Watie Treaty on Exhibit

Officials from NSU, Oklahoma Historical Society, Cherokee Nation and the Helmerich Center for American Research at the Gilcrease Museum gathered at the Oklahoma History Center on June 23 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and to view facsimiles of several documents, including a three-page original signed copy of the treaty. Copies of the “Watie Treaty,” a historical narrative by NSU professor Dr. Brad Agnew and other documents will be on display at the Oklahoma History Center through July 10.

An original signed copy of what is known as the “Watie Treaty” is currently in Northeastern State University’s Archives and is considered to be one of three known copies of the last treaty signed by the last Confederate general during the American Civil War.

On June 23, 1865, Gen. Stand Watie, a member of the Cherokee Nation and brigadier general of the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, surrendered to Union forces at Doaksville in the Choctaw Nation, near the Texas border.

With his signature upon the cease-fire treaty, Watie became the last Confederate general in the field to surrender during the war.

Even though history recorded the official end of the war on April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant in Appomattox, Va., it was more so the end of fearing for the Union’s demise, said McLain. It was not the end of the struggle. Several months later in June, Watie was the final general to capitulate to the Union.

Watie signed the surrender treaty alongside two commissioners for the Union, Lt. Col. Asa C. Matthews and William H. Vance. Two additional signed treaty copies are located in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Gilcrease Archive Collection at the Helmerich Center for American Research.