The Camp Napoleon Council was a meeting of Native American tribes in today's

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that resulted in an intertribal compact. The council took place at Cottonwood Camp on May 24, 1865, near present-day Verden in Grady County.

Background

By early 1865, the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

had turned decisively against the

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. Until then the Confederate military had provided support to maintain the

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

as a buffer between Texas and the United States. However, after 1864, the South had been forced to withdraw its military forces and supplies to defend its states west of the Mississippi River. Except for the Native American troops serving the Confederate Army under General

Stand Watie Brigadier-General Stand Watie (; December 12, 1806September 9, 1871), also known as Standhope Uwatie and Isaac S. Watie, was a Cherokee politician who served as the second principal chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1862 to 1866. The Cherokee ...

, the shooting war was virtually over in the Indian Territory. Pro-Confederate Indians agreed that a council of the

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Cr ...

, the Prairie Indians, and the Plains Indians should be held to end intertribal hostilities and to negotiate terms for their return to the United States.La Vere, David. ''Contrary Neighbors:Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory''. 2000.
University of Oklahoma Press. Available on Google Books. Accessed January 3, 2016. The government of Texas was concerned about the security of its northern border, and wanted the tribes in the Indian Territory to continue to protect against Union incursions. They would send their own representatives (either

Albert Pike Albert Pike (December 29, 1809April 2, 1891) was an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate States Army general who served as an List of justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court, associate justice of the Arkansas Supr ...

or Douglas H. Cooper) to attend the council. The council was scheduled to meet on May 14, 1865, at Council Grove (near present-day

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

). However, it was learned that Union troops planned to disrupt the meeting. The council was accordingly rescheduled to May 26, 1865, and relocated to Camp Napoleon. The ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'' says the site of Camp Napoleon was on the

Washita River The Washita River () is a river in the U.S. states of Texas and Oklahoma. The river is long and terminates at its confluence with the Red River of the South, Red River, which is now part of Lake Texoma () on the TexasOklahoma border. Geogra ...

, and covered the whole area of the present day city of Verden, after rumors of an impending Union attack on the original meeting.

Purpose of the council

The Native American tribes of the Indian Territory realized that the Confederacy could no longer fulfill its commitments to them. Therefore, the Camp Napoleon Council was called to draft an agreement to present a united front as they negotiated a return of their loyalty to the United States. Native American tribes further west, many of them also at war with the United States troops, were also invited to take part, and several of them did.Alan C. Downs. ""Camp Napoleon Council," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.
Accessed August 23, 2015.

Camp Napoleon Compact

The tribes of the Indian Territory agreed to cease fighting with one another and work together to form a confederation to maintain the political integrity of the Indian Territory. They also elected delegates to travel to Washington and negotiate with the federal government. They agreed upon a compact that described the basic principles they wanted to be incorporated into any post-war treaties with the United States government. Signing the Compact were representatives of the following Indian nations: the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...

Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

, Chickashaw,

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, Reserve

Caddo The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, who ...

Nation,

Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) () is a Midwestern Native American nation of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th cen ...

, Reserve

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

Band,

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

Nation,

Arapahoe The Arapaho ( ; , ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed two ...

Nation,

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

Nation, Lapan Band of Opaches, Noconee Band of Comanche Nation, Cochahkah Band Comanches, Tinnawith Band Comanches, Yampucka Band of Comanches, Nooches Band of Commanches, Nooches Band of Commanches.

Aftermath

At the end of the meeting, the council appointed commissioners (no more than five for each tribe) to attend a conference with the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., at which the results of the Camp Napoleon Council would be presented and discussed. However, the U.S. government refused to treat such a large group representing so many tribes. Furthermore the government regarded the Camp Napoleon meeting as unofficial and unauthorized. The President later called for a meeting at Fort Smith (called the Fort Smith Council), which was held in September 1865.Perry, Dan W
"A Foreordained Commonwealth"
, ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 14:1 (March 1936) 22-48 (retrieved February 5, 2017) From the standpoint of the Indians, the Camp Napoleon Council and its compact was a significant step, because this action mitigated intertribal warfare after the Civil War. However, it had no effect on ameliorating the U.S. government policy to punish all those tribes who were considered hostile for having supported the cause of the Confederacy. In 1931, the

Oklahoma College for Women The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) is a public liberal arts college in Chickasha, Oklahoma. It is the only public college in Oklahoma with a strictly liberal arts–focused curriculum and is a member of the Council of Publi ...

erected a commemorative marker at the Camp Napoleon site, on the school ground at State Highway 62. The inscription reads:

Notes

References

{{Reflist

External links

Text of the Compact
as given by Frank Cunningham, ''General Stand Watie's Confederate Indians'' (San Antonio, 1959), pp191-193.
''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'' – Camp Napoleon Council
History of Indian Territory Treaties of Indigenous peoples of North America Indian Territory in the American Civil War 1865 conferences