Seminole Scout Camp on Fort Clark

Duane's take

Now, this one comes straight from the official marker; let me tell it to you the way it deserves to be told. You want to talk about a people who never stopped movin' toward something better, who crossed oceans of trouble, swamps, whole countries, and still stood tall at the end of it, then pull over and listen close, because this is one of those stories. It starts in Florida, back in the 1700s, under Spanish rule.

Florida was a haven in those days: a place where freed or escaped slaves could find something like safety. Many of them found the Seminole tribe, too. They intermarried, adapted to the culture, and became part of it.

These were the Black Seminoles. And for a time, Florida held them. But Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, and what followed was approximately thirty years of warfare.

Thirty years. At the end of it, the majority of the Seminoles were forced to relocate to Indian Territory, Oklahoma. Imagine what it took to survive that.

And then imagine what it took to decide: we're not staying here either. In 1850, two tribal leaders, Coacoochee, known as Wild Cat, and a man named John Horse, gathered a group of Seminoles and left the Indian Territory behind. They headed south.

They headed for Mexico. And there, under an agreement with the Mexican government, they settled in and earned their keep fighting against raiding tribes along the Rio Grande. They were warriors.

They'd always been warriors. Mexico just gave them a place to prove it again. Then 1870 rolls around, and the U.S.

Army, the same country that had spent decades pushing these people across the continent, came calling with an offer: pay and rations, if they'd move to Fort Clark. Fort Clark had been established back in 1852 to protect settlers along the border. Now it needed scouts.

Scouts who knew the land, knew the fight, knew how to survive in country that ate lesser men alive. The Black Seminoles said yes. And what they did next is the kind of thing that gets carved in stone.

They became the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, serving under Lieutenant John L. Bullis and other noted officers during Texas' Indian wars. They lived on the fort in a settlement folks called simply "the camp." They built homes in the Mexican jacal style: wattle and daub construction, thatched roofs, homes that carried the memory of the life they'd made south of the Rio Grande.

They built dams and irrigation systems along Las Moras Creek for farming. They weren't just soldiers. They were builders.

They were a community. And they stayed. Through Texas' Indian wars, through the decades that followed, the Seminoles lived on Fort Clark until 1914, when the scouts were disbanded.

Some returned to Mexico. Many stayed in the Brackettville area. Some moved to Oklahoma, where the Seminole nation had been granted sovereignty.

The paths scattered, the way they always had for these people. But some of them (well, they never left at all). They're still there, just a mile and a half southwest of the fort, in the scouts' cemetery, established in 1872.

And buried in that ground are four men who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor: Adam Payne, also recorded as Paine, Isaac Payne, John Ward, and Pompey Factor. Four medals. Four names in stone.

For a people who had been escaped slaves, then Seminoles, then exiles, then soldiers, who had been pushed out of Florida, out of Oklahoma, out of every place they tried to call home, four of their own ended up among the most decorated soldiers this country ever produced. Some stories don't have tidy endings. This one has four medals and a cemetery that's still standing.

Out here in Kinney County, that's how the land keeps the memory.

What the marker says

Seminole Scout Camp on Fort Clark Under Spanish rule, Florida was a haven for freed or escaped slaves in the 1700s. Once there, many integrated into the Seminole tribe, intermarrying and adapting to the culture. Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, and after approximately 30 years of warfare, the majority of the Seminoles were forced to relocate to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Tribal leaders Coacoochee (Wild Cat) and John Horse gathered a group of Seminoles in 1850 and left the Indian Territory for Mexico. There, under an agreement with the Mexican government, they Settled and fought against raiding tribes along the Rio Grande. In 1870, the U.S. Army offered the group pay and rations to move to Fort Clark, established in 1852 to protect settlers along the border. The black Seminoles became scouts for the Army, serving under Lt. John L. Bullis and other noted officers during Texas' Indian wars. The Seminole-Negro Indian scouts, as they were known, lived on the fort in a settlement referred to as "the camp." They built homes in the Mexican jacal style, using wattle and daub construction and thatched roofs. The scouts and their families also built dams and irrigation systems along Las Moras Creek for farming. The Seminoles lived on the fort until 1914, when the scouts were disbanded. Some returned to Mexico, many stayed in the Brackettville area and some moved to Oklahoma, where the Seminole nation was granted sovereignty. Still others remained, buried in the scouts' cemetery (1.5 mi. Sw), which was established in 1872. Among those buried there are four scouts who earned Congressional medals of honor: Adam Payne (Paine), Isaac Payne, John Ward and Pompey Factor. (2002)