In February of 1862, the House of Representatives called[643] for the papers relating to the Wattles mission[644] and, in March, Wattles expatiated upon the

[Footnote 642:  Wattles to Dole, January 10, 1862, Indian Office Special Files, no. 201, Central Superintendency, W 528 of 1862.]

[Footnote 643:  Department of the Interior, Register of Letters Received, “Indians,” no. 4, p. 439.]

[Footnote 644:  The papers relating to the mission are collected in Indian Office Special Files, no. 201.]

emigration and consolidation scheme in a report to Secretary Smith.[645] Then, yet in advance of congressional authorization, began a systematic course of Indian negotiation, all having in view the relieving of Kansas from her aboriginal encumbrance.  No means were too underhand, too far-fetched, too villainous to be resorted to.  Every advantage was taken of the Indian’s predicament, of his pitiful weakness, political and moral.  The reputed treason of the southern tribes was made the most of.  Reconstruction measures had begun for the Indians before the war was over and while its issue was very far from being determined in favor of the North.

As if urged thereto by some influence malign or fate sinister, the loyal portion of two of the southern tribes, the Creeks and the Seminoles, took in April, 1862, a certain action that, all unbeknown to them, expedited the northern schemes for Indian undoing.  The action referred to was tribal reoerganization.  Each of the two groups of refugees elected chiefs and headmen and notified the United States government that it was prepared to do business as a nation.[646] The business in mind had to do with annuity payments[647] and other dues but the Indian Office soon extended it to include treaty-making.

[Footnote 645:  Indian Office Consolidated Files, Central Superintendency, W 528 of 1862; Department of the Interior, Register of Letters Received, “Indians,” no. 4, p. 517.]

[Footnote 646:  Ok-ta-ha-ras Harjo and others to Dole, April 5, 1862, Indian Office General Files, Creek, 1860-1869, O 45; Coffin to Dole, April 15, 1862, transmitting communication of Billy Bowlegs and others, April 14, 1862 ibid., Seminole, 1858-1869, C1594; Letters Registered, vol. 58.]

[Footnote 647:  On the outside of the Seminole petition, the office instruction for its answer of May 7, 1862, reads as follows:  “Say that by resolution of Congress the annuities were authorized to be used to prevent starvation and suffering amongst them and that being the only fund in our hands must not be diverted from that purpose at present.”]