"Captured by Kickapoo warriors in 1797, Hunter was held for several years by that tribe before being seized by Kansas Indians during a battle." - Handbook of the American Frontier (1987)
"Having formed acquaintance with fur traders, he abandoned his Indian life in 1816 and engaged in trading." - Hubert Howe Bancroft
"John Dunn Hunter's eventful and controversial life deserves revival." -KIRKUS REVIEW
"Celebrated first as a gifted 'white Indian' on both sides of the Atlantic." - Ethnology and Empire (2015)
"The authentic production of an individual who has actually passed many years of his life among the Indians."—London Quarterly Review
"Nature has stamped sincerity and truth upon his very countenance." -John Dunn Hunter Defended (1826)
"Can it be that this man was an imposter? I for one will not yet believe it." -Texas and the Texans (1841)
"He was destined to play a tragic part in the Anglo-Mexican-Cherokee history of Texas." -Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees (2003)
John Dunn Hunter (1796–1827), a devoted champion of the rights of Indians (who would later assassinate him), brought down upon himself the enmity of many persons in the U.S. on account of his vindication of the rights of the Indians. This emnity, according to famous historian Bancroft, may have been the motivation for some critics to brand his 1823 book "Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America" as the work of an "imposter."
In his Memoirs, Hunter states that he had no recollection of his parents, who, he believed, were killed at the time of his capture by Kickapoos, but when or where that occurred he could not tell. His skill in hunting when yet a boy gained for him the name of 'hunter' among the Indians, which he afterward adopted as a patronymic. He assumed his other names out of respect to John Dunn of Missouri, who treated him with fraternal kindness after his association with white people.
Having formed acquaintance with fur-traders, he abandoned his Indian life in 1816, and engaged in trading. During the intervals between the trading seasons, he attended for some years a school near Pearl River, Mississippi, and applied himself assiduously to the study of the English language, writing, and arithmetic, in which he made great proficiency. In 1821 he crossed the Alleghanies, went to New York, and, as he says, began a new existence. He afterward visited England and Europe.
During 1823–4 he was lionized by the fashionable world in London, and excited the deepest interest of philosophers and philanthropists, literati and noblemen, not only on account of his romantic life, but also of his project of civilizing the Indians. This could only be effected, he maintained, by the introduction of civilized habits by a slow and invisible progress, and his plan was to form a settlement in which Indian manners and customs would at first be adopted, but gradually eliminated with time.
In the summer of 1824 he left London and went to live with the Cherokees in Texas, over whom he immediately acquired a leading influence. He was sent by Richard Fields to Mexico with the aim of negotiating for a Cherokee settlement in Texas. Hunter arrived in Mexico City on March 19, 1826, but regretfully returned to Texas April 1826 with news of his failure.
Dunn Hunter and Fields then opened negotiations with Martin Parmer which culminated in the Fredonian Rebellion. Overtures from Mexican authorities and respected Empresario Stephen F. Austin convinced tribal leaders to repudiate the rebellion. After the Cherokee repudiated the rebellion and ultimately it was decided that Fields and Hunter should be put to death.
