CHAPTER X

THE TREATIES OF 1866

   Preliminary to the important treaties that were signed with the principal tribes of the Indian Territory in 1866, mention should be made of the resolutions adopted by the grand council of Indian tribes, held at Camp Napoleon, May 24, 1865. The resolutions passed at that time were discussed and their objects again stated in the grand council which was held at Cleata Yamaha, in the Choctaw Nation, June 15, 1865. These resolutions are important as foreshadowing the subject matter of the treaties later made by the government with the five civilized tribes. "Whereas at the grand council held at Camp Napoleon on the 24th day of May, 1865, the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Comanches, Caddoes, Osages, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Araphoes, Lipans, the Northern Caddoes, and Anadarkoes, did enter into a solemn league of peace and friendship; and
   "Whereas the object of this confederation of these Indian nations is to maintain the integrity of the Indian Territory as the present and future home of our race, to preserve and perpetuate the national rights and franchises of the several nations, to cultivate peace, harmony and fellowship. . . .
   "Resolved by the grand council of the united nations of the Indian Territory, that the principal chiefs and governors of the nations here represented constitute a committee who are requested and authorized to extend, in the name of this confederation, the had of fellowship to all nations of Indians.
   "Resolved further, that the said executives be requested and authorized to communicate the wishes and intentions of this grand council to the proper authorities of the Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Osage and other nations of the Indians now in alliance with the government of the United States, and a hostilities with these nations, and to invite the said Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Osage and all other nations of Indians to become parties to this confederation and to co-operate with this council in its efforts to contract anew friendly relations with the United States government."
   Continuing, the resolutions directed that commissioners be selected from the various tribes to go to Washington and "negotiate such treaties as the exigencies of affairs may seem to demand," such treaty not being binding until ratified by the national councils of the respective tribes.¹
   It was at first contemplated to allow these delegates to come to Washington, but subsequent correspondence resulted in the designation of a board of commissioners to proceed to the Indian country and meet them at Fort Smith. The commission comprised the following persons: D. N. Coolye, commissioner of Indian affairs; Elijah Sells, superintendent southern superintendency; Thomas Wistar, a leading member of

[Footnotes]
   ¹From "War of the Rebellion," Ser. I, Vol. XLVIII, Pt. II, p. 110.

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the Society of Friends; Brigadier General W. S. Harney, and Col. Ely S. Parker, of General Grant's staff.
   The council assembled at Fort Smith, September 8, 1865, and delegates were present in the course of the sittings representing the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Seminoles, Osages, Senecas, Shawnees, Quapaws, Wyandottes, Wichitas and Comanches. Immediately upon the opening of the proceedings, the tribes were informed generally of the object for which the commission had come to them; that they, for the most part, as tribes, had, by violating their treaties, forfeited all rights under them, and must be considered as at the mercy of the government; but that there was every disposition to treat them leniently, and above all a determination to recognize in a signal manner the loyalty of those who had fought upon the side of the government and endured great sufferings on its behalf. On the next day the delegates were informed that the commissioners were empowered to enter into treaties with the several tribes upon the basis of the following propositions:

   1st.  That each tribe must enter into a treaty for permanent peace and amity among themselves, each other as tribes, and with the United States.
   2d.   The tribes settled in the "Indian country' to bind themselves, at the call of the United States authorities, to assist in compelling the wild tribes of the plains to keep the peace.
   3d.   Slavery to be abolished, and measures to be taken to incorporate the slaves into the tribes, with their rights guaranteed.
   4th.  A general stipulation as to the final abolition of slavery.
   5th.  A part of the Indian country to be set apart, to be purchased for the use of such Indians, from Kansas or elsewhere, as the government may desire to colonize therein.
   6th.  That the policy of the government to unite all the Indian tribes of this region into one consolidated government should be accepted.
   7th.  That no white persons, except government employes [employees], or officers or employes [employees] of internal improvement companies authorized by the government, will be permitted to reside in the country, unless incorporated with the several nations.

   The business of the council was to treat with the Indians on the subject of these propositions, but a large part of the proceedings during the thirteen days of conference were taken up by the explanations by the different delegations of the manner in which the nations became involved with the Confederate government. Also, there was some confusion, on the part of the Indians, as to the general purposes of their meeting in general council, and on these grounds, or as a pretext for a delay, several delegations claimed that they were not properly authorized to enter into any binding treaties with the United States covering the points proposed by the commission. It became evident that no final treaties could be concluded with the tribes represented for the reason that, until the differences between the loyal and disloyal portions were healed, there could be no satisfactory representation of most of them. It was therefore determined to prepare for signature by the commission, and by the delegates, representing all factions and opinions, a preliminary treaty, pledging anew, on behalf of the Indians, allegiance to the United States, and repudiating all treaties with other parties; and on the part of the United States agreeing to re-establish [reestablish] peace and friendship with them. This was considered essential as preliminary to the main business of the commission. This plan was carried out, the preliminary treaty having been presented in the council on September 10,

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and on the breaking up of the conference all of the delegates representing the following tribes and sections of tribes, in the order given, had signed (some of them holding out several days until they could agree among themselves): Senecas, Senecas and Shawnees, Quapaws, loyal Seminoles, loyal Chickasaws, loyal Creeks, Kansas, Shawnees (uncalled for, but asking to be permitted again to testify their allegiance), loyal Osages, tribes of the Wichita agency, loyal Cherokees, disloyal Seminoles, disloyal Creeks, disloyal Cherokees, disloyal Osages, Comanches, disloyal Choctaws and Chickasaws.²
   The commission succeeded in restoring friendly relations between the members of the various tribes hitherto at variance, except in the case of the Cherokees. The ancient feuds among this people were well-nigh irreconcilable. The Ridge faction was ably represented in the council by E. C. Boudinot and others. Having learned from the actions of those representing the loyal party that if they came back it must be as beggars and outlaws, they asked the protection and good offices of the commission. Efforts were then made on the part of the commission to effect a reconciliation, but all that could be brought about was a promise upon the part of those representing the loyal party to present the question to their council.
   Besides effecting the preliminary treaty

[Footnotes]
²Articles of agreement entered into, this thirteenth day of September, 1865, between the commissioners designated by the president of the United States and the persons here present representing or connected with the following named nations and tribes of Indians located within the Indian country, viz.: Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Osages, Seminoles, Senecas, Senecas and Shawnees and Quapaws.
   Whereas, the aforesaid nations and tribes, or bands of Indians, or portions thereof, were induced by the machinations of the emissaries of the so-called Confederate States to throw off their allegiance to the government of the United States, and to enter into treaty stipulations with said so-called Confederate States, whereby they have made themselves liable to a forfeiture of all rights of every kind, character, and description which had been promised and guaranteed to them by the United States; and whereas, the government of the United States has maintained its supremacy and authority within its limits; and whereas, it is the desire of the government to act with magnanimity with all parties deserving its clemency, and to re-establish [reestablish] order and legitimate authority among the Indian tribes; and whereas, the undersigned representatives or parties connected with said nations or tribes of Indians have become satisfied that it is for the general good of the people to reunited with and be restored to the relations which formerly existed between them and the United States, and as indicative of our personal feelings in the premises, and of our several nations and tribes, so far as we are authorized and empowered to speak for them; and whereas, questions have arisen as to the status of the nations, tribes, and bands that have made treaties with the enemies of the United States, which are now being discussed, and our relations settled by treaty with the United States commissioners now at Fort Smith for that purpose.
   The undersigned do hereby acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of the Untied States of America, and covenant and agree, that hereafter they will in all things recognize the government of the United States as exercising exclusive jurisdiction over them and will not enter into any allegiance or conventional arrangement with any state, nation, power or sovereign whatsoever; that any treaty of alliance for cession of land, or any act heretofore done by them, or any of their people, by which they renounce their allegiance to the United States, is hereby revoked, canceled and repudiated.
   In consideration of the foregoing stipulations, made by the members of the respective nations and tribes of Indians present, the United States, through its commissioners, promises that it will re-establish [reestablish] peace and friendship with all the nations and tribes of Indians within the limits of the so-called Indian country; that it will afford ample protection for the security of the persons and property of the respective nations or tribes, and declares its willingness to enter into treaties to arrange and settle all questions relating to and growing out of former treaties with said nations, as affected by any treaty made by said nations with the so-called Confederate States, at this council now convened for that purpose, or at such times in the future as may be appointed.

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above mentioned, the commission made valuable progress towards the consummation of treaties with some of the important tribes, treaties that in the following year were signed by properly accredited delegates in the city of Washington. Such treaties were drawn up with the Osages, the Creeks, and the Choctaws and Chickasaws, to be signed later in Washington. The proceedings at Washington in the following year were not, therefore, in the nature of a general council, but rather a meeting of delegates to give official sanction to the work which had been outlined and in several instances drafted during the conference at Fort Smith.

   The close of the Civil war brought momentous changes to Indian Territory. The treaties made between the United States commissioners and the civilized tribes in 1866 contained the elements of dissolution for the Indian nations, and with the signing of those documents the influence of the whites rapidly became ascendant over the declining Indians. It requires only a reading of the principal provisions of these treaties to understand that a new era had dawned for the Indian nations.
   First, and as a natural result of war, came the provisions for the freeing of the slaves, which was hardly less a "peculiar institution" of the Indians than of the southern whites. In the treaty with the Cherokees (July 19, 1866), after reference had been made to the alliance with the Confederate states, which was repudiated by the Indians February 18, 1863, it was provided with regard to former slaves and free negroes who had resided in the Cherokee nation prior to June 1, 1861, that those who chose might settle in a district to themselves, which district was to be an integral part of the Cherokee nation, but with local officials and regulations.³
   In the treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw it will be noticed that the provisions for the freedmen do not designate a separate district for their home, but allow them to settle anywhere among their former owners and receive all the privileges of citizenship.⁴ The Cherokee Nation alone

[Footnotes]
   ³Art. 4. . . . Who may within two years elect not to reside northeast of the Arkansas river, and southeast of Grand river, shall have the right to settle in and occupy the Canadian district southwest of the Arkansas river, and also all that tract of country lying northwest of Grand river, and bounded on the southeast by Grand river and west by the Creek reservation to the northeast corner thereof; from thence west on the north line of the Creek reservation to the ninety-sixth degree of west longitude; and thence north on said line of longitude so far that a line due east to Grand river will include a quantity of land equal to one hundred and sixty acres for each person who may so elect to reside in the territory above described in this article.
   ⁴Said sum to be held in trust until the legislatures of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations respectively shall have made such laws, rules, and regulations as may be necessary to give all persons of African descent, resident in the said nation at the date of the treaty of Fort Smith, and their descendants heretofore held in slavery among said nations, all the rights, privileges, and immunities, including the right of suffrage of citizens of said nations, except in the annuities, moneys, and public domain claimed by, or belonging to, said nations respectively; and also to give to such persons who were residents as aforesaid, and their descendants, forty acres each of the land of said nations on the same terms as the Choctaws and Chickasaws, to be selected on the survey of said land, after the Choctaws and Chickasaws and Kansas Indians have made their selections as herein provided; and immediately on the enactment of such laws, rules, and regulations, the said sum of three hundred thousand dollars shall be paid to the said Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in the proportion of three-fourths to the former and one-fourth to the latter—unless such sum, at the rate of one hundred dollars per capita, as shall be sufficient to pay such persons of African descent before referred to as within ninety days after the passage of such laws, rules, and regulations shall elect to remove and actually remove from the said nations respectively."

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set aside a district for the home of the negro freedmen. Furthermore, the Cherokees passed laws forbidding the intermarriage of Indians and blacks. The Seminoles, as mentioned on a previous page, while they did not hold slaves, practiced marriage with the negroes. After the war the Creek Nation received the freedmen on equal terms of citizenship, and marriage between the Creeks and former slaves became quite common. The result is seen at the present time when the native citizenship of the old Creek Nations shows a much greater number, and greater variety of degrees, in mixed negro and Indian blood, than in the Cherokee Nation, for instance, where the races have intermarried less freely.
   But of more importance than the abolition of slavery within the limits of the nations were the provisions inserted in the various treaties allowing the settlement of friendly tribes on the lands that had been guaranteed as the lasting home of the tribe. The Choctaw and Chickasaw (treaty of April 28, 1866) ceded to the United States for the sum of $300,000 the "leased district," including all the country lying west of the 98th degree of longitude, and furthermore consented that not more than 10,00 "civilized Indians from the tribes known by being Indians to the north of Indian Ter-the general name of the Kansas Indians, ritory*," [*printed this way in the book] should be received into the Choctaw and Chickasaw country east of the 98th meridian, as fellow citizens.
   The treaty with the Cherokee (July 19, 1866) gave consent to similar settlement⁵ east of the 96th meridian, and permitted settlement west of that meridian under certain conditions.
   The history of the original Oklahoma might be said to begin in the treaty which was concluded with the Creek Nation on the 14th of June, 1866. The preamble recites that the treaty with the Confederate States, July 10, 1861, by ignoring their allegiance to the United States, had "unsettled the treaty relations," and rendered them "liable to forfeit to the United States" all the benefits of lands, etc. Thus menaced, the Creeks submitted to military occupation, to abolition of slavery, acceptance of freedom on equal terms of citizenship and tribal rights, and "in view of said liabilities [because of Confederate alliance] the United States require of the Creeks a portion of their lands whereon to settle other Indians." Then, as described in article 3 of the treaty,⁶

[Footnotes]
   ⁵Art. 15.    The United States may settle any civilized Indians, friendly with the Cherokees and adjacent tribes, within the Cherokee country, on unoccupied lands east of 96°, on such terms as may be agreed upon by any such tribe and the Cherokees, subject to the approval of the president of the United States, which shall be consistent with the following provisions, viz: Should any such tribe or band of Indians settling in said country abandon their tribal organization, there being first paid into the Cherokee national fund a sum of money which shall sustain the same proportion to the then existing national fund that the number of Indians sustain to the whole number of Cherokees then residing in the Cherokee country, they shall be incorporated into and ever after remain a part of the Cherokee Nation, on equal terms in every respect with native citizens. And should any such tribe, thus settling in said country, decide to preserve their tribal organizations, and to maintain their tribal laws, customs, and usages, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the Cherokee Nation, they shall have a district of country set off for their use by metes and bounds equal to one hundred and sixty acres, if they should so decide, for each man, woman and child of said tribe, and shall pay for the same into the national fund such price as may be agreed on by them and the Cherokee Nation, subject to the approval of the president of the United States, and in cases of disagreement the price to be fixed by the president.
   ⁶Treaty with the Creeks, June 14, 1866.—Art. 3.     In compliance with the desire of the United States to locate other Indians and freedmen thereon, the Creeks hereby cede and convey to the United States, to be sold to and used as homes for such civilized Indians as the

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the Creeks ceded to the United States the entire western half of their possessions divided by a north and south line. The nominal purpose for which this cession was to be used was for the location of other Indians and freedmen thereon, but as history proves, the region became the bone of contention between the cattlemen and the boomers, and was eventually opened to settlement as the original Oklahoma.
   One of the most interesting of the various provisions of the treaties of 1866 were those pertaining to the inter-tribal council of the civilized tribes. These provisions were in the nature of an enabling act, sanctioning the formation of an Indian confederate government, by which the various tribes would be knit together under a general governing council, to which should be delegated certain powers and functions similar to those possessed by the governing bodies of the territories of the Union. Clearly, the design was that this inter-tribal council should accustom, in time, the Indians to a centralized form of government, and eventually fit the Indian Territory for admission among the states.
   An inter-tribal council was by no means a new feature of the Indian policy, as the previous chapter has shown. But taken just at this time, when the government was bent on concentrating the Indians within the boundaries of the Indian Territory, it is a further proof of the intention to constitute the Indians a body politic which, while maintaining its own peculiar customs and institutions, would eventually be prepared for the duties and privileges of a separate state.
   The full details of this plan are stated in the treaty with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, as given below.⁷ In the council at

[Footnotes]
United States may choose to settle thereon, the west half of the entire domain, to be divided by a line running north and south; the western half of said Creek lands, being retained by them, shall, except as herein otherwise stipulated, be forever set apart as a home for said Creek Nation; and in consideration of said cession of the west half of their lands, estimated to contain three million two hundred and fifty acres, the United States agree to pay the sum of thirty (30) cents per acres, amounting to nine hundred and seventy-five thousand and sixty eight dollars, in the manner hereinafter provided, to wit: two hundred thousand dollars shall be paid per capita in money, unless otherwise directed by the president of the United States, upon the ratification of this treaty, to enable the Creeks to occupy, restore and improve their farms, and to make their nation independent and self-sustaining, and to pay the damages sustained by the mission schools on the North Fork and the Arkansas rivers, not to exceed two thousand dollars, and to pay the delegates such per diem as the agent and Creek council may agree upon, as a just and fair compensation, all of which shall be distributed for that purpose by the agent, with the advice of the Creek council, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. One hundred thousand dollars shall be paid in money and divided to soldiers that enlisted in the Federal army and the loyal refugee Indians and freedman who were driven from their homes by the rebel forces, to reimburse them in proportion to their respective losses; four hundred thousand dollars be paid in money and divided per capita to said Creek Nation, unless otherwise directed by the president of the United States, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, as the same may accrue from the sale of land to other Indians. The United States agree to pay to said Indians in such manner and for such purposes as the Secretary of the Interior may direct, interest at the rate of five per cent per annum from the date of the ratification of this treaty, on the amount hereinbefore* [*this way in book] agreed upon for said ceded lands, after deducting the said two hundred thousand dollars; the residue, two hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred sixty-eight dollars, shall remain in the treasury of the United States and the interest thereon, at the rate of five per centum per annum, be annually paid to said Creeks as above stipulated.
   ⁷Art. 7.    The Choctaws and Chickasaws agree to such legislation as Congress and the President of the United States may deem necessary for the better administration of justice and the protection of the rights of person and property within the Indian Territory: Provided, however, such legislation shall not in anywhere interfered with or annul their present tribal organization, or their re [spective]

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Fort Smith in the fall of 1865, as already noticed, the confederation of the tribes under a a sort of territorial government had been one of the principal objects of the commission's labors. In the report of the president of the commission, he refers to the progress made in this direction, as follows: "It became sufficiently evident, in the course of the council, that one great object in view by the government, the colonization of such tribes or portions of tribes from the north as should desire a permanent home in the Indian country, would be secured when the policy of the government in regard to them was fully understood; and it was gratifying to notice that the subject of the organization of an Indian territory, with provisions securing a certain degree of individuality to the various tribes—indeed, based upon the admirable form of government of the United States, and with a representative delegate in Congress—although at first distasteful to the leading spirits among the Indians, gradually increased in favor by the study of the few copies at hand of the bill proposed by yourself in the senate last winter, until, near the close of the council, Mr. Boudinot, a man of education and ability, speaking on behalf of the Cherokees and others who had taken part in the rebellion, declared in a speech . . . . that the plan was eminently satisfactory, and would entitle its protectors to the everlasting gratitude of the Indians."
   Similar provisions for the inter-tribal

[Footnotes]
[re] spective legislation or judiciaries, or the rights, laws, privileges, or customs, of the Choctaws and Chickasaw Nations respectively.
   Art. 8.    The Choctaws and Chickasaws also agree that a council consisting of delegates elected by each nation or tribe lawfully resident within the Indian Territory, may be annually convened in said Territory, to be organized as follows:

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council as those above quoted in the Choctaw-Chickasaw treaty were incorporated in the other treaties made in 1866. Later Congress appropriated a certain sum to be used in defraying the expenses of this council while in session, and every encouragement was given to the carrying out of the plan. However, the history of the inter-tribal council may be told in a few words.
   Nominally the plan for the council was carried out for several years. The call was issued, and each autumn representatives of the various tribes assembled in the old council house at Okmulgee.⁸ In 1870 a congressional committee appointed to visit the grand council reported⁹ "Delegates were in attendance from . . . . Cherokees, Muskokees or Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Ottawas, Eastern Shawnees, Quapaws, Senecas, Wyandottes, Confederate Peorias, Sac and Foxes, Great and Little Osage, and Absentee Shawnees. We found that the committee on the permanent organization of the territory into an Indian government . . . . had made unanimous report in favor of the measure. . . . The report was adopted by a vote of 48 to 5. . . . After the adoption of the report . . . . a committee of 12 was appointed to draft a constitution."
   The constitution drafted in this year has always been known as the "Okmulgee constitution." It provided a plan of federal government for the tribes inhabiting Indian Territory. Unfortunately, the copies of this instrument, if in existence, are rare, and it

[Footnotes]

[mat]ters pertaining to the legislative, judicial, or other organizations, laws, or customs of the several tribes or nations, except as herein provided for.
   5.   Said council shall be presided over by the superintendent of Indian affairs, or, in case   of his absence from any cause, the duties of the superintendent enumerated in this article shall be performed by such person as the Secretary of the Interior shall indicate.
   6.   The Secretary of the Interior shall appoint a secretary of said council, and to transmit a true copy thereof, duly certified by the superintendent of Indian affairs, to the Secretary of the Interior immediately after the sessions of said council shall terminate. He shall be paid five hundred dollars, as an annual salary, by the United States.
   7.   The members of the said council shall be paid by the United States four dollars per diem, while in actual attendance thereon, and four dollars mileage for every twenty miles going and returning therefrom by the most direct route, to be certified by the secretary of said council and the presiding officer.
   8.   The Choctaws and Chickasaws also agree that a court, or courts, may be established in said Territory with such jurisdiction and organization as Congress may prescribe: Provided, That the same shall not interfere with the local judiciary of either of said nations.
   9.   Whenever Congress shall authorize the appointment of a delegate from said Territory, it shall be the province of said council to elect one from among the nations represented in said council.
   10.   And it is further agreed that the superintendent of Indian affairs shall be the executive of the said Territory, with the title of "governor of the Territory of Oklahoma," and that there shall be a secretary of the said Territory, to be appointed by the said superintendent; that the duty of the said governor, in addition to those already imposed on the superintendent of Indian affairs, shall be such as properly belong to an executive officer charged with the execution of the laws, which the said council is authorized to enact under the provisions of this treaty; and for this purpose he shall have authority to appoint a marshal of said Territory and an interpreter; the said marshal to appoint such deputies, to be paid by fees, as may be required to aid him in the execution of his proper functions, and be the marshal of the principal court of said Territory that may be established under the provisions of this treaty.

   ⁸A writer in Lippincott's Magazine, in 1879, describes his visit to Okmulgee during a session of the grand council. "Before us was the town, of some fifty log cabins, straggling here and there in the brush, with two or three large stores of Indian traders and a tumble-down council-house of logs in the center of a cleared square. Okmulgee also has a hotel, which is a large farm house, with a passage-way through the center and a wide piazza."
   ⁹Dec. 23, 1870, House Misc. Doc. No. 49, 3d Sess., 41st Cong.

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has been impossible to secure one for publication in this history. The value of the document, however, is that of a historical curiosity, since it never became the basic law of a permanent federal system. Inter-tribal jealousies and antipathies were stronger than the cohesive forces necessary for the operation of such a government, and though the friendly relations of the tribes with one another were doubtless promoted by this annual council, it was not productive of the results which its promoters had cherished.
   In connection with this plan for an inter-tribal council we come upon the first specific mention of the work "Oklahoma," and so far as investigation reveals, the word is first officially used in article 8, paragraph 10, of this treaty with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, where it says: "And it is further agreed that the superintendent of Indian affairs shall be the executive of the said territory, with the title of 'governor of the Territory of Oklahoma.' "
   Evidently, the name "Oklahoma" had been suggested in the course of discussion preliminary to the treaty, and probably was not a new or unfamiliar word among the Choctaws, since it seems to be of Choctaw origin. All the signers of the original treaty are now dead, and, so far as known, no direct testimony can be summoned to prove who first proposed this name as used in the treaty, nor what significance, if any, was attached to the word.¹⁰
   The name thus having been brought into current use, and as it were given official sanction, when in the following years the movement for the organization of a territorial government over the Indian country was transferred to the seat of government at Washington, the name was suggested to those in charge of this legislation. In this connection, an interesting letter written to Sidney Clarke by ex-congressman R. T. Van Horn, who had charge of the first bill for the organization of a territorial government in which the name "Oklahoma" was used, gives some valuable information both about the bill and the origin of the name in connection therewith:
   "The bill," writes Colonel Van Horn, "was introduced and referred to the committee on Indian affairs, of which you [Sidney Clarke] were chairman and I a member. And you very generously referred it to me, and I had charge of it, reported it to the house, and after it had its day before the committee of the whole, Shelby M. Cullom raised the question that it ought to go to his committee on Territories. A sort of compromise was effected, and the bill went into the files, as I suppose.
   "I will here give you from the only living authority besides yourself—that is myself—the inside history of that bill. Its active promoters and inspirers were Perry Fuller and Alex. McDonald. It was at their solicitation that I offered to introduce the bill, and we often met to work over it at Perry Fuller's room, a few doors from the Congressional Hotel. Col. Boudinot

[Footnotes]

   ¹⁰Interesting in this connection, and showing that "Oklahoma" readily came to be used about this time as referring to the Indian Territory, is a paragraph from the Paris (Texas) Press, dated August 11, 1866, and quoted in the Dallas Herald of August 18th. The paragraph is headed: "Oklahoma," and continues as follows: "The Choctaws and Chickasaws have made a treaty with the United States government, a perusal of which would interest our readers . . . . The main features are, first and foremost, the settlement of the status of the negro, making him the equal of all other citizens of the territory . . . provisions made for the organization of a state out of said territory, and said state to be called 'Oklahoma.' Our readers will notice that the name of the territory, 'Oklahoma,' is the Choctaw name of Red river, and signifies, when literally translated, 'red water.' [?]"

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often met with us, and varied the sessions by music and song, sometimes aided by Dr. Long. . . .
   "After the bill was completed, I remember the incidents perfectly, the question came up of a name for the proposed territory. Finally it was agreed, as Perry Fuller put it, to refer the matter to 'Boudie,' as we familiarly called Boudinot. And he said he would think the matter over and report to-morrow night when we were to meet again.
   "He made his report and suggested the name of Oklahoma—and it was put in the bill then and there—and in that bill the word Oklahoma first appears in the official records of Congress, if not in the official records of the government.
   "Now, my recollection is distinct as to this matter, that Col. Boudinot said: "It is a Creek word, and signifies Redman's land, or country, or home, or any such English equivalent. Some men who claim to be linguists and teachers say it is a Choctaw word. Be the matter as it may be among those people, this is how the word came into legal use, and this is what Boudinot, the author of its introduction, said at the time that it meant. If there was a mistake as to its derivation there is none as to its origin in that bill."