Black Seminoles

Black Seminole

An Afro-Seminole elder smoking from a pipe (1952)
Total population
~2,000
Regions with significant populations
United States: Oklahoma, Florida, Texas The Bahamas: Andros Island Mexico: Coahuila
Languages
English, Afro-Seminole Creole, Spanish
Religion
Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and syncretic Islam
Related ethnic groups
Gullah, Mascogos, Seminoles

The Black Seminoles, or Afro-Seminoles, are an ethnic group of mixed Native American and African origin^[1] associated with the Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma. They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people, free Africans, and escaped former slaves, who allied with Seminole groups in Spanish Florida. Many have Seminole lineage, but due to the stigma of having mixed origin,^[2] they have all been categorized as slaves or freedmen in the past.^[3]

Historically, the Black Seminoles lived mostly in distinct bands near the Native American Seminoles. Some were held as slaves, particularly of Seminole leaders, but the Black Seminole had more freedom than did slaves held by whites in the South and by other Native American tribes, including the right to bear arms.^[4][5]

Today, Black Seminole descendants live primarily in rural communities around the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. Its two Freedmen's bands, the Caesar Bruner Band and the Dosar Barkus Band,^[6] are represented on the General Council of the Nation. Other centers are in Florida, Texas, the Bahamas, and northern Mexico.^[7][8]

Since the 1930s, the Seminole Freedmen have struggled with cycles of exclusion from the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma.^[9] In 1990, the tribe received the majority of a $56 million judgment trust by the United States, for seizure of lands in Florida in 1823, and the Freedmen have worked to gain a share of it. In 1999, the Seminole Freedmen's suit against the government was dismissed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; the court ruled the Freedmen could not bring suit independently of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which refused to join on the claim issue.^[10] In 2000 the Seminole Nation voted to restrict membership to those who could prove descent from a Seminole on the Dawes Rolls of the early 20th century, which excluded about 1,200 Freedmen who were previously included as members. Excluded Freedmen argue that the Dawes Rolls were inaccurate and often classified persons with both Seminole and African ancestry as only Freedmen. The District Court for the District of Columbia however ruled in Seminole Nation of Oklahoma v. Norton that Freedmen retained membership and voting rights.^[11]