326 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
CHEROKEES AND THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, 
In May, 1861, General Albert Pike, of Arkansas, was requested by Hon. 
Robert Toombs, secretary of state of the Confederate States, to visit 
the Indian Territory as a commissioner, and to assure the Indians of 
the friendship of those States. He proceeded to Fort Smith,! where, 
in company with General Benjamin McCulloch, he was waited on by a 
delegation of Cherokees representing the element of that people who 
were enthusiastically loyal to the Confederacy and who were desirous 
of ascertaining whether in case they would organize and take up arms 
for the South the latter would engage to protect them from the hos- 
tility of John Ross and the association of “Pin” Indians who were 
coutrolied by him.? Assurances were given of the desired protection, 
and messengers were sent to a number of the prominent leaders of the 
anti-Ross party to meet General Pike at the Creek Agency, two days 
after he should have held an interview with Ross, then contemplated, 
at Park Hill. General Pike, as he alleges, had no idea of concluding 
any terms with Ross, and his intention was to treat with the leaders 
of the Southern party at the Creek Agency. At the meeting held 
with Ross at Park Hill, the latter refused to enter into any arrange- 
ment with the Confederate Government, and obstinately insisted on 
maintaining an attitude of strict neutrality. After vainly endeavoring 
to shake the old man’s purpose, General McCulloch at length agreed 
to respect his neutrality so long as the Federal forces should refrain 
from entering the Cherokee country.’ 
General McCulloch having been ordered by the Confederate authori- 
ties to take command of ae district of country embracing the Indian 
Territory, with headquarters at Fort Smith, addressed* a communica- 
tion to Onn Ross again assuring him of his intention to respect the 
neutrality of the Cherokee people, except that all those members of the 
tribe who should so desire must be permitted to enlist in the Confeder- 
ate army, without interference or molestation, for purposes of defense 
in case of an invasion from the North. To this Ross replied,’ reassert- 
ing the determination of the Cherokees to maintain a strict neutrality 
between the contending parties. He refused his consent to any organ- 
ization or enlistment of Cherokee troops into the Confederate service, 
for the reason, first, if would be a palpable violation of the Cherokee 
position of neutrality, and, second, it would place in their midst organ- 
ized companies not authorized by the Cherokee laws, but in violation of 
treaty, and which would soon become effective instruments in stirring up 
domestic strife and creating internal difficulties among the Cherokee 
people. General McCulloch in his letter had assumed that his proposi- 

‘Early in eae 1861, 
2 Letter of General Albert Pike to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, February 17, 1866. 
8Thid. 
4 June 12, 1861. 
6 June 17, 1861. 
