A Peace Treaty that wasn't supposed to be peaceful was signed by the tribes southern Indian Territory at Camp Napoleon in May 1865 near today's Verden, Grady County, Oklahoma.
After the Civil War, the Choctaws faced an especially precarious position with the US government as the tribe had joined the Confederacy. For many men of the nation, joining the Confederacy was a decision made between a rock and hard place: Texas and Arkansas, both Confederate states, were to its south and east, and Texans staged incursions across the Red River for supplies and conscripts; the most powerful men in Indian Territory were "mixed blood" slave owners who sided with the Confederacy; and the U.S. Army had abandoned Indian Territory and left the people defenseless at the outbreak of war. Choctaw Chief Pitchlynn explained it thus:
"The causes and influences which were brought to bear on the Choctaws left them no other alternative. The United States Government, upon the secession of Arkansas and Texas, withdrew their forces from the Indian Country adjacent thereto, and the alternative left the Choctaws was an alliance with the Confederate States, or an invasion by forces from the States of Arkansas an Texas to which they could offer no resistance."
The Council
In May 1865, leaders of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations held a peace meeting with leaders of the Osage, Wichita, Kiowa, Delaware, Apache, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Comanche nations near today's Verden, Grady County, Oklahoma (here is a map from 1866 with the approximate location at Elm Springs). This peace meeting, held at a place called "Camp Napoleon," ended with the creation of an inter-Indian union that could advocate with the United States for tribal rights regardless of previous loyalties. Douglas Cooper, the Confederate Superintendent of Indian Affairs, sent a letter to Choctaw Chief Peter P. Pitchlynn to explain the resolution made at the council.
The letter read:
"Boggy Depot, Chickasaw Nation
June 3rd 1865
Col,
I [?] to enclose a copy of compact entered into between the Confederated Indian Nations (of the Timbered Country) and the Indian Tribes of the Plans, and to congratulate you and the Chiefs upon the successful Mission of Peace to the Indian race spread over the Plains West of the Choctaw and Chickasaw country. it is understood the northern Osages, Wichitas and other Bands who have been acting with the North in the Present war have also come around in at Cherokee Village and propose to join the Indian league.
The unity of the Indian race will enable all to secure their rights, perpetuate their race and assume a frontier of strength and respectability among he Nations of the Earth.
The delegates including Gen Throckmorton of Texas will attend the Grand Council at Armstrong Academy on the 10thinsh.
Allow me to say it is of the greatest importance that you and the Choctaw Delegates be present.
Respectfully
Your Friend
Douglas H. Cooper to Peter P. Pitchlynn, Principle Chief of Choctaw Nation
Superintendent of Indian Affairs"
The Story behind the Council
But why wasn't Pitchlynn at the council at Camp Napoleon? Well, originally, the meeting was proposed by Texas. Not to be about seeking a peaceful future, mind you, but to sign a resolution to continue fighting. Texas hoped the Plains Tribes would ally themselves with the Confederacy against "the common enemy," i.e. the United States. After all, Texas was still fighting the U.S. forces well into May 1865.
But the events of April 1865 -- Lee's surrender and Lincoln's assassination and Johnson's presidency and the dissolution of the Confederacy --- led to other plans, regardless of what Texans had to say. Texas and Arkansas didn't even figure into the council meeting anymore by this time.
The meeting had initially been arranged to be held at Council Grove, an ancient Indian gathering place near today's Oklahoma City (and the site of Jesse Chisholm's trading post). Then, it was supposed to be held at Fort Washita, and then finally, the meeting was held at Camp Napoleon at Elm Springs near today's Verden. The locations changed because of rumors of a possible federal invasion.
At Camp Napoleon, the nations ended up signing a peace treaty among themselves in the hopes that this display would preserve their tribal independence and nationhood. Then, at Armstrong Academy, the Choctaws and Chickasaws signed the agreement, too.
Aftermath
This peace agreement remained with the tribes but did not impress the United States. In 1866, the Choctaws and Chickasaws were forced into new treaties with the U.S., in which the nations lost much of their sovereignty. For example, the Chickasaw Nation had to relinquish their western lands for a reservation set aside for the Plains Indians, which was formally established during the Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty of 1867. In 1872, the Warren Wagon Train Massacre, perpetrated by a band of Kiowas and Comanches who were living at the Fort Sill reservation, led to extermination warfare by the U.S. army under William Tecumseh Sherman... and egged on by Texans, who had kinda-sorta forgotten that the U.S. government had been their "moral enemy" just a decade earlier.
Sources:
Clamputt, Brad R. "An Indian Shall Not spill an Indian's Blood": The Confederate-Indian Conference at Camp Napoleon, 1865. Chronicles of Oklahoma, 83(1), Oklahoma Historical Society, 2005, pp. 34-53 https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2016933/
University of Oklahoma Libraries, Pitchlynn Collection.
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