70-23,966 BUICE, Sammy David, 1940- THE CIVIL WAR AND THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES A STUDY IN FEDERAL-INDIAN RELATIONS. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1970 History, general University Microfilms, A XERQ\Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © SAMMY DAVID BUICE 1970 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE CIVIL WAR AND THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES - A STUDY IN FEDERAL-INDIAN RELATIONS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY sT DAVID BUICE Norman, Oklahoma 1970 THE CIVIL WAR AND THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES - A STUDY IN FEDERAL-INDIAN RELATIONS APPROVED BY 7 ^ /// DISSERTATION COMMITTEE TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page PREFACE ....................................... iii I. INTRODUCTION: WHITE MAN AND I N D I A N ......... 1 II. THE PIKE TREATIES ............................. 15 III. THE GREAT SOUTHERN EXPEDITION ................ 60 IV. CONGRESS, KANSAS THE THE INDIAN QUESTION . 95 V. A PROCLAMATION UNISSUED, A PEOPLE UNPROTECTED ................................... 117 VI. EARLY TREATY NEGOTIATIONS AND THE KANSAS IMBROGLIO ..................................... 150 VII. RETURN OF THE R E F U G E E S ...................... 185 VIII. LATER TREATY NEGOTIATIONS .................... 207 IX. CONTRACTORS AND CATTLE T H I E V E S .............. 233 X. WAR'S END .................... 265 XI. THE TREATIES OF 1866 312 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................ 347 MAP: INDIAN TERRITORY--1860 ............................. 14 PREFACE Innumerable scholars have examined virtually every phase of this country's Civil War. One facet of that momentous struggle which has received relatively little attention, however, is the way in which this conflict affected and altered the Federal government's relations with the Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory. As the tide of war swept across the country and the United States abdicated all authority in the Indian Territory, the people of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole tribes had little choice except to break their ties with the Federal government and join forces with the South. Gradually this realignment was accomplished, and by the end of 1861 the Five Civilized Tribes, along with a number of smaller tribes, had established treaty relations with the new Confederate government. In the case of the Civilized Tribes, in no instance was total unity beneath the Confederate banner achieved, and by early 1862 the Federal government was faced with the task of sustaining an ever growing number of loyal tribesmen driven from their homes into Kansas by their rebel brethren and white secessionists. In the long months and years following this exodus, all too often the interests of the loyal Indians were ignored as iii politicians and military men connived and fought to advance their own interests and those of their supporters. When hostilities ceased in 1865 the tribesmen of the Indian Territory had sustained losses probably as great as those inflicted on any people during the war. Nonetheless, all--both the loyal and the disloyal alike--were forced to do penance for their "traitorous" behavior by yielding to stringent Federal demands. The history of this chain of events is as complex as it is unfortunate. If this study sheds some new light on those confusing years, years of great import for the Five Civilized Tribes, it will have fulfilled its purpose. Any historical work reflects the combined efforts and talents of many people. To my ever patient directing professor. Dr. Donald J. Berthrong, I wish to express appreciation for the invaluable contribution he has made in guiding this study to its completion. I am also indebted to the other members of my committee. Dr. Arrell M. Gibson, Dr. Norman L. Crockett, Dr. Robert E. Shalhope and Dr. Joseph C. Pray, for their services in reading the text and making suggestions designed to make the finished product more worthy. A special word of thanks must be extended to Mr. Jack Haley, assistant curator of the Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, for the indispensable assistance which he has provided on numerous occasions. In addition, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the staffs of the following institutions: the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, iv the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, and the National Archives, Washington, D. C. To the following ladies, Mrs. Portia Stokes, Mrs. Ruth F. Shoap, Mrs. Barbara Kirkland and Mrs. Cora Byers, all staff members of the Prescott Library, Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, I express my appreciation for assistance rendered in ferreting out much-needed research materials. Finally, a few personal words. To my mother-in-law, Mrs. Helen Hill, I wish to extend my deepest gratitude for moral and financial support without which this project could not have been sustained. To two young gentlemen, David and Brooks, I express thanks for their long-suffering patience in putting up with only half a father for over a year. And to my devoted helpmate and wife, Evelyn, I owe a debt for which mere words are a totally inadequate recompense. Her always strong and courageous arm of support guided me through numerous tribulations which alone I never could have overcome. S.D.B. V THE CIVIL WAR AND THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES - A STUDY IN FEDERAL-INDIAN RELATIONS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: WHITE MAN AND INDIAN The problems facing the white man when he reached North America were legion. Foremost among these was the necessity of resolving conflicting European claims to the continent. Arriving first the Spanish claimed all of North America, an assertion based upon Alexander Vi's bull of May, 1493. But as Sir Walter Raleigh later observed, papal bulls could not gore nearly so well as they could bellow. Refusing to respect the sanctity of the Pope's decree, other European powers eventually staked out footholds in the Spanish domain. Spain’s inability to repulse the intruders necessitated the formulation of some principle whereby conflicting claims could be resolved and perpetual war avoided.^ In terms of strict legal niceties, this problem was ^Wilcomb E. Washburn, "The Moral and Legal Justifi­ cations for Dispossessing the Indians," Seventeenth Century America, ed. James Morton Smith (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), pp. 17-18. never resolved. A principle gradually emerged which held that discovery gave title to the government by whose subjects or by whose authority it was m ade. To this principle the British added a corollary, known as the doctrine of effective occupation which argued that areas not actually colonized were open to anyone for the taking. Still, the question of conflicting claims remained unresolved, and the maritime powers thus resorted to Machiavellian tactics, settling their rivalries as often as not through force of arms rather 2 - — than jurisprudence. A problem of equal perplexity and magnitude was that of living with the Indian Inhabitants of North America, and none of the powers dealt with this problem In exactly the same manner. While It Is extremely difficult to make accurate generalizations on early European-Indian relations. It appears that the English colonists soon concluded that the Indian had a title to his lands based on actual use, a claim that could not be summarily dismissed if constant warfare was to be avoided. While English colonists were by no means always scrupulous in observing this right, the colonial period is not without examples of English attempts to deal ^Opinion of John Marshall in Johnson and Graham* s Lessee vs. McIntosh, 8 Wheaton, p. 5 73; Max Savelle, The Origins of American Diplomacy; The International History of Anglo-America, 1492-T~763 (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1937), p p . 27-28. fairly with the Indians. Contrary to popular myth, the settlers of New England made attempts to treat the area's native inhabitants justly, and the crown on its part did not as a rule interfere with the internal affairs of the tribes. Actions such as these, however, produced no era of permanent peace between Englishmen and Indian. The greed of white colonists, the clash of alien cultures and, on occasion, Indian militancy combined to produce decades of intermittent conflict throughout the English colonies.^ After the outbreak of revolution in 1775, the Continental Congress quickly attempted to assume control over the Indians living east of the Mississippi River. Recognizing the military necessity of maintaining the friend­ ship of these tribes, the Continental Congress on June 16, 1775 established a five member committee of Indian affairs. The following month Congress established three Indian departments--the northern, middle and southern departments-- and provided that commissioners were to be appointed to superintend the affairs of each.^ These initial efforts were followed by the negotiation of a treaty with the Delawares ^Alden T. Vaughn, New England Frontier Puritans and Indians 1620-16 75 (Boston: Littla, Brown, 1965), pp. 93-154, passim; William T. Hagan, American Indians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), p. 8; opinion ofJohn Marshall in WorChester v s . the State of Georgia, 6 Peters, p. 547. ^Journals of the Continental Congress, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), II, pp. 93, 174-75. in 1778 and the signing of similar agreements with the Wyandots, Chippewas, Cherokees, Choctaws and Creeks, to name a few, in the immediate post-war period. In these pacts the Indians generally acknowledged themselves to be under the protection of the United States, tribal domains were delineated in great detail, and United States citizens were prohibited from settling on those lands reserved for the tribes. The Indians on their part relinquished all claims to those lands not within the boundaries spelled out in their respective treaties Unfortunately, pledges of protection and friendship and the circumscription of tribal domains did not bring lasting peace between the white man and the red.