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
... And the Confederate States will especially request the States of
Arkansas and Texas to grant the like amnesty as to all offences
committed by Choctaw or Chickasaw against the laws of those States
respectively, and the Governor of each to reprieve or pardon the same,
if necessary.[309]
Some evidence of the special interest Texas might have in the matter came
out rather prominently in the treaties of the Third Class, the amnesty in
them was particular while the amnesty in the treaties of the other two
classes was general. This is what the Wichita and Comanche say:
It is distinctly understood by the said several tribes and bands, that
the State of Texas is one of the Confederate States, and joins this
Convention, and signs it when the Commissioner signs it, and is bound
by it; and all hostilities and enmities between it and them are now
ended and are to be forgotten and forgiven on both sides.[310]
It soon developed that Texas was not pleased to find her consent so
thoroughly taken for granted and that the Reserve Indians were no better
satisfied. The enmity between the two continued as before.
As regarded the relations between the Indian tribes and the Confederate
States proper, the Pike treaties were old law in so far as they duplicated
the earlier United States treaty arrangements and new law only in so far
as they met conditions incident to the war. United States laws and
treaties were specifically continued in force wherever possible, and, in
most cases, the name of the one government was simply substituted for that
of the other. Considerable emphasis was laid upon the right of eminent
domain. The Indians conceded to the Confederacy the power to establish
agency reserves,[311] military posts[312] and fortifications, to maintain
post and military roads,[313] and to grant the right of way,[314] upon
payment of an indemnity,[315] to certain corporations for purposes of
internal improvement, mainly railway and telegraph lines. Most of this
would have contributed very materially to the good of the southern cause
in guarding one of the approaches to Texas and in increasing the
convenience of communication. The Confederate States assumed the wardship
of the tribes, exacted a pledge of loyalty from the weaker and one of
alliance,[316] offensive and defensive, but without the entail of
pecuniary responsibility, from the stronger. In its turn, the Confederacy
promised to the Indians many things, deserving of serious mention and far
too important for mere enumeration. As a matter of fact, the South paid
pretty dearly, from the view-point of historical consistency, for its
Indian alliance. In the light of Indian political history, it yielded far
more than at first glance appears and, as a consequence, the great tribes
gained nearly everything that they had been contending for for half a
century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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