frontiers, running down Bushwhackers, and ridding the country of
rebels, they should be protected. I advised them to come immediately
to Humboldt and report to Major Dowdney and he would furnish them
powder and lead to go on the hunt. This seemed to give great
satisfaction to all the chiefs as they are exceedingly desirous to
have them back and the representative started immediately back with
the letter, and the Indians as well as the Fathers of the Mission have
no doubt but they will return. If so, it will very materially weaken
the rebel force now sorely pressing Col. Phillips' command at Fort
Gibson.

"The Osages are now very desirous to make a treaty are willing to sell
25 miles in width by 50 off the east end of their reservation and 20
miles wide off the north side, but I will write more fully of this
in a day or two."--COFFIN to Dole, June 10, 1863, Indian Office
Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, C 299 of 1863.

(b)

"It will be remembered that sometime in the month of May last a party
consisting of nineteen rebel officers duly commissioned and authorised
to organise the Indians and what rebels they might find in Colorado
and New Mexico against the Government of the United States while
passing through the country of the Great and Little Osages were
attacked and the whole party slaughtered by these Indians. As an
encouragement to those Indians to continue their friendship and
loyalty to our Government, I would respectfully recommend that medals
be given to the Head Chief of the combined tribes, White Hair, and the
Head Chief of the Little Bear and the chiefs of the Big Hill bands,
Clarimore and Beaver, four in all who were chiefly instrumental in the
destruction of those emissaries.

"I believe the bestowal of the medals would be a well deserved
acknowledgment to those chiefs for an important service rendered and
promotive of good."--COFFIN to Dole, Indian Office Consolidated Files,
_Neosho_. C 596.]

[Footnote 685: Coffin to Dole, July 13, 1863, Ibid., General
Files, _Southern Superintendency_, 1863-1864. Coffin had been
directed, by an office letter of June 24 to have the refugees removed.
See also, Dole to Hutchinson, June 24, 1863, ibid., _Letter
Book_, no. 71, p. 69. Other primary sources bearing upon this
matter are, Hutchinson to ?, June 11, 1863, ibid., _Ottawa_,
1863-1873, H 230; Elder to Dole, August 10, 1863, _Neosho_, E 22
of 1863; Hutchinson to Dole, August 21, 1863, _Ottawa_, D 236 of
1863; Mix to Elder, September 11, 1863, ibid., _Letter Book_, no.
71, p. 383.]

[Footnote 686: "About 100 of the Osages with their Chiefs and headmen
visited the Sac and Fox agency to meet me on the 20th to Council and
probably make a treaty to dispose of a part of their reserve. I was
detained with the Delawares and Quantrels raid upon Lawrence and did
not reach the reserve (cont.)]

unavoidably detained by the Delawares and by Quantrill's raid upon
Lawrence,[687] so, becoming impatient, they left. The commissioner
followed them to Leroy and before the month was out, he was able to
report a treaty as made.[688] It was apparently done over-night and
yet

[Footnote 686: (cont.) until the 25th and found the Osages had left
that day for their homes. I followed them to this place [Leroy] 40
miles south of the Sac and Fox agency and have been in Council with
them for two days. I have some doubt about succeeding in a treaty as
the Indians do not understand parting with their lands in trust. I
could purchase all we want at present for not exceeding 25 cts pr acre
but doubt whether the Senate would ratify such a purchase--as they
have adopted the Homestead policy with the Gov't lands and would not
wish to purchase of the Indians to give to the whites. I propose to
purchase 25 miles by 40 in the S.E. corner of their reserve @ 5 pr.
ct making a dividend of 10,000 annually. I have two reasons for this
purchase. 1st I want the land for other Kansas tribes and 2nd The
Indians are paupers now and must have this much money any way or
starve. Then I propose to take in trust the north half of their
reserve--to be sold for their benefit as the Sac and Fox and other
tribes dispose of their lands. To this last the Indians object they
want to sell outright and I may fail in consequence. We shall not
differ much about the details--if we can agree on the main points--I
shall know to-day--

"From here I return to the Sac and Fox agency where I have some hopes
of making a treaty with them or at least agree upon the main points so
soon as they can be provided with another home--The fact that we have
failed to drive the traitors out of the Indian Country interfers very
much with my operations here--from the Sac and Fox Reserve I may go to
the Pottawatamies but rather expect that I will return to Leavenworth
where I shall again council with the Delawares and from there go to
the Kickapoos--Senator Pomeroy is here with me and will probably
remain with me--Judge Johnston is also with me and assisting me as
Clerk since Mr. Whiting left. This is not considered as a very safe
country as Bush Whackers are plenty and bold--You may show this to Sec
Usher--"--Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, D 195 of
1863.]

[Footnote 687: Connelley, _Quantrill and the Border Wars_,
335-420.]

[Footnote 688: "I arrived here last night from Leroy, after having
succeeded in effecting a treaty with the Osage Indians by which the
Govt. obtain of them by purchase thirty miles in extent off the East
end of their reserve (at a cost of 300,000$ to remain on interest
_forever_ at _5 pr ct_--which gives them an annuity of
15000$ annually)--They also cede to the U.S. _in trust_ twenty
miles off the North side of the Bal. of their reserve the full extent
east and west--to be disposed of as the Sec. Int. shall direct for
their benefit--with the usual reserves to half breeds--provision for
schools etc.--I have been all this afternoon in Council with the
Delewares who have to the No. of 30 or 40 followed me out here for the
purpose of again talking over (cont.)]

it was not a conclusive thing; for, in October, the Osage chiefs were
still making propositions[689] and

[Footnote 688: (cont.) the proposed treaty with them. They had trouble
after I left them at Leavenworth, but our council today has done good
and they have just left for home with the agreement to call a council
and send a delegation to the Cherokees to look up a new home--When
will Jno. Ross leave for his people. I wish he could be there when the
Delaware delegation goes down--as I am exceedingly anxious that they
get a home of the Cherokees.

"I think there is but little doubt but I shall make a treaty with the
Sac and Foxes as they say they are _satisfied_ to remove to a
part of the Land I have purchased of the Osages--on the line next the
Cherokees--I can make a treaty with the Creeks and may do so but I
think I will make it _conditional_ upon the signatures of some of
the Chiefs now in the army--Those here are very anxious to treat and
sell us a large tract of the country The trouble with the Southern
Indians is their claims for losses by the war I will have to put in
a clause of some kind to satisfy them on that subject--That they are
entitled to it I have no doubt--but what view Congress will take
of it--or the Senate in ratifying the treaty of course I cannot
tell--Some of the Wyandots are here--

"I have just closed a Council with the Sac and Foxes and have heard
many fine speeches. We meet again day after tomorrow--as tomorrow
must be appropriated to the Creeks--I think I shall have a success
here--The Sack and Foxes to the No of say two hundred have a dance out
on the green They are dressed and painted for the occasion and as it
is in honor of my visit I must go out and witness it * * * Well we
have had an extensive dance which cost me a beef and while waiting for
a Chipaway Chief who comes as I learn to complain of his agent I go on
with my Letter--The New York Indians are tolerably well represented
and I shall talk with them tonight--This is a grand jubilee amongst
the Indians here. So many tribes and parts of tribes or their Chiefs
gathered here to see the Comr. Paint and feathers are in great demand
and singing, whooping--and the Drum is constantly ringing in my
ears. I am satisfied that it is a good arrangement to have them here
together it is cheaper and better and saves much time.

"I made a great mistake that I did not bring maps of the reserves
and especially of the Indian Territory--I do the best I can from the
Treaties.

"I have had no mail for Eight Days as my mail is at Leavenworth. I
expect my letters day after tomorrow when I hope to have a late letter
from you as well as one from the Sec.--Will you please send Hutchinson
some money he must have funds to pay for surveying and alloting the
Ottawa reserve The survey is finished and pay demanded."

[Indian Office Consolidated Files, _Neosho_, D 198 of 1863].]

[Footnote 689: The propositions were in the form of a memorandum,
drawn up by White Hair, principal chief of the Great and Little
Osages, and Little Bear, principal chief of the Little Osages, who, in
conjunction with Charles Mograin, assistant head chief of the Great
and Little Osages, had been (cont.)]

making them after the fashion of the Creeks long before at Indian
Springs.[690] Dole had finally to be told that the rank and file of
the Osages would not allow their chiefs to confer with him except
in general council.[691] As a matter of fact, not one of the Dole
treaties could run the gauntlet of criticism and, consequently, the
whole project of treaty-making in 1862 and 1863 accomplished nothing
beneficial. It only served to complicate a situation already serious
and to forecast that when the great test should come, as come it
surely would, the government would be found wanting, lacking in
magnanimity, lacking in justice, and all too willing to sacrifice its
honor for big interests and transient causes.

[Footnote 689: (cont.) solicited by their people, when in council at
Humboldt, July 4, to proceed to Washington and interview their Great
Father [Coffin to Dole, July 16, 1863, Indian Office Consolidated
Files, _Neosho_, C 365 of 1863]. The propositions were to the
effect that the Osages would gladly sell thirty miles by twenty miles
off the southeast corner of their Reserve and one-half of the Reserve
on the north for $1,350,000, which should draw six per cent interest
until paid [Ibid., D 239 of 1863]. John Schoenmaker of the
Osage Mission was apprehensive that the Roman Catholic interests would
be disregarded as in the Potawatomi Treaty. See letter to Coffin, June
25th.]

[Footnote 690: Abel, _Indian Consolidation West of the
Mississippi_.]

[Footnote 691: Charles Mograin warned Dole of this.]