New Frontier

Around this time, Coacoochee and John Horse hit on an idea for resurrecting the traditional African-Seminole alliance, but with a new twist. For several years, Coacoochee had dreamed of forming a confederation of plains Indians, eastern tribes, and fugitive blacks to resist white incursions on the western territories. The idea may have first come to him during the winter of 1845-46, when he served on a U.S. peace mission to the plains. By 1849, Coacoochee was envisioning the western tribes united with relocated eastern Indians and blacks in a traditionalist alliance. It was a western version of the dream that Tecumseh brought to Florida in Coacoochee's youth.