Indian Territory by John T. Biggs

GENERAL THOMAS JESUP ENDED the Second Seminole War with a promise: Black members of the tribe who emigrated to Indian Territory would remain free. With that understanding he recruited the two most respected Seminole warriors, John Horse and Wildcat, to help him end the conflict.

The tribe would not have laid down their arms without Jesup’s promise. Seminole had been sheltering runaway slaves since they broke from the Muskogee Creek in the late eighteenth century. By the time the war ended on August 14, 1842, blacks were integrated into every level of society. John Horse, himself, was the son of a native Seminole father and a black mother.

As soon as John and Wildcat arrived in Indian Territory, they understood the agreement they’d negotiated was doomed to fail. The U.S. government meant to locate the tribe on Creek land, subject to rules and regulations of the Creek tribal council. The U.S. Army had used Creek mercenaries in the Second Seminole War and promised them payment in black Seminole slaves. That bill was still outstanding. How long would blacks remain free surrounded by a pro-slavery tribe with a legal claim on them?

Rather than settle in a hostile jurisdiction, John Horse and Wildcat camped on Cherokee land near Fort Gibson. This was a delaying tactic at best, but it gave John time to meet with his old friend, Principal Chief Micanopy. He persuaded the chief to send a delegation to Washington to plead the Seminole’s case for tribal autonomy. Micanopy agreed, despite Creek disapproval, and appointed Wildcat to lead the group. The old chief eventually changed his mind and declared the delegation to be renegades. But by that time, Wildcat and John Horse were on their way to Washington.

General Thomas Jesup, determined to honor his word, threw his support behind the delegation. He reminded the Secretary of War that black Seminole had been promised freedom as a condition of surrender. Jesup had brought the longest and most expensive of the Indian wars to an end and had considerable influence with President John Tyler. With his help, Wildcat and John returned to Indian Territory with a new treaty.

THE SEMINOLE WERE UNDERSTANDABLY skeptical of another government promise, especially one made by a president who had grown up on a Virginia plantation surrounded and served by family slaves. For months after the delegation returned there was no progress toward autonomy and no indication from Washington that things might change. Frustrated tribal members blamed John Horse for negotiating the original treaty that brought them to Indian Territory and for continued government inaction. The Creek took every opportunity to call attention to John’s apparent failures and did their best to drive a wedge between native and black Seminole. Before long resentment grew to the point of violence.

A disgruntled native Seminole ambushed John Horse as he traveled to his family settlement on the Deep Fork River. The assassin stepped onto the trail and fired a shot that would have been fatal if John’s horse hadn’t reared at exactly the right moment. The bullet passed through the horse, grazed John, and left him pinned beneath the dying animal. The attacker drew a knife and would have finished what he started if a nearby group of Seminole women hadn’t intervened. They surrounded the would-be assassin and kept him busy long enough for John to work his way out from under the horse and escape. A council of Seminole chiefs met on August 31, 1844, and disavowed the assassination attempt. They pledged to reimburse John $30 for the dead horse; three years later he was still trying to collect.

John’s reputation was redeemed to some degree when the delegation’s treaty was enacted on January 4, 1845. It allotted the Seminole land in the Little River area and granted them local autonomy even though they were still answerable to the Creek council.

LATE IN 1845, NEWLY-appointed Subagent Marcellus Duval made it clear he would look favorably on ownership claims made on black Seminole. On the strength of his pro-slavery declaration, kidnappers descended on a black village on the Deep Fork and Canadian Rivers and attempted to take some of the children captive. The blacks took up arms and turned the slavers away, but it was clear there would be more kidnapping attempts in the future.

A mixed-blood Seminole filed a claim on John’s older sister, Juana, and two of her children, Linus and Sarah. While Juana sought legal protection, he kidnapped the two children and sold them to a Creek slaver. The post commandant at Fort Gibson and General Thomas Jesup in Washington sided with Juana, but even though she had won her legal battle, Linus and Sarah were never returned.

By late 1847, kidnapping had become such a frequent occurrence, John Horse petitioned the government to send his black Seminole anywhere they could be free. He went so far as to suggest they be transported to Africa. Unfortunately, the political climate in the U.S. was not favorable for Indians in 1847, and it was worse for blacks. There was no will to move black Seminoleto a safer location or to offer them meaningful protection.

John appealed once more to General Jesup. “The other day three of our people were stolen and more than a month has passed and have not been recovered. One of the principals in this theft has been placed before the law, and from some cause or other she has been let go. Some say there is no law against stealing Negroes.”

On June 28, 1848, U.S. Attorney General John Y. Mason wrote an opinion literally turning John Horse’s worst fears into settled law. “Negroes [black Seminole] should be restored to the condition in which they were prior to the intervention of General Jesup.” The tenuous legal freedom blacks had enjoyed in Indian Territory was ended. They were surrounded by tribal slavers and subject to Subagent Duval’s oversight.

By this time, John Horse had been legally declared free by the Seminole council, so the ruling did not affect him, but his family was still subject to slavers’ claims. He offered through Fort Gibson’s commander, General Arbuckle, to purchase his family members and succeeded in buying freedom for Juana and her remaining son.

On January 2, 1849, purported owners of black Seminole slaves gathered at Fort Gibson to enforce their claims. The blacks in question gathered at the fort as well, led by John Horse. The blacks were permitted to stay at the fort until the spring at which time they would settle within the Seminole subagency under the control of their owners and Subagent Marcellus Duval.

When the time came to move, John Horse led the blacks away from Fort Gibson as ordered, but as soon as it was clear they wouldn’t be accompanied by armed troops, he turned the group southwest and settled them near Wewoka Creek, thirty miles outside Duval’s jurisdiction. They built houses, planted crops, and established a self-governed town. The blacks were technically on Creek land, but the community was well armed and willing to defend itself.

Early in June 1849, the town was put to the test when a Cherokee rode into Wewoka with two Seminole and accused a black man, Walking Joe, of stealing a pony. The three-man posse found the pony in the town herd, but when they tried to take Walking Joe into custody, John Horse arrived with a group of heavily armed blacks and sent the Cherokee on his way with his property.

Subagent Marcellus Duval called on General Arbuckle to disarm the Wewoka black outlaws. The general declined, using sickness among his troops as an excuse. The town was safe from military intervention at least for the near future, but it was a matter of time until Indian Territory would come under the military control of a less sympathetic commander. General Arbuckle advised John Horse to emigrate to Mexico where slavery had been abolished in 1829. He said, “South of the border, a Negro can be as big as anybody.”

John took the general at his word, but he didn’t intend to go alone.

CHIEF BILLY BOWLEGS HADN’T emigrated from Florida when the Second Seminole War ended. He and his renegade Seminole band hid out in the Everglades and supported themselves by raiding plantations. Bowlegs was little more than a minor irritation at first, but his reputation grew over the years, and his band had become a major sanctuary for runaway slaves. The government feared his growing popularity would eventually lead to a third Seminole war.

The Bureau of Indian affairs chose Marcellus Duval to sell Chief Bowlegs on the advantages of peacefully emigrating to Indian Territory. The subagent understood how difficult this would be and tried to enlist Wildcat and John Horse to accompany him on his peacekeeping mission. Their refusal probably came as no surprise.

Duval had no Seminole allies to stand with him, so he chose high ranking Fort Gibson military men instead. This decision left the fort with a skeleton crew of administrators and provided the perfect time for John Horse and Wildcat to recruit fifty native and black Seminole volunteers and set out for Mexico.

AS THE SEMINOLE MADE their way to the Rio Grande they were joined by disaffected Kickapoo, unhappy with their treatment by the Bureau of Indian affairs. The additional emigrants depleted the group’s food stores but made them far less tempting to attack. The band supplemented rations by riding en masse into white settlements and demanding supplies. The roaming band of blacks and Indians was intimidating enough to convince locals it was worth a few bushels of corn and a head or two of cattle to avoid a fight.

The group set up camp on the Llano River where they would wait until a deal was struck with the Mexicans. It was a solid plan, until Wildcat went on a drinking spree in a bar in nearby Fredericksburg. He brought John Horse with him along with his black assistant, John Wood, and his son’s black nurse, Kitty Johnson. Wildcat’s funds ran out after he was roaring drunk but still not finished drinking. The bartender offered to solve his financial shortfall by purchasing John Wood and Kitty.

John Horse knew his old friend might go for the arrangement. Once before on their journey across Texas, Wildcat sold a black Seminole woman for a barrel of whiskey. He redeemed himself by stealing her back the next day, but for John the risk of two black Seminole being enslaved wasn’t worth taking. He spirited John Wood and Kitty Johnson out of the bar and back to their camp while Wildcat was in the middle of negotiations.

Terrified the bartender might have influence with the Texas Rangers or the military, the group quickly loaded up most of their possessions and rode for the Rio Grande. When Wildcat sobered up, he joined them without recriminations.

As they approached the border, the group encountered a company of soldiers under the command of Major John T. Sprague. They knew the major from their Florida days, and he welcomed them with enough food to satisfy their appetites and enough whiskey to get John Horse and Wildcat drunk.

During the festivities, Major Sprague sent a rider to summon a company of soldiers large enough to subdue the Indians and return the blacks to Indian Territory. Fortunately for the band, the soldiers were traveling with a Mexican captive who overheard them joking about the planned treachery. The Mexican warned the Seminole and gave them the chance to pack up their belongings and escape while the troops slept off the effects of their party.

When they arrived at the Rio Grande, the river was too high to ford and the warriors spent the night ferrying their families across on crude rafts made from logs. The last of them made it to the Mexican side when they saw the soldiers on the opposite bank waving red handkerchiefs and calling on them to come back. The warriors responded “Yes, we’ll come back all right, but we’ll come back to fight!” They could have put up quite a fight if they had been well armed. Between the blacks, the native Seminole, and the Kickapoo, their numbers had grown to three hundred strong.

On July 24, 1850, Wildcat requested arms, tools, mules, and other livestock from Colonel Juan Manuel Maldanado, subinspector general of military colonies. He also asked permission to return to Indian Territory with documentation of their agreement. He planned to recruit more black and native Seminole and escort them to a new, better life south of the border.

MARCELLUS DUVAL WAS SURE there would be more escape attempts and was determined to do whatever was necessary to stop them. The military at Fort Gibson despised the subagent’s tactics and wouldn’t cooperate with him, so he turned to the Creek tribal council. With Duval’s consent, Creek slavers, along with some Cherokee and white men, attempted to capture blacks who were living among the Seminole and sell them before they had a chance to escape.

With few exceptions, the native Seminole had never considered their black tribesmen to be chattel. Even under the influence of the pro-slavery white government and the Creek tribal council, they would not allow the blacks to be kidnapped. The native Seminole painted themselves for war and swore to fight. The confrontation would have deteriorated into a bloody war between the tribes if the military hadn’t intervened and forced the Creek and their allies to stand down.

While Duval was distracted by his confrontations with General Arbuckle, Wildcat rode into subagency territory and recruited at least a hundred blacks willing to ride with him to the Mexican border. Wildcat’s exploits had become legend across Indian Territory and Texas, and Kickapoo rushed to join his group as they had done on his last trip to the Rio Grande.

Marcellus Duval posted a reward in newspapers for the capture and return of Wildcat and runaway black Seminole but had no takers. At the subagent’s request, Texas Indian Agent Judge Rollins offered his Comanche charges fifty dollars for every black returned. It was all to no avail. No one was interested in pursuing hundreds of armed but peaceful emigrants who would soon be Mexico’s problem.

Duval and his Creek allies confined almost two hundred blacks to the Seminole subagency to prevent them from following Wildcat’s route to freedom. But completely stopping the exodus was impossible. Black Seminole were joined by antislavery and mixed-race native people as well as runaway slaves who crossed into Indian Territory from Arkansas. The emigrants fought with slavers, dodged the U.S. military and Comanche bounty hunters, and made their way across the Mexican border to join John Horse and Wildcat. They continued the exodus until the Civil War made it unnecessary.

—JOHN T. BIGGS is the author of six novels and hundreds of short stories and the winner of the Reader’s Digest Grand Prize. His writing is so full of Oklahoma that once you read it, you’ll never get the red dirt stains washed out of your mind. John lives in Oklahoma City with his wife, and they travel extensively throughout the world with their family.