Thanks Chris. The slaves coming up the Caney River in IT were probably mostly from Texas or the Indian Territory. I would also suspect they were free Blacks or mixed bloods leaving due to more restrictive laws passed by the tribes under pressure from neighboring slave States. There was also a problem with any dark skinned person in the IT being kidnapped and sold into slavery in New Orleans or elsewhere so some may have been moving to KS to try to escape this threat too.
There is a story in the Kansas Historical Quarterly about a runaway from north Texas during the war that makes it to Ft Gibson and then moves to Kansas at the end of the war. I'll look at the Indian Slave Narratives again.
As an aside, I'm also interested in members of Drew's regiment or the Indian Brigade that were later transferred to one of the Colored regiments.
Thanks.