In the 1850s, Black Beaver and other Delawares were employed as guides and interpreters at Forts Arbuckle and Cobb. In 1858, Black Beaver served as a guide for Douglas Cooper, a future Confederate colonel, while Cooper was a federal agent for the Chickasaws. The well-traveled Indian scout reportedly spoke English, French, Spanish, and about eight different Indian languages, and could also use Plains Indian sign language.

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At the start of the Civil War, Black Beaver was in his 50s, well-respected, and leading a comfortable life on his farm near Fort Arbuckle. According to the local Indian agent, Black Beaver had the most substantial residence on the reservation: “a pretty good double log house, with two shed rooms in the rear, a porch in front and two fireplaces, and a field of forty-one and a half acres inclosed with a good stake-and-rider fence, thirty-six and a half of which have been cultivated.” The scout-turned-farmer was employed as the interpreter for the Wichitas, working for Indian agent Matthew Leeper.

When Black Beaver sided with the Union, he made a costly decision. Rebels seized his cattle, horses, and crops, and destroyed his farm. They also placed a contract on his head, making it impossible for him to return home during the war. Until his death in 1880, Black Beaver attempted without success to secure compensation for the sizable losses–estimated at about $5,000–he had suffered while in Federal service. Well into the 1880s, his daughter, Lucy Pruner, was still trying in vain to collect the monetary damages promised her father more than 25 years before.

Late in the Civil War, Union officials invoked Black Beaver’s name to win support from the Wichita chief Tusaqueh and from other leaders in southern Indian Territory. Union agent E.H. Carruth invited Tusaqueh or his delegates to come to Kansas to meet with him. “Your friend Black Beaver will meet you here and we will drive the bad men who entered your company last spring,” he said. “The Texans have killed the Wichitas: we will punish the Texans.” Throughout the war, both Confederate and Union dispatches indicate Black Beaver’s continuing role as a valuable Union scout.

The Delawares officially took sides in the war before the end of 1861. On October 1, 1861, the Leavenworth Daily Conservative printed a statement from the Delaware chiefs–Anderson Sarcoxie, John Conner, and Neconhecon–meant to encourage the Unionist Indians in Indian Territory: “We, the Chiefs of the Delawares, promise and obligate ourselves to lend the whole power of the Nation to aid and protect such tribes as may be invaded…. We will permit no other Nation to war against the Union with impunity.”

When Major General John C. Frémont took command of the Union Western Department, he sought out the Delawares because they had served well with him on antebellum expeditions and had fought in the Mexican War. He recruited Captain Falleaf to raise a company of Delawares, and on October 4, 54 Delaware men were mustered into service, awaiting orders at Fort Leavenworth.

Captain Falleaf and his men traveled from Kansas City with the Kansas Brigade of the anti-slavery politician-turned-soldier James Henry Lane. A correspondent of Harper’s Weekly visited Lane’s camp at Humansville, Missouri, and the Delaware camp a few hundred yards away. There he found Falleaf–Panipakuxwe, or “he who walks when leaves fall”–who was stretched out comfortably before the campfire, “inhaling tobacco-smoke from the handle of his [pipe] tomahawk.” He noted that the Delawares were armed with tomahawks, scalping knives, and rifles.

The Delawares arrived at Frémont’s camp near Springfield, Missouri, on October 29, a few days before an anticipated battle between Frémont’s troops and those of Confederate Brigadier General Sterling Price. But Frémont was relieved of his command for proclaiming the emancipation of slaves in Missouri without approval from President Abraham Lincoln, and Falleaf and his Delawares escorted the general back to Sedalia, Missouri. There, the Delawares held a war dance at Camp Falleaf, named in honor of their leader. With Frémont leaving, the Delaware recruits, who were deeply loyal to the general, refused to serve any longer. Frémont discharged them and they returned home to Kansas. Delaware military involvement in the war was temporarily on hold.

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