During the 1870 and 1880’s, the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts fought many battles against some of the fiercest Indian tribes in the West. They never lost a man in combat, while receiving four Congressional Medals of Honor, America’s highest military award.
They were Black Seminole descendants of fugitive African slaves who ran into Spanish Florida, from Georgia and the Carolinas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At about the same time, the Seminoles broke away from the Creeks in Alabama and went into Florida. The maroon blacks and the Seminole Indians co-existed, sometimes co-mingled, in Florida under a loose confederation for food, shelter, and protection. The two groups fought the United States together in a series of so called “ Seminole Wars”, which were really about stopping black slaves from gaining freedom in Florida and taking the state from Spain. “This, you may be assured is a Negro and not an Indian War; and if it be not speedily put down, the south will feel the effects of it before the end of the season.”- General Thomas S. Jessup, U.S. Army.
Trail of Tears-The Indian Territory
Following the second Seminole War, the Seminoles and their Blacks allies were forced on what the Cherokee called “the Trail of Tears” to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma and Arkansas). “General Jessup offered them freedom, he said if you leave the Indians and you come with us, we’ll take you to the Indian Territory and you’ll be free, you will live as you lived here, and you’ll have your own village and you will do your own thing. They believed it and they started turning themselves in, in droves, and they were transported to the Indian Territory and of course there, that was not what happened,“ says Alcione Amos, Co-editor of “The Black Seminole.” The Indian Territory was dominated by a faction of the Seminole, which had become acculturated, (acting like white people), who tried to enslave the Black Seminole. There were several attempted assassinations on the life of Black Seminole Chief John Horse. He even made a trip to Washington D.C. trying to get help to stop the harassment. They never gave up their weapons their fierce determination was the only thing that kept them free. This was still before the Civil War, when most African Americans were slaves.
Exodus to Mexico
Finally after years of struggling to maintain their freedom, in 1850, led by John Horse more than three hundred Black Seminole and some Seminoles led by his friend Chief Wild Cat made an exodus to Mexico. On July 4th they crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico. “the long straggling rear-guard was worth seeing. It threw Falstaff’s ragged regiment altogether in the shade. Such an array of all manners and size of animals, mounted by all ages, sexes, and sizes of negroes, piled up to a most bewildering height, on and among such a promiscuous assemblage of blankets, babies, cooking utensils, and savage traps, in general, never were or could be held together on horseback by any beings on earth but themselves and their red brothers.” –Cora Montgomery, Fort Duncan, Texas July, 1850
Mexico welcomed the Black Seminole with open arms! “If we are enemies of slavery, it is because the Negro is a man, because the Negro is our brother.”
(the statement above was published in the El Siglo newspaper, in Mexico City.) Mexico had abolished slavery in 1828, under President Vicente Guerrero, one of their revolutionary heroes, who was part black.
The Black Seminole acted as the Mexican governments northern border guard fighting against Apaches, Comanche, and Kiowa warriors. In some instances Indian raiders killed Black Seminole or captured their children. In turn to earn bounty pay, the Black Seminoles scalped Indians as proof of death. The Mexican border was as dangerous in the 19th century as it is today.
After twenty years of desert guerilla warfare, danger to families, and harsh farming conditions the Black Seminole said yes to a recruitment effort by the U.S. Military to return to America in 1870. The U.S. offered them land, food, and supplies in exchange their men would form a tracking/fighting unit called the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts. They had to be classified as “Indians” by law to scout for the U.S. Military. Eventually members of this unit would be considered one of the best of its kind in U.S. history, settling to West while being were awarded four of the sixteen Medals of Honor received by several hundred Indian scouts.
Bullis and the Glory Years
Initially things didn’t go well for the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts. There was a huge problem between the scouts, who spoke Spanish, or “Seminole” a Gullah dialect with Old English, African, and Seminole terms, or broken English. The other disconnect was a mutual disrespect between the West Point educated white officers directly in charge of the unit. The officers show no courage, displayed contempt for the scouts, and only left the Fort to hunt animals, not fight. The Seminole Negro Indian Scouts dressed in wild buckskin outfits, acted more like Indians than white people and seemed undisciplined.
Everything changed in April 1873 when Lt. John Lapham Bullis took command of the Seminole Indian Scouts. Bullis, came from a Quaker family in Macedon, New York. He fought in the Civil War and often was in charge of black troops. He was as fearless and tough as the scouts. Willie “Dub” Warrior, Chief of the Black Seminole today says, “Bullis earned their respect, like my Uncle Joseph Phillips said, he’s the one that made the statement, he said one thing we liked about the lieutenant, he said “Men Let’s Go Get Em”, he didn’t say, there’s fighting out there “Yall go get ‘em.” Warrior added. He also eat with them, he now eat the same food that they eat, rattlesnake, he’d eat it with them, whatever in the field.”
Beginning in May, 1873 until June, 1881, the Seminole Indian Scouts made hundreds of sorties into hostile territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. They fought 28 major battles or skirmishes eventually forcing the Apaches, Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Mexican Kickapoo to surrender.
In part 2 of “the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts” we’ll look at why most of you have never heard of them? What are the Black Seminole doing today?, and why is one of the country’s leading Black Genealogist saying only half the black people you say they have Indian blood, really don’t.
