WAR DANCE AT FORT MARION

WAR DANCE AT FORT MARION by Brad D. Lookingbill, University of Oklahoma Press, 2006. xiii, 290 pages, inc. illustrations, notes and index. Hardcover. ISBN 0-8061-3739-8. $29.95.

This book tells the story of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa and Comanche Indians who, together with a single Caddo, were exiled to Florida in 1875 following the Buffalo or Red River War of 1874-75. The warriors were sent East under the supervision of Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt in an attempt to isolate those who were perceived as trouble makers and to punish them for their involvement in the fighting.

The Indians were sent to Fort Marion, a stone castle or castillo near St. Augustine, Florida. The castle, which dates back to the late seventeenth century, was originally built by the Spanish, who called it the Castillo de San Marcos. It has had quite a lively history, having been captured by the British, returning to Spanish ownership, before passing to the United States when Spain ceded Florida to the young nation in 1821. Later, the castle changed hands twice during the Civil War, but had been virtually abandoned before by the time that it was re-commissioned as a home for the Indian prisoners of war.

A number of books have been written about the prisoners, or ‘Florida Boys’ as they were sometimes known. Most of those books have however concentrated upon the art work produced by the prisoners. A notable exception to that approach was the account by the man in charge of the prisoners, Lieutenant Pratt, whose memoirs were edited by Robert Utley and published in 1964 as Battlefield & Classroom (reprinted in paperback in 2003). Brad Lookingbill’s book is however the first synthesis of all available sources to produce a social history of the incarceration.

Lookingbill sets the scene for the imprisonment of the tribesmen, giving a necessarily brief account of the fighting in which the various tribes were involved. The single Caddo prisoner, Hu-wah-nee, who was accused of murder, seems to have been the only prisoner not accused involvement in the Red River War. Among the Cheyenne prisoners was a female warrior, Mochi, exiled for her part in the attack upon the German family, together with her husband Medicine Water, in September 1874. We also learn that the prisoners were also accompanied by three non-prisoners; the wife and child of the Comanche chief Black Horse and captive of the Kiowa leader Lone Wolf.

A total of seventy-five Indians were sent to St.Augustine, thirty-three Cheyennes, two Arapahos, twenty-eight Kiowas, eleven Comanches and the single Caddo. Only seventy-three arrived however as two Cheyennes were seriously injured, one fatally, in attempts to escape. The escapee who survived, Lean Bear, was finally sent on to Fort Marion after confounding medical science and recovering, despite being pronounced dead on two separate occasions.

Unfortunately, the Florida climate and the extremely basic living conditions at Fort Marion took their toll on the Indians, with a Kiowa falling ill and dying within the first week at the fort. Lean Bear in turn died less than six weeks after his arrival at St.Augustine. Despite these set backs, the Indians seemed to have done their best to overcome adversity.

Within months of their arrival, the reserve between the warriors and the residents of the surrounding area had broken down, with the Plains Indians becoming familiar tourist attractions, performing dances for visitors and exploring the locale. Many of them also sold characteristic ledger drawings to locals and visiting tourists. Today, the prisoners are perhaps best known for the art that they produced. Brad Lookingbill has however produced an admirable social history that celebrates the ability of the prisoners not only to endure the hostile environment in which they found themselves, but to adapt to an alien way of life.

Eventually, after nearly three years of captivity, the surviving prisoners were allowed to go home to Indian Territory. A number chose not to return however. Some of the former prisoners went on to study at Carlisle Indian School, four trained as Episcopalian missionaries, three went to live with one of the Fort Marion teachers and her husband where they continued to receive tutoring, while others studied at Hampton Institute. Many eventually returned to their tribes as prominent men, one of the most celebrated being the warrior artist Making Medicine who ended his days as David Pendleton Oakerhater, a retired Deacon of the Episcopal Church. Oakerhater, who died in 1931, was made an Episcopalian saint in 1985.

Fort Marion has been owned by the U.S. National Park Service since 1933 and is known today as Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. In appearance however, little has changed since the surviving prisoners of war from the Southern Plains finally left the fort in 1878. This book is recommended as a lively and detailed account of the three year period during which it accommodated a remarkably resilient group of people. Gary Leonard

(review courtesy of the English Westerners Society: www.english-westerners-society.org.uk)