Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Yell County, Arkansas" in English language version.
Although this meeting is referred to as the "Treaty of Council Oaks," it was actually not a treaty-making event. Crittenden, who did not in any event have the authority to initiate treaties with Indian tribes on behalf of the U.S. government without direction from Washington DC, supported the popular desire among non-Indians in the territory to see all Indian lands opened for white settlement and all tribes removed from the territory as soon as possible.
Chiefs of the Arkansas Cherokee to the Secretary of War... on this day we have had a talk in council, among other things the boundaries of our nation was discussed.The chiefs' letter was signed by marks by John Jolly, Young Glass, Black Fox, Thomas Graves, Walter M. Webber, George Morris, and Water Minnow at the end of the meeting on June 24, 1823.
Acting Governor Crittenden to the Secretary of War... The Cherokee Indians have returned from Washington discontented and untractable... I announced to them that since their Lands had been allotted... they would be expected to remove to them; and confine themselves at least in agricultural pursuits to their own soil; they in reply said we had no right to the sovereignty of the soil on the South side of the Arkansas, and that they would NOT remove, that they were the tenants of the Choctaws, and not of the Government, and should consult them, not us, on the subject.Crittenden's latter is dated September 28, 1823.
