Our Name is Warrior

We arrived in San Antonio Thursday afternoon and fled directly to the River Walk in search of margaritas, chips and salsa. First, we surrounded the Alamo until we found the list of those who died for those awkward dreams. We didn’t want to dishonor them by stumbling about from too many top shelf on the rocks no salt margaritas.

We picked up our brother the next day and headed straight away to Brackettville roughly 2 hours (125 miles) away by car. We checked in at Fort Clark Springs where we had reserved rooms in the old barracks. They’d been converted to motel style rooms but, at heart, they were still barracks.

This past weekend was many things. It was Seminole Days. It was the annual meeting of the Seminole Negro Indian Scout Association. It was the annual meeting of the United Warrior Band of the Seminole Nation.

Brackettville (or Brackett as the residents call it) grew up around Fort Clark. Fort Clark was an active US Army fort from 1852 until 1946. Our ancestors served as Indian scouts from 1872 until 1914. They lived on the Seminole reservation at Las Moras Creek.

My grandmother was born on the reservation and met my grandfather while he served there.

The scout association has a membership restricted to ancestors of the scouts and has as its mission the maintenance of the 140 year old cemetery. We are linked to the scouts through medal of honor winner Sergeant John Ward. He was a Warrior by birth but the US Army rolls have him as Ward. Some say that he stuttered so when the scribe asked his name the scribe thought he heard Ward when he actually said Warrior. To this day, people dispute why he never corrected the error.

Although the US government actually recruited my ancestors who had migrated to Mexico and established families there as free people (Los Mascogos), they reneged on a promise of a reservation and treaty based on our service based on these points: we were not freedmen; we were not Indians (although they listed us as such on their census); and since we were actually Mexican citizens, they could not treaty with us.

Thus we were discarded. Our homes at Las Moras Creek were burnt down and our army unit was disbanded. We had help settle West Texas. We had scouted for many US Army units fighting to maintain the integrity of the border and to bring peace to the West. We were also the scouts for the Buffalo Soldiers in many campaigns to force Native Americans onto reservations.

The first Seminoles were escapees from the economy of slavery. Some of them escaped from ships, others escaped from farms and plantations. They formed what we call today “maroon” societies. Although these people often did not share an African language, many did share a Creole based on the interaction with British sailors and Africans especially during the staging process in Africa in which captives were held sometimes for a year or more.

Seminole means runaway which is an apt description of these maroons. Our ancestors found a home in Florida and welcomed small bands from tribes experiencing disintegration due to pressures from settlers and other environmental stressors. It is ironic that the tribes that benefited from the existence of the Seminoles now use their name with impunity while denying any connection. We understand the motivation to be money and we understand that it is a strong motivator.

We had a parade with motorcycles (trikes), Buffalo Soldiers and Rough Riders all on horseback, decorated autos with tiny kings and queens waving at Brackett’s finest. It is customary for those in the parade to throw candy at the crowd so we scrambled to see who could amass the most then we sheepishly gave our stashes to the kids.

On the last day, we held a ceremony at the cemetery to honor the scouts and other ancestors buried there. We have fallen from every American war. One of our Vietnam veterans, when asked why he served, said, “That’s our family trade. That’s what we do. Our name is Warrior.”

We continue to reclaim our name. We are officially, the United Warrior Band of the Seminole Nation. Our chief is William Warrior. If you would like to know more about us, read Kevin Mulroy’s “Freedom on the Border”.