A Man Called Horse by Glennette Tilley Turner

Author:Glennette Tilley Turner [Turner, Glennette Tilley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2021-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

Despite the valor of the scouts, the Black Seminoles never received the land they believed the agreement had promised. Since returning to Texas, they had been squatting on military reservations. They found it impossible to grow enough food for a community of three hundred people. By 1873, army rations were limited to the scouts on active duty and the women working as laundresses. Anyone unable to work for the military was dependent on the relatively few who could. People were going hungry or scavenging for food. Although three departments of the US government—Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior, and the War Department—had wanted the Mascogos/Black Seminoles to return to the United States, none had assumed responsibility for their welfare.

With the plight of his people worsening, John Horse championed their cause. He first rode to San Antonio on horseback, then took the train to Washington. Dissatisfied with the response he got in Washington, on the way back home he stopped in San Antonio to meet with Brigadier General Christopher C. Augur, the Department of Texas commander. In addition to appealing for “full rations for my people,” John pleaded, “Give us a home for the sake of our children . . . [so] that they may learn something and get schooling.”

Augur understood and expressed concern that if the government did not agree to furnish full rations or remove the Black Seminoles, they would “from sheer desperation to prevent starving, have to resort to stealing and preying upon the white settlers. This . . . [would] beg retaliation, and in a short time it . . . [would] cost vastly more to restore peace, than to give them the desired support.” Knowing that after the US Civil War the Black Seminoles had a right to—and wanted to—return to Indian Territory, Augur offered to provide them with transportation. Although Augur and other high officials sought helpful relief, the Indian Affairs Department would not assist them, and the War Department would enlist only those scouts who were fit for service.

By 1876, John Horse’s family and most of the other Black Seminole families had moved from Fort Duncan to Fort Clark, Texas. They settled along both sides of Las Moras Creek, where they had briefly stopped before escaping to Mexico years before.

Even though the scouts’ defense of the border made it safe for white Texas settlers to live there, Black Seminoles constantly faced hostility from them. On the night of May 19, 1876, shots rang out as John Horse and former scout Titus Payne passed near the post hospital at Fort Clark. Payne died instantly. John was shot four times, and his horse, American, was shot once in the neck. Miraculously John and his horse were able to reach home.

The ambush of John Horse heightened the concerns of the Black Seminoles and the Texas settlers, who feared retaliation.

DETACHMENT OF BLACK SEMINOLE INDIAN SCOUTS, CIRCA 1890

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