Paul Vargas at Carlisle

Intriguingly, at least one of the Puerto Rican students studying at Carlisle Indian School was identified as someone of Amerindian descent. Named Paul Vargas, he was apparently from Humacao, Puerto Rico. Entering Carlisle in 1910, Vargas apparently was only enrolled temporarily, since he left the school in the same year. Nonetheless, one wonders how Vargas saw himself and if he would have agreed with the school's characterization of him as someone of "Carribee Indian" descent.

Creole Sauvage from New Orleans (1770s)

Whilst perusing digitized copies of Saint-Domingue's colonial newspaper, Affiches américaines, we encountered a reference to the sale of what may have been a Native American person from North America. Up for sale by a wood seller, Gaignard, in what is now Cap-Haitien, the unnamed "sauvage" was described as a Creole of New Orleans. Assuming that "sauvage" in 1770s Saint-Domingue was still a reference to Amerindian peoples or indigenous peoples of the Americas, we suspect this enslaved person was of indigenous origin, probably from a group in today's United States, but born in New Orleans. Reference to small numbers of Native American people from Louisiana or the Midwest sold into slavery in the Caribbean can be found in a variety of sources, so it is plausible that someone of Native American origin ended up in Au Cap via New Orleans.