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Black Beaver or Se-ket-Tu-Ma-Quah, was a Delaware Indian scout and trapper, born about 1806 at the present site of Belleville, Illinois. Little is known of his youth, but he is known to have spent several years as a young man in the Rocky Mountains, hunting and trapping, and acquiring a familiarity with the territory. In 1834 he was the interpreter for the expedition of General Henry Leavenworth and Colonel Henry Dodge to the upper Red River country, the home of Comanche, Kiowa, and Wichita tribes. He continued from time to time in the service of the U. S. Government, and during the Mexican War he led a company of Indian scouts and guides under the command of General William Harney; from then on he was known as Captain Black Beaver. During the Gold Rush in 1849 he guided a large party of miners going from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Albuquerque, New Mexico en route to California. He also frequently undertook trading expeditions into the Southern Plains country in the 1850s, thereby extending his knowledge of the region and its inhabitants. |
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At the beginning of the Civil War, Black Beaver guided the garrisons of Forts Smith, Arbuckle, Washita, and Cobb in their retreat from Indian Territory to Fort Leavenworth. After the war he became a major spokesman for the Delaware Indians who had moved west, negotiating on their behalf with the Washington authorities. He was highly respected by the neighboring Comanche and Kiowa people, and frequently served them as a mediator. Black Beaver became a legend in his own time, due largely to the tremendous area of the continent which he had covered, his wide experiences with both races, and his own personality as a skilled negotiator, interpreter, scout, and guide all of which demanded bravery, endurance, and a sound sense of judgment. He died on May 8, 1880 at the age of 74 at his daughters ranch west of Anadarko in then, Caddo Nation, Indian Territory (presently Caddo County, Oklahoma). He was originally buried in Anadarko, Caddo County, Oklahoma next to his great-grandfather, Elihu Burgin Osburn. He was later moved to Fort Sill Post Cemetery in Lawton, Oklahoma. Source:
Great North American Indians by Frederick Dockstader. © 1977, Litton
Educational Publishing
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