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THE CHRONICLES OF OKLAHOMA
with the Indians. At his inauguration Confederate President Jef-
ferson Davis called for establishing good relations with the Indi-
ans. On February 20, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress
charged its acting secretary of war with "all matters and things
connected . . . with the Indian tribes." On March 4 Congress
authorized Davis to send a special agent to negotiate with the Five
Civilized Tribes. He complied with this request on March 5, ap-
pointing Albert Pike, an Arkansas lawyer and sometime Indian
legal counsel, to go to the Indian Territory and negotiate treaties
with the Indians. Ten days later Davis recommended that the
Congress establish a Bureau of Indian Affairs and appoint a com-
missioner of Indian affairs.8
In the meantime the Union government, in effect, abandoned
Indian Territory, not so much by design, but due to a combination
of forces and circumstances beyond its control. The northern
government had neither time nor circumstances in its favor. Some
blame for Confederate success can be directed at the Buchanan
administration for its do-nothing policy at this critical time. Dur-
ing the crucial period between Lincoln's election and his inaugura-
tion, Southerners moved swiftly to exploit their advantage. The
Lincoln administration did not have a good grasp of the status quo
in Indian Territory and with the majority of its attention focused
on eastern matters, it could not be expected to have an Indian
policy or the means to implement one. If this were not enough,
other factors worked to sever the long-standing relationship be-
tween the Indians and the United States.
Economically, politically, and in many ways, socially, the Five
Civilized Tribes were tied to the slave states. In 1860 transporta-
tion and communication were poor in Indian Territory and its
residents had limited access to outside information. Roads were
bad or impassable much of the time and the telegraph did not yet
penetrate its boundaries. Most of its rivers flowed through Ar-
kansas and Texas and supplies came through these states. At Fort
Smith, Arkansas, the United States administrative center for In-
dian Territory, most of the civilian employees and many of the
soldiers were Southerners.9
It might seem odd that the Five Civilized Tribes would ally with
the South considering their experiences at Southern hands early in
the nineteenth century. Although many of the Indians despised the
southern states, especially Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi,
136