Where Rests John Horse is an interdisciplinary dissertation project by historian Mark Mallory that synthesizes film, original creative writing, and historical analysis related to Black Seminole history.
The documentary film of that title, produced by Corina Harrington, Windy Goodloe, Mark Mallory, and Gabriel Sánchez, follows the summer 2026 journey of Corina, Windy, and Gabriel as they travel from the Texas-Coahuila borderland to Mexico City in search of the final resting place of iconic leader John Horse. This short film will be premiering in the summer of 2027.
Where Rests John Horse?: A Black Seminole Community Collection, is also the title of a forthcoming collection of poems and creative writings by Black Seminoles from the Texas-Coahuila borderland, edited by Windy Goodloe and Mark Mallory. Writings will be collected until the Seminole Days celebration in September 2027 and then published as a fundraiser for the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association (SISCA).
Finally, Where Rests John Horse?: Memory, Gender, and Misrecognition in the Black Seminole Diaspora is the title of a soon forthcoming dissertation project by Mark Mallory that will then be adapted into a book project. This work examines the tensions between Black Seminoles lived experiences and representations of their histories to invite a fundamental rethinking of Black Seminole diaspora history in Mexico and the United States.
Author Bio
Mark Mallory is a PhD candidate in History at Texas A&M University, an independent filmmaker, and a volunteer with the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association. He received his M.A. in history from the University of Louisiana in 2021. Working in close collaboration with Black Seminole community members from Texas and Coahuila, Mallory's research examines the contested representation and frequent erasure of Black Seminoles. This research employs a transnational reading and listening practice that engages archival materials, published works, and oral accounts from Mexico and the United States. Using English, Spanish, and Afro-Seminole Creole, Mallory has collected in-depth oral accounts from a range of community members from the Texas-Coahuila borderlands since 2021, primarily women and community elders. Drawing on contemporary and historical oral accounts of Black Seminoles along with other ethnohistorical evidence, I explore the tension between lived experiences of Black Seminoles and representations of their lives and histories found in songs, films, novels, children’s books, paintings, stage plays, school curricula, museum exhibits, tourism materials, public monuments, and government documents since the mid-nineteenth century.