"In referring this letter to the Secretary of the Interior, the
Commissioner of Indians Affairs stated that he could furnish this delegation with no satisfactory or definite information on the subject, and that
he knew of nothing that could be done toward removing the freedmen without an appropriation from Congress for the purpose. He stated further that, as Congress had failed to appropriate
the amount due as interest on the $300,000 mentioned in the third article of the treaty, the only funds available for the expenses of the delegation were those set apart for “ provisions for Indians.” On the recommendation contained in this letter
the Secretary of the Interior directed that the necessary expenses of this delegation be defrayed out of the
appropriation indicated, and the amount of $601.50 was therefore advanced for the purpose."
"May 25, 1869, Mr. Leavenworth, still claiming to act as the agent of Governor Harris, addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, which was referred by him to this office, asking the opinion of the Department upon the right of freedmen who have removed from the jurisdiction of the Choctaws and Chickasaws to the $100 mentioned in the treaty, inasmuch as the Indians had failed to recognize the freedmen as citizens, and the Government had also failed to take measures for their removal."
"June 11, 1869, Mr. Tranceway Battice, assistant national attorney for the Choctaw Nation, having learned that the Department
proposed to ascertain through a commission the views amid wishes of the freedmen, requested that this commission he instructed to allow no secret or exclusive consultations to be held with these freedmen, nor with certain few of them, but that interviews should be held in those districts most thickly settled by the freedmen, and that due notice of such interviews should be given to the governor and other head men of the tribe, in order that they might be present."