Seminole Scout Camp on Fort Clark
Brackettville, Kinney County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For decades the descendants of Africans who had fled slavery for Spanish Florida — where they joined the Seminole people and forged the distinct Black Seminole community — carried their hard-won freedom across the continent. After removal to Indian Territory and a sojourn in Mexico, one group crossed back into Texas in 1870 to serve the U.S. Army as the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts. They made their home at 'the camp' on Fort Clark, building jacal houses and digging irrigation ditches along Las Moras Creek while scouting the border country until their disbandment in 1914.
Why it matters
The Black Seminole scouts embody an extraordinary American thread — Black and Native lives braided together across three nations — and four of them earned the Medal of Honor for their service on the Texas frontier.
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Related people
- · Coacoochee (Wild Cat)
- · John Horse
- · Lt. John L. Bullis
- · Adam Payne
- · Isaac Payne
- · John Ward
- · Pompey Factor
Related events
- · Texas Indian Wars
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John Horse
Brackettville, TX
Born in Spanish Florida in 1812 to a Black mother and a Seminole father, John Horse became a leading figure among the Black Seminoles during the Second Seminole War, fighting alongside Chief Coacoochee before serving the U.S. Army as scout, interpreter, and mediator. Repeatedly pursued after his people's freedom was stripped away, he led followers out of Indian Territory in 1849 toward sanctuary in Mexico, resting near Las Moras Spring in 1850 and later settling at Nacimiento in exchange for guarding the border against Apache and Comanche raids. He survived an ambush near this site in 1876 and died in Mexico City in 1882.
Seminole Indian Scouts' Cemetery
Brackettville, TX
Established on the Fort Clark reservation in 1872, this cemetery holds the graves of the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts and their families. Descendants of Seminoles and formerly enslaved people who had come from Florida around 1850 and lived in Mexico and Texas, these scouts served under Lieutenant John L. Bullis and Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie in the frontier campaigns of the 1870s, and four of them earned the Medal of Honor.
Fort Clark
Brackettville, TX
Established in 1852 beside the springs of Las Moras Creek, Fort Clark guarded the military road from San Antonio to El Paso and the border with Mexico. Nearly every U.S. cavalry regiment passed through, and its garrison — including the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts and the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry — played a decisive part in the Indian campaigns of the 1870s. Held briefly by Confederates during the Civil War, the fort remained a horse-cavalry post until 1946.
Seminole-Negro Scouts
Del Rio, TX
From 1870 to 1881, roughly a hundred Seminole-Negro Scouts served the U.S. Army along the Texas border at Forts Duncan and Clark and Camp Del Rio. Mostly descendants of runaway slaves who had intermarried with Florida Seminoles before removal to Indian Territory, they were prized for extraordinary tracking skill, courage, and endurance on the trail. Under Lieutenant John L. Bullis they fought for eight years without losing a single scout, and four earned the Medal of Honor.