The forgotten allies: Seminoles and Mascogos in the defense of northeastern Mexico, 1850–1861

Abstract

This article examines the participation of the Seminoles and Mascogos in the defence of northeastern Mexico between 1850 and 1861, in a context marked by Comanche and Apache incursions that devastated the region’s populations, economies, and political structures. The central hypothesis argues that the incorporation of these emigrant groups responded to a strategy by the Mexican state to contain invasions in Coahuila and neighbouring states, through agreements that granted land, citizenship, protection, and recognition in exchange for military support. The study draws on nineteenth-century documentary sources, such as military reports, agreements, and the press, as well as recent scholarship in political and transnational history, to reconstruct campaigns in which these emigrant groups participated, and more specifically to account for the tensions between them and the frontier’s military and civilian forces. On this basis, the article shows that their collaboration was crucial to regional defensive arrangements, and that their integration as allies and citizens produced an ambiguous relationship that reveals the negotiated and hybrid nature of state-building on the northeastern frontier.