JSouth, From you list, I can surmise that the only Indians involved with enslaving the black man were those who were in proximity of the white slaveowners and encouraged to "assimilate" by immitating the white upper crust. The vast number of Native groups to the north seem not to be included in your list, nor were the Eastern Indians such as the Powhatan, the Mattaponi, and other tribes that had the first contact with colonists. One might conclude that Indians holding black slaves was a corruption from White contact as surely as smallpox was. Also, there is the question of ownership. Did the individual Indians own their slaves? Were they "owned" by the tribe and used in common? Were they free to marry into the tribe or were they kept separate and allowed only to marry among other blacks? In short, did slavery have the same meaning in the tribes you mentioned, as to the whites? Anne Anne Pemberton [log in to unmask] http://www.erols.com/apembert http://www.educationalsynthesis.org