HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, April 8, 1865.

Brigadier General D. H. COOPER,

Commanding District of Indian Territory:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your communication with regard to the necessity of each of the united Indian nations being represented at Council Grove. As to this matter I have no authority. The Indian nations must select their own representatives, who will accompany the commission. I desire, however, that You will express to the principal chiefs of the united Indian nations my earnest desire that they will in this, as they have on so many other occasions, co-operate with the Confederate authorities for the attainment of the object in view. To secure peace for us and for them with the wild bands of the prairies and to turn their arms upon our common enemy, is the main object to be attained. He reckons for the attainment of this object greatly upon the influence of the brave and intelligent chiefs of the united Indian nations upon their red brothers who have not had their superior advantages of civilization. Assure them that it is the earnest desire of the President that these negotiations shall be prosecuted earnestly and prudently, and he also desires them to say to the prairie chiefs that the treaty stipulations that may be entered into will be fully observed in the utmost good faith by the Confederate authorities.

I have the honor to be, general, Your most obedient servant,

E. KIRBY SMITH,

General.

HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Shreveport, April 8, 1865.

Brigadier General D. H. COOPER,

Commanding District of Indian Territory:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inform You that General Albert Pike, of Arkansas, has been added to the Indian commission. He and General Throckmorton will meet at Your headquarters before repairing to Council Grove. It would be well for You to put yourself at once in correspondence with them, so that a day for their arrival and departure might be fixed upon. Every preparation should also be made so that no unnecessary delay may occur. With regard to the representatives of the united Indian nations who may attend the council, it would be their province and not mine to select such suitable persons as they may think best to represent them. The Confederate Government will be represented by Generals Pike and Throckmorton. Major Vore or some other Indian agent of Your selection may accompany them. It would be important to make, if possible, a tripartite treaty, the wild prairie Indians and other hostile tribes to the Federals constituting one party, the united Indian nations constituting another party, and the Confederate Government the third party. This would be desirable, as then it would be the common interest of the united Indian nations to see that the treaty stipulations should be enforce. It would also give a more imposing character to the negotiations. If, however, it be found that no common basis for such a treaty can be arrived at by negotiations, then let a separate treaty be made between the Confederate States and the prairie and hostile Indians on some such basis as the Indian treaties of 1861, with such additional or different stipulations as experience may suggest