Cross Into Texas
Tucked away in the old town of
Brackettville, Tex., living quiet, unpretentious lives, there are a few of
those old pioneer Indian War veterans, of whom about the least pretentious
are eight or ten of the old Seminole-negro Indian scouts--members of an
enlisted detachment which was composed of Seminole negroes. An interesting
bit of tradition is to the effect that these negroes were descendants of
negro slaves in possession of the Seminole Indians of Florida; the
supposition being that these slaves were stolen or bought from the whites
and removed with their Indian masters from Florida to Indian Territory about
1842 after a very disastrous war between the Seminoles and whites.
Seminole negroes living today, claim that
their masters fled with them from Indian Territory to Mexico when the whites
tried to wrest them from their owners. Down in the State of Coahuila,
Mexico--where they took refuge--they multiplied and to a certain degree
intermixed until they out-numbered the Indians to whom they belonged They became
skilled in the ways of the border Indian tribes, spoke their language and were
familiar with their haunts and war methods.
In 1870, a number of them--about 150 in all--came across
the river into Eagle Pass, where they were in a fair way to become a public
nuisance, being wholly without means and employment.
Lieut. Bullis--later Gen. Bullis--obtained authority to
enlist a company of scouts from their number of able bodied men, and according
to Renty Grayson one of the oldest Seminole scouts now alive, the treaty with
Mexico was consummated by Col. Z. R. Bliss for many years a useful and active U.
S. Army Officer on the border on the Fourth of July, 1871, and the Seminole
negroes were thereupon organized into a company of scouts and brought to Fort
Clark.
Once a
Large Colony
For about 25 years they remained quartered
on the Fort Clark Reservation, their quarters extending along the fertile valley
of Las Moras Creek, where in 1840, the fierce war tribes of Texas had a thousand
head of mules and horses under herd. As time went on, they were joined by others
of their number from Mexico until the colony numbered along in '72 and '73,
between four and five hundred; during the last years of Indian warfare, these
scouts rendered excellent service, being good horsemen and well acquainted with
the maneuvers of the border Indian.
It is not always an easy matter to
persuade an old Indian fighter to war tales, for like all true soldiers who have
really accomplished deeds of valor and merit, these old men are still modestly
unwilling, after 50 years of resting from their labors, to admit the part they
played in making history; but, almost without exception, when one is drawn into
talking, he warms to the recollections that come trooping through his mind, and
before he is fully aware of what he is saying, one exciting story follows
another in quick and animated succession. Such a one the writer found in old
Renty Grayson, a seminole negro who speaks a mixed language of English,
Seminole, and Spanish. When first questioned, old Renty was inclined to disclaim
the honor of having helped to rid his country of the pestilential Indian. He
only scratched his head and laughed. But, when Kickapoo Spring and Palo Duro
Canyon were mentioned as reminders, he brightened up perceptibly and told of
some hair-raising skirmishes in which he participated at this spring in '71,
under the leadership of Lieut. Bullis; Renty also fought in the historic, final
battle with the Indians at Palo Duro Canyon, September 22, 1874.
In Palo Duro Canyon
Speaking reminiscently of the Kickapoo
Spring skirmish, Renty described the Indians' method of burying their war dead,
saying that they never tarried to dig graves, but piled the corpses of men and
dead horses together--first cutting away all the shoulder brisket from the
horses which they used for steak or "bakashe" as they called it--and then
covered them with brush. Renty has seen as high as 15 dead Indians in one pile.
In '74 he was detached from the scout
company and sent as guide with the 4th Cavalry and the 24th Negro Infantry up on
the plains, where he took part in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon. Renty remem-
bers that it was necessary time and again, as they journeyed to the plains
country, to stop and break up a great herd of buffalo before they could proceed
on the way with their men and wagons.
For the fighting he did in the historic
battle of Palo Duro he received a monthly pension of $20. When the pension list
was being made out, Renty's name was nowhere to be found among the Seminole
scouts who saw service in any historic battle; several lawyers and army officers
tried to secure a pension for him, but the necessary records were not
forthcoming. Finally, R. Stratton, an ex-soldier and retired merchant of
Brackettville, took the matter in hand--having fought in the battle of Palo Duro
himself, Mr. Stratton remembered Renty was there and took active part in the
battle--and after some investigation discovered that Renty's name was on the pay
roll of A Troop, 4th Cavalry, with which he was doing duty as guade at the date
of Pale Duro battle. The record was sufficient and Renty received back pay from
March 4, 1917, to November, 1923, which amounted to $1,600. A neat sum for the
old scout who was living from the post garbage cans.
Mixed Band of Indians
With this back pay he bought a little home
and is spending his last days in humble comfort and security as is his right and
due. Renty, unlike many of the Seminole negroes, disclaims having a drop of
Indian blood in his veins. He has a good, honest face and unusually fine
features for a negro; a rather straight nose and an intelligent forehead. He
likes to tell about a face to face fight he had with an Indian in Palo Duro
Canyon. He and the Indian had taken refuge behind opposite cedar trees; the In-
dian had a cap and ball gun, while Renty was equipped with a modern United
States Government Sharp's carbine. After playing peek-a-boo for some time, Renty
had presence of mind to take the rod from his gun and stick his hat on it.
Slowly he let the hat peep around the tree trunk and fooled the big Indian, who
shot at it and ran. Renty warms to the recollection of this escapade to this
day, and still exaults in the fact that he was a little sharper witted than the
wary Indian whom he shot and killed on the spot.
The battle of Pale Duro Canyon was fought
with a stray, mixed band of Kiowas, Comanches and Lipans.
In the matter of religion, the Seminole
negroes are distinct from any particular Christian sect or denomination. Their
rites and ceremonies are a blend of those peculiar to the Roman Catholics and
the old-fashioned Hardshell Baptists, and yet different in some particulars from
either of these denominations. They call themselves "Mount Zion Baptists" and
practice baptism by immersion, yet they keep Lent from the last Friday in
November till the 25th of December commemorating the advent of Christ and they
pray for the dead continually; every Friday is a fast day with them and they
meet at the church for prayer service, religiously, three times during the week,
and twice on Sundays, with fairly good attendance. On particular fast nights the
men attend in goodly numbers, presumably to be present at the sumptious feast
which is spread in hospitable fashion at the breaking of the fast.
Have Ban On Pork
Everything good to eat imaginable is
procured for the feast except hog meat, which is strictly taboo--a bit of the
Mosaic law which has crept in from some source. One very remarkable and peculiar
law governing the feast table is that there shall be no knives and forks laid
thereon. Grace is said by the minister before the religionists are seated and
then everyone begins to break bread at once. Bread is never cut at the Seminole
negroes' feast table--it must be broken with the bare hand only. Sacrament is
taken twice a year, and strange to say, the emblems of the broken body and shed
blood consist of bread and tea common table tea--never wine. The Seminoles claim
they have performed the ceremonies and kept their present ordinances when they
were slaves under the Indians, and the general supposition is that the original
Seminole negro slaves had imbibed the faith of Baptist masters before becoming
slaves under the influence of Roman Catholics, possibly in Florida where
Catholic faith was first planted on American soil, or in Mexico where they lived
for years they gradually blended the two faiths and produced their present form
of worship.
To the Seminole negro, death is a great
and terrible occasion. It is impossible to detain, or useless to expect, a
Seminole negro at his post of duty when one of his tribe lies in death; everyone
who keeps a Seminole servant knows not to expect that servant so long as a
Seminole corpse lies above ground. If at all possible every Seminole within
reasonable distance will be at the bedside of his dying churchman, friend or
relative; and as the sick person is passing from life unto death the entire
assemblage sing and pray. No piece of jewelry is ever taken from the dead body
of a Seminole, and only in inclement weather is the body removed from the home
to the church after death. Fair weather from the date of death till the day of
burial is considered a great blessing, for then a rousing wake of singing,
crying and coffee drinking can be carried on with impunity at the home of the
dead. Before the corpse is removed to the cemetery for burial, as the last act
of love and respect all the friends and relatives line up and march around the
corpse, singing and sometimes dancing. A strong belief of the Seminole negro is
that prayer should be made for the dead without ceasing, and that one should not
depend so much on personal religious experience, but rather on dreams, for in
dreams the Seminoles' God reveals itself.
When the scouts with their families were
removed from the Fort Clark reservation in 1914, they sentimentally refused to
leave their old church building--a simple structure built on the architecture of
the historic old First Church of Salem, Mass.--and as a result it stands today
on a hill in West Brackettville where at almost any hour on a Sabbath day
worshippers may be seen going to and from prayer.
