MY MOM IS SEMINOLE AND MY DAD IS SCOTTISH, WHAT A COMBO!!:
FLORIDA, WHERE I LIVE has a history like no other.
This ground that you walk, drive and live on was once the home of a band of savages chased here by the soldiers led by General Andrew Jackson.
Made up of Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and runaway slaves, they were known as the Redsticks.
Now known as the Seminole.
Andrew Jackson (Yes, the future " great American President" ) informed the different tribes that they would be re-located.
If they didn't re-locate, all would be re-located or killed. Some re-located, some stayed, some fought, some died(men,women,children) and some organized to defend the land that gave them so much.
Jackson chased the warriors and their families into Florida and scattered them under Spanish rule.
Meanwhile, he gave away the land that he said the peaceful indian tribes could live on, to any white settlers that wanted it.
In the 1820's and 1830's, a half Irish. half seminole warrior took up the Seminole cause and organized all the warriors and clans to fight back!!
( My Gr.Gr.Gr.Gr. Uncle, Chief Osceola).
The U.S. acquired Florida and decided to clear it of all the evil savages that resided there, so that it would be safe for decent white settlers.
As the settlers came, they set up homesteads.
The soldiers came and began to slaughter whole villages of Seminole men, women and children who lived near any white settlements.
That became The U.S.A.'s first taste of "Vietnam".
The great American President sent brigade after brigade and eventually, batallion after batallion of soldiers that were increasingly ambushed in the swamp by Osceola, his other chiefs(Wildcat and Jumper) and all the Seminole warriors.
Washington began to only recieve name tags and body parts, as the war dragged on and on, year after year.
The American people clamored so loudly for and end to the eternal war that they DEMANDED a complete cleansing of all the indians living there,and asked that the President throw all available forces into the new land.
They eventually prevailed, the Seminole retreated to the everglades and no treaty was ever signed.
Cheif Osceola, stricken with Malaria, was caught, kept in St. Augustine for a time, put on trial and beheaded.
His head was put on a pike for all to see.
The Everglades are where the Seminole are still rooted today,
Thats where my family is from,
Thats why I'm here.
Thats where THE SACRED BLOOD of my ancestors still runs.
SEMINOLE NAMES YOU USE EVERYDAY IN FLORIDA:
OCALA
TALLAHASSEE
TAMPA
OKEECHOBEE
SARASOTA
OSCEOLA
MIAMI
PLEASE DON'T WRITE ME AND SAY YOU'RE PART CHEROKEE, IT'S AN URBAN MYTH AND EVERYONE I HAVE EVER IS PART CHEROKEE ( At least pick a different tribe..)!!
