The American Indian as Slaveholder and Seccessionist: An Omitted Chapter in the Diplomatic History of the Southern ConfederacyAbel, Annie Heloise
History
The American Indian as Slaveholder and Seccessionist: An Omitted Chapter in the Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy
Abel, Annie Heloise
Indian Territory; Slavery -- United States; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
I told him plainly that Government was shamefully misrepresented, that
the treaties bound him to all the states alike, that the U. S. could
not fall with all the Army & Navy at her disposal, & that should the
South ever succeed in gaining her own independence the free States
would fight till not a man, woman or child was left, before yielding
one inch of Territory to the rebels. The war being entered into not so
much either for or against slavery in the states, as to protect the
Constitutional rights of Government in the Territories. The Chief told
me that all the full Indians everywhere were with the Gov't, that he
did not wish to fight, nor did his people, they had hoped to be left
to themselves untill the whites settled their quarrels, his people had
enough of war in Florida, & were now anxious for peace. He would
however go to the Creek Agency & tell Capt. Pike & Ben McCulloch their
determination. I believe the object of Pike in drawing the Seminoles
to the Creek country was that he could thus bring Creek influence to
bear upon them. When Pike's letter came, the Bearer sent word to the
Chief to meet him ten miles below, where they were read, but this
caution did not keep them out of sight, as the Chief immediately
brought them to me, to whom as clerk they should have come at first,
but a "white man" was declared to be the adviser of the Seminoles, for
whom a black jack limb would soon suffice. I knew it dangerous to
await the arrival of my ranger friends, & with my wife I left on
horseback, traveling in a Kickapoo trail, coming in above the Creek
country, as they had seceded--I was questioned a good deal in the
Cherokee Nation, but not interfered with as I was personally
acquainted with their leading half breeds, and my wife being fortunate
enough to have a Virginia birth and a brother in Missouri.
When within a half hour's travel of the Neosho River, my shot gun was
taken by a company of men, organized that day--the 2d after Seymour
was killed--they said "to clean out Kansas Jay hawkers."
The influence of Capt. Pike the Rebel Commissioner is second to no
man's among the Southern Indians & I fear that he may succeed in his
intrigues with the other tribes, the Creeks, Chickasaws, & Choctaws
having already gone. The Cherokees refuse to go as a Nation, & no one
is a firmer friend to the Union than John Ross, their Chief, but
traitors are scheming, and the half breeds in favor of the South, want
an army to come in, in which event they promise to be "forced in" to
the Arms of Jeff. Davis, & the select crowd of traitors at Montgomery.
There are many true & loyal men even among the half breeds, some of
the Judges of their courts I know to be so, while all the full blood
element is with the Gov't.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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