Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Black Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery

LOL, one of those Lipan could be an ancestor.

He also told us about a skull of a woman found with several arrowheads stuck in it near the little town just north of Campwood, said the Indians would tie up a captive and let the young kids use them for target practice.

I’m gonna nominate John Horse AKA Juan Caballo (~1812 - 1882) as the most remarkable Black man in our history, tho I will observe that his father was most likely of mixed Spanish/Indian ancestry (sorta coincides with the innate fallacy of evaluating individuals by “race”).

The guy lived his whole life amid really rough company, came out of it literate and fluent in English, Spanish and a number of Indian languages. A notably skilled horseman, hence the name. A skilled tracker and hunter, a noted marksman with a rifle.An accomplished warrior with the Seminoles, fought US troops in the Second Seminole War. I’m always impressed by his and Wildcat’s feat of fasting while imprisoned in Fort Marion Florida in order to slip out a small window and escape.

Rapidly becomes a trusted interpreter, wins the respect and support of General Jessup, Commanding Officer of his adversaries. Met with four Presidents in his life, two in Washington, two in Mexico City, negotiating on behalf of his band (people?).

Instrumental in convincing the Seminole holdouts, including Wildcat, to accept the inevitable and remove to the Indian Territory. From the swamps of Florida he adapts quickly to the arid Borderlands, displaying the fieldcraft and combat skills his band becomes famous for. One of the premier fighters of any race on the Frontier, a hammer of the Comanches and Apaches.

He was subject to at least two assassination attempts, shot both times, once by a different Seminole faction in the Indian Territory. The second attempt occurred May 19th, 1876. John Horse and another Black Seminole were shot from ambush by unknown parties at Fort Clark. The other man died, John Horse, shot four times, escaped on his wounded horse.

That wounding left Horse physically impaired, tho his strength of will remained intact. He did remove to the Seminole land grant in Mexico subsequent to his injury.

An aging, crippled John Horse in action….

In those days, the houses in Nacimiento were still loopholed for rifle fire, and connected by a palisade. Every night the Seminoles drove the horses into the sheltering village enclosure. But at daybreak they would occasionally find some animals riddled with arrows, discharged by frustrated attackers, who had been unable to catch them….

One group of Indians was especially notorious for its regular and extensive raiding. From the earliest days of Black Seminole residence in Coahuila, the people of San Carlos, Chihuahua, had aided hostile Comanches, Lipans, and Mescaleros. In exchange, for sharing the spoils with the village authorities, the warriors receive their protection….

John Horse declared that peace would prevail only if every last marauder was killed or captured. A local Mexican Official, Don Jose Maria Garza Galan collected Mexican troops and John Horse the Black Seminole Warriors.

They swiftly rode to the traitorous village and surrounding it. The posse seized the mayor, and then posted sentries to prevent anyone from warning the Indians. Inspecting the steep trail to the enemy camp, John Horse observed that the troops could not approach the hostiles undetected. The only thing to do was to get the Warriors drunk and then take them by surprise.

John forced the mayor - by threatening to kill his family - to ride to the hostiles’ camp with enough liquor to incapacitate them. As a signal that the camp was vulnerable, the mayor would release a mare whose nursing foal remain behind. The horse would trot back to her foal, and the attackers would know it was a time to strike.

Things went as planned. After the mare returned, the Black Seminoles and the Mexicans climbed the steep trail. They found all the men in an alcoholic stupor and massacred them. The women and children were seized, taken to Muzquiz, and jailed….. all were eventually shipped south. Never again did the Indians of San Carlos trouble Coahuila.

John Horse, aged about seventy, finally perished from pneumonia in Mexico City in 1882 where he had gone to negotiate the ongoing status of the Nacimiento land grant. He was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

He was, however, successful in this last mission. Apparently some Black Seminole descendants live in Nacimiento to this very day.

Lieutenant John L Bullis’s connection with his men terminated in June 1881, much to their regret. None of his replacements would duplicate the relationship of mutual trust and friendship that existed between him and the Black Seminole community.

Could have been coincidence, or maybe Bullis knew, but the year following his departure marked the end of an era…

The April 1881 Lipan raid ended the Black Seminole’s Indian fighting for the US Army. The Comanches and Mescalero Apaches were finally on their reservations, and the Lipans had at last learn their lesson. In 1882, twelve expeditions originating from Texas posts covered 3,661 miles and found no signs of hostiles. The Texas Indian wars were over, and boluses men, appropriately, had fought the last battle.

In contrast to the extraordinary hardships he put upon himself during his eight years leading the Black Seminoles, the then 40yo Bullis would spend the next eight years serving at Fort Suppy, likely commanding in part Black troopers; keeping the peace in the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma).

1886 he was called to Arizona under Miles for the Geronimo campaign but we don’t hear much of him. 1888 to 1897 he served as an Indian agent in Arizona and New Mexico. He winds up his military service at the rank of Major, age 51, paymaster at Fort Sam Houston here in San Antonio.

Prob’ly would have been a final posting except 1898 he was sent to Cuba in command of Black troops again, which where he likely came to the attention of Theodore Roosevelt. When Bullis finally retired age 63, 1904, a wealthy man from his West Texas investments, then President Roosevelt promoted him to the rank of Major General.

Bullis suffered a fatal stroke, aged 70, while attending a boxing match here. Six years after his death, 2017, the newly established and still active Camp Bullis Military Training Area was named in his memory.

Yet, even a guy like Bullis was written out of pop Texas History.

Had a great visit with my two "Seminole" Seminole buds this past weekend at Ft. Gibson SHS,
Pare Bowlegs and Jake Tiger.