328 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
wares, and the Comanches! On returning from his treaty with the 
Comanches, he was met before reaching Fort Arbuckle by a messenger 
bearing a letter from Ross and his council, accompanied by a copy of 
the resolutions of the council and a pressing personal invitation to re- 
pair to the Cherokee country and enter into a treaty with that tribe. 
He consented and named a day when he would meet Ross, at the same 
time writing the latter to notify the Osages, Quapaws, Senecas, and the 
confederated Senecas and Shawnees, to meet him at thesametime. At 
the time fixed he proceeded to Park Hill (Ross’s residence), where he 
concluded treaties with these various tribes? during the first week in 
October, reserving the negotiations with the Cherokees to the last, the 
treaty with whom was concluded on the 7th of the month at Tahlequah. 
This instrument was very lengthy, being comprised in fitty-five articles.® 
The preamble set forth that — 
The Congress of the Confederate States of America having, by an ‘“‘Act for the pro- 
tection of certain Indian tribes,” approved the 21st day of May, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, offered to assume and accept the 
protectorate of the several nations and tribes of Indians occupying the country west 
of Arkansas and Missouri, and to recognize them as their wards, subject to all the 
rights, privileges, immunities, titles and guarantees with each of said nations and 
tribes under treaties made with them by the United States of America; and the 
Cherokee Nation of Indians having assented thereto upon certain terms and con- 
ditions: Now, therefore, the said Confederate States of America, by Albert Pike, their 
commissioner, constituted by the President, under authority of the act of Congress 
in that behalf, with plenary powers for these purposes, and the Cherokee Nation by 
the principal chief, executive council, and commissioners aforesaid, has agreed to the 
following articles, ete. 
With some slight amendments to the instrument as originally con- 
cluded it was duly ratified by the Confederate States. 
CHEROKEE TROOPS FOR -THE CONFEDERATE ARMY. 
Long before* the conclusion of this treaty, authority was given by 
General McCulloch to raise a battalion of Cherokees for the service of 
the Confederate States. Under this authority a regiment was raised 
in December, 1861, and commanded by Stand Watie, the leader of the 
anti-Ross party. A regiment had also been previously raised, ostensi- 
by as home euardss the officerS of which had been appointed by Chief 

1 Pike’ s letter to Gannon of iden Agaire, Tenens 17, 1866. These treaties 
were concluded on the following dates respectively: Creek, July 10; Choctaw and 
Chickasaw, July 12; Seminole, August 1; Shawnees, Delawares, Wichitas, and affili- 
ated tribes resident in leased territory, and Comanches, August 12, 1861. 
2 The treaty with the Osages was concluded October 2, that with the Senecas and 
Shawnees on the same day, and also that with the Quapaws. (See Report Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, p. 318.) 
>The text of this treaty was reprinted for the use of the United States treaty 
commissioners in 1866. 
‘August, 1861, See letter of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the President, June 
15, 1866. 
