CHAPTER VII

THE INTERCOURSE ACT OF 1834,
AND PROGRESS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES

   Referring to the work of the commissioners who had been sent to the Indian country in 1832, Secretary of War Cass, in his report of December, 1833, says that among the tasks remaining for the commissioners, "one of the most interesting is a practical plan for regulating the intercourse of the various tribes, with one another and with the United States, and for the establishment of some general principles by which their own internal government can be safely administered by themselves, and a general superintending authority exercised by the United States."
   The result was the act of Congress, of June 30, 1834, known as the Indian Intercourse Act.¹ It has been sometimes stated that this piece of legislation created Indian Territory, and the history of the Territory has often been made to date from this act. But a reading of the previous pages shows that the Indian country was the result of numerous treaties with tribes east of the Mississippi and the general policy of collocation of the Indians as adopted by the government years before Congress passed this act. This act is best described as the "intercourse act" since it regulated the relations which were thenceforward, with occasional amendment, to subsist between the legal residents of the Indian country and the surrounding states and territories. But among other provisions, the act directed "that all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi and not within the states of Missouri and Louisiana, or the territory of Arkansas, . . . . be taken and deemed to be the Indian country." Hence arose the misconception that this act created Indian Territory, though careful reading shows that the domain thus set aside contained an area much greater than that later known in geographies as "Indian Territory."
   The intercourse act was a most important piece of legislation. Under its provisions the development of the Indian country proceeded for many years. The regulations provided were sufficient, so far as effective legislation was concerned, until after the Civil war.
   Among other provisions of this act were those concerning the licensing (for a not longer period than three years) of all persons engaged in trade in the Indian country, and the regulation of intercourse with the Indians, including fine and removal of all persons unauthorized to reside in the country. No hunting, trapping or grazing of cattle, nor settlement of any white persons should be permitted. Liquor traffic within the Indian country was prohibited in all forms.
   For legal purposes the Indian country was attached to Missouri and Arkansas. Section 24 reads: "That for the sole purpose of carrying this act into effect, all that part of the Indian country west of the Mississippi river, that is bounded north by the

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north line of lands assigned to the Osage tribe of Indians, produced east to the state of Missouri; west by the Mexican possession; south, by Red river; and east, by the west line of the territory of Arkansas and the state of Missouri, shall be, and hereby is, annexed to the territory of Arkansas," . . . . the Indian country to the north being annexed to the judicial district of Missouri.
   The criminal laws of the United States were declared in force in the Indian country, but not to apply to crimes committed by one Indian against another.
   By act of June 30, 1834, a superintendent of Indian affairs for the Indian country west of the Mississippi was created with residence at St. Louis.
   President Jackson and his associates of the time were clearly sincere in their belief that the Indian country, as formed by the act of 1834, was forever dedicated to the home and uses of the Indian, and that in thus raising a barrier against the intrusion of white settlement, they had taken measures to guard the Indians from the evils which had brought them to their miserable condition. The arguments by which the president justifies his actions are presented in his message of December, 1835, and the message also recites something of what the government did for the Indians in reward for the peaceable emigration.
   "The plan of removing the aboriginal people who yet remained within the settled portion of the United States, to the country west of the Mississippi river, approaches its consummation. It was adopted on the most mature consideration of the condition of this race, and ought to be persisted in till the object is accomplished, and prosecuted with as much vigor as a just regard to their circumstances will permit, and as fast as their consent can be obtained. All preceding experiments for the improvement of the Indians have failed. It seems now to be an established fact, that they cannot live in contact with a civilized community and prosper. Ages of fruitless endeavors have, at length, brought us to a knowledge of this principle of intercommunication with them. The past we cannot recall, but the future we can provide for. Independently of the treaty stipulations into which we have entered with the various tribes for the usufructuary rights they have ceded to us, no one can doubt the moral duty of the government of the United States to protect, and, if possible, to preserve and perpetuate the scattered remnants of this race, which are left within our borders. In the discharge of this duty, an extensive region in the west has been assigned for their permanent residence. It has been divided into districts, and allotted among them. Many have already removed, and others are preparing to go; and with the exception of two small bands, living in Ohio and Indiana, not exceeding fifteen hundred persons, and of the Cherokees, all the tribes on the east side of the Mississippi, and extending from Lake Michigan to Florida, have entered into engagements which will lead to their transplantation.
   "The plan for their removal and re-establishment is founded upon the knowledge we have gained of their character and habits, and has been dictated by a spirit of enlarged liberality. A territory exceeding in extent that relinquished, has been granted each tribe. Of its climate, fertility and capacity to support an Indian population, the representations are highly favorable. To these districts the Indians are removed at the expense of the United States; and, with certain supplies of clothing, arms, ammunition, and other indispensable articles, they are also furnished gratuitously

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with provisions for the period of a year after their arrival at their new homes.
   "In that time, from the nature of the country, and of the products raised by them, they can subsist themselves by agricultural labor, if they choose to resort to that mode of life; if they do not, they are upon the skirts of the great prairies, where countless herds of buffalo roam, and a short time suffices to adapt their own habits to the changes which a change of the animals, destined for their food, may require. Ample arrangements have also been made for the support of schools; in some instances council houses and churches are to be erected, dwellings constructed for the chiefs, and mills for common use. Funds have been set apart for the maintenance of the poor, the most necessary mechanical arts have been introduced, and blacksmiths, gunsmiths, wheelrights, millwrights, &c., are supported among them. Steel and iron, and sometimes salt, are purchased for them; and ploughs, and other farming utensils, domestic animals, looms, spinning wheels, cards, &c., are presented to them. And besides these beneficial arrangements, annuities are, n all case, paid, amounting, in some instances, to more than thirty dollars for each individual of the tribe; and in all cases sufficiently great, if justly divided and prudently expended, to enable them, in addition to their own exertions, to live comfortably. And, as a stimulus for exertion, it is now provided by law that "in all cases of the appointment of interpreters, or other persons employed for the benefit of the Indians, a preference shall be given to persons of Indian descent, if such can be found who are properly qualified for the discharge of the duties.
   "Such are the arrangements for the physical comfort, and for the moral improvement, of the Indians. The necessary measures for their political advancement, and for their separation from our citizens, have not been neglected. The pledge of the United States has been given by Congress, that the country destined for the residence of this people, shall be forever "secured and guaranteed to them.' A country, west of Missouri and Arkansas, has been assigned them, into which the white settlement are not to be pushed. No political communities can be formed in that extensive region, except those which are established by the Indians themselves, or by the United States for them, and with their concurrence. A barrier has thus been raised, for their protection against the encroachments of our citizens, and guarding the Indians, as far as possible, from those evils which have brought them to their present condition. Summary authority has been given by law, to destroy all ardent spirits found in their country, without waiting the doubtful result and slow process of a legal seizure. I consider the absolute and unconditional interdiction of this article, among these people, as the first and great step in their amelioration. Half-way measures will answer no purpose. These cannot successfully contend against the cupidity of the seller, and the overpowering appetite of the buyer. And the destructive effects of the traffic are marked in every page of the history of our Indian intercourse."
   It remains to consider some features of the progress of the Indian tribes during the period from the passage of the intercourse law and the removal of the tribes west of the Mississippi. The history of the removal and many events connected with the establishment of the tribes here has been told in the previous chapter. From contemporary documents, especially the reports of the commissioners of Indian affairs, during the years preceding the Civil war, much

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information can be found that affords an understanding of the economic conditions of the Indians during this period. Though a refuge of barbarism, there were many redeeming features to the Indian country; many evidences of improvement in habits of living, of real progress in industry, especially in the cultivation of fields; education was as carefully provided by the Indian governments as by white communities, and it is really amazing to note how some of the tribes, notably the Choctaws, appropriated money for educational purposes; religion was also not neglected, and in matters of civil government the Indian councils and legislatures were models of parliamentary procedure, and the questions of concern were debated with a gravity and intelligence that were not often surpassed. So far as the judgment of history can ascertain, the progress of civilization among the five tribes during the decades before the Civil war was such as to justify the plans and efforts of the founders of this asylum for the tribes, and had untoward events and circumstances not intervened, the outcome might have been an Indian state in the true sense of the phrase.
   When Catlin was among the Creeks in 1834, he found them, though but recently removed from their old homes, engaged in laying out farms and building good houses, which were, in many instances, surrounded by immense fields of corn and wheat. It was a common thing, he said, to see a Creek with twenty or thirty slaves at work on his plantation, having brought them from a slave-holding country.
   Catlin drew the portraits of two distinguished chiefs of Indian Territory, the founders of a family that have always been active in the nation and leaders in many ways. They were Ben and Sam Perryman. Says Catlin: "These two men are brothers, and are fair specimens of the tribe, who are mostly clad in calicoes, and other cloths of civilized manufacture; tasselled [tasseled] and fringed off by themselves in the most fantastic way, and sometimes with much true and picturesque tastes."
   The Cherokees, in both the eastern and western divisions of the tribe, were very far advanced in the arts, according to the testimony of Catlin, who visited and studied the tribe at Fort Gibson, in 1834.² Their numbers he estimated to be about 22,000, 16,000 of whom were at that time living in Georgia under the government of their chief, John Ross. Catlin portrays Ross as a "civilized and highly educated gentleman." " And notwithstanding the bitter invective and animadversions that have been by his political enemies heaped upon him, I feel authorized, and bound, to testify to the unassuming and gentlemanly urbanity of his manner, as well as the rigid temperance of his habits, and the purity of his language, in which I never knew him to transgress for a moment, in public or private interviews." Catlin likewise expresses admiration for the aged and dignified chief, Jol-lee, who had led the first emigration of Cherokees, to the number of six or seven thousand, to the lands of Arkansas. "This man [Jol-lee] like most of the chiefs, as well as a very great proportion of the Cherokee population, has a mixture of red and white blood in his veins, of which, in this instance, the first seems decidedly predominate." Catlin wonders about the final results of the policy of transferring these "civilized" tribes from their ancient seats and placing them "in a new, though vast and fertile country, 1,000 miles from the land of their birth, in the doubtful dilemma whether to break the natural turf with their rusting plough-shares, or string their bows and dash over the boundless prairies, beckoned on by the

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alluring dictates of their nature, seeking laurel amongst the ranks of their new enemies, and subsistence among the herds of buffaloes."
   In 1834 there lived on the banks of the Canadian a hundred miles or so southwest of Fort Gibson, a band of several hundred Cherokees under the government of a distinguished chief named Tuch-ee, whom the white people familiarly called "Dutch." This chief accompanied the Dodge expedition to southwest Indian Territory in 1834, as hunter and guide, and thus became well known to George Catlin, who described him as "one of the most extraordinary men that lives on the frontiers at the present day, both for his remarkable history, and for his fine and manly figure, and character of face."
   The account of this chief and his followers, as given by Catlin, is one of the important phases of the removal of the Cherokees beyond the Mississippi. It is as follows: "Some twenty years or more since, becoming fatigued and incensed with civilized encroachments, that were continually making on the borders of the Cherokee country in Georgia, where he then resided, and probably foreseeing the disastrous results they were to lead to, he beat up for volunteers to emigrate to the west, where he had designed to go, and colonize in a wild country beyond the reach and contamination of civilized innovation; and succeeded in getting several hundred men, women and children, whom he led over the banks of the Mississippi, and settled upon the head waters of White river, where they lived until the appearance of white faces, which began to peep through the forest at them, when they made another move of 600 miles to the banks of the Canadian, where they now reside; and where by the system of desperate warfare which he has carried on against the Osage and Commanches, he has successfully cleared away from a large tract of fine country all the enemies that could contend for it, and now holds it, with his little band of myrmidons, as their own undisputed soil, where the are living comfortably by raising from the soil fine crops of corn and potatoes, and other necessities of life; whilst they indulge whenever they please in the pleasures of the chase amongst the herds of buffaloes, or in the natural propensity for ornamenting their dresses and their war-clubs with the scalp-locks of their enemies."
   The condition of the most important Indian tribes inhabiting the Indian country in 1839 is described by McCoy in his "Baptist Indian Missions." Beginning with the Osages, whose reservation began twenty-five miles west of Missouri, he says: "They number 5,510 souls. . . . . No tribe has been so much neglected by the government of the United States, so much imposed upon by rapacious traders, or so grossly traduced by both white and red men, as this wretched people, who have been incapable of pleading their own cause, or of telling their own story of sufferings. During the last eleven years they have presented an inviting field for missionary effort, which might be entered with the prospect of imparting much benefit. Government has at different times made liberal provisions for the assistance of these people in improving their condition, but hitherto, for want of regard for their interests on the part of those who have mingled with them for the purpose of applying the means of relief, no benefit of consequence has been afforded them. The Baptists have made an effort to establish a mission among them, and are hindered only by a want of missionaries.

[Footnote]

   ²Catlin, "Letters and Notes," Vol. II, p. 119

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The Presbyterians had missions among them, but they have been abandoned."
   "The Creeks and Seminoles have become blended; their whole number is computed to be 24,100. . . . Many of these may properly be denominated civilized, though a majority fall below that appellation. They have not yet recovered from the damage sustained by emigration; nevertheless, their prospects of becoming comfortable, and of improving in industry and virtue, are very good. Considered as a tribe, they are in these respects a little in the rear of the Cherokees and Choctaws. . . . The Presbyterians and Methodists have had missions among them, but have relinquished them." The Baptist mission among the Creeks was started with every prospect of success, but was broken up either, as was alleged, by the undue zeal on the part of the missionaries in preaching anti-slavery doctrines, or by a less reasonable hostility against the mission influence, fostered largely, it was thought, by selfish whites.
   "The Cherokee country," continues Rev. McCoy, "adjoins the state of Arkansas on the north of the river of the same name. About six thousand have been several years resident in that country, and, by late emigrations, their number has increased to about twenty-two thousand. These may be denominated a civilized people, though less civilized, taken as a whole, than an equal number of white citizens on the frontiers of our new states. At the same time, there are many who are wealthy, and not a few who have attained a state of refinement in manners which would render them respectable anywhere in the United States. They have some men of respectable education, and a still great number of men whose talents would not suffer by comparison with talented men of our nation. . . . The Presbyterians have long had several missionary stations in this country, the most extended and useful of which is Dwight, the minister at which is Rev. C. Washburn. . . . The Dwight station has always sustained a large boarding school, which has given to it stability of character, and opened the way to every part of the nation for imparting religious instruction, by preaching and otherwise, to the extent of the whole time of the missionaries. They have a printing press in operation at one of their stations. The Methodists also have missions among these people." The Baptists had placed a mission among the Cherokees in 1817, before the removal, and at that time the two most noted missionaries among them were Evan Jones and Jesse Bushyhead, each of whom had conducted a party of Cherokees to their new homes. Rev. Bushyhead was a native Cherokee. The names of these missionaries were subsequently identified with many important events in the Cherokee Nation.
   "The Choctaws are estimated at fifteen thousand, and are the most southern tribe. . . . The Chickasaw tribe, numbering 5,500, is merged with the Choctaw, making the whole number, 20,500. These are justly entitled to the appellation of a civilized tribe. Before the late difficulties, the Cherokee Nation was allowed to be in advance of all others. But the Choctaws, having had time, since their settlement in their permanent home, to organize their civil government judiciously, must be said to be at this time in advance of every other tribe. We say more: No Indian tribe, since the discovery of America by white men, except the Choctaw, has fully exchanged the savage customs for the institutions of civil government. Their existence as a civilized community is in its incipient stages. Nevertheless, the foundation appears to be permanently laid, for the promotion

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of civilization, to the entire exclusion of the customs peculiar to savage life in the management of public affairs."
   In the report of the commissioner of Indian affairs for 1838, are some interesting facts concerning the industrial and civil advancements of the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The former were already engaged in the cultivation of cotton along the Red river, and from another source it is learned that they manufactured cloth at that time. Three gins were owned and operated by natives. Col. David Folsom, "an intelligent and wealthy Choctaw," was manufacturing the much needed article of salt on Boggy near Blue. The Choctaw council house had just been completed and was first used for the assembling of the representative council in October, 1838.
   "The Chickasaws," to quote the report, "have settled generally through the Choctaw Nation, without going to the district assigned them by the treaty. They have, however, a right to settle in any part of the Choctaw Nation, and enjoy equal privileges, one with another, except in the national fund. Generally speaking, they have settled in companies or bodies over the nation. . . . The largest body of Chickasaws have settled on Boggy and Blue. . . . The Choctaws have changed their constitution and admitted the Chickasaws into their council, with a chief and ten councilors, the same as either of the other Choctaw districts. Speaking, as they do, the same language, and intermarrying with each other, there cannot be doubt but in a few years they will be one people. A few of the wealthier half-breeds have settled near Fort Towson, with the design of raising cotton largely. Colonel Colbert has a farm opened, and will cultivate next year from 300 to 500 acres in cotton, besides making corn sufficient for his hands. Upon this farm he has 150 slaves.
   "The Creeks," states the Indian commissioner in 1838, "settled quite thick together when they first reached the country; they are now extending their settlements up the Canadian to Little river, and a few have even gone further out towards Camp Mason. This will enable them to raise stock and be more comfortably situated. Another portion of the late emigrant Creeks have gone up the Arkansas and have joined what is called the McIntosh part. The nation is divided into what is called upper and lower towns, as it was before their removal. McIntosh is chief of the lower town, and Apthleyohola of the upper town. The parties are nearly equally divided."
   The difficulties arising from the settlement of the Seminoles among the Creeks and Cherokees on their removal to the Indian country continued for several years to perplex the Indian officials, until the question was settled in the treaty negotiated in January, 1845, with the Creeks and Seminoles. Large numbers of the Seminoles, chiefly the more hostile of the recent emigrants, had without authority settled among the Cherokees, to whom they were exceedingly troublesome on account of their marauding habits, and destitute condition. The country provided for some years before had been appropriated to the upper Creeks at a time when it was considered important to separate that band from their former antagonists of the lower towns. This disposition to their lands caused the Seminoles to refuse to settle in any part of the Creek country, and they were a troublesome factor in Indian affairs until the treaty of 1845, when the differences were reconciled by securing to the Seminoles a full

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representation in the Creek government, giving them the right to settle without restriction on vacant Creek lands, and furnishing them six months' subsistence (the last provision being, in the opinion of the agent, the chief incentive to their assent to the treaty). The great body of this tribe, in consequence, had moved to the vicinity of Little river, and were reported, in September, 1845, as prospering.
   The report of the superintendent of the southern superintendency in September, 1859, deals specifically with several questions that are of particular interest in understanding the condition of the tribes just before the war. The strong bias that crossed all the judgments of men on public matters and policies at that time makes it necessary to qualify even these expressions on the Indian tribes. Of civilization among the Cherokees, his opinion is that "so far as concern their moral and intellectual development, at best, they do no more at present than not to retrograde. . . While they continue obstinately wedded to their notions of nationality and of holding their lands in common, and inveterately opposed to opening their country to settlement, and to taking any steps toward admission into the union of states, they cannot be expected to advance in civilization beyond a certain point, which, I think, they have already reached."
   Then follows an exposition of one of the causes that had been working for years toward the disintegration of the Indian tribes. "The abandonment of the military post at Fort Gibson and the growing up of a vicious little town there have given unusual activity to the whiskey trade in that region of the Cherokee country, and in the Creek country adjoining. During the last Creek payment several hundred gallons of liquor were vended in small quantities and at enormous prices, just within the Cherokee lines, and disorder and violence were the natural consequence." The evils growing out of large annuity payments to the Indians are also critised. "The Creeks have received the last large sums of money payable to them by the United States under the treaty of 1856. . . . With the cessation of these payments many of the traders will disappear from the country, and the business of those that remain will no longer consist in purchasing head rights in advance, but the Indians will be compelled to resort to the raising of stock and grain as a means for the purchase of goods no longer sold on credit. It is to be hoped that then the number of officials will be diminished, so that some portion of the Creek annuities may be devoted to other purposes than the payment of salaries; since public buildings are needed, and there are roads that should be improved, and bridges that should be erected, for which, and for other national purposes, nothing is ever to be found in the treasury. . . ."
   This report estimates the whole number of Cherokee Indians to be 21,000, with 4,000 voters. It has been said that the Cherokees had little interest in slave-holding. Yet the number of negroes in the nation at that time was estimated at 4,000 (see below), which would indicate that no small part of the labor was performed by slaves, and that slavery was an institution among the Cherokees of no small financial and industrial extent. The insinuating progress of white intrusion is also seen in the presence among the Cherokees at that time of 1,000 persons.
   The report of the eighth census (1860) contains a valuable summary of the status of slavery among the five tribes. With a total of nearly 8,000 slaves among the Indians of these tribes, and the two tribes

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most advanced in civilization possessing two-thirds of the whole number, it is evident that slavery was a recognized institution of the Indian country and an integral part of the industrial system, though not so vitally a factor of material prosperity here as in the southern states. The portion of the census report referred to is quoted:
   "A new element has been developed by the present census, viz., that of the statistics of negro slavery among the Indian tribes west of Arkansas comprising the Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek and Chickasaw nations; also the number of white and free colored population scattered throughout these tribes. . . . By references to this table it will appear that the Choctaws held 2,297 negro slaves, distributed among 385 owners; the Cherokees, 2,504, held by 384 owners, the Creeks, 1,651, owned by 267 Indians; and the Chickasaws, 917, to 118 owners. As, under all the circumstances of slavery everywhere, the servile race is very unequally distributed, so will appear to be the case with the Indian tribes. While one Choctaw is the owner of 227 slaves, and ten of the largest proprietors own 638, averaging nearly 64, the slaves average about 6 to each owner of slaves in that tribe, while the Indians number about as 8 to 1 slave.
   "Among the Cherokees the largest proprietor holds 57 slaves; the ten largest own 353, averaging a little over 25, and the number to each holder averages a little more than a half per cent more than with the Choctaws, while the population of Indians in the tribe to slaves is about 9 to 1. Among the Creeks 2 hold 75 slaves each; 10 own 433, while the ration of slaves to the whole number of Indians varies but little from that with the Cherokees. The largest proprietor among the Chickasaws holds 61 slaves; ten own 275, or an average of 27 1/2, while the average is nearly 8 to each owner in the tribe, and 1 to each 5 1/2 Indians in the tribe. It thus appears that in those tribes there are nearly 8 Indians to each Negro slave, and that the slaves form about 12 1/2 per cent of the population, omitting the whites and free colored. The small tribe of Seminoles, although like the tribes above mentioned, transplanted from slave-holding states, holds no slaves, but the intermarry with the colored population. These tribes, while they present an advanced state of civilization, and some of them have attained to a condition of comforth, wealth, and refinement, form but a small portion of the Indian tribes within the territory of the United States, and are alluded to on account of their relation to a civil condition recognized by a portion of the States, and which exercise a significant influence with the country at large."