Hon. H. R. Clum, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affs

Sir: I beg leave to call your attention to the fact that in the fall and winter of 1861 Opothleyoholo a Creek and James McDaniel a Cherokee placed themselves at the head of the loyal Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees & others. Unsustained by any U. S. forces they gathered on Bird Creek, in this Nation, to resist rebel conscription into their army. They tried to avoid a fight, to make their way peacably to the union army in Kansas, by a far western route. But Gen. Douglas H. Coopper, & Gen. Stand Watie, with troops from Texas, & Arkansas, & with rebel Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws &c. pressed upon them, & attempted to bring them into subjection to the Southern Confederacy. They adhered to their loyalty. Fought the rebel forces in three or four battles. At first vanquishing the rebel forces, but finally were overcome, & compelled to flee to Kansas in mid-winter, with women & children. In Kansas these men were organized into regiments, & on arriving in the Cherokee Nation were largely reinforced by their friends here, & in the Creek & Seminole Nations.

I have made this statement so that you may see the situation in which these men are placed, & judge intelligently.

Now I wish to know if men wounded in those engagements, under Opothleyoholo & James McDaniel, while fighting against the rebels, & the widows of those who were killed, & those who were otherwise disabled in those fights, & in the subsequent flight, are entitled to the benefits of pension laws. Can they be pensioned under existing laws?

If not, can you, through the Secretary of the Interior, prevail on the President to have the matter presented to the next Congress, with a view to having these persons placed on the rolls of the pension office. I need say nothing of the propriety of the Government rewarding as far as possible, such acts of loyalty & voluntary fighting for the Government by full blood Indians—when all the influence & power of faithless Indian Agents, & Superintendants, & the Southern army from Texas & Arkansas, & the more wealthy & educated mixed blood Indians, were arrayed against them. It should be rewarded, as far [as] practicable, as an incentive to like faithfulness in any emergency that may arise in the future. I have the honor to be Very Respectfully Your Obdt. Servant

John B. Jones, U. S. Agent for Cherokees

[546] Official Records, first ser., vol. viii, 576.

[547]

Washington, D. C. January 3, 1862.

Major-general Hunter, Commanding Kansas Department: