Scattered throughout the Southwest and into Northern Mexico, descendants of the Black Seminoles and Maroons are living in this modern world today. Over one hundred years ago, the U.S. government seemed determined to systematically eliminate the Native Americans and manipulate the descendants of the Black slaves. That imperialistic attitude allowed the policies of the U.S. government to treat groups of people with less respect and concern than they treated their livestock.

To understand the plight of the Black Seminoles one has to look back in history to slavery days of the Southern states, and at tribal changes of the Florida Natives.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Native Americans from various groups went into Spanish Florida, establishing a new identity as Seminoles (Littlefield 7). The Seminoles broke off from the Creek tribe. The word Seminole means, "one who has camped out from the regular towns," or "runaway" (Markowitz 213)." Black slaves also fled to the open territory of Florida.

The Seminoles who owned slaves did not do so in the traditional plantation style of bondage. The Blacks (who were also known as Maroons) were not subordinate to their chiefs (Laurence 30). The distinction between runaway or slave blurred and eventually vanished.

Blacks who lived among the Seminoles were useful as interpreters because they spoke English, or some other European language, and they soon learned the Seminole Muskogean dialect. The slaves who fled to Florida as adults knew the ways of whites and could often predict behavior of a particular situation.

Thus the association between Blacks and Seminoles was one of affection and mutual respect (Laurence 14). Intermarriage inevitably occurred between Blacks and Seminoles, and the quality of life for ex-slaves improved because they were not bound to the hoe (Mulroy 7). A lot of their time was spent hunting and fishing.

In contrast to the Anglo-American society, Black Seminoles (and Native Americans) did not aspire to subdue or conquer nature, but to be a part of the natural world (Moquin 1). American settlers, backed by the U.S. Army, began the attempt to relocate the Native Americans in order to gain more land. The Black Seminoles resisted relocation by the land hungry American settlers because if they were to relocate, they could lose their homes, their independence, and their freedom (Mulroy 4).

Resistance began. African Americans figured prominently as military allies and increasingly as members of the Seminole community. Blacks participated in the First Seminole War (1817-1818), the Second Seminole War (1835-1842)/ and the Third Seminole War (1855-1858), fighting with Seminole Indians against the United States Army (Littlefield 15).

The "Trail of Tears" began in 1830. It was the forced removal of Native Americans (Black Seminoles among them) from the Southeast portion of the U.S. to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) by the Federal Government. The Indian Removal Act was passed by congress and authorized by President Jackson (Markowitz 155).

After a heartless roundup of Seminole families, the deadly journey began. They were herded like cattle by the hated Bluecoats. The tribe members did not have adequate food or blankets, and many died of starvation and disease (Markowitz 214). Others were ambushed and killed by bandits who preyed on them. One of the reasons they called it "The Trail of Tears", is because usually survivors were not permitted to stop and bury their dead.

The five so-called "Civilized Tribes" of the Southwest were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and the Seminole. The Seminoles were considered the least "civilized" of the Five Tribes because they had the least prejudice towards Blacks. The Seminoles, who numbered around 3,900 in 1822, "owned" 800 slaves. By 1907, no Seminole family was free of Black intermixing (Mulroy 132).

The Army was unable to remove all the Maroons and Seminoles from Florida, and many of them hid out in the thick vegetation of the Everglades. One fierce warrior, a Black Seminole named Billy Bowlegs ("Alligator Chief") lead the tribe in the Second and Third Seminole wars. Bowlegs and his warriors, who were near starvation, hid out in the swamps by day and raided by at night. This went on for several years because Bowlegs knew that life in the Indian Territory was possibly more precarious for African-Indians. The Second Seminole War ended up costing the U.S. Government 1,500 soldiers and 30 million dollars (Waldman 38).

Carl Waldman, the author of "Who Was Who In Native American History," wrote this passage about The Third Seminole War; "It started when a party of army engineers and surveyors, working in the Great Cypress Swamp, stole crops and destroyed banana trees belonging to Bowlegs' band, then, when confronted, did not offer any apology or compensation.

Bowlegs led his warriors in a series of raids on settlers, trappers, and traders... Bowlegs and some of his members eventually agreed to emigrate West." In 1858, he took 33 warriors and 80 women and children to the Indian Territory. He fought for the North in the Civil War and died in 1864 (Champagne 125).

Some of the African American Indians took an opportunity offered by Wild Cat, a Seminole Indian leader, to flee to Mexico in 1850. Only in Mexico were they able to elude the pursuit of slave hunters, slave traders and the military.

In the early 1870s, most of the Maroons who had gone to Mexico, returned to the United States. Officials from the United States had led them to believe that they would be able to return to their former homes in the Indian Territory.

But the U.S. failed to honor its' commitment and began to deny responsibility for the safety and welfare of the group (Mulroy 133). While awaiting clearance to the North, the Maroons settled in temporary camps on military reservations of West Texas, and the able-bodied men enlisted as scouts. These men were known as the Buffalo Soldiers, who made up the Ninth Cavalry's M Company.

It is a credit to the Black Seminoles' skills that, in a dozen or so documented clashes from 1873 to 1881, they never lost a man or suffered a serious injury, even when greatly out numbered.

The Black Seminoles of Texas would try to return to the Indian Territory, but very few would succeed in making the journey (Mulroy 133). The high level government officials who were in charge of returning the Black Seminoles to Indian Territory, began to treat the matter as a low priority, as the African-Seminole Indian Scouts were doing such a great job at helping to clear West Texas of other Indian tribes who were hostile to White settlers (Mulroy 134).

Once again Seminoles and Maroons found liberty and a sense of community across the border in Mexico. In the Mexican state of Coahuila, Maroons, or Mascogos, as they were called in Spanish, were able to acquire property, crops, and livestock (Mulroy 86). Chief John Jumper of the Indian Territory, sent emissaries to the Mexican Seminoles with orders for them to return and help support the war effort. Some of the Seminoles went north to the Seminole Nation, in August of 1861. But most of the Black Seminoles remained in Coahuila. From this point on, wrote Mulroy, "...they would be destined to create their own exclusive and dramatic history as they continued to pursue that elusive notion of freedom on the border" (page 89).

In 1891, the Mexican government ordered a census of Mascogos, so that their individual claims to own land could be verified. The census counted 123 males of all ages. In 1938, additional pasturelands were granted. They still live there to this day (Porter 225).

Many historical scholars have ignored or failed to research the important cultural contributions of Black-Indian interaction. William Green wrote, "The background of European colonial imperialism has also tainted scholarship by tending to portray both Africans and Indians as uncivilized peoples without histories" (Markowitz 9).

The descendants of Maroons, who are living in West Texas today, still go by the name Seminole. Even though they are an intermixture, they are proud to assert themselves as Native Americans. Because of their link with the Seminoles, who basically rejected the concept of slavery, they have fostered a sense of pride and identity (Mulroy 178).

It was a long, hard road for the Black Seminoles and Maroons. They had to overcome the persecution of the Spanish and the English, slavery, disease, the abuse by the United States Army, the Trail of Tears, starvation, bounty hunters, other hostile Indian tribes, and the unfavorable conditions of the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, but they managed to survive. The fact that they were not completely eradicated and still have descendants living today is a testimony to their tenacity, bravery, and enduring strength of spirit.

Works Cited
Champagne, Duane. Chronology of Native North American History. Detroit, 1994
Laurence, Foster. Negro-Indian Relationships in the Southeast. University of Pennsylvania, 1931
Littlefield, Daniel. Africans and Seminoles from Removal to Emancipation. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1977
Markowitz, Harvey." Trail of Tears". American Indians. Pasadena, CA. Salem Press, 1995
Mulroy, Kevin. Freedom on the Border. Lubbock, TX. Texas Tech, 1993
Porter, Wiggens, Kenneth. The Black Seminoles. University Press, Florida, 1996
Waldman, Carl. Who Was Who in Native American History. New York, NY. Facts On File, 1990

Posted © August 2005 by AfroStaff