During the Plains Wars of the mid-1800s, thousands of indigenous peoples were forced from their homelands. Dozens of their leaders and warriors were imprisoned over a thousand miles away from home in Fort Marion (now known as the Castillo de San Marcos) in St. Augustine, Florida. Today, UCF researchers are collaborating with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, the National Park Service, the Florida National Guard and Flagler College to help restore the lost prisoners’ experiences for their descendants and the public.
After five years of digging through U.S. Army records and correspondence dating back more than a century, Amy Larner Giroux, associate director of the Center for Humanities and Digital Research, 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.
Giroux’s research led to her and fellow researchers—Mike Shier (CHDR), Marcy Galbreath (Lecturer Emeritus, DWR), and Jeremy Carnes (postdoctoral scholar in DWR)—participating in cultural events and research presentations with future tribal events being planned.