Settlement in Texas

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The military had authorized the return of the Seminole Negroes to the United States, but it had no funds to feed or take care of them, and no land that it could give to civilians. With a maximum of 50 of their men employed as scouts at any one time, they began to spread out looking for work, and to incorporate into the surrounding communities. They were never permitted to use enough land on the military reservation to support the entire community, so they had to find other ways to survive.

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Nearly every commander who worked with the Scouts urged the government to give them land to cultivate, either in Indian Territory, in Texas, or even in Florida, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs refused responsibility for them, stating that “as it appeared that these Negro Indians were not induced to return from Mexico by any competent authority, they should not be cared for by the Indian Dept.” [20]

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Over time, with the Indian Wars ended, Indian Scouts were no longer necessary and the designation itself began to be shut down. Many discharged members of the Scouts joined the Regular Army and became Buffalo Soldiers.  In 1914, the Seminole Negro Indian Scout detachment was entirely disbanded, and all but a few aged and infirm Black Seminoles were forced to abandon their homes on the military reservation of Fort Clark. The community remained in Texas, letting go of any hope that they would receive the land they had originally been promised in Indian Territory when their ancestors ceded their territories in Florida.