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The more truthful story is the fact that 'runaway' slaves frequently sought refuge from their the 'slave hunters' within Indian tribal villages/communities of the South and Southeast (particularly Cheokee in the SE and with the Seminole in Florida). The runaway slaves were most frequently welcomed by theses tribes, were protected by them, and were accepted as tribal members and even married into the tribes. Strong and able Black warriors were a welcome addition to the tribe ... to help fend off the advancement/land grabbing and oppression of the white settlers.

Rene ... IMHO, sorry to say, I find no 'romance' in the 'story' you were told ... what you were told is in direct contrast with the facts of the majority of Native American's lifestyles ... it was primarily the Indians of the Great Plains who lived nomadic lives and followed the migrating game/bison seasonally from one place to the next ... the Native American tribes of the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, Far West/California, and Northwest lived in long settled tribal villages where they grew corn/crops, tended the land, and hunted in the local/nearby surrounding forests ... they lived within their own 'territories' ... they did not lead a truly migratory life except to relocate according to the weather as the season changed from warm summer to cold winter ... they had regular 'winter and summer quarters/villages that they migrated to seasonally ... they did not at all live nomadically in the sense that the Sioux/Blackfeet/Crow, etc. and other Great Plains tribes followed the migrating buffalo herds and lived in portable teepees.

As an example ... 800 years ago .. the Mississippian culture that lived along the Mississippi River in Southern Illinois, near St. Louis ... lived in a huge 'village' called Cahokia (or Kahokia) ... that at the time, 800 years ago, had a population equal to that of London, England at that same time period in history. Cahokia is a a National Monument ... the areas of their village, huge mounds they built, and the fields they cultivated are all very well mapped out and preservehd at the park located just a few miles east of St. Louis on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

Google ... Cahokia ... and you'll see what I mean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia

"At the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico. Although it was home to only about 1,000 people before c. 1050, its population grew explosively after that date. Archaeologists estimate the city's population at between 8,000 and 40,000 at its peak, with more people living in outlying farming villages that supplied the main urban center. In 1250, its population was about 15,000, comparable to that of London or Paris during the same period."

The example of the huge city of Cahokia does not lend itself as an indication of a tradition of a nomadic lifestyle amongst Native Americans. The Cahokia Mounds that were built by the Mississippian peoples are some of the finest examples of mound building and permanent (non-nomadic) Native American culture in the USA.

Where I grew up in the upper Midwest the Sac (Sauk)/Fox tribe lived in a huge village called Saukinuk in the 1700s and 1800s in permanent wooden bark 'hogans' and planted/tended/harvested crops for 9 months of the year ... in the winter they relocated to their winter village about 80 miles south, hunting for wildlife and living off the crops that they raised during the spring/summer/fall growing season that they had carefully dried/dehydrated and carried with them to their winter quarters. In the spring they returned to Saukinuk and prepared their fields for cultivation over the long Midwestern growing season. The Black Hawk War broke out in about 1833 because when the Sac (Sauk)/Fox returned to their main village of Saukinuk in the spring they found white settlers had taken over their village, even living in the Sac (Sauk)/Fox hogans/houses and cultivating their fields and had cattle and pigs penned up and trampling over the Sac (Sauk)/Fox's precious rich/fertile fields of rich Midwestern soil. The Sac (Sauk)/Fox lost the brief war and were forced to relocate. Abraham Lincoln, as a young pioneer/settler in Illinois, served as an officer in the Black Hawk War.

In the NE/New England ... the Native Americans supplied the white/European/English Pilgrims with the agrarian food products (beans, corn, squash, etc.) that allowed the Pilgrims to celebrate their first Thanksgiving in America. The Native Americans could not have supplied these farm products to the Pilgrims if they lived nomadic lifestyles ... they lived in permanenet communities and tended field crops and hunted in their own local region.

In the NW they built permanent wooden structures ... 'long houses' or smaller hogans made from logs/bark/cedar ... that they lived in all year long ... they gathered local wild growing food products and 'harvested' salmon/fish from the rivers/lakes/sea near their home villages.

In the Far West/California they lived in tule/reed 'houses'/structures ... gathered acorns which were painstakingly leached of their bitterness with water and then grinded up/made into a meal/grain for baking products/bread/gruel/soup, etc., and they fished and hunted within the limits/local of their villages.

There are too many examples of this for me to list ... suffice to say ...
The concept that most all Native Americans lived a nomadic lifestyle is far/far from correct ... most did not ... at best, they only traveled from their summer villages where they hunted and raised crops to their winter quarters/villages for relief from the winter cold.

Yes ... The Native Americans of the Great Plains (Western Iowa/Nebraska/Kansas/Missouri/the Dakotas/Montana/Colorado (the Sioux/Crow/Blackfeet, etc.) lived nomadically in teepees that were portable, made from animal hides/buffalo/deer/elk, etc., and they followed the herds of bison as they migrated over the plains ... the bison/buffalo were the main staple food product of these tribes. That lifestyle was the minority lifestyle for Native Americans.

The Native Americans of the rest of the USA: NE, SE, NW, SE, Midwest ... most lived in permanent wooden structures (sometimes called 'hogans') ... in the SW they even built permanent 'cities' on top of and carved out on the side of mesas and canyons.

My wife worked for seven years at the University of California/Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Native American Culture. Her job was to document and catalog the thousands upon thousands of Native American artifacts from all over the USA that are in the museum's collection. She asks that I relay her best wishes to you, Rene ... and to tell you that the story you were told ... is ... pretty much ... a 'fairytale' ... and is at odds with the facts/documentation/artifacts that represent the lifestyle of the Native Americans ... which, by the way, are more often, these days, referred to as the First Nations ... rather than Native Americans or Indians.