The American Indian Under Reconstruction. Annie Heloise Abel
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"from each of the following rebel tribes," Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, Caddo, and Osage, were summoned. Presumably all attended. Full and fierce discussion of all points involved was inevitable for the times were critical. Some of the delegates argued for immediate submission, some for continued loyalty to the South. Finally, the influence of Generals Maxey and Cooper, exerted from the outside, prevailed for the Confederacy and the ultimate resolution was, to make one more stand on Red River. Beyond that the council refused positively to commit its constituents; for the sight of the distressful body of refugees stretching all across the country was enough to shake the fortitude of the strongest. Near the eastern boundary line, under the shelter of the garrison at Fort Smith, were those Choctaws, mostly refugees, who had gathered at the New Hope convention, now dissolved; but other refugees, fearfully impoverished, were "clustered in great numbers from Washita River up Red River and on Washita below Fort Washita." Even the Indians of the least depleted resources and of the most pronounced secessionist persuasion were discouraged. Many were running their slaves, their only remaining tangible wealth, to the Brazos for safety.
The summer of '64 brought no return of good fortune to the Trans-Mississippi Department. Much had been hoped for but little realized and, as a consequence, the distress and dissatisfaction of the Indians had grown apace. Apparently, they had given up all thought of making their peace with the North. In an excess of recovered zeal for a doomed cause, they had allowed the moment for a possible reconciliation to pass and the Federals had made no new overtures. The Indian alliance was now a desperate case, yet there was no talk of abandoning it. Desperate remedies had to be applied and foremost among them was a reversion to savagery. Irregular warfare of the most deplorable and destructive kind was now the ordinary thing, particularly where the Cherokee champion, Stand Watie, led. For such as he, there could be no surrender. For him, utter despair was out of the question. Ready he was to risk everything, at any moment, in one last throw.
Another possible remedy, involving, perhaps, the essentials of the first, was an alliance with tribes that in happier days the highly-civilized southern would have scorned. This was something more than the Indian confederacy that the Choctaws had earlier projected. To consider its possibilities a general council was arranged for and invitations extended to all of their own group, to the indigenous and emigrant tribes of Kansas, and to the wild tribes of the plains. At the moment not much success attended the movement, owing to the promptness with which Superintendent Coffin and others organized a counter one. They assembled representatives of all the tribes they could reach in a "Grand Council" at the Sac and Fox Agency between the fifth and ninth of October and secured from them an expression of unswerving loyalty to the government of the United States. Meanwhile the southern tribes, desperately in earnest, so continued and redoubled their own efforts that constant vigilance was necessary in order to circumvent them.
Towards the close of the year, the best plan of all for defeating the purpose of the secessionists was devised by the Cherokees. Had it been put into operation, it might, not only have counteracted what Coffin called "the infamous machinations of the rebel hordes in the southwest," but likewise have prevented the depredations on the Colorado line that, unchecked, grew to such astounding proportions in the decade after the war had closed. It might, moreover, have recalled, though tardily, the secessionists to their allegiance and ended the tribal estrangements that were to result so disastrously in the adjustments at the peace council. The plan was outlined in a memorandum, addressed to President Lincoln by Lewis Downing, Acting Principal Chief of the Cherokees. It bore date, December 20, 1864. It is here given: -
We, the undersigned for ourselves and as the representatives of the Cherokee People, feeling an intense interest in maintaining perpetual harmony and good will among the various tribes of Indians mutually, as well as between these and the people and government of the United States, beg leave, very respectfully, to lay before your Excellency a few facts and suggestions relating to this important subject.
We deem it a matter of vast moment to the Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles, and to the State of Kansas and to Nebraska, as well as to the Whole Union, that the perfect friendship of the wild tribes be secured and maintained, while our friendship is of paramount importance to the said tribes; and it is with the deepest regret that we hear of and observe acts of hostility on the part of any Indians. It is our firm conviction that southern rebels are, and have been, instigating the wild tribes to take part in the present rebellion against the Federal Government. The depredations recently committed by portions of some of these tribes on emigrants crossing the western plains, we are forced to regard as the result of such instigations on the part of the rebels.
There are also indications that these tribes are forming into predatory bands and are engaged in stealing stock in connection with wicked white men who are first loyal and then rebel as best suits their purposes of stealing and robbery.
As the war progresses and the rebel armies are broken into fragments, the rebels will doubtless scatter among these tribes and will make every effort to organize them into banditti - . Then, when the strength of the rebellion is broken and peace is formally declared and we are off our guard, they will fall upon defenseless neighborhoods of loyal Indians, or whites, and plunder and kill unrestrained.
The highways to the Pacific States and to the gold regions of the West, they will infest, to harass emigrants and merchants and endanger their property and lives. To keep down such depredations by force of arms will require many men and a vast expense.
In our opinion no pains should be spared to gain the friendship of these people by peaceful means and thus secure their help against the rebels and in favor of the public peace.
In the year 18, a general convention of Indian Tribes was held at Tahlequah in the Cherokee Nation which convened at the call of the Cherokee National Council. Representatives from the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Delawares, Shawnees, Osages, Senecas, and twelve other nations attended this convention and participated in its deliberations. It was a harmonious, pleasant and profitable meeting of Red men of the West. Friendship and good will were established and a league was entered into by which the most friendly relations were maintained among the various tribes for many years. Arrangements were made for the punishment of crimes committed by the citizens of any nation on those of any other.
Many years have passed away since the said convention of tribes. Men who were then young now occupy prominent positions and are the rulers of their respective nations, yet they know but little of the harmonious feeling and the amity established among their fathers.
The long continuation of the present war, together with the lies and machinations of the rebels, operating on these ignorant tribes, have shaken the confidence of some of them in the government of the United States and, to some extent, made the impression that the Cherokees, Creeks, and other nations who are in alliance with the Federal Government, are the enemies of these wild tribes and that the enemies of the Government are their friends.
In view of this state of things we propose that the nations, who are righting under the banner of the Union, invite all the tribes of the Southwest and as many others as possible to meet in general convention and re-establish their league of amity and re-assert, in solemn council, their loyalty to the Federal Government. Let them there, in the presence of the Great Spirit, give mutual pledges to maintain the peace among themselves and with their white brethren, to abstain from all acts of theft, robbery, murder or violence, and to do all in their power to bring to justice any persons, either Indians or whites, who may be guilty of such acts, or may incite others to commit them under any pretex whatever.
Let them there league together to crush out the rebellion and put an end to the war throughout the country.
We propose that the said convention of tribes be held near Claremore's Mound, on the Verdigris River, in the Cherokee Nation and that it convene in the early part of next June.
We all desire very respectfully to request President Lincoln to send a talk signed with his own hand and sealed with the great seal of the United States to this convention. Let him also send a white pipe, and with tobacco and a white flag and the Book of God containing the talk of the Great Spirit to men. Let all be wrapped in the flag of Union and let him send some suitable person to deliver this talk, and on behalf of the President to smoke the pipe of peace with these nations of Indians beneath