One of the best researched and most comprehensive sources on the Indians of Texas comes from an unlikely place, the National Park Service at Lake Amistad.
http://npshistory.com/publications/amis/aspr-34/chap3.htmFrom this source we get the context of the Black Seminoles during their 20 year hiatus in Mexico before accepting employment by the US Army.
Note the presence of Wildcat, in those years in virtual partnership with John Horse. Within ten years after guerrilla warfare in the swamps of Florida, Wildcat, who had been to Washington and also negotiated with the government in Mexico far a grant of 70,000 acres, was leading raids as far north as Bandera and the Upper Medina.
At one point he ransoms John Horse from slave catchers in Eagle Pass with a bag of gold pieces. IIRC the guy he paid the ransom to, Texas Ranger Captain and part-time Slave Raider John (?) Callaghan was from Bandera. I dunno if there was a connection with the raid.
Surely Wildcat, feared in Texas at the time and all but forgotten today, was a guy who belongs among the pantheon of notable Indian leaders. Smallpox took him out in Mexico in 1857.
From the NPS…
In the spring of 1850, 234 Maroon (Black Seminole), some 200 Seminole, around 100 Kickapoo, and some Cherokee and Creek Black (and possibly some Caddo) began their trek under the leadership of Wild Cat, a Seminole chief. The trek took a relatively south-southwestern course, moving from southeast Oklahoma, arriving on the Llano River in May 1850. There they established a temporary village to plant corn and to await Wild Cat's negotiations with the Mexican authorities. The following month, Wild Cat had garnered 70,000 acres for them, located between 50 and 90 miles south of modern Del Rio.
As early as 1854, Seminole and Seminole Maroon chased the Comanche and Mescalero Apache, who were raiding along the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass to Big Bend, to Chihuahua. In 1856, the Maroons again patrolled the Rio Grande from Del Rio to the Big Bend country for their adopted homeland (Mexico), pushing the Comanche, Kiowa, and Tonkawa north of the river. The Seminole Maroon repeated this effort when Lipan Apache stole their horses in 1858, recapturing the horses on the Rio Grande.
During the same time period of time, the Seminole Chief (Wild Cat) elected to attack settlers on the Medina River with the help of the Lipan and Tonkawa, and the next year attacked a band of Texas Rangers near Bandera. It is likely that the raiders crossed the Rio Grande in the vicinity of the Amistad NRA to avoid Fort Clark. While it is unknown if Maroon were present in these two raids, it is possible that they were since they mixed freely with the Seminole during Wild Cat's leadership in Mexico.
