[441] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1865. The Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to President Johnson, February 25, 1866, in answer to the Cherokee protest against Chief Ross’s deposition contains this statement:
As early as June or July, the exact date is not known, John Ross authorized the raising of Drew’s Regiment, for the Southern army....
[442] McCulloch to Ross, September 1, 1861 [Official Records, first ser., vol. iii, 690].
[443] —Ibid.; McCulloch to John Drew, September 1, 1861 [ibid., 691].
[444] In the course of the war, both inside and outside of Kansas, many instances occurred of Indians’ expressing a wish to fight or of their services being earnestly solicited. In late April of 1861, a deputation, headed by White Cloud, came east and tendered to the United States government the services of some three hundred warriors, Sioux and Chippewas [Moore’s Rebellion Record, vol. i, 43].
Agent Burleigh, in charge of the Yancton Sioux, asked permission to garrison Fort Randall with Indians [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1861, p. 118]. The Omahas manifested great interest in the war, so their agent, O. H. Irish, reported [ibid., p. 65]. Towards the end of the struggle a young recruiting officer, who went among them, persuaded about thirty youths, mostly students at the Mission School, to enlist. Their terms had not expired when the war closed, so they were sent out as scouts to protect the Union Pacific Railroad, in course of construction from Denver to Salt Lake City, against the Sioux who were attacking workmen and emigrants. Even Senecas from the far away Cattaraugus Reservation, New York, offered to enlist [Dole to Strong, December 7, 1861, Indian Office Letter Book, no. 67, p. 129]; and so did the Pawnees from the great plains. The United States government, however, refused to accept the Pawnees for anything but scouts and, in that capacity, they proved exceedingly useful [Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1869, p. 472]. Winnebagoes were in the United States employ [Indian Office, Report Book, no. 13, pp. 276-277], as were also many individuals from other tribes. Some Indians became commissioned officers and a number were at the head of companies. Captain Dorion of Company B, Regiment Fourteenth Kansas Volunteers was an Iowa [ibid., 261] and Eli S. Parker on General Grant’s staff was a Seneca.
After the Enrollment Act of March 3, 1863 [United States Statutes at Large, vol. xii, 731-737] was passed, several attempts were made to force the Indians to serve in the army but Mix, the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, declared they were exempt from the draft [Letter to Agent D. C. Leach, September 4, 1863, Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 71, p. 354]. On the sixteenth of July, 1863, the United States War Department inquired very particularly as to the Indian eligibility for enrollment and Secretary Usher took occasion to instruct Mix that the respective agents should be
Directed to offer no resistance to the enrolling officers, after notifying said officers of the fact, that the tribe or tribes under their charge are composed of Indians who have not acquired the rights of Citizenship, but immediately upon being informed of the drafting of any member of his tribe, he will report the case to the Comr of Indian Affairs, for such action as may be necessary to procure the exemption of the Indians from military service.—Letter of Secretary Usher, September 12, 1863, Miscellaneous Files, 1858-1863.
The bearer has a train of goods at this point en route for the Indians on the western border of the State, containing quite a quantity of arms & ammunition.