Black Seminoles

"Black Seminole" redirects here. For the Lil Yachty song, seeThe Black Seminole.

TheBlack Seminoles,orAfro-Seminoles,are an ethnic group of mixedNative AmericanandAfricanoriginassociated with theSeminolepeople inFloridaandOklahoma.They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people,free Africans,and escaped formerslaves,who allied with Seminole groups inSpanish Florida.Many have Seminole lineage, but due to the stigma of having mixed origin,they have all been categorized as slaves or Freedmen in the past.

Black Seminole

An Afro-Seminole elder smoking from a pipe (1952)
Total population
~2,000
Regions with significant populations
United States:Oklahoma,Florida,Texas The Bahamas:Andros Island Mexico:Coahuila
Languages
English,Afro-Seminole Creole,Spanish
Religion
Protestantism,Roman Catholicismand syncreticIslam
Related ethnic groups
Gullah,Mascogos,Seminoles,Creek Freedmen

Historically, the Black Seminoles lived mostly in distinct bands near the Native American Seminoles. Some were held as slaves, particularly of Seminole leaders, but the Black Seminole had more freedom than did slaves held by whites in the South and by other Native American tribes, including theright to bear arms.

Today, Black Seminole descendants live primarily in rural communities around theSeminole Nation of Oklahoma.Its two Freedmen's bands, the Caesar Bruner Band and the Dosar Barkus Band,are represented on the General Council of the Nation. Other centers are inFlorida,Texas,the Bahamas,and northernMexico.

Since the 1930s, the Seminole Freedmen have struggled with cycles of exclusion from the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma.In 1990, the tribe received the majority of a $56 million judgment trust by the United States, for seizure of lands in Florida in 1823, and the Freedmen have worked to gain a share of it. In 1999, the Seminole Freedmen's suit against the government was dismissed in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit;the court ruled the Freedmen could not bring suit independently of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which refused to join on the claim issue.In 2000 the Seminole Nation voted to restrict membership to those who could prove descent from a Seminole on theDawes Rollsof the early 20th century, which excluded about 1,200 Freedmen who were previously included as members. Excluded Freedmen argue that the Dawes Rolls were inaccurate and often classified persons with both Seminole and African ancestry as only Freedmen. TheDistrict Court for the District of Columbiahowever ruled inSeminole Nation of Oklahoma v. Nortonthat Freedmen retained membership and voting rights.

Origins

The Spanish strategy for defending their claim of Florida at first was based on forcing the localIndian tribesinto amissionsystem. The Native Americans in the missions were to serve as amilitiato protect the colony from incursions from the neighboringcolony of South Carolina.However, due to a combination of raids by South Carolinan colonists and newly introduced Europeandiseasesto which the Indians had no immunity, Florida's native population was quickly decimated. After the local Native Americans had all but died out, Spanish authorities encouraged Native Americans and refugee slaves from theSouthern coloniesto move to their territory. The Spanish hoped that the increased number of inhabitants of Spanish Florida would be effective defense in case of potential raids by American colonists.

As early as 1689,enslaved Africansfled from theSouth Carolina LowcountrytoSpanish Floridaseeking freedom. Over centuries, the Africans in the Lowcountry and Sea Islands gradually formed what has become known as theGullahculture of the coastal Southeast, with its own Creole language.

Under a 1693 edict fromKing Charles II of Spain,the black refugees received liberty in exchange for defending the Spanish settlers atSt. Augustine.The Spanish organized the black volunteers into amilitia;their settlement atFort Mosé,founded in 1738, was the first legally sanctionedfree blacktown in North America.

Not all the slaves escaping south found military service in St. Augustine to their liking. More escaped slaves sought refuge in wilderness areas in northern Florida, where their knowledge of tropical agriculture—and resistance to tropical diseases—served them well. Most of the black people who pioneered Florida wereGullahpeople who escaped from the riceplantationsof South Carolina (and later Georgia). As Gullah, they had developed an Afro-English based Creole, along with cultural practices and African leadership structure. The Gullah pioneers built their own settlements based on rice and corn agriculture. They became allies ofCreekand other Native Americans escaping into Florida from the Southeast at the same time.In Florida, they developed theAfro-Seminole Creole,which they spoke with the growing Seminole tribe.

Following theTreaty of Parissigned in 1763 at the conclusion of theSeven Years' War,Spanish Florida was ceded to theKingdom of Great Britain.The area remained a sanctuary for fugitive slaves from theSouthern colonies,as it was lightly settled. Many slaves sought refuge near growing Native American settlements.

In 1773, when the American naturalistWilliam Bartramvisited the area, he referred to the Seminole as a distinct people. He believed their name was derived from the word "simanó-li", which according to John Reed Swanton, "is applied by the Creeks to people who remove from populous towns and live by themselves.".William C. Sturtevantsays theethnonymwas borrowed byMuskogeefrom the Spanish wordcimarrón,supposedly the source as well of the English wordmaroon.This was used to describe the runaway slave communities of Florida and of theGreat Dismal Swampon the border of Virginia and North Carolina, on colonial islands of the Caribbean, and other parts of theNew World.

But linguist Leo Spitzer, writing in the journalLanguage,says, "If there is a connection between Eng.maroon,Fr.marron,and Sp.cimarron,Spain (or Spanish America) probably gave the word directly to England (or English America). "

Florida had been a refuge for fugitive slaves for at least 70 years by the time of theAmerican Revolution.Communities of black Seminoles were established on the outskirts of major Seminole towns.A new influx of freedom-seeking black people reached Florida during theAmerican Revolution(1775–83), escaping during the disruption of war.During the Revolution, the Seminole allied with the British, and African Americans and Seminole came into increased contact with each other. The Seminole held some slaves, as did the Creek and other Southeast Native American tribes. During theWar of 1812,members of both communities sided with the British against the US in the hopes of repelling American settlers; they strengthened their internal ties and earned the enmity of American generalAndrew Jackson.

Spain had given land to someMuscogee (Creek)Native Americans. Over time the Creek were joined by other remnant groups of Southeast AmericanNative Americans,such as theMiccosukee,Choctaw,and theApalachicola,and formed communities. Their community evolved over the late 18th and early 19th centuries as waves ofCreekleft present-dayGeorgiaandAlabamaunder pressure from white settlement and theCreek Wars.By a process ofethnogenesis,the Native Americans formed the Seminole.

Culture

WIKITONGUES- Bertha speakingAfro-Seminole Creole

Abraham, a black Seminole leader, from N. Orr's engraving inThe Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War(1848) by John T. Sprague.

See also:Seminole music

The black Seminole culture that took shape after 1800 was a dynamic mixture of African, Native American, Spanish, and slave traditions. Adopting certain practices of the Native Americans, maroons wore Seminole clothing and ate the same foodstuffs prepared the same way: they gathered the roots of a native plant calledcoontie,grinding, soaking, and straining them to make astarchy floursimilar toarrowroot,as well as mashing corn with a mortar and pestle to makesofkee,a sort of porridge often used as a beverage, with water added— ashes from the fire wood used to cook the sofkee were occasionally added to it for extra flavor.They also introduced their Gullah staple of rice to the Seminole, and continued to use it as a basic part of their diets. Rice remained part of the diet of the black Seminoles who moved to Oklahoma.In addition, the language of the black Seminoles is a mix of African, Seminole, and Spanish words. The African heritage of the black Seminoles, according to academics, is from theKongo,Yoruba,and other African ethnic groups. African American linguist and historian,Lorenzo Dow Turnerdocumented about fifteen words spoken by black Seminoles that came from theKikongo language.Other African words spoken by black Seminoles are from theTwi,Wolof,and other West African languages.

Initially living apart from the Native Americans, the maroons developed their own unique African-American culture, based in the Gullah culture of the Lowcountry. Black Seminoles inclined toward asyncreticform of Christianity developed during the plantation years. Certain cultural practices, such as "jumping the broom"to celebrate marriage, hailed from the plantations; other customs, such as some names used for black towns, reflected African heritage.

As time progressed, the Seminole and blacks had limited intermarriage, but historians and anthropologists have come to believe that generally the black Seminoles had independent communities. They allied with the Seminole at times of war.

The Seminole society was based on amatrilinealkinship system, in which inheritance and descent went through the maternal line. Children were considered to belong to the mother'sclan,so those born to ethnic African mothers would have been considered black by the Seminole. While the children might integrate customs from both parents' cultures, the Seminole believed they belonged to the mother's group more than the father's. African Americans adopted some elements of the European-American patriarchal system. But, under the South's adoption of the principle ofpartus sequitur ventremin the 17th century and incorporated into slavery law in slave states, children of slave mothers were considered legally slaves. Under theFugitive Slave Lawof 1850, even if the mother escaped to a free state, she and her children were legally considered slaves and fugitives. As a result, the black Seminoles born to slave mothers were always at risk from slave raiders.

Historian Ray Von Robertson conducted oral interviews with sixteen Black Seminoles from 2006 and 2007 and found that Seminole cultural influences were incorporated into their daily lives in practices such as food ways, herbal medicine, and language. Black Seminoles cooked and ate fry bread,sofkee,and grape dumplings.

African-Seminole relations

By the early 19th century, maroons (free Black people andfreedom seekers) and the Seminole were in regular contact in Florida, where they evolved a system of relations unique amongNorth American Native Americansand Black people. Seminole practice in Florida had acknowledged slavery, though not on the chattel slavery model then common in the American south. It was, in fact, more like feudal dependency and taxation since African Americans among the Seminole generally lived in their own communities.

In exchange for paying an annual tribute of livestock, crops, hunting, and war party obligations, Black prisoners or fugitives found sanctuary among the Seminole. Seminoles, in turn, acquired an important strategic ally in a sparsely-populated region.They elected their own leaders, and could amass wealth in cattle and crops. Most importantly, they bore arms for self-defense. Florida real estate records show that the Seminole and Black Seminole people owned large quantities of Florida land. In some cases, a portion of that Florida land is still owned by the Seminole and black Seminole descendants in Florida. In the 19th century, the Black Seminoles were called "SeminoleNegroes"by their white American enemies andEstelusti( "black People" ), by their Native American allies.

Under the comparatively free conditions, the Black Seminoles flourished.US ArmyLieutenant George McCall recorded his impressions of a Black Seminole community in 1826:

We found these negroes in possession of large fields of the finest land, producing large crops of corn, beans, melons, pumpkins, and other esculent vegetables.... I saw, while riding along the borders of the ponds, fine rice growing; and in the village large corn-cribs were filled, while the houses were larger and more comfortable than those of the Native Americans themselves.

"An Indigenous town, residence of a chief", fromLithographs of Events in the Seminole War in Florida in 1835,published by Gray and James in 1837

Historians estimate that during the 1820s, 800 blacks were living with the Seminoles.The Black Seminole settlements were highly militarized, unlike the communities of most of the slaves in the Deep South. The military nature of the African and Seminole relationship led GeneralEdmund Pendleton Gaines,who visited several flourishing black Seminole settlements in the 1800s, to describe the African Americans as "vassals and allies" of the Seminole.

The traditional relationship between Seminole Blacks and natives changed in the course of the Second Seminole War when the old tribal system broke down and the Seminole resolved themselves into loose war bands living off the land with no distinction between tribal members and Black fugitives. That changed again in the new territory when the Seminole were obliged to settle on fixed lots of land and take up settled agriculture. Conflict arose in the territory because the transplanted Seminole had been placed on land allocated to theCreek,who had a practice of chattel slavery. There was increasing pressure from both Creek and pro-Creek Seminole for the adoption of the Creek model of slavery for the Black Seminoles.Creek slavers and those from other Native groups, and whites, began raiding the Black Seminole settlements to kidnap and enslave people. The Seminole leadership would become headed by a pro-Creek faction who supported the institution of chattel slavery. These threats led to many Black Seminoles escaping to Mexico.

In terms of spirituality, the ethnic groups remained distinct. Seminole historian Susan Miller explained that Black Seminoles did not participate in Seminole ceremonies such as the Seminole Busk ritual. Participation in spiritual practices required matrilineal descent within a Seminole clan. The Seminole followed the nativistic principles of theirGreat Spirit.Black enslaved people had a syncretic form ofChristianitybrought with them from the plantations and developed aPan-African culturethat was expressed in writing, language,religion,and social structure. In general, the Black former-slaves never wholly adopted Seminole culture and beliefs but were accepted into Seminole society, as seen by the skin tone in the pictures of the early 1900s.They were not considered Native American by the middle of the 20th century.

Most Black former-slaves spokeGullah,an Afro-English-basedcreole language.That enabled them to communicate better with Anglo-Americans than theCreekor Mikasuki-speaking Seminole. The Native Americans used them as translators to advance their trading with the British and other tribes.Together, in Florida, they developedAfro-Seminole Creole,identified in 1978 as a distinct language by the linguistIan Hancock.Black Seminoles and Freedmen continued to speak Afro-Seminole Creole through the 19th century in Oklahoma. Hancock found that in 1978, some Black Seminole and Seminole elders still spoke it in Oklahoma and in Florida.

Seminole Wars

After winning independence in the Revolution, American slaveholders were increasingly worried about the armed black communities in Florida. The territory was ruled again by Spain, as Britain had ceded bothEastandWest Florida.The US slaveholders sought the capture and return of Florida's black fugitives under theTreaty of New York (1790),the first treaty ratified under the Confederation.

Wanting to disrupt Florida's maroon communities after the War of 1812, GeneralAndrew Jacksonattacked theNegro Fort,which had become a black Seminole stronghold after the British had allowed them to occupy it when they evacuated Florida. Breaking up the maroon communities was one of Jackson's major objectives in theFirst Seminole War(1817–18).

Under pressure, the Native American and black communities moved into south and central Florida. Slaves and black Seminoles frequently migrated down the peninsula to escape fromCape Floridatothe Bahamas.Hundreds left in the early 1820s after the United States acquired the territory from Spain, effective 1821. Contemporary accounts noted a group of 120 migrating in 1821, and a much larger group of 300 African-American slaves escaping in 1823, picked up by Bahamians in 27 sloops and also by canoes.Their concern about living under American rule was not unwarranted. In 1821, Andrew Jackson became the territorial governor of Florida and ordered an attack onAngola,a village built by black Seminoles and other free blacks south ofTampa Bay,on the Manatee River.Raiders captured over 250 people, most of whom were sold into slavery. Some of the survivors fled to the Florida interior and others to Florida's east coast and escaped to the Bahamas.In the Bahamas, the black Seminoles developed a village known as Red Bays onAndros,where basket making and certain grave rituals associated with Seminole traditions are still practiced.Federal construction and staffing of theCape Florida Lighthousein 1825 reduced the number of slave escapes from this site.

Massacre of the Whites by the Native Americans and blacks in Florida, engraving by D.F. Blanchard for an 1836 account of theDade Massacreat the outset of the Second Seminole War (1835–42).

TheSecond Seminole War(1835–42) marked the height of tension between the U.S. and the Seminoles, and also the historical peak of the African-Seminole alliance. Under the policy ofIndian removal,the US wanted to relocate Florida's 4,000 Seminole people and most of their 800 black Seminole allies to the westernIndian Territory.During the year before the war, prominent white citizens captured and claimed as fugitive slaves at least 100 black Seminoles.

Anticipating attempts to re-enslave more members of their community, black Seminoles opposed removal to the West. In councils before the war, they threw their support behind the most militant Seminole faction, led byOsceola.After war broke out, individual black leaders, such as John Caesar, Abraham, andJohn Horse,played key roles.In addition to aiding the natives in their fight, black Seminoles recruited plantation slaves to rebellion at the start of the war. The slaves joined Native Americans and maroons in the destruction of 21 sugar plantations from Christmas Day, December 25, 1835, through the summer of 1836. Historians do not agree on whether these events should be considered a separateslave rebellion;generally they view the attacks on the sugar plantations as part of the Seminole War.

By 1838, U.S. GeneralThomas Sydney Jesuptried to divide the black and Seminole warriors by offering freedom to the blacks if they surrendered and agreed to removal to Indian Territory.John Horsewas among the black warriors who surrendered under this condition. Due to Seminole opposition, however, the Army did not fully follow through on its offer. After 1838, more than 500 black Seminoles traveled with the Seminoles thousands of miles to theIndian Territoryin present-day Oklahoma; some traveled by ship across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River. Because of harsh conditions, many of both peoples died along this trail from Florida to Oklahoma, also known asThe Trail of Tears.

The status of black Seminoles and fugitive slaves was largely unsettled after they reached Indian Territory. The issue was compounded by the government's initially putting the Seminole and blacks under the administration of theCreek Nation,many of whom were slaveholders.The Creek tried to re-enslave some of the fugitive black slaves. John Horse and others set up towns, generally near Seminole settlements, repeating their pattern from Florida.

In the West and Mexico

See also:Mascogos

In the west, the black Seminoles were still threatened by slave raiders. These included pro-slavery members of theCreek tribeand some Seminole, whose allegiance to the blacks diminished after defeat by the US in the war. Officers of the federal army may have tried to protect the black Seminoles, but in 1848 the U.S. Attorney General bowed to pro-slavery lobbyists and ordered the army to disarm the community.This left hundreds of Seminoles and black Seminoles unable to leave the settlement or to defend themselves against slavers.

Migration to Mexico

See also:Underground Railroad § South to Mexico

Facing the threat of enslavement, the black Seminole leaderJohn Horseand about 180 black Seminoles staged a mass escape in 1849 to northernMexico,where slavery had been abolished twenty years earlier. The black fugitives crossed to freedom in July 1850.They rode with a faction of traditionalist Seminole under the chiefCoacochee,who led the expedition. The Mexican government welcomed the Seminole allies as border guards on the frontier, and they settled atEl Nacimiento,Coahuila.

After 1861, the black Seminoles in Mexico and Texas had little contact with those in Oklahoma. For the next 20 years, black Seminoles served as militiamen and Native American fighters in Mexico, where they became known asmascogos,derived from the tribal name of the Creek –Muskogee.Slave raiders from Texas continued to threaten the community but arms and reinforcements from the Mexican Army enabled the black warriors to defend their community.By the 1940s, descendants of the Mascogos numbered 400–500 in El Nacimiento de los Negros,Coahuila,inhabiting lands adjacent to theKickapootribe. They had a thriving agricultural community. By the 1990s, most of the descendants had moved into Texas.

Indian Territory/Oklahoma

19th-century engraving of a Black Seminole warrior - often believed to be John Horse - of the First Seminole War. (1817–1818)

Throughout the period, several hundred black Seminoles remained in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Because most of the Seminole and the otherFive Civilized Tribessupported the Confederacy during the American Civil War, in 1866 the US required new peace treaties with them. The US required the tribes emancipate anyslavesand extend to thefreedmenfull citizenship rights in the tribes if they chose to stay in Indian Territory. In the late nineteenth century, Seminole Freedmen thrived in towns near the Seminole communities on the reservation. Most had not been living as slaves to the Native Americans before the war. They lived —as their descendants still do— in and aroundWewoka, Oklahoma,the community founded in 1849 by John Horse as a black settlement. Today it is the capital of the federally recognizedSeminole Nation of Oklahoma.

Following the Civil War, some Freedmen's leaders in Indian Territory practicedpolygyny,as did ethnic African leaders in other diaspora communities.In 1900 there were 1,000 Freedmen listed in the population of the Seminole Nation in Indian Territory, about one-third of the total. By the time of theDawes Rolls,there were numerous female-headed households registered. The Freedmen's towns were made up of large, closely connected families.

After allotment, "[f]reedmen, unlike their [Native] peers on the blood roll, were permitted to sell their land without clearing the transaction through the Indian Bureau. That made the poorly educated Freedmen easy marks for white settlers migrating from the Deep South."Numerous Seminole Freedmen lost their land in the early decades after allotment, and some moved to urban areas. Others left the state because of its conditions of racial segregation. As US citizens, they were exposed to the harsher racial laws of Oklahoma.

Since 1954, the Freedmen have been included in the constitution of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. They have two bands, each representing more than one town and named for 19th-century band leaders: theCesar Brunerband covers towns south ofLittle River;theDosar Barkuscovers the several towns located north of the river. Each of the bands elects two representatives to the General Council of the Seminole Nation.

Texas community

Seminole Chief, Seminole Camp, nearFort Clark,Texas.(c. 1876–1879)

In 1870, the U.S. Army invited black Seminoles to return from Mexico to serve asarmy scoutsfor the United States. Theblack Seminole Scouts(originally anAfrican Americanunit despite the name) played a lead role in theTexas-Indian Warsof the 1870s, when they were based atFort Clark, Texas,the home of theBuffalo Soldiers.The scouts became famous for their tracking abilities and feats of endurance. Four men were awarded theMedal of Honor,three for an 1875 action against theComanche.

After the close of the Texas Indian Wars, the scouts remained stationed at Fort Clark inBrackettville, Texas.The Army disbanded the unit in 1914. The veterans and their families settled in and around Brackettville, where scouts and family members were buried in its cemetery. The town remains the spiritual center of the Texas-based black Seminoles.In 1981, descendants at Brackettville and the Little River community of Oklahoma met for the first time in more than a century, in Texas for aJuneteenthreunion and celebration.

Florida and Bahamas

Afro Seminole descendants continue to live in Florida today. They can enroll in theSeminole Tribe of Floridaif they meet its membership criteria forblood quantum:one-quarter Seminole ancestry. About 50 black Seminoles, all of whom have at least one-quarter Seminole ancestry, live on theFort Pierce Reservation,a 50-acre parcel taken in trust in 1995 by the Department of Interior for the Tribe as its sixth reservation.

Descendants of Afro Seminoles, who identify as Bahamian, reside onAndros Islandin theBahamasin an Area called Red Bay. A few hundred refugees had left in the early nineteenth century fromCape Floridato go to the British colony for sanctuary from American enslavement.After banning its participation in theAtlantic slave tradein1807,in 1818 Britain declared that African slaves or slaves who arrived in the Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would bemanumitted.In 1833 Britain abolished slavery throughout its Empire. They have been sometimes referred to as "African Indians or Black Indians", in recognition of their history.

Seminole Freedmen exclusion controversy

In 1900, Seminole Freedmen numbered about 1,000 on the Oklahoma reservation, about one-third of the total population at the time. Members were registered on the Dawes Rolls for allocation of communal land to individual households.Since then, numerous Freedmen left after losing their land, as their land sales were not overseen by the Indian Bureau. Others left because of having to deal with the harshly segregated society of Oklahoma.

The land allotments and participation in Oklahoma society altered relations between the Seminole and Freedmen, particularly after the 1930s. Both peoples faced racial discrimination from whites in Oklahoma, who essentially divided society into two: white and "other". Public schools and facilities were racially segregated.

When the tribe reorganized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, some Seminole wanted to exclude the Freedmen and keep the tribe as Native American only. It was not until the 1950s that the black Seminole were officially recognized in the constitution. Another was adopted in 1969, that restructured the government according to more traditional Seminole lines. It established 14 town bands, of which two represented Freedmen. The two Freedmen's bands were given two seats each, like other bands, on the Seminole General Council.

There have been "battles over tribal membership across the country, as gambling revenues and federal land payments have given Native Americans something to fight over."In 2000, Seminole Freedmen were in the national news because of a legal dispute with theSeminole Nation of Oklahoma,of which they had been legal members since 1866, over membership and rights within the tribe.

TheSeminole Nation of Oklahomaheld the black Seminoles could not share in services to be provided by a $56 million federal settlement, a judgement trust, originally awarded in 1976 to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and theSeminole Tribe of Florida(and other Florida Seminoles) by the federal government.The settlement was in compensation for land taken from them in northern Florida by the United States at the time of the signing of theTreaty of Moultrie Creekin 1823, when most of the Seminole and maroons were moved to a reservation in the center of the territory. This was before removal west of the Mississippi.

The judgement trust was based on the Seminole tribe as it existed in 1823. Black Seminoles were not recognized legally as part of the tribe, nor was their ownership or occupancy of land separately recognized. The US government at the time would have assumed most were fugitive slaves, without legal standing. The Oklahoma and Florida groups were awarded portions of the judgement related to their respective populations in the early 20th century, when records were made of the mostly full-blood descendants of the time.The settlement apportionment was disputed in court cases between the Oklahoma and Florida tribes, but finally awarded in 1990, with three-quarters going to the Oklahoma people and one-quarter to those in Florida.

However, the black Seminole descendants asserted their ancestors had also held and farmed land in Florida, and suffered property losses as a result of US actions. They filed suit in 1996 against the Department of Interior to share in the benefits of the judgement trust of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, of which they were members.In 1999, the Seminole Freedmen's suit against the government was dismissed in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit;the court ruled the Freedmen could not bring suit independently of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which refused to join. As a sovereign nation, they could not be ordered to join the suit.

In another aspect of the dispute over citizenship, in the summer of 2000 the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma voted to restrict members, according toblood quantum,to those who had one-eighth Seminole ancestry,basically those who could document descent from a Seminole ancestor listed on theDawes Rolls,the federal registry established in the early 20th century. At the time, during rushed conditions, registrars had separate lists for Seminole-Indian and Freedmen. They classified those with visible African ancestry as Freedmen, regardless of their proportion of Native American ancestry or whether they were considered Native members of the tribe at the time. This excluded some black Seminole from being listed on the Seminole-Indian list who qualified by ancestry.

The Dawes Rolls included in the Seminole-Indian list many Intermarried Whites who lived on Native American lands, but did not include blacks of the same status. The Seminole Freedmen believed the tribe's 21st-century decision to exclude them was racially based and has opposed it on those grounds. The Department of Interior said that it would not recognize a Seminole government that did not have Seminole Freedmen participating as voters and on the council, as they had officially been members of the nation since 1866. In October 2000, the Seminole Nation filed its own suit against the Interior Department, contending it had the sovereign right to determine tribal membership.TheDistrict Court for the District of Columbiaruled in September 2002 inSeminole Nation of Oklahoma v. Nortonthat Freedmen retained membership and voting rights.The tribe however maintained a separate status for Freedmen and does not consider them full members, or members "by blood". In Oklahoma during 2006 and 2007, historian Ray Von Robertson conducted oral interviews with sixteen Black Seminoles who had obtained Seminole Freedman identification cards and found that Black Seminoles were disenfranchised, did not receive full acceptance in the Seminole Nation, and did not receive full benefits from the funds programs offered to the Seminole nation coming from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In 2004, theBureau of Indian Affairsheld that the exclusion of Black Seminoles constituted a violation of the Seminole Nation's 1866 treaty with the United States following theAmerican Civil War.They noted that the treaty was made with a tribe that included black as well as white and brown members. The treaty had required the Seminole toemancipatetheir slaves, and to give the Seminole Freedmen full citizenship and voting rights. The BIA stopped federal funding for a time for services and programs to the Seminole.

The individualCertificate of Degree of Indian Blood(CDIB) is based on registration of ancestors in the Indian lists of the Dawes Rolls. Although the BIA could not issue CDIBs to the Seminole Freedmen, in 2003 the agency recognized them as members of the tribe and advised them of continuing benefits for which they were eligible.Journalists theorized the decision could affect the similar case in which theCherokee Nation of OklahomaexcludedCherokee Freedmenas members unless they could document a direct Native American ancestor on the Dawes Rolls.

In October 2021, the federalIndian Health Serviceannounced that Seminole Nation Freedmen are eligible for health care, after months of reports that the tribe was denying FreedmenCOVID-19 vaccines.

Legacy and honors

Network to Freedom Trail sign commemorating hundreds of black Seminoles who escaped from Cape Florida in the early 1820s to the Bahamas.

• Fort Mose Historic State Parkin Florida is aNational Historic Landmarkat the site of the first free black community in the United States
• A large sign atBill Baggs Cape Florida State Parkcommemorates the site where hundreds of African Americans escaped to freedom in the Bahamas in the early 1820s, as part of the NationalUnderground RailroadNetwork to Freedom Trail.
• A sign at the Manatee Mineral Spring marks the location where traces of Angola were uncovered
• Red Bays, Andros, the historic settlement of black Seminoles in the Bahamas, and Nacimiento, Mexico are being recognized as related international sites on the Network to Freedom Trail.

Notable black Seminoles

• Dosar Barkus,band leader from 1892 through allotment, namesake for contemporary band
• Caesar Bruner,band leader from Reconstruction through statehood, namesake for contemporary band
• Eugene Bullard,one of the first black American military pilots
• John Horse,leader at the time of removal, founder of Wewoka, and co-leader of 1849 escape to northern Mexico
• Johanna July,horsebreaker
• Sergeant John Ward
• Adam Painewas born in 1843 to Black Seminole parents nearAlachua, Floridaand became a Black Seminole Indian Scout and Medal of Honor Recipient
• Pompey FactorandIsaac Payne- Medal of Honor recipients for their service in the24th Infantry.

See also

• Afro-Seminole Creole
• Black Indians in the United States
• Black Seminole Scouts
• Ian Hancock
• List of topics related to black and African people
• One-Drop Rule
• Zambo

References

Primary sources

• Mahon, John K. (1967).History of the Second Seminole War1835-1842 (Revised Edition). University of Florida Press.
• McCall, George A.Letters From the Frontiers.Philadelphia: Lippincott & Co., 1868.
• Miller, David Hunter, ed.Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America.2 vols. Washington: GPO, 1931.
• Mills, Charles K. (2011).Harvest of Barren Regrets: The Army Career of Frederick William Benteen 1834–1898.University of Nebraska Press.
• United States. Attorney-General.Official Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States.Washington: United States, 1852–1870.
• United States. Congress.American State Papers: Foreign Relations.Vol 4. Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1832–1860.
• United States. Congress.American State Papers: Military Affairs.7 vols. Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1832–1860.

Secondary sources

• Akil II, Bakari. "Seminoles With African Ancestry: The Right To Heritage",The Black World Today,December 27, 2003.
• Army and Navy Chronicle.13 vols. Washington: B. Homans, 1835–1842.
• Baram, Uzi. "Cosmopolitan Meanings of Old Spanish Fields: Historical Archaeology of a Maroon Community in Southwest Florida" Historical Archaeology 46(1):108-122. 2012
• Baram, Uzi. "Many Histories by the Manatee Mineral Spring". Time Sifters Archaeological Society Newsletter March 2014.
• Brown, Canter. "Race Relations in Territorial Florida, 1821–1845."Florida Historical Quarterly73.3 (January 1995): 287–307.
• Foreman, Grant.The Five Civilized Tribes.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1934.
• Foster, Laurence.Negro-Indian Relations in the Southeast.PhD. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1935.
• Giddings, Joshua R.The Exiles of Florida, or, crimes committed by our government against maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other slave states, seeking protection under Spanish laws.Columbus, Ohio: Follet, 1858.
• Goggin, John M. "The Seminole Negroes of Andros Island, Bahamas."Florida Historical Quarterly24 (July 1946): 201–6.
• Hancock, Ian F.The Texas Seminoles and Their Language.Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.
• Indianz (2004)."Seminole Freedmen rebuffed by Supreme Court",June 29, 2004.
• Kashif, Annette. "Africanisms Upon the Land: A Study of African Influenced Placenames of the USA"Archived2014-09-10 at theWayback Machine,InPlaces of Cultural Memory: African Reflections on the American Landscape.Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 2001.
• Landers, Jane.Black Society in Spanish Florida.Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999.
• Littlefield, Daniel F., Jr.Africans and Seminoles.Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1977.
• Mahon, John K.History of the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842.1967. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1985.
• Mulroy, Kevin.Freedom on the Border: The Seminole Maroons in Florida, the Indian Territory, Coahuila, and Texas.Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1993.
• Mulroy, Kevin.The Seminole Freedmen: A History (Race and Culture in the American West),Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
• Porter, Kenneth Wiggins.The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People.Eds Thomas Senter and Alcione Amos. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996.
• Porter, Kenneth Wiggins.The Negro on the American Frontier.New York: Arno Press, 1971.
• Rivers, Larry Eugene.Slavery in Florida.Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000.
• Schneider, Pamela S.It's Not Funny: Various Aspects of Black HistoryCharlotte PA: Lemieux Press Publishers, 2005.
• Simmons, William.Notices of East Florida: with an account of the Seminole nation of Indians,1822. Intro. George E. Buker. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1973, available online.
• Sturtevant, William C. "Creek into Seminole."North American Indians in Historical Perspective.Eds Eleanor B. Leacock and Nancy O. Lurie. New York: Random House, 1971.
• Twyman, Bruce Edward.The Black Seminole Legacy and Northern American Politics, 1693–1845.Washington: Howard University Press, 1999.
• Wallace, Ernest.Ranald S. Mackenzie on the Texas Frontier.College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1993.
• Wright, J. Leitch, Jr.Creeks and Seminoles: The Destruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge People.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.

Further reading

• Hancock, Ian F. "A Provisional Comparison of the English-based Atlantic Creoles",Sierra Leone Language Review,8 (1969), 7=72.
• ——— "Gullah and Barbadian: Origins and Relationships."American Speech,55 (1) (1980), 17–35.
• ———The Texas Seminoles and their Language,Austin: University of Texas African and Afro-American Studies and Research Center, Series 2, No. 1, 1980.
• Howard, Rosalyn A.black Seminoles in the Bahamas,Gainesville: University of Florida, 2002
• Klos, George (1991)."Blacks and Seminoles"(PDF).South Florida History Magazine.No. 2. pp. 12–5. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2016-03-13.Retrieved2017-11-18– viaHistoryMiami.
• Littlefield, Daniel C.Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina,Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981/1991, University of Illinois Press.
• Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr.Africans and Seminoles: From Removal to Emancipation,University of Mississippi Press, 1977.
• Opala, Joseph A.A Brief History of the Seminole Freedmen,Austin: University of Texas African and Afro-American Studies and Research Center, Series 2, No. 3, 1980.
• ——— "Seminole-African Relations on the Florida Frontier",Papers in Anthropology(University of Oklahoma), 22 (1) (1981), 11–52.

External links

• Black Seminole Indian Scoutsfrom theNational Park Service
• Bird, J.B (2005). "The Largest Slave Rebellion in U.S. History",Rebellion: John Horse and the black SeminolesWebsite
• Bill Hubbard, "Story of Freedman Caesar Bruner",c. 1958, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma website
• Seminole and black Seminole genealogical records,Freepages GenWeb
• "Blood Feud",Wired Magazine,Vol. 13.09, August 2005, article on DNA, ethnicity, and black Seminoles
• "black Indians",ColorQWorld
• PilaklikahaatHistory of Central Florida Podcast
• "Tragedy and Survival: Virtual Landscapes of 19th Century Florida Gulf Coast Maroons"