The North Little Rock Site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail:
Historical Contexts Report

In March of 1859, the last major contingent of Florida Indians passed the North Little Rock site on their way to the West, officially ending enforced Indian removal through the site.  By then the wave of anti-Indian feeling that removal had generated in Arkansas in the late 1830s had subsided somewhat, and the editor of the Arkansas Gazette could not only contemplate Billy Bowlegs as a hero, as he had done the year before, but could also express remarkable insight into the place of Florida removal in history.  The editor wrote, “We are not disposed to be over sentimental in the contemplation of Indian or other character, but we think, if the Seminole Indians have justice done them, they will occupy a prominent position in the history of this country.  The idea of a tribe of Indians, small and insignificant in numbers as were the Seminoles, and divided against itself, remaining in a hostile attitude towards a nation as great and powerful as the United States, defying its whole force for near a quarter of a century, and yielding, at last, not to the army but to diplomacy and money, must give the remnant of that people a prominence before the world, which impartial historians can not overlook.  There is another matter in connection with the history of these Indians, which adds to its interest, while it is a blot upon the escutcheon of our government.  Osceola, one of their greatest chiefs, came into the lines of the American army under the sacred protection of a flag of truce:  The solemn obligation to respect that flag was violated, and Osceola kept a prisoner.”¹

            Bowlegs was not the only tribal person of the removal period who reached the status of hero, at least in tribal history, and whose presence at the North Little Rock site, either on land or by water, is noteworthy.  Some such as John Ross of the Cherokees are well-known because of the popular relation of the Trail of Tears with the Cherokee Nation.  Interpretation at the North Little Rock site provides a unique opportunity to project visitors to the site beyond what is well known by including in it personages of other tribes who, though lesser known to the public, are noteworthy.  Following, then, is a random sample of sketches of some whose presence at the North Little Rock site has been documented.

   A Muscogee whose presence was conspicuous at not only the North Little Rock site but elsewhere in Arkansas was Tuckabatche Hacho.  Chief of the group that Lt. John T. Sprague led through the site in 1836, Tuckabatche Hacho had been reluctant at times to move on earlier in his journey, but his refusal to move from the North Little Rock site brought threats from the governor of Arkansas.  Sprague claimed that the chief wanted to remain at the site in order to be close to a supply of whiskey, but Sprague’s harsh estimation of Tuckabatche Hacho’s reasons for staying was most likely inaccurate.  That he had been reluctant to remove was true, but what Muscogee had not been?  And he had preferred to remove beyond the limits of the United States.  Just the year before, he had accompanied Opothleyohola, Jim Boy, and other Creeks to Texas to explore and negotiate the purchase of a tract from the Mexican government.  But Tuckabatche Hacho could in no way be considered “hostile.”  During the previous summer, he had been one of the leaders who had assisted General Thomas S. Jesup in bringing the Creek “war” to an end and had been one who entered an agreement with General Jesup to send Creek warriors to assist the U. S. forces against the Indians in Florida.²  And by Sprague’s own account, he was most certainly a party to the decision at Memphis to split up the party and engage the John Nelson.  Why would a chief who had been responsible for his people now desert them? 

Evidence suggests that Sprague’s statement that Tuckbatche Hacho camped where there was liquor would have been more accurate had it been reversed:  Wherever the Muscogees camped, there was whiskey.  Not just Muscogees but the people of the other tribes were besieged by whiskey peddlers at every settlement along removal routes.  The road from Memphis to Little Rock was punctuated by public houses, such as Strong’s and Black’s, which offered travelers a bed, a meal, and whiskey.  The public houses became regular stopping places and supply depots for removal contractors.  The North Little Rock site was no exception.  The public house at Rorer’s ferry also had its reputation as a tavern.  Even the steamboats docked for the night or anchored in the river were approached by peddlers in boats. 

Sprague also probably misread Tuckebatche Hacho’s decision to remain behind as an act of a leader without authority.  This action was consistent with his actions on the trail from Tallassee to Memphis.  He wanted days of rest more frequently than the contractors were willing to grant.³ 

Tuckabatche Hacho repeated his action at the depot near Kirkbride Potts’ home at present-day Pottsville, where he later caught up with the main body of his people.  When Sprague’s party left Potts’ place, the chief remained.  The next three contingents—Batman’s, Campbell’s, and Screven’s—passed, and still he remained.  Sprague later claimed that he left Tuckabatche Hacho and his close followers and family because the chief was ill.  As time passed, he was joined by stragglers who reached the Potts encampment.   In January, 1837, the Arkansas Gazette reported that in late December, Kirkbride Potts had ordered the chief and his followers to leave, “which they preemptorily refused—saying they were west of the Mississippi, and it was not in the power of any one to compel them to go on.  They said threats of the whites might alarm little boys—but they were men!”  The commander of the Pope County militia mustered 100 men and marched on the camp only to find that the Muscogees had “taken flight” the night before, January 1, 1837, so the newspaper said.  Lieutenant Sprague later stated that to his knowledge Tuckabatche Hacho had used no defiant language to the whites.⁴ Tuckabatche Hacho’s actions at Potts’ camp were consistent with his actions at the North Little Rock site.  And Lieutenant Edward Deas later scored the Arkansas press, for the chief had not been driven from the state.  He had, in fact, voluntarily joined Deas’ contingent when it reached Potts’ place in December.⁵  Deas’ party was the last Muscogee contingent to move through the state, and he brought with him all of the stragglers from Rock Roe westward.  Among them were probably some of Tuckabatche Hacho’s original party, without whom he was unwilling to go on to Indian Territory.  His actions bear the mark of a man who lived up to his warrior rank as a hacho and to his responsibilities as a leader, unwilling to leave his people scattered along the roads of Arkansas, waiting for some of them to catch up before moving on.

            Milly Francis, Muscogee, had become known to the American public during the Red Stick War.  The daughter of Hillis Hacho or Josiah Francis, the Prophet, spiritual leader of the Red Sticks, she had successfully interceded in behalf of a young American, who had been captured by the Red Sticks and was about to be put to death.  Her father, who was vilified by the Americans, was later executed.  She removed to the West with her tribe, apparently destitute and without family.  After she was found living in poverty in the Indian Territory in the 1840s, Congress gave her a pension of $8 for life for her service to the Americans.⁶ 

Coa Hacho, Seminole, was one of the exploring party who went West in 1832 to look at possible locations for settlement in Indian Territory.  A major figure in the Second Seminole War, in October 1837 he  and Osceola indicated they were willing to come in under a flag of truce to talk with General Joseph M. Hernandez, not knowing that General Thomas Jesup had directed Hernandez to violate the flag of truce, as Jesup had done before, and seize the leaders if he could.  According to Dr. Nathan Jarvis, who accompanied Hernandez and his force, Osceola was so emotional he could not speak and asked Coa Hacho to talk for the Seminoles.  He told the general that they had been urged to negotiate by Philip (Emathla), through his emissary Coacoochee.  Hernandez took them prisoners, he said, because the Army had been deceived by the Seminoles too often.  Surrounded by troops, they were disarmed, and the two leaders with 71 warriors, 6 women, and 4 blacks were marched off to St. Augustine.  Coa Hacho agreed to lead the Cherokee delegation that sought out and brought in Micanopy, Yaholoochee, Tuskegee, Nocose Yahola, and other sub-chiefs to Fort Mellon.  To the chagrin of the Cherokees, who were there to attempt to negotiate a peaceful end to the war, Jesup had the chiefs seized and promptly shipped by steamer to St. Augustine and imprisoned at Fort Marion.⁷

Halpatter Tustenuggee (Alligator), born about 1795, has been described by John K. Mahon as follows: “He was a natural comedian, evoking a laugh even in solemn councils.  Yet in dealing with white men he acted as if born to the purple.  His manners, in all respects, were as fine as theirs.  Behind his open face and Roman nose was a stock of shrewdness, craft, and intelligence second to none.”  Alligator with about 120 warriors fought against the U. S. Army under Zachary Taylor at Lake Okeechobee on December 25, 1837, where 26 whites were killed and 112 wounded, and 11 Seminoles were killed and 14 wounded.⁸

  Micanopy was a descendant of Cowkeeper, thought by some to be the founder of the Seminole tribe, and during the Second Seminole War was in the primary leadership position among the Seminoles.  His political strength was enhanced because one of his sisters married Philip (Emathla), who was probably a Miccosukee.  His authority was recognized by Alligator, an Alachua with ties to Philip’s band, but he seemed a leader more in name than from ability.  General Clinch called him a man with “little talent” lacking an “energetic character, whose influence derived from his age and wealth.”  Born about 1795 to 1800, he was about five feet, six inches tall and weighed about 250 pounds.  Some observers described him as overindulging and easily manipulated.⁹  He was imprisoned at Fort Marion in St. Augustine and then at Fort Moultrie near Charleston before being shipped to the West.  It was at the latter place that he was painted by George Catlin.

Halleck Tustenuggee  was a leader at the famous incident of the killing of Lt. Sherwood and Mrs. Montgomery in Florida, December 28, 1840.  His title indicates his high rank as a warrior among the Miccosukees, and his ability as a fighter is attested to by descriptions of him by contemporary Army officers.  Lieutenant John T. Sprague, for example, called him a “most crafty and notable” chief and an “indomitable leader.  A Miccosukee by birth, he boasted that his tribe had never been subdued by the white men.  Young and intelligent, with a few but well-trained followers, he was crafty, savage, and fearless.  The country from St. Augustine northwest to Fort King and Micanopy, he kept in constant alarm.  His infidelity at Fort King, his avowed hatred to the whites, his sagacity, the despotism with which he ruled his band, made him a dangerous and formidable foe.”¹⁰ 

Cosa Tustenuggee, also a  leader at the killing of Lt. Sherwood and Mrs. Montgomery, December 28, 1840, held position as indicated by his high-ranking warrior title.    The Sherwood event, according to Lieutenant John T. Sprague, intimidated Cosa Tustenuggee, who assembled his people near Palaklikaha and was taken with his 32 warriors and 60 women and children.  They embarked for Arkansas on June 20, 1841.  Because contemporary accounts tended to denigrate tribal leaders, Sprague’s description probably attests to his ability as a fighter:  “The infamy of his own acts, accident, and the resolution of the detachment of dragoons, (which at first caused the arrest of the officer in command,) had relieved Florida of an Indian chieftain, cruel, cowardly, and vindictive.”¹¹

            Coacoochee (Wild Cat) was perhaps the most colorful leader during the Second Seminole War and the best known after Osceola.  Though he was young at the time, his authority derived from the fact that his mother was a sister to Micanopy and his father, Philip (Emathla), was an influential Miccosukee leader.  He was captured under a flag of truce and imprisoned at Fort Marion but escaped and was captured a second time and released on condition that he would persuade his people to surrender for removal.  He received considerable pay for his efforts and came to the West a wealthy man.  Unable to reach his ambitions for nationhood or the rank he desired, he led a group of followers from the Seminole Nation and established a colony in northern Mexico, where he died of smallpox in 1857.¹²  

John Cavallo (John Horse, John Cowaya, Gopher John) of Black-Seminole descent had a long-standing reputation as an interpreter and go-between before the Second Seminole War.  During the war, he reached the rank of a sub-chief, commanding warriors in the field against the American Army.  After he moved to the West, he allied himself with Coacoochee and migrated with him to Mexico, where he lived out his life.  He was a man of substantial property and wealth at the time of removal, and at the North Little Rock site, Lt. E. R. S. Canby, who was attending the removal party in which John and his family were enrolled, found it necessary to borrow enough money from John to hire transportation to carry the group overland from the North Little Rock site to the North Fork of the Canadian. ¹³

            Abraham, a well-known black translator for the Florida Indians, was at times a personal advisor to Micanopy and throughout the major part of the Second Seminole War worked as a translator and negotiator for the U. S. military forces.  He was the interpreter at the Treaty of Fort Gibson (1833) and in the post-removal years was regarded with suspicion by many of the Seminoles (See Illustration 40).¹⁴

Mushulatubbee, chief of the eastern division of Choctaws at the time of removal, had become chief upon the death, in 1809, of his maternal uncle, Mingo Homastubbee.  He distinguished himself as a warrior and leader and was, therefore, familiar with the regions west of the Mississippi as a result of Choctaw excursions against the Caddoes and Osages.  At the time of removal, he was politically opposed by non-traditional Choctaws such as David Folsom, who sought to take Mushulatubbee’s place of chief of the eastern district, and Greenwood Leflore, who attempted to make himself chief of all the Choctaws in 1830.  Mushulatubbee let it be known that he would favor removal if the United States would secure his position as chief of the eastern division.  At removal, he turned against the missionaries, whom he had earlier favored.  Thus, when the Choctaws under his leadership reached the North Little Rock site, they continued on up the river and settled on the Arkansas in the northern part of their new lands.  Those following Folsom turned southwest to the Red River country.  In the West, Mushulatubbee refused to allow the missionaries among his people.  He died in the smallpox epidemic in 1838.¹⁵

David Folsom, Choctaw, was the son of a white trader, Nathaniel Folsom, and a Choctaw woman.  Non-traditional and politically opposed to Mushulatubbee in the eastern district of the Choctaw Nation, he sought political reform by urging the adoption of constitutional structures.¹⁶ A major party of his followers passed through the North Little Rock site on their way to the Red River country.

Ishtehotopa, the Mingo or primary spiritual leader of the Chickasaws, was referred to by removal agent A.M.M. Upshaw as the King of the Chickasaws.  He removed in 1838, and during a stay of some time at Little Rock, his party was ill with fever.  One of the victims was his wife, whom Upshaw referred to as the Queen of the Chickasaws.  She is presumably buried in Little Rock.  When Ishtehotopa removed, Upshaw thought that removal was over and terminated all of his agents, even though there were many Chickasaws still on the road to the West. ¹⁷

Tishomingo, the second ranking full blood leader of the Chickasaws under Ishtehotopa, was chief of Tishomingo District, one of the four districts of the Chickasaw Nation at the time of removal. ¹⁸  Stories vary concerning the date of his birth, but he should not be confused with a Choctaw of the same name.  When the latter died in the Choctaw Nation in 1841, Peter Pitchlynn wrote the following obituary:  “Captain Tisho Mingo, a veteran warrior of the Choctaws [the Chickasaws and Choctaws were living as one nation at that time], departed this life on the 5^th inst.  Although but little known beyond the limits of his nation, yet he was a man that had seen wars and fought battles—stood high among his own people as a brave and good man.  He served under Gen. Wayne in the Revolutionary War, for which he received a pension from the Government of the United States, and in the late war with England, he served under Gen. Jackson, and did many deeds of valor.  He had fought in nine battles for the United States.  As a friend, he has served the white man faithfully.  His last words were:  ‘When I am gone, beat the drum and fire the guns.’  I hear the sound of the drum—the report of ‘death guns’ is roaring in our valley—a warrior spirit is passing away.  The brace Tisho Mingo, the veteran warrior of our tribe is gone! His clansmen are gathering around his corpse.  Long years have passed away since first his native hills re-echoed his war whoop—when grey headed warriors gathered around his war dance, and said, ‘Go young warrior, go.  It is the beloved Washington who calls for help.’  Our aged warriors, and chieftains are all gone.  Tisho Mingo, the last of the braces is gone!  They are all gone!” ¹⁹

Notes

1.   Arkansas Gazette, March 12, 1859.

2.   See Foreman, Indian Removal, 135, 148, 161.

3    Sprague to Harris, April 1, 1837.

4.    Arkansas Gazette, January 17 and January 24, 1837.

5.  Edward Deas to C.A. Harris, January 25, 1837, Creek Emigration D56-37, National Archives Microfilm Publication M234, Roll 238. Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letters Received.

6.    Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, The Indian Tribes of North America (Phiiadelphia, 1854), 193-194.

7.    John K. Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1967), 79, 215-216, 223; quotes from Jarvis are reprinted in Mahon. 

8.    See  Ibid., 127, 227.

9.    See Ibid., 125-126.

10.    John T. Sprague, The Origin, Progress, and Conclusions of the Florida War. (New York : D. Appleton, 1848), 250, 252-253.

11.    Ibid., 250.

12.    This sketch is derived from Donald A. Swanson, “Coacoochee,” Handbook of Texas Online (last updated December 4, 2002.  There are a number of good sources on Coacoochee including Kevin Mulroy, Freedom on the Border: The Seminole Maroons in Florida, the Indian Territory, Coahuila and Texas  (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1993). The authority, however, is Seminole scholar Susan A. Miller’s Coacoochee’s Bones, scheduled for release by the University of Kansas Press in August, 2003.

13.    Sources on John Cavallo abound, but see Mulroy, Freedom on the Border; Kenneth W. Porter, The Negro on the American Frontier (New York: Arno Press, 1971); Doug Sivad, The Black Seminole Indians of Texas (Boston: American Press, 1984).

14.    There are many sources on Abraham, but see John K. Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War; Porter, The Negro on the American Frontier; Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., Africans and Seminoles (Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 1977).

15.    This sketch is drawn from Greg O’Brien, “Mushulatubbee and Choctaw Removal:  Chiefs Confront a Changing World,”  Mississippi History Now (an online publication of the Mississippi Historical Society), http://www.mshistory.k12.ms.us.

16.    Ibid.

17.    Arrell M. Gibson, The Chickasaws (Norman:  University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 188.

18.  Ibid., 174, 183.

19.  Arkansas Gazette, May 26, 1841.