| The relationships between Native Americans and African Americans were complicated during the early history of this country. On the one hand, Native Americans, having suffered at the hands of slavers, were inclined to help African Americans escape. But the British -- and later the American authorities -- provided incentives for Native Americans to return fugitives and legislated against those who refused. Some Native American groups accepted Africans as full members of their respective communities, like the Keetoowah of the Cherokee. Many Native Americans and African-descended people fought alongside one another in armed struggles against slavery. On the other hand, other tribes treated African Americans with the same contempt as did the White population. Although many Africans became members of the tribes, some African Americans participated in warfare against Native Americans, especially in the Far West as members of military units, notably the Buffalo Soldiers. This dichotomy was the result of efforts by British America to disrupt unity between the peoples. Attempts by the British colonists to regain escaped slaves British America made several attempts to disrupt efforts by Native Americans to aid runaway slaves. Treaties with Native Americans stipulated that they should return runaways slaves, but the tribes generally denied that there were any fugitives. As early as 1551, Spanish law prohibited the marriage of slaves and Native Americans because the children were considered free. In the 1740s, British in the southern colonies encouraged the Five Civilized Nations to own African slaves. The plan was that, if they also owned slaves, they'd be less willing to help runaways. This plan was successful with the Creeks and Chickasaws but failed with the Seminoles. As part of plans to split the groups in the 1700s, the British paid a bounty of 35 deerskins in Virginia or 3 blankets and a musket in the Carolinas to Native Americans who would track and capture escapees. In South Carolina, concern about runaway Africans was so great that several laws were passed to control the movement of the slaves. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1712 legislated enslavement of any Native Americans who aided slaves. The Seminoles and other tribes in Florida In 1736, fearing a revolution by fugitives and Chickasaws, the authorities enlisted slaves into military units with Black commanders. They were offered freedom if they exterminated the Chickasaws. The Spanish strategy for defending Florida from English expansion was based on mission Indians serving as militia to defend against incursions from the British colonies; Spanish authorities at St. Augustine even lured slaves with promises of freedom and independent communities. By the American Revolution of 1775 to 1783, Florida had fallen under British control. Although the British hadpreviously supported slavery, they encouraged slaves to flee, hoping to disrupt the revolution. Seminole Indians and Africans allied with the British against the slaveholding southern states. Later, during the War of 1812, both groups sided with the British once again, earning the wrath of the war's American hero, General Andrew Jackson. Destroying the mixed communities was Jackson's major objective. After Andrew Jackson became President of the United States, he signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which led to the Second Seminole War, 1835 to 1842, and the eventual relocation of the Five Civilized Nations to the Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma and part of Kansas). The President was granted the power to determine which of the African Americans were slaves and to whom they belonged. The Indian Territory The Indian Removal Act, intended to move most tribes from east of the Mississippi to the Indian Territory, was signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. The Trail of Tears was the forced relocation in 1838 of 15,000 Native Americans, resulting in the deaths of about 4,000 people. Thousands of slaves and some free African Americans were included in the expulsion. At first, the federal army tried to protect the Black Seminoles in Indian Territory, but in 1848 the U.S. Attorney General bowed to pro-slavery lobbyists and ordered the army to disarm the Seminoles. Then, in 1859, Elias Rector, Superintendent of Southern Indian Affairs, stated that owning slaves would "civilize" Native Americans. A movement to create a Black state from the Indian Territory evolved because African Americans were able to secure title to land there after 1870 and because they were not allowed to own land elsewhere in the United States. By 1890 about 25 towns were founded; one is Wewoka, the community that John Horse founded in 1849. After statehood was granted in 1907, the civil rights of African Americans were revoked. As a result, many people emigrated to Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada and to Liberia in Africa. Contact west of the Mississippi River Slaves who escaped west of the Mississippi River were not returned since the Dred Scott law had no authority outside the United States. They became trappers, hunters, and voyageurs because Native Americans trusted them more than they trusted Europeans. York, the slave of Captain William Clark, was taken west during the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1803 to 1806. Because he spoke French, he helped as interpreter for the expedition. Sacajawea translated from Shoshone to Mandan; her husband Charbonneau, from Mandan to French, and; York, from French to English. The ancestors of Edward Rose included Cherokee, African, and European people. He spoke more than 10 Native American languages and could use Indian sign language. He served as a guide to the Yellowstone River. Isaiah Dorman had married a Santee Sioux and was fluent in the Sioux language; he died with George Custer at the battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. James Pierson Beckwourth (also, Jim Beckworth, James P. Beckwith) was born into slavery in 1798 to Sir Jennings Beckwith, a descendant of nobility, and an African-American woman about whom little is known. In 1824, he was living in Missouri when he joined an expedition to explore the Rocky Mountains. He became a scout for the Union Army during the Civil War; in 1864 he acted as a guide during the Sand Creek Massacre. Later, he was hired by settlers to guide wagon trains through the Sierra Nevada. The Seminole Scouts and the Buffalo Soldiers African Americans first worked as U.S. deputy marshals in the Indian Territory. Later, the U.S. Army asked the Mexican-based Black Seminoles to serve as army scouts. The Seminole Negro Indian Scouts played a lead role in the Texas Indian wars of the 1870s. The scouts became famous for their tracking abilities and endurance. They could follow trails which were weeks old, and they could survive by uncovering hidden springs and eating rattlesnakes. Four of them earned Congressional Medals of Honor. As early as 1881, John Lapham Bullis, the commander of the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts asked the government to give land to the scouts, in Texas or in the Indian Territory. The government responded by continually erecting bureaucratic obstacles. The Scouts remained stationed at Fort Clark in Brackettville, Texas, until the Army disbanded them in 1914 and ordered their families to leave. Author Kevin Mulroy described this as the ultimate expression of the deplorable treatment the United States government had dished out to the Seminole maroons since their return from Mexico. Today, Brackettville is home to the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association, which maintains a historic graveyard. /The U.S. Tenth Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers, earned 11 Congressional Medal of Honor in battles against Utes, Apaches, and Comanches, even though many of them had Native American blood. Cherokee Bill had been a sergeant but later headed a renegade band which was infamous for its violence. The relationships between Native Americans and African Americans were complicated, due to the contrast between the desire of Native Americans to free the slaves and the incentives provided by British America to return slaves to their owners. Some tribes accepted the fugitives as members of their communities, while other tribes treated African Americans with contempt and severity. By the same token, although many fugitives became tribal members and contributed to the betterment of the community, some African Americans participated in warfare against Native Americans, especially in the Far West as members of military units. |
| Early U.S. History Native Americans and fugitive slaves by Anne Vandenburgh |