March 2012
Black Seminole FAQ Translated Into Haitian Creole
For a project called "Geek Science," Susan Basen has translated the
FAQ overview of the Black Seminoles from the Rebellion site into
Haitian Creole. "Geek Science" is a freemium-model non-English
language orientated startup with collection of scientific articles,
personal notes, and online content entries in several languages that
is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world.
"Kesyon yo poze souvan (FAQ)," Geek
Science, March 2012
March 2011
The Seminole-African Alliance
The Native American Indian people that comprised the Seminole Nation
grew out of the Creek Nation in Florida. Multilingual and diverse,
the Seminoles (from a word meaning “runaway”) became infamous for
intermingling with runaway slaves from Georgia and the Carolinas —
slaves that, as historian William Loren Katz explains, “since 1738
had built prosperous, free, self-governing communities.”
The Beachside resident, Issue 1, Vol. 7,
March 2011
Sept. 26, 2010
Battlefield area officially part of history
After 10 years of negotiations to change the name of the Riverbend
Park to one of historic significance, the Palm Beach County Historic
Resources Review Board voted in favor of the county's proposal to
change the name of 63 acres that included the Seminole Wars
battlefields, to Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park.
By Richard J. Procyk, Treasure Coast Newspapers
Nov. 18, 2009
Army Recognizes Contributions of Black Seminole Indian Scouts
A formal Army recognition ceremony was conducted by the U.S. Army's
Freedom Team Salute program on the campus of Saint Elizabeth's
Hospital in Washington, D.C. to honor the legacy of the Black
Seminole Indian Scouts. William Shields, one of the scouts, was
buried in the cemetery on the hospital's campus in 1910. Freedom
Team Salute helped dedicate a new headstone for Shields and
recognized members of the Buffalo Soldiers with Freedom Team Salute
Commendations. William "Dub" Warrior, Chief of the John Horse Band
of Black Seminoles; Colonel David Griffith, Director of Freedom Team
Salute; Buffalo Soldiers; and a historian participated in the
ceremony.
Defense & Aerospace Week
Jan. 1, 2009
Book Review: BUFFALO SOLDIERS IN THE WEST: A Black Soldiers Anthology
Professors Bruce A. Glasrud and Michael N. Searles, nationally
recognized experts on blacks in the west, have compiled an anthology
that chronicles the complete gambit of experiences encountered by
the black soldier in the west. The anthology presents the Buffalo
Soldier's story as told by 16 black soldier scholars in as many
essays. The authors set out to compile a history of the "African
Americans in the latter years of the nineteenth and early 20th
century who were primarily engaged in Soldiering in the western
United States."
By Gerald F. Sewell, Military Review
Nov. 29, 2008
Escape Becomes Etched in History
Scuffling softly, silently, under a dark, moonless November sky, a
handful of men and women roped down the steep, rough coquina wall of
the gray fort, then faded into the shadows, and into Florida
history. Among the Seminole escapees were Coacoochee and John Horse.
The remarkable story of the only known escape from the 17th-century
Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine is an integral part of the
National Monument’s legacy. “Coacoochee was undoubtedly one of the
most accomplished Native Americans of the 19th century,” said J.B.
Bird.
By Ronald Williamson, Daytona Beach News Journal
March 1, 2007
Review of this Web site:
Florida's Forgotten Rebels: Rediscovering the most successful slave revolt in American history
John Horse's story feels like an answer to every Hollywood studio's
wish list: a mix of Spartacus, Braveheart, Amistad, and Glory, with
just a pinch of Dances With Wolves. A sweeping tale of a
decades-long struggle against oppression, the movie would show how
Horse and the Black Seminoles created the largest haven for runaway
slaves in the American South, led the biggest slave revolt in U.S.
history, won the only emancipation of rebellious North American
slaves before the Civil War, and formed the largest mass exodus of
slaves in U.S. history.
By Amy Sturgis, Reason Magazine
February 22, 2006
Sarasota County's underground railroad: New documentary unearths Angola
Before Florida was a state, it was home to runaway slaves. The
Underground Railroad and its part in Florida's history has recently
been unearthed in Sarasota County. Diverse groups seeking freedom
from the states and territories with institutionalized slavery
traveled the Underground Railroad south to 'free' Florida. They
established the settlement of Angola which archaeologists believe
spanned from Tampa to Sarasota County. (“Looking for Angola” is
scheduled to air on WEDU, West
Central Florida’s primary PBS station, at 9:30 p.m. Feb. 23, 11:30
p.m. Feb. 24, 1:30 p.m. Feb. 26 and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 28.)
By Shelley Draper, Charlotte Sun-Herald
February 22, 2006
UCF Anthropology Professor Featured in Documentary About Black
Seminoles
Rosalyn Howard, an assistant professor of Anthropology at UCF, will
be featured in the documentary “Looking for Angola,” which profiles
the community of Seminole Indians and former enslaved Africans
believed to be located near Tampa and Sarasota during the 19th
century. “Looking for Angola” is scheduled to air on WEDU, West
Central Florida’s primary PBS station, at 9:30 p.m. Feb. 23, 11:30
p.m. Feb. 24, 1:30 p.m. Feb. 26 and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 28.
University of Central Florida News Office
August 29, 2005
Blood Feud
Once paragons of racial inclusion and assimilation, the Native
American sovereign nations have done an about-face and
systematically pushed out people of African descent. For the better
part of the 20th century, black Indians were permitted to vote in
elections, sit on tribal councils, and receive benefits. Now, in the
wake of lucrative government settlements and solid casino profits,
tribal leaders insist that the Freedmen were never actually citizens
and that they will never attain the honor of membership because they
don't have Native American blood.
By Brendan I. Koerner, Wired
August 1, 2005
Historians want rewrite on slave revolt
A war party burned 21 plantations along the St. Johns River in 1836,
making off with hundreds of slaves and permanently crippling the
North Florida sugar industry. Was the uprising in North Florida the
largest of its kind in U.S. history?
By Thomas Lake, Florida Times-Union
July 27, 2005
Scholars overlooked
largest U.S. slave rebellion for more than 167 years
Since 1838, scholars have overlooked the largest slave rebellion in
U.S. history and their reference works have been wrong, shows a new
historical Web site.
News release
July 21, 2005
Web site chronicles little-known Fla. slave revolt
As President Andrew Jackson sought to push Florida's Indians west
and capture Black Seminoles to return them to slavery, the allies
quietly slipped into Florida's plantations along the St. Johns
River, west of St. Augustine, with a warning: "A war is coming."
By Scott McCabe, The Palm Beach Post
June 29, 2004
Seminole Freedmen rebuffed by Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to allow the Seminole
Freedmen to sue the federal government without the Seminole Nation's
involvement. The Freedmen are trying to gain access and services
provided by a $56 million settlement awarded to the Seminole Nation.
Indianz.com December 27, 2003
Seminoles With African Ancestry: The Right To Heritage
There has been an ongoing debate among Seminoles with African
ancestry and Seminoles with Native American ancestry regarding the
legitimacy of the "Black Seminoles." The arguments have reached
crisis proportions as families have split long racial lines, Blacks
Seminoles have been voted out of tribal councils and can no longer
fully participate in life as a Seminole and some have even lost
rights altogether in the Seminole nation.
By Bakari Akil II, The Black World Today
August 17, 2003
Blacks with Indian blood seek tribes' recognition
[No link available. Access by registering and searching at
The Oklahoman archives.]
There has been an ongoing debate among Seminoles with African
ancestry and Seminoles with Native American ancestry regarding the
legitimacy of the "Black Seminoles." The arguments have reached
crisis proportions as families have split long racial lines, Blacks
Seminoles have been voted out of tribal councils and can no longer
fully participate in life as a Seminole and some have even lost
rights altogether in the Seminole nation.
By Ron Jackson, The Oklahoman
January 27, 2003
Tracing Bahamian Black Seminoles
University of Central Florida assistant professor Rosalyn Howard
documents the present and past of Black Seminoles who emigrated to
Andros Island in "Black Seminoles in the Bahamas," written after a
year of living with the Black Seminole community in Red Bays.
News release
July 10, 2002
A Nation Divided
Indian tribes across the country are reaping windfall profits these
days, usually from gambling operations. But some, like the Seminole
Nation of Oklahoma, are getting rich from from belated government
payouts for lands taken hundreds of years ago. Now the government is
paying the tribe $56 million for those lost Florida lands, and the
money is threatening to divide a nation.
CBS News, "60 Minutes"
August 20, 2001
Searching for Peliklakaha, land of the forgotten Seminoles
Forty-five minutes west of Walt Disney's make-believe history,
archaeologists dig for real artifacts. Hunched over a shallow,
square excavation, they search for Peliklakaha, the largest Black
Seminole village known to historians, a place where different
cultures joined in a fight for freedom more than 200 years ago.
By Scott McCabe, The Palm Beach Post
June 17, 2001
Florida researchers launch first excavation of Black Seminole town
The first ever excavation of a black Seminole town is under way in
Central Florida and may unearth how the runaway slaves actually
lived within the embattled Seminole Indian nation, says a University
of Florida researcher.
News release |