End of an Era

In the two years after Coacoochee’s death, the African-Seminole alliance almost completely deteriorated. Seminole Indians under their new chief, Lion, tried to subject the blacks to Indian leadership, but the blacks refused. Seminole Indians began to consider returning to the Indian Territory. In 1856 in the U.S., a new treaty finally authorized a sovereign Seminole nation separate from the Creeks. For Seminole Indians in Mexico, this made prospects of a return especially appealing. In 1859, Lion led 50 destitute Seminole Indians back to the Indian Territory.

The Black Seminoles, meanwhile, were facing renewed threats from Texas-based slaving parties. To end the threat of invasion, the Mexican government relocated the maroons far south of Nacimiento in the region of La Laguna de Parras. Here they received land, provisions, and help establishing their community. The blacks were now 300 miles south of the remaining Seminole Indians.