Reconstruction Treaties

On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes, were suzerain nations with established tribal governments, well established cultures, and legal systems that allowed for slavery. Before European Contact these tribes were generally matriarchial societies, with agriculture being the primary economic pursuit. The bulk of the tribes lived in towns (some covering hundreds of acres and containing thousands of people) with planned streets, residential and public areas. The people were ruled by complex hereditary chiefdoms of varying size and complexity with high levels of military organization.[1]

By the middle of the 19th century, the United States Government had started leasing land from the Five Civilized Tribes (ex. Choctaw and Chickasaw[2]) in the western, more arid, part of Indian Territory. These leased lands were used to resettle several Plains Indian tribes that tended to be nomadic in nature, embracing the Horse culture. At the extreme, the Comanche society was based on patrilinear and patrilocal extended family sharing a common language; they did not develop the political idea of forming a nation or tribe until their relocation to Indian Territory.

At the beginning of the Civil War, the Union Army was withdrawn from Indian Territory exposing the Five Civilized Tribes to aggression from the Plains Indians. The Confederacy filled the vacuum. All of the Five Civilized Tribes as well as other surrounding tribes signed treaties with the Confederacy. As a part of reconstruction, the Southern Treaty Commission was created by Congress to write new treaties with the Tribes that sided with the Confederacy.

An important consequence of the Reconstruction Treaties, signed in 1866, was the emancipation of 7,000 black slaves and the abolition of slavery.[3]

  1. ^ "The Native People of North America: Southeast Culture Area". Archived from the original on 2012-09-27. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  2. ^ "TREATY WITH THE Choctaw AND CHICKASAW, June 22, 1855. / 11 Stats., 611. / Ratified Feb. 21, 1856. / Proclaimed Mar. 4, 1856". Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  3. ^ Donald A. Grinde, Jr.; Quintard Taylor (Summer 1984). "Red vs Black: Conflict and Accommodation in the Post Civil War Indian Territory, 1865-1907". American Indian Quarterly. 8 (3). University of Nebraska Press: 212. doi:10.2307/1183929. ISSN 0095-182X. JSTOR 1183929. OCLC 499289594. Retrieved 23 February 2024. New treaties negotiated in 1866 abolished slavery […] The most significant accomplishment of the treaties was the liberation of 7,000 black slaves