Royer] TREATY OF APRIL 27, 1868. 343 
latter having violated its treaty obligations in failing to give them pro- 
tection, whereby they were compelled to enter into treaty relations with 
the Confederacy. This statement the president of the commission took 
oceasion to traverse, and to assure them of the existence of abundant 
evidence that their alliance with the Confederacy was voluntary and 
unnecessary. 
Before the close of the council it was ascertained that no final and 
definite treaties could be made with the tribes represented, for the rea- 
son that until the differences between the loyal and disloyal portions 
could be healed no truly representative delegations of both factions 
could be assembled in council. Preliminary articles of peace and amity 
with the different factions of each tribe were prepared and signed as a 
basis for future negotiations. 
Factional hostility among the Cherokees.—The only tribe with whom 
the commissioners were unsuccessful in re-establishing friendly relations 
between these factions was the Cherokees.! 
The ancient feuds between the Ross and Ridge parties were still 
remembered. Many of the latter who had remained under Stand 
Watie in the service of the Confederacy until the close of the war were 
yet debarred from returning to their old homes, and were living in great 
destitution on the banks of the Red River.2) When the Ross party 
had returned to their allegiance, in 1863, their national council had 
passed an act of confiscation? against the Watie faction, which had been 
enforced with the utmost rigor, so that some five or six thousand mem- 
bers of the tribe had been rendered houseless, homeless, aud vagabonds 
upon the face of the earth. All prospect of securing a reconciliation 
between these parties was for the time being abandoned by the com- 
missioners, and the proposition was seriously considered of securing a 
home for Watie and his followers among the Choctaws or Chickasaws.$ 
John Ross not recognized as principal chief— On the day* on which the 
draft of the proposed preliminary treaty was presented to the council 
by the commissioners John Ross arrived in the camp of the Cherokees. 
It had already been determined by the commissioners among themselves 
that his record had been such as to preclude his recognition by them as 
principal chief of that nation, and it was believed that his influence was 
being used to prevent the loyal Cherokees from coming to any amicable 
arrangement with their Southern brethren. 
The chairman therefore read to the council® a paper signed by the 
several commissioners, reciting the machinations and deceptions of 
John Ross. It was alleged that he did not represent the will and wishes 
of the loyal Cherokees, and was not the choice of any considerable por- 

1 Report of D. N. Cooley, president of the commission, dated October 30, 1865. 
2 Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, p. 36. 
* Report of Elijah Sells, superintendent of Indian Affairs, October 16, 1865. 
4September 13, 1865. 
* September 15, 1865. 
