Under such conditions, the work of Albert Pike must have seemed all plain sailing when once he was safely beyond the Cherokee limits; but his efforts,[256] vain though they were, to persuade that tribe into an alliance did not end[257] with the first recorded interview with Ross. He kept up his intercourse with the Ridge faction; but finally decided that as far as Ross and the nation as a whole were concerned it would be best to await the issue of events. It was only too apparent to all the southern agents and commissioners that Ross would never yield his opinion unless compelled thereto by one of three things or a combination of any or all of them. The three things were, pressure from within the tribe; some extraordinary display of Confederate strength that would presage ultimate success for southern arms; and encroachment by the Federals. It was the combination that eventually won the day. Pike, meanwhile, had passed on to the Creek country.
At the North Fork Village, in the Creek country, the work of negotiating Indian treaties in the interests of the Confederacy really began and it did not end until a rather long series of them had been concluded. The series consisted of nine main treaties[258] and the nine group themselves into three distinct classes. The basis of classification is the relative strength or power of the tribe, or better, the degree of concession which the Confederacy, on account of that strength or that power or under stress of its own dire needs, felt itself obliged to make. This is the list as classified:
FIRST CLASS
1. Creek, negotiated at North Fork, Creek Nation, July[259] 10, 1861
2. Choctaw and Chickasaw, negotiated at North Fork, July 12, 1861
3. Seminole, negotiated at the Seminole Council House, August 1, 1861
4. Cherokee, negotiated at Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, October 7, 1861
SECOND CLASS
1. Osage, negotiated at Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, October 2, 1861
2. Seneca and Shawnee, negotiated at Park Hill, October 4, 1861