 The Council, the Southern Treaty Commission, was first held in Fort Smith, Arkansas in September 1865, and was attended by hundreds of Indians representing dozens of tribes.Over the next several years the commission negotiated treaties with tribes that resulted in additional re-locations to Indian Territory and the "de facto" creation (initially by treaty) of an unorganized Oklahoma Territory.President Lincoln signed two Confiscation Acts into law, the first on August 6, 1861, and the second on July 17, 1862, safeguarding fugitive slaves from the Confederacy that came over across Union lines and giving them indirect emancipation if their masters continued insurrection against the United States.