ARTICLE XXXVIII (Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty). In order to secure the due enforcement of so much of the laws of the Confederate States in regard to criminal offences and misdemeanors as is or may be in force in the said Choctaw and Chickasaw country, and to prevent the Choctaws and Chickasaws from being further harassed by judicial proceedings had in foreign courts and before juries not of the vicinage, the said country is hereby erected into and constituted a judicial district of the Confederate States to be called the Tush-ca-hom-ma District, for the special purposes and jurisdiction hereinafter provided; and there shall be created and semi-annually held, within such district, at Boggy Depot, a district court of the Confederate States, with the powers of a circuit court, so far as the same shall be necessary to carry out the provisions of this treaty, and with jurisdiction co-extensive with the limits of such district, in such matters, civil and criminal, to such extent and between such parties as may be prescribed by law, and in conformity to the terms of this treaty [p. 320]. Articles XXXIX, XL, XLI, and XLII more specifically define the jurisdiction. [318] See Article XXIII of the Cherokee Treaty, and, for the jurisdiction of the court, see Articles XXIV, XXV, and XXVI. [319] Article XXXV. [320] Article XXVI. [321] Article XXVI. [322] In other ways than this, the treaties with the minor tribes stressed the "peculiar institution." Consider, for instance, in the matter of extradition, how it was not the criminal generally, but only the fugitive slave that was to be reciprocally extradited. Moreover, as a rule, the weak tribes all pledged themselves to try to return negroes and other property and were assured that negroes should come under the jurisdiction of tribal laws. [323] Article II [p. 395]. [324] Article LII [p. 410]. [325] Article XXXIX [p. 403]. [326] Without doubt some preliminary sounding of Leeper must have preceded the accompanying document. Pike would hardly have written with such assurance or given such instructions unless he had been very sure of his ground. FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS, 26th May 1861. SIR: I have been appointed by the President of the Confederate States of America Commissioner to the Indian Tribes West of Arkansas, with discretionary powers, for the purpose of making treaties of alliance with them, and of enlisting troops to act with the forces of the Confederate States. In the exercise of the powers entrusted to me, I hereby authorize and request you to exercise the powers of Agent for the Wichitas and other Indians in the Country leased from the Choctaws and Chickasaws, until you shall receive a regular commission therefor. Your compensation will be the same as that received from the United States, to commence from the day when you resigned as agent of the United States.