UCF researchers help restore lost history of indigenous prisoners in St. Augustine
A group of researchers from the University of Central Florida worked with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma and Florida and others to help restore the lost history 10 indigenous prisoners held in St. Augustine.
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Researchers said thousands of indigenous peoples were forced from their homelands during the Plains Wars of the mid-1800s.
Some of the indigenous peoples who were displaced were also imprisoned at Fort Marion, also known as Castillo de San Marcos, in St. Augustine.
The UCF researchers have been working with national agencies to restore the prisoners’ experiences for their descendants.
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While exploring burial sites in St. Augustine National Cemetery two separate graves, each containing a group burial of six marked with a headstone inscribed “Six Unknown Indians.”
“As a historian who works in cemeteries, it bothers me when a headstone has incomplete or unknown information about the person buried there. They deserve to have their names restored,” said Amy Larner Giroux, associate director of the Center for Humanities and Digital Research. “They deserve to be recognized for who they were. And you can’t get that from a headstone that says, ‘Six Unknown Indians’.”
Giroux said after five years of searching through U.S. Army records and correspondence dating back more than a century, she discovered the names of 10 chiefs and warriors from the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche tribes who were imprisoned and died in Fort Marion between 1875 and 1878.
The names of the recovered individuals are:
• Chief Grey Beard (Cheyenne), who is buried in Piney Grove Cemetery in Baldwin, Florida
• Chief Co-a-bo-te-ta, or Sun (Kiowa)
• Chief Lean Bear (Cheyenne)
• Chief Mah-mante (Kiowa)
• Ih-pa-yah (Kiowa Warrior)
• Big Moccasin (Cheyenne Warrior)
• Starving Wolf (Cheyenne Warrior)
• Spotted Elk (Cheyenne Warrior)
• Nad-a-with-t (Comanche Warrior)
• Chief Mo-e-yau-hay-ist, or Heap of Birds/Magpie Feathers (Cheyenne)
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Based on Giroux’s research, the National Cemetery Administration plans to replace the “Six Unknown Indians” grave marker with headstones that list the names of the fallen warriors, their death dates and their tribal affiliations.
Researchers said Castillo de San Marcos was used during the Plains Wars as a prison for prominent warriors and chiefs in hopes of demoralizing their tribes into surrendering to the U.S. Army.
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