The Negro-Indian

Living in Florida surrounded by cities, counties, rivers and streets with names like Seminole, Osceola, Ocala, Ocklawaha, Alafaya, Apopka, Ocoee, Kissimmee, Poinciana, Okeechobee and Tallahassee just to name a few. Make one wonder about the history behind the names. There was a lot more history than first imagined. The "Trail" leads from Florida to Mexico.

The Southeastern Indians, Cherokee, Creeks, Choctaw, and Chickasaw, soon after the settlement of the country by Europeans gained possession of runaway Negro slaves. The name is an adjectival form of Muskogee, properly MdskMi (pl. Maskokalgi or Muscogulgee). Its derivation has been attributed to an Algonquian term signifying `swamp' or `open marshy land,' but this is almost certainly incorrect. The Muskhogean tribes were confined chiefly to the Gulf States east of Mississippi and Alabama, and parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina according to Muskhogean Indian Family History.

Panfilo de Narvaez met the Apalachee of western Florida in 1528, and in 1540-41 De Soto passed east and west through the whole extent of the Muskhogean territory. Mission effort was begun among them by the Spanish Franciscans at a very early period, with such success that before the year 1700, the whole Apalachee tribe, an important single body, was civilized and Christianized, and settled in 7 large and well-built towns. The English settlers of South Carolina practiced the enslavement of Indians on a large scale, and during the years 1702-1708 sent out three expeditions against the Yamasee, Apalachee, and Timucua, of north Florida. They carried back to Charleston almost the entire population of 7 large towns, in all, some 1,400 persons, who were sold as slaves to the Carolina settlers or distributed among the Creeks, who assisted in the enterprise. Indeed, in the early days of the colonies the enslavement of Indians by settlers seems to have been general. The devotion of the Apalachee to the Spaniards resulted in the destruction of the former as a people at the hands of the English and their Indian allies in the first years of the 18th century.

Europeans made a practice of enslaving or selling into slavery captive Indians. Carolina was early made by the Spaniards a hunting ground for Indian slaves, who were deported to Cuba. Numbers of the male children of the conquered Pequot were transported to the West Indies from Massachusetts and sold into slavery, while the women and girls were scattered among white families (Bradford in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., III, 360, 1856) and Creek remnant in eastern Texas. The powerful Creek confederacy had its most intimate contact with the English of Carolina and Georgia, although a French fort was long established in the territory of the Alibamu.

The Indians were quick to perceive their value as servants, and we soon find them buying and selling black slaves. There is nothing to show that this introduction of black slaves among the Muskhogean tribes and others materially changed the status of the Indian prisoner of war.

The Muskhogean Indian Family History stated that the Muskhogean population at the time of first contact with Europeans has been estimated at 50,000. By the census of 1890 the number of pure-bloods belonging to the family in Indian Territory was as follows: Choctaw, 9,996; Chickasaw, 3,464; Creek, 9,291; Seminole, 2,539; besides perhaps 1,000 more in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. In 1905 their numbers were: Choctaw by blood, 17,160; by intermarriage, 1,467; freedmen, 5,254; in Mississippi, 1,235; Chickasaw by blood, 5,474; by intermarriage, 598; freedmen, 4,695; Creeks by blood, 10,185; freedmen, 5,738; Seminole by blood, 2,099; freedmen, 950; in Florida (1900), 358.

The Seminole of Florida married many Negro runaways, whose position seems to have been in all respects like that of other members of the tribe. There were, indeed, among the Seminole several settlements of runaway Negro slaves who had their own chiefs and seem to have been a recognized part of the tribe. The Florida Seminole Nation is one of the Five Civilized Nations. It held slaves, who could do as they pleased, as long as they gave goods to the tribe. This also brought protection from slavers and the military. They also accepted runaway slaves into their tribe.

The terrible Creek war in 1813-14 and the long drawn-out Seminole war 20 years later closed the struggle to maintain themselves in their old territories, and before the year 1840 the last of the Muskhogean tribes had been removed to their present location in Oklahoma, with the exception of a few hundred Seminole in Florida, a larger number of Choctaw in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

One of the toughest units in the United States Army was the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts. This elite group was recruited in 1870 from Negro people living in Mexico according to the Fort Davis National Historic Site, Fort Davis, Texas. The Seminole-Negroes were descendants of escaped slaves. They settled among the Seminole Indians of Florida. Andrew Jackson, from Tennessee, was a forceful proponent of Indian removal. Spurred in part by the motivation to punish the Seminoles for their practice of harboring fugitive slaves, Jackson's troops invaded Spanish Florida. The First Seminole War lasted from 1817 to 1818. The Seminoles were aided by fugitive slaves who had found protection among them and had been living with them for years. The presence of the fugitives enraged white planters and fueled their desire to defeat the Seminoles.

For the next 28 years, the United States government struggled to force relocation of the southeastern nations. A small group of Seminoles was coerced into signing a removal treaty in 1833, but the majority of the tribe declared the treaty illegitimate and refused to leave. The resulting struggle was the Second Seminole War, which lasted from 1835 to 1842. As in the first war, fugitive slaves fought beside the Seminoles who protected them. Thousands of lives were lost in the war, which cost the Jackson administration approximately 40 to 60 million dollars.

In the late 1830's and early 1840's the Seminoles and Seminole-Negroes were moved to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. The Seminole Nation was marched to Indian Territory on what is now known as the "Trail of Tears" along with other tribes, where hundreds of men, women and children were marched to their deaths. Slave hunters and Creek Indians persecuted them there. One band of Seminoles and a band of Seminole-Negroes consequently moved to Mexico. In the end, most of the Seminoles moved to the new territory. The few who remained in Florida had to defend themselves in the Third Seminole War (1855-58), when the U.S. military attempted to drive them out. Finally, the United States paid the remaining Seminoles to move west.
Although the Seminole Indians returned to the United States from Mexico in 1858, the Seminole blacks did not. They feared kidnapping and a return to slavery back in the United States. Mexico prohibited slavery. As a result the Seminole Negroes were safe as long as they lived south of the Rio Grande.

In 1870 Major Zenas R. Bliss started recruiting Seminole-Negroes from Mexico as U.S. Army scouts. In return for their services, the men would receive pay and rations. Their families were allowed to live at the forts where the scouts were stationed. The scouts amassed an impressive record of frontier combat. They served until 1914. Meanwhile, their families faced racial violence, discrimination and governmental indifference. Registration for the rolls of the Seminole tribe closed in 1866. This left the Seminole-Negroes in Texas and Mexico ineligible for Indian Reservation lands.

The Medal of Honor, this nation's highest honor for valor, was awarded to four Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts. Adam Paine was awarded the Medal of Honor for "gallantry in action" on the Staked Plains. John Ward, Pompey Factor and Issac Payne were awarded the Medal for rescuing their commander, Lieutenant John Bullis. The trio rode in under enemy fire. Ward pulled Bullis up onto his horse, and they rode away to safety. These young men of pure African or mixed black and Seminole ancestry were the Buffalo soldiers.

Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts Medal of Honor Recipients
Pvt. Adam Paine, September 20, 1874. The Staked Plains, Texas. Sept. 26-27, 1874. Inducted: Fort Duncan, Texas. Born: Florida. Issued: Oct 13, 1875. Citation: Rendered invaluable service to Col. R. S. Mackenzie, 4th U.S. Cavalry., during this engagement.

Pvt. Pompey Factor, April 25,1875. Eagle's Nest Crossing, Pecos River, Texas. Issued March 15, 1875. Citation: With 3 other men, he participated in a charge against 25 hostiles while on a scouting patrol

Pvt. Isaac Payne, April 25, 1875. Eagle's Nest Crossing, Pecos River, Texas. April 25, 1875. Born: Mexico. Issued: May 25, 1875. Citation: With 3 other men, he participated in a charge against 25 hostiles while on a scouting patrol.

Sgt. John Ward, April 25,1875. Eagle's Nest Crossing, Pecos River, Texas. April 25, 1875. Entered service at. Fort Duncan, Tex. Born: Arkansas. Issued: May 28, 1875. Citation. With 3 other men, he participated in a charge against 25 hostiles while on a scouting patrol.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Edwin C. McReynolds. THE SEMINOLES. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1957.

Katz, William Loren. BLACK INDIANS: A Hidden Heritage. New York: Athenaeum, 1986.

Kevin Mulroy. FREEDOM ON THE BORDER: The Seminole Maroons in Florida, the Indian Territory, Coahuila and Texas Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1993.

Miller, Donald. AN ALBUM OF BLACK AMERICANS IN THE ARMED FORCES. New York, NY.: Franklin