Product Description
This highly illustrated, full-color series presents each tribe within the context of its native lands. Color maps, population graphs, and other graphics present vital statistics in an appealing and accessible visual format. History, European contact, native religious beliefs, language, government, art, culture, customs, and daily life are covered, as well as a final section that focuses on modern identity and contemporary experience. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Alachua Culture, Battles of the Seminole Wars, Black Seminoles, People of the Seminole Wars, Seminole War Ships, Seminole Wars, Seminole Tribe, Timucua, Andrew Jackson, Choctaw, Micanopy, Florida, Five Civilized Tribes, Second Seminole War, William Cooley, Zachary Taylor, Earl Van Dorn, Lucy Walker Steamboat Disaster, Indigenous People of the Everglades Region, Joel Roberts Poinsett, Darius N. Couch, Timucua Language, Calusa, Hard Rock Cafe, Edward Ord, Tequesta, Apalachee, Cape Florida Light, John Sedgwick, John C. Robinson, Ar-Pi-Uck-I, Joseph Barnes, Osceola, William Whitaker, Fort Gadsden, John B. Magruder, Tocobaga, Claudius W. Sears, William W. Loring, John Horse, Major Ridge, Opothleyahola, Robert C. Buchanan, Treaty of Payne's Landing, Yamasee, Ais, Barley Barber Swamp, William Steele, Thomas Jordan, William H. French, Richard King, Joseph W. Revere, Ichabod Crane, Marsena R. Patrick, Israel B. Richardson, Benjamin Harjo, Jr., Harvey Brown, Arnold Elzey, Ponce de Leon Inlet Light, Indian Key State Historic Site, Samuel Breck, Alvan Cullem Gillem, Thomas Williams, William Gilham, Edmund P. Gaines, Montgomery Blair, Usrc Jackson, Orlando B. Willcox, William J. Worth, John Joseph Abercrombie, Cornelius Gilliam, Eliakim P. Scammon, William T. H. Brooks, Fort King, Battle of Lake Okeechobee, John Blair Smith Todd, Alice Brown Davis, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Billy Bowlegs, Francis A. Shoup, William Wallace Smith Bliss, Enoch Kelly Haney, Paynes Creek Historic State Park, Hylan B. Lyon, James Wolfe Ripley, Isaac R. Moores, Dade Massacre, Joshua Hall Bates, William Mcintosh, Bennett C. Riley, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Lloyd J. Beall, Potano, John Garland, James Totten, Miccosukee, Halleck Tustenuggee, Caloosahatchee Culture, James Lowry Donaldson, Sonuk Mikko, Fort Dallas, Uss Wave, William S. Taylor, Daniel Ruggles, Lewis Golding Arnold, Mark Anthony Cooper, Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, Henry Hayes Lockwood, Wild Cat, Cowkeeper, Philip Co... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent resource
Having known both James and Willie was a priviledge.This book provides some wonderful insight into the life and philosphy of Willie Lena and his belief system as a tradtional Oklahoma Seminole.Willie was a tremendous artist (many of his illustrations are included in the book)and used his skill to capture Seminole material culture, social and ceremonial practices.Is the book flawless?No.However, James did an excellent job telling the story from Willie's viewpoint.If you are interested in Oklahoma Creek/Seminole culture, read the book.

Sacred Ways of Seminole
What James Mooney's "History, Myths and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee" did for the Cherokee, this book does for the Oklahoma Seminole. Another excellent book in University of Oklahoma's "Civilization of the American Indian" series, this book provides a wonderful ethnography for the Oklahoma Seminoles, covering medicine, religion, ceremonies and beliefs. Howard worked extensively with Willie Lena, a Seminole traditionalist, and his work shows a great respect for the Seminole people. Furthermore, Howard also makes it clear in his preface that this book is concerned with the Oklahoma Seminole specifically, not those in Florida (or Texas, Mexico or anywhere else). Those looking for specifics on the Florida Seminoles or the Nation as a whole must look elsewhere. Despite many similarities, there are differences in culture and (interestingly enough) because of the Trail of Tears many more traditional beliefs were preserved in Oklahoma. Furthermore, he also points out the many differences of religious persausion within the Nation, ranging from Christians (mainly Baptists and Presbyterians) who are 100% assimilated into white society to ultra-conservative traditionalists. The book then goes on to a wonderful foreword by Willie Lena which is well worth reading.

The book itself starts with a brief history of the Seminole Nation, from their origins in Florida to the Seminole Wars, the Trail of Tears, life in Oklahoma and ultimately modern times. Understanding the past is essential to understanding the Seminole Nation. The book then moves on to Seminole herbal medicine. In a brief introduction, Seminole beliefs of disease, medicine and tools used are examined, and occaisonal comparisons are made to other Southeastern Nations or with Euro-American views. It then gives roughly 60 or 70 herbs, with their names in English and Muskogee, scientific names, medical properties and notes on their uses amongst other Nations. A few medical compounds and formulas are given as well, such as cures for hot weather, whooping cough and high blood pressure. This chapter is followed by a brief section on non-herbal remedies, such as animal parts, minerals, bleeding, scratching, shooting with a minature bow and arrow and so forth. This is quite interesting reading, though I don't recommend people try these remedies at home unless they know what they are doing. After all, Seminole doctors and healers need to train for a long time before practicing.

From there, beliefs of magic and witchcraft are mentioned. These include practices such as love medicine, weather control, sapiyas (magical stones used for love and hunting), horned water snake medicine and magic dolls. There are also many anecdotes about witches, malignant people who eat hearts and fly around in the shape of an owl at night. In the next chapter, a general overview of ceremonialism in the traditional Seminole world view is given, including symbolism, practices and paraphernalia. The book then focuses much attention on specific ceremonies, such as the Green Corn Ceremony and the numerous night time dances. These are especially important to traditional Seminole beliefs, being the main religious focus. These are followed by mention of sports and games, mainly stickball. This may seem odd, until one considers that stickball played both a social and religious or cultural role not only to the Seminoles, but also to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and other Nations of the Southeast. Indeed, the game seems to go back to the Mound Builders, and has parallels amongst the Aztecs and Mayan Indians of Mesoamerica. The book then gives some general aspects of Seminole life, including birth, childhood, hunting, folktales, warfare, pottery, flute playing, sign language, picture writings, folk lore and so forth, and a short chapter on mortuary practices.

Closing out the book is an thought provoking epilogue in which Howard mentions changes he saw in Seminole life, as more and more youth adopted Pan-Indianism and saw themselves less as Seminole and more as North American Indians. He mentions how tipis, powwows and Plains-style dress and dance has become more common, and contrasts these to uniquely Seminole things like Green Corn Ceremonies, Stomp Dances and stickball. These same comments hold true for the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Yuchi and other Southeastern Nations too. Ultimately, this is a wonderful book, and well worth checking out. As I said, the focus is on Oklahoma Seminoles rather than the Nation as a whole but the book is still an excellent ethnography. Indeed, the fact that it was written with the help of Willie Lena and shows great respect towards the Seminole makes it stand out above other studies of Native American culture. I strongly recommend that an interested reader purchase this book, and others in the series. ... Read more

Product Description
The history of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes dates back to the 1500s, when most of Florida as well as much of the United States was uninhabited. During the early 19th century, the tribes moved into the South Florida interior, living on remote tree islands throughout the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. These self-reliant people kept mostly to themselves. Their struggles have included disease, poverty, relocation, and three wars with the U.S. Army. Nevertheless, these resilient tribes survived and have become a vital part of the countryís history and a unique and highly popular feature of South Florida tourism. Today, these tribes are busy creating economic opportunity for members, preserving their heritage and culture, and protecting their homeland.Ý The powerful and engaging story of these remarkable people is brought to life in Images of America: Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Southern Florida. Captivating images from the Seminole / Miccosukee Photographic Archive highlight and preserve their story for future generations. Readers will appreciate this up-close and personal look at their way of life. The descendants of famed Native Americans such as Osceola, Jumper, Micanopy, and Sam Jones are seen in this distinct photo perspective working, resting, playing, and celebrating their customs.Ý ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

RIPPED OFF MY GRANDFATHER'S PHOTOS
Any photograph from the "W.Stanley Hanson Collection," is exactly that and was published without proper permission and consent from my family. Folks, enjoy the rip-off.

fascinating visual history
This book was just what I expected. It provides a rich visual history of the South Florida Indian tribes.

Excellent photo resource on the Seminoles
This books is a collection of photo postcards and photographics from the Seminole Tribe's picture archives.All include captions that identify the individuals in the pictures (including their clans) and explain the photo.Some are taken from photo postcards, others from photos taken by people over the years (source of photo is also given, include a date).

An excellent resource.Only 'problem' is all the photos are in black and white. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Thoroughgoing, Comprehensive and Rich with Detail
Kenneth Wiggins Porter apparently died before he finished the manuscript for this one and so it fell to others (Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter) to edit and update this book. It's hard to sort out the contributions of each but the result is a well documented narrative of the Black Seminole from the early days in Florida to the early part of the twentieth century. Built mainly around the rise and life of the still little known Western hero, John Horse, a man of mixed blood (his father seems to have been a Seminole tribesman, perhaps of mixed blood himself, his mother an African and escaped slave in pre-Civil War America), it details the formation and development of a unique tribal people in America's history.

Indeed, the evidence suggests that thousands of Africans fled the chattel bondage of South Carolina, Georgia and, later, the states of Alabama and Florida in the 18th and early nineteenth centuries, forming communities that existed under the protection of the Florida Indians (themselves exiles from internecine conflict in Georgia and Alabama within the Creek nation or from white Americans who set out to suppress them under Andrew Jackson). The exiled Muscogulge peoples (the proper name for the Creek as suggested by J. Leitch Wright Jr. in his own well documented work "Creeks and Seminoles", University of Nebraska Press) initially kept slaves, a practice learned from the whites, but did not have the economy to use them as the whites did. And so Seminole slavery evolved in a very different fashion. While purchasing or receiving some slaves as gifts from whites, the Seminole treated them as status symbols and pretty much let these people operate independently. Gradually, escaped slaves joined the Indian communities and built up their own communities under the influence and protection of the Seminole chiefs. They were seen more as vassals than slaves by the Indians who left them to their own devices and basically expected them to hunt and raise their own crops to feed themselves, only remitting an annual portion in tribute to the tribal chief.

Free to come and go as they pleased, the blacks developed their own eclectic tribal culture, partly in emulation of the Seminole and partly reflecting the lives they had lived in bondage to the whites. Into this world John Horse was born around 1812. He was still a boy when Andrew Jackson violated international boundaries and Spanish sovereignty in Florida to carry his war against the defeated Creek Red Sticks in Alabama into Florida. Driven by a fear of the free and growing black communities under Seminole auspices, Jackson and other whites sought to wipe these people out. They had other goals, too, including forcing Spain to accept American expansion into East and West Florida and pushing the Creek Indian renegades (the Seminole) out.

John Horse seems to have been a child on the Suwannee River in northern Florida when Jackson appeared and burned the black and Indian villages. Later John appears on Florida's western coast around Tampa Bay at around 14 years of age where he is documented as trying to cheat the local army commander over some turtles. From these creatures, called gophers by the locals, he took his lifelong nickname, Gopher John. The story of the Black Seminole follows John's career as he came to the fore in the second year of the Second Seminole War (which lasted for seven years), becoming an important sub-chief and leader of the Seminole-affiliated blacks.

Taking part in many of the major battles, he is first documented in a fight at Okeechobee though he may have been present earlier at Dade's Massacre, the Battle of the Withlacoochee, of Camp Izard and of the Great Wahoo Swamp. In the fighting, the American military soon realized that the black fighters, though fewer, were fiercer antagonists in many ways than the Seminole warriors, no doubt because they had more to lose. While the whites were mainly interested in driving out the Indians, relocating them to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, they were keen to use the war with the Seminole as a pretext to capture blacks for re-enslavement since the new republic had banned importation of new slaves from abroad.

John Horse honed his tracking and fighting skills in that war but was finally convinced of the futility of the effort and was among those blacks who decided to take a chance on the promises of then U.S. Army general in charge, Thomas S. Jesup, that blacks who freely surrendered would not be re-enslaved but sent with the Seminole to the West. Unfortunately Jesup, whatever his original intentions, soon came under pressure by the white population of Florida to allow re-enslavement of many of the blacks. When this became known, John Horse and various Seminole leaders raided and freed some 700 Indians and blacks who had voluntarily surrendered and were awaiting transfer to the West near Fort Brooke in Tampa.

Jesup seems never to have gotten over this loss and repeatedly thereafter used trickery and deceit to capture and imprison the Indian leaders though he continued to hold out the promise of freedom to their black allies in order to wean this group away. John was one of the few remaining black leaders by 1837 (the war had begun in 1835) still free and actively resisting and was finally persuaded to accept Jesup's terms. Thereafter he was sent, with others, to Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma. There the Seminole blacks found they had new problems for the Creek were already there and the Creek wanted to reassert control over the Seminole who had originally been part of their polity. But the Creek had adopted the institution of chattel slavery from the whites and insisted that the blacks with the Seminole had to be re-enslaved.

John Horse spent some time back in Florida working as a scout for the Army there against his old allies and eventually was instrumental in convincing many of them to come in and accept deportation, too. But when John was ultimately obliged to return to Indian Territory in the West, he found a situation that was untenable for the blacks. John, who was half Seminole himself and had papers freeing him issued by the U.S. Army leader he served, General Worth, as well as freedom from the Seminole tribal council, could have stayed on without fear while the other blacks were forced back into slavery. But he refused to do so and advocated strongly to see that Jesup's decree was fulfilled by the American government. Jesup, to his credit, did the same. But the slave interests in the region, including planters and slavers in nearby Arkansas, would not abide a community of free blacks so close by. More, many of them coveted title to the Seminole blacks.

When the U.S. government refused to sustain Jesup's decree and, instead, decided to force the black Seminole back into servitude, John found an ingenious way to save many of his people. Allying with the Seminole chief Wildcat, an old ally from the Florida war, he took a contingent of blacks and Indians in a dash across Texas to freedom in Mexico. Pursued by Creek warriors determined to re-enslave them and by Arkansas slavers, and hounded by Texas Rangers who supported the slavers, they were also attacked by Commanche intent on preventing their crossing the Rio Grande to take up arms in defense of Mexico's northern border. Still, John's and Wildcat's combined people managed a successful exodus, crossing the Rio Grande in the dead of night on makeshift rafts -- just ahead of the Texas Rangers who arrived at dawn the next morning.

In Mexico John Horse and Wildcat proved a daunting team though Wildcat died early on in a smallpox epidemic and John became the revered and effective leader of the "Mascogos" (as the Mexicans called the black Seminole). Through a tumultuous career, he led and defended his people. This book tells that story as it closely follows the battles and struggles of this forgotten American hero, John Horse, a man who risked his own life and freedom many times to defend the lives and freedom of others.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga
and A Raft on the River

A Treasure Chest
This is a classic.Every serious historian of African Americans needs to have this book.I am a descendant of these people and much of what is in the book confirmed what I have been told since I was a boy.Thanks to those tireless warriors who coompleted this work for without them, it would have remained hidden away.

This account of a people dedicated to freedom is a must read.

Insider's Perspective
As a descendant of Florida's Apalachicola Indians removed to Texas in 1834, I know the Black Seminole as my kin. Porter's narrative parallels our oral tradition and enhances it with photos and maps. Facts presented arewell researched and documented with scholarly precision. Historic accuracyis near flawless. Language of the text is readable and the stylecaptivating. No dry history here! Porter brings this forgotten segment ofFlorida's mixed blood Seminoles to life in seventeen easy chapters. Like apiece of tender, seasoned vinson, it leaves the reader filled but wantingmore. No worse injustice could be done to Professor Porter that compare TheBlack Seminoles to another text. The power of the Porter pen has no peer.Without reservation, Porter's text is a unique gift to all of us.sixwomen@nettally.com ... Read more

Product Description
Popularly known as "Black Seminoles," descendants of the Seminole freedmen of Indian Territory are a unique American cultural group. Now Kevin Mulroy examines the long history of these people to show that this label denies them their rightful distinctiveness. To correct misconceptions of the historical relationship between Africans and Seminole Indians, he traces the emergence of Seminole-black identity and community from their eighteenth-century Florida origins to the present day.Mulroy plumbs the historical record to show clearly that, although allied with the Seminoles, these maroons formed independent and autonomous communities that dealt with European American society differently than either Indians or African Americans did. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Chapters build upon this concept and provide not only a unique historical review, but an analysis essential

Popularly known as 'Black Seminoles', American Seminole freedmen have a long history of oppression and have long been assigned a label which denies them cultural distinctions. They have had many misconceptions of their shared historical relationship with Africans s: THE SEMINOLE FREEDMAN: A HISTORY argues that Seminole freedmen are neither Seminoles, Africans or 'black Indians', proposing they are descendent who inhabit a unique cultural and racial category. Chapters build upon this concept and provide not only a unique historical review, but an analysis essential to any college-level collection strong in Native American studies.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Choctaw, Indigenous People of the Everglades Region, Seminole, Calusa, Timucua, Tequesta, Apalachee, Tocobaga, Yamasee, Ais, Barley Barber Swamp, Potano, Miccosukee, Caloosahatchee Culture, Mayaimi, Mocoso, Jaega, Apalachee Province, Uzita, Apalachicola, Acuera, Saturiwa, Mocama, Agua Fresca, Chatot. Excerpt:Acuera was reported to be the tribal headsman of a community of ] of the same name. The Acuera were a Timucua people who flourished, in the north central region what is now called Florida , at the time of European arrival in the 16th century but, after fiercely defending their homeland from European conquest, their numbers waned as a result of diseases brought by the invaders and later missionaries. Those remaining reformed new communities with others and survive to this day as Creek , Seminole and other tribes. They lived primarily along the Ocklawaha River and its watershed around Lake Apopka .After raiding and pillaging many of the Caribbean islands, the Spanish began to invade the continental mainland of what is now called North America. They called it 'land of flowers' or Florida. While there were many who recorded the events of the day, some of the most precious records were made by an Indian 'El Inca', a.k.a. Garcilaso de la Vega (offspring of a woman of Inca royalty and a Spaniard). He was the first American Indian author to be published and gives us insights and details not to be found elsewhere, a near-contemporary history about Indians, by an Indian.Garcilaso reported that the Spaniards' reputation preceded their invasion of 1539:"This very Fertile province where the Governor was found encamped was called Acuera. It lies some twenty leagues from the province of Urribarracuxi on a line running more or less north and south. The lord of the place, who also was call... ... Read more

Product Description
To Americans he was Wild Cat, to Mexicans, Gato del Monte. But to his own people he was Coacoochee, a warrior and diplomat who led the Seminole resistance to American injustice in their home territory of Florida and through the Spanish borderlands of North America. In the first in-depth study of this dramatic figure, Susan A. Miller, a historian and a Seminole, sorts out discrepancies between American history--where Coacoochee remains in the background--and Seminole tradition--where he stands as a great leader.

Relocated in 1841 to the Indian country in what is now Oklahoma, the Seminoles under Coacoochee resisted colonization. Coacoochee instead led his people to Mexico, along with a community of black fugitives from slavery and another of Kickapoos, where they secured land in exchange for military assistance. Coacoochee's Bones tells the dramatic story of that migration, a story of armed resistance and diplomatic intrigue that ranges across the Indian country, Texas, and Mexico. It also portrays the extraordinary leadership displayed by this man, in order to restore him to his rightful place in history.

A man born to an elite family, Coacoochee used the power of his status in creative ways, and Miller uses his career to explain his leadership in terms of Seminole knowledge and governmental structure, showing that Coacoochee's concept of leadership was linked as closely to spiritual as to political or military imperatives. Her account offers a more nuanced understanding of the Seminole cosmos--particularly the reality governing Coacoochee's awareness of his own tribe's circumstances--and of long-standing borderlands disputes. She draws on Seminole, American, and Mexican sources to help untangle the histories of various emigrant tribes to the borderlands. She also examines the status of Seminoles today in light of the suppression of Coacoochee's story, including modern Seminoles' attempts to recover their lost homeland at El Nacimiento.

By telling Coacoochee's story from a Seminole perspective, Miller presents a work of decolonization, reexamining Seminole history to affirm that people's centrality and sovereignty. Coacoochee's Bones restores a significant historical figure to his rightful place in history and is a work that cannot be ignored by anyone who wishes a fuller understanding of this continent's diverse and storied past. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Useful but Somewhat Tendentious
Granted there's a lack of information about Coacoochee, the Seminole Indian rebel who came out of Florida, still this book purports to be about him though it fails to paint him in clear and convincing colors. While pretty good at drawing a picture of Seminole culture, largely based on current Seminole mythic and spiritual beliefs and practices projected backward to the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it fails to give us Coacoochee himself.

Moreover, the background information is heavily larded with a pro-Seminole bias not befitting the work of a scholar. While the Seminole really did get shafted by the United States government and the white settlers who poured into Florida in the early days, the picture we're given is of pristine natives victimized by colonization. There is no sense, here, of the dynamics of human history and how sometimes some groups come out with the short end of the stick. Instead we have, in this book, a partisan brief that is little more than an indictment of the "hutkes" (American whites) with little subtlety or nuance.

Of more concern, though, was the dismissive treatment afforded the Seminole blacks. These people, largely escaped slaves and their descendants who had fled the early white American colonists and, later, the pioneers and planters of the new United States, found succor with the proto-Seminole peoples (themselves exiles from the Creek tribal groups -- rightly called "Muscogee" we're reminded by this author), who had fled to the Spanish colony of Florida before them.

The blacks became affiliated with the Seminoles in a variety of ways, in some cases as slaves (though, under Seminole law, it was a less onerous slavery than the chattel slavery they had fled in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and, later, the Florida plantations). But sometimes, too, they found affiliation as tribal members or just as allies in an ongoing and often bloody competition with the incoming whites.

This book is good at giving us a picture of how the Seminole culture might have been organized and what its belief system might have looked like, though this is all based on speculation derived from what is known about recent and current Seminole practices in Oklahoma where a large part of the tribal group was shipped after the finish of the Second Seminole War (between 1835 and 1842). But it gives us little about the activities of Coacoochee himself during that war when he rose to prominence as the lieutenant and later the successor of the Seminole war chief (Tustenugee Talahassee and, then Thloco) Osceola (called in this book -- probably correctly -- "Asin Yahola").

Certainly a book about Coacoochee's career ought to give us a lot more detail about him in his early days, particularly since there is information available not touched on by this writer. Joshua Giddings, in his 1858 book, The Exiles of Florida, gives far more detail about the man's career in this early period including an extensive recounting of Coacoochee's famed escape from St. Augustine's Ft. Marion as told to an army officer contemporary named Sprague who had interviewed him after he surrendered. I was surprised that this and other sources are simply ignored by Ms. Miller.

The main part of the book deals with Coacoochee's machinations in the Oklahoma Indian Territory and portrays his heroic efforts to defend Seminole autonomy. What is never really looked at, unfortunately, is the somewhat self-serving aspect of his activities which seem to have been mainly aimed at securing his elevation to the primary chieftainship with the demise of the main chief, Micanopy (Mico Nuppa as this book has it -- again, probably a more accurate rendering than the Anglicized spelling we have inherited).

When hope of his succeeding Micanopy fell through, Coacoochee decided to try his luck elsewhere and, together with his old comrade-in-arms John Horse (John Cowaya in this book), the former Florida war chief engineered an exodus of a small band of his followers and Seminole blacks to Mexico. The Seminole blacks, especially, had reason to flee (though only a small group of them joined Coacoochee and John Cowaya in this). The promise of freedom they had received back in Florida for surrendering continued to be ephemeral at best, leaving them in a kind of limbo status that was both unstable and dangerous.

Many of the Seminole had never forgiven the blacks for giving up and especially John Cowaya, who not only gave up but went to work for the U.S. Army, acting as scout and go-between with the still resisting Seminole, convincing most of them, including Coacoochee, to come in and accept exile to Oklahoma. There the Muscogee, with whom the Seminole were forced to reunite in Indian Territory and who had adopted the white institution of chattel slavery, considered the former black slave allies of the Seminole to be slaves still and collaborated with nearby white planters and slavers to return them to chattel status.

Ms. Miller's book is very, very weak in its treatment of the Seminole blacks and we get very little mention of them or of the pivotal role they played in the Seminole story until she seemingly has no choice since their situation, facing re-enslavement with federal government connivance, was key to prompting the migration to Mexico. John Cowaya and his followers needed a way out of the box they found themselves in (awaiting re-enslavement and transport in chains to the cotton fields of the South as a result of a decision by the U.S. administration which overrode the pledge of freedom they had gotten in Florida for surrendering) while Coacoochee needed a large number of followers to convince the Mexican government to offer him sanctuary across the Rio Grande.

As a result the combined force of renegade Seminole and blacks fled from what is today Oklahoma through the new state of Texas to Mexico, beset by slave catchers and Texas Rangers in league with them, traversing the territory of unfriendly Comanche to reach Mexico. Author Miller offers little detail or insight on this near thousand mile trek and mostly disregards the Seminole black oral history, presumably as unreliable and self-serving, even though there is much available about the escape to Mexico. Once in Mexico, Miller continues to provide a paucity of any real detail while playing down the role of the blacks, now called Mascogos, even though they're the ones who remained longest.

Toward the end of the book some of the reason for these odd omissions comes clear when the author makes a case for why the Seminole blacks should today be excluded from the modern Seminole Tribe and the reparations the Tribe is entitled to for the rotten deal it got at the hands of the U.S.

Miller is equally hostile to the U.S. and writes about America today in terms that presume the same ongoing "colonialism" that characterized 19th and early 20th century relations between the Seminole and Washington, D.C. While the U.S. track record with the Seminole is not honorable (as it was not with most of the native American tribes), it was no less dishonorable with the Seminole blacks who suffered even more severely at the hands of American society than the Seminole did. But Miller argues for the blacks' exclusion from Seminole membership despite their long history together.

The narrative she has given us appears to be, at least in part, an elaborate justification for this claim. It's disappointing to see this kind of provincialism and bias in a work published by a university press.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga
... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Best I've Seen on the Creek/Seminole "Nation" So Far
There are quite a few works on the Indian tribes of the Southeast and on Indians more generally but this is the best I've read so far on the tribal group that came to be called the Creek nation who lived in what is today South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Meticulously describing and documenting the vast complexity that underlies this American Indian grouping, J. Leitch Wright clarifies how the Indians known in American history as the Creeks came into existence as the result of the shattering of the old Mississippian culture by the Spanish conquistadors in their march through the American southwest. The Muskogee peoples, Wright indicates, were the remnant groups of that culture who fled eastward and intermingled with various indigenous tribal groups (the Hitchiti speaking tribes) and other remnant groups who drifted southward. The Muskogee speakers were proud and numerous compared with the indigenous groups and other latecomers and so came to dominate those others. But the Muskogees were not, themselves, a single ethnic group because, at an earlier date, other remnant groups had sought and found shelter with them.

The Muskogees did, however, have a sense of superiority over their Mississippian hangers-on who fled east with them (calling them "estinko" which entered the English language as "stinkards") and, unfortunately, they carried that attitude with them into the east. As a result, though the Indian settlements which came to be called "Creek" by the white colonists (possibly taking their name from a group of Hitchiti speakers called Ochese who gave their name to a small body of water where they lived, "Ochese Creek") were mixed from the beginning, the Muskogees tended to dominate. Wright traces the history from colonial to revolutionary to early republic times, showing how the disparate "Creek" groups (he calls them "Muscogulge") gradually split along the Muskogee/non-Muskogee divide with the non-Muskogees consisting of diverse Hichiti, Yuchi and even Shawnee groupings and the Muskogees consisting of the Mississipians and their estinko satellite peoples, agumented by other Indian groups who joined and were ultimately absorbed by them after their arrival in the east.

All of this was made even more complex with the admixture of Africans who escaped the slavery of the English colonists (and later Americans). Because of the Indian practice in that part of the world of determining family relations matrilinearly (the wife and her children were counted as part of the wife's clan, the husband remaining with his own), many of the blacks who were offspring of mixed marriages were counted as tribal members through clan participation if their mother was a member of one of the Indian clans. But if Indian men took African women, who had no Indian clan, for wives, their children were counted as outside the Indian ethnic network. Thus children of mixed parentage could be considered either as Indians or outsiders. The ongoing influx of escaped slaves kept the black segment of the Muskogee population in a somewhat confusing state of flux. At the same time, various white colonists who took Indian wives produced children who came to count themselves as Indians rather than white though they might look more white than Indian and be more acculturated toward white tradition than Indian. Many of the later Creek leaders were the products of such mixtures including Alexander Macgillivray, William Weatherford and William Powell (better known as Osceola).

Wright traces the shifting tides of Indian fortunes and the changes due to white expansion that essentially turned large segments of the Muskogee moiety into "civilized" settlers who, though their heritage and blood was largely of the Creek "nation," took up white farming and business practices. But these changes were incomplete since large parts of the Indian groups retained a commitment to the way of life they had developed during the nation's formative period, with commercial hunting replacing the older hunter-gatherer existence. As the Indians became more dependent on white manufactured goods they had essentially become slaves to hunting for skins and pelts to sell to the white and mestizo (mixed white and Indian) traders and, over time, hunted out the areas in which they lived so that they had to roam farther and farther afield.

At the same time whites continued to move in and press on their territory and to resent the fact that escaped African slaves often found safety and freedom among the Indians. At a certain point, the growing white population, requiring more and more agricultural land (especially after invention of the cotton gin which made cotton plantations profitable and further pushed out the rapidly diminishing fur and skin trade), lusted for Indian territory. There had been substantial movement back and forth between Muscogulge territory in South Carolina, Georgia and what would become Alabama and the Spanish colony of Florida. As the whites in Georgia pushed to strengthen the Muskogee segment of the "Creeks", the old divisions came to the fore and fighting broke out between the two sides. Many disaffected Hitchiti speakers and others of the Creek Nation had been shifting to what had heretofore been hunting grounds in Spanish Florida and, with the divisive struggle initiated by white pressure and support for mestizo Muskogee chief, William McIntosh, more and more refugees fled to Florida. There Spain had followed a practice of providing protection for escaped American slaves from the north in exchange for their bearing arms to defend the Spanish colony against its foes. The Creek Indians, who had been trickling in, were also welcomed in this way, bringing their own mixed race heritage. The earliest of these Indians (largely Hitchiti speakers) had been called Seminole, apparently a corruption of a Spanish term, "cimmarrones," for wild ones. Gradually the many different Indian groups that showed up, largely from one branch or the other of the Creek polity, came to be called "Seminole" in general.

With the War of 1812, the British tried to use the Creek Indians and the Seminole and the escaped Africans living in Florida against the new republic but they broke off their efforts, with the closing of the war, before they had completed this process, leaving the Seminole (of all ethnic groups) and their African allies high and dry. Eventually the new republic repaid the Indians and Africans for siding with the British by going after them in Spanish territory. The Americans wreaked great havoc, destroying Fort Mose, the so-called Negro Fort in the Florida panhandle, and, under Andrew Jackson, marching on and destroying the main Seminole towns in northern Florida in what has been called the First Seminole War, forcing the Indians and Africans to scatter, mostly toward the south.

The Spanish quickly realized they could not hold Florida and sold it to the new United States and this precipitated an influx of white settlers who, like their predecessors and relations in Georgia and Alabama, coveted Indian land. Like their countrymen to the north, as well, they brought the plantation culture with them along with the institution of slavery that supported it. They not only feared the free African towns in the new territory of Florida because these attracted and sheltered runaways, thereby encouraging losses from their slave populations and, possibly, slave revolts, they also found the free Africans and mixed-bloods (Indian and African, called "zambos") a valuable resource for replenishing their slave stock. The new republic, while continuing to allow slavery on a state by state basis, had banned importation of any new slaves and so the source of new slave manpower was now closed to them. On the other hand, Florida appeared to have a feral population of former slaves and their descendants, ripe for the taking.

All these factors, along with the ongoing struggles and divisions back in the Creek lands as whites continuously pressed and encroached upon the native population, using the McIntosh Muskogee faction to dominate the others and deliver up their lands, led to a series of wars including the Creek wars and the Second Seminole War in Florida. The Creek Red Stick rebellion, an outgrowth of the earlier pan-Indian movement of Tecumseh in the north, was broken by Andrew Jackson, and William McIntosh, the Muskogee leader who was his ally, was rewarded at the expense of the largely non-Muskogee Red Sticks who had opposed him. McIntosh Creeks soon came south to Florida to support the U.S. Army in its prosecution of the Second Seminole War, the war in which the Creek warrior Powell became famous as the Seminole war chief, Osceola (Asi Yahola), when he was taken by treachery under a flag of truce to ultimately die in American captivity.

The Second Seminole War dragged on for seven years and, because of the challenging terrain of Florida, proved the most costly of all of America's Indian wars both in terms of blood and treasure. But it eventually led to the whittling down of the Seminoles and their allies as groups were captured or surrendered over those years to be shipped to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Andrew Jackson, now U.S. president, pursued an Indian removal policy (by legislation enacted in Congress in 1830) which forced all the tribes to relocate west across the Mississippi. This applied to the Creeks and their neighboring tribes (including the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee) as well as to the Seminole, themselves mostly refugees from the old Creek polity. It was the effort to enforce this policy in Florida that largely sparked the Second Seminole War though its larger causes included white settler land greed, fear of free blacks and a desire for a new source of slave labor.

In the end, the Seminole were mostly, but not completely, transferred to Oklahoma where the old Creek divisions reared up again as the Seminole struggled to avoid being consolidated under Creek governance. Wright is a little light on all the details of the subsequent conflicts in the new territory but this material is amply documented elsewhere so it's not a major omission. What Wright does provide is a comprehensive and detailed look at who the Creeks were, how they came to be and the forces that led to the numerous conflicts, the Creek downfall and the subsequent history of this Indian nation in the West. Wright is especially good at sorting out the various moieties and linguistic practices and is objective in his judgments, pointing up both the faults and strengths of all the parties. The whites don't get off scot free, to be sure, but the mixed motives, the double dealing and the self interest of all parties are amply described.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga and A Raft on the River

Creek Indians did not exist
This book is very very interesting and well written. I had no idea that Creek indians did not really exist. The problem was that there were so many indian tribes in the southeast that the British could not keep them straight. Since most of them lived in villages next to creeks, the Brits just called them Creek Indians. The indians could not figure out why the Brits called them Creeks, but they went along anyway!Creeks and Seminoles: The Destruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge People (Indians of the Southeast)

Older but great start to understanding these two groups
Wright presents a classical study of the Muscogles and Muscogee nations (Seminoles and Creeks) in the era of colonization through removal.These tribes (which subdivide beyond the Indian names above) were primary located in the southeast mostly in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.Wright does an excellent job of looking at the complex factors that transformed these societies. From race relations with African slaves and whites to diplomacy between the empires, Wright looks at the evolution of these two groups.Ethnically and culturally the tribes differed greatly and although Europeans categorized them as Creeks and Seminoles.While more research has been done in recent years this is a great place to start with in order to gain an understanding of how these tribes interact.It is easy to read and thorough in its coverage of events and capturing the tribes culture and heritage.

EXCELLENT INFORMATION
THE BOOK WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN WITH LOTS OF INFORMATION WITH ALL THE LATEST FACTS ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Comprehensive, Detailed . . . and a bit Dry
A solid, and solidly massive, tome covering in vast detail the facts leading up to, causing and surrounding the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), John K. Mahon's book is a tough but rewarding read. There is so much information to digest, however, that the book (despite the fact that a lot of this material has been covered by many other offerings on the same subject) has its hands full from the start. That makes this book one for the serious scholar, not the historical dabbler looking for a quick and entertaining read.

One of the earlier twentieth century works on the subject, and among the most definitive, Mahon's history tracks and documents the vicissitudes of the Seminole peoples and their allies (escaped slaves of African descent who found refuge among them) as they sought to avoid and then resist the increasing encroachment of American whites on their territory once the old Spanish colony of the Floridas had been ceded to the Americans in the aftermath of Andrew Jackson's destructive incursions (known as the First Seminole War -- circa 1817-18). At the same time Mahon carefully documents the military record of engagements, strategies, losses, logistics and, regrettably, betrayals of the Indians against whom the American military fought.

Jackson, violating international boundaries at the time of the First Seminole War, charged down from Alabama into northern Florida to scatter and destroy the settled Seminole and escaped African slaves' villages that had been built, with Spanish agreement, on the rich Alachua plain. These people would never regain their old prosperity, after those attacks, though they tried desperately to hang on in the face of a subsequent white American settler invasion from the north.

Mahon focuses on the military and political players, more than on the demographic pressures, reading extensively from the ample contemporary and near contemporary record as he follows the course of events in the wake of white settler pressure to dispossess the Indians and re-enslave the blacks in their midst (many of whom had been born into freedom, or its equivalent, among the Indians). The dynamics of the southern plantation economy, transplanted from Georgia and Alabama to the new Florida territory, led the whites to demand the Seminoles' land and their black "slaves" (only some of whom actually held that status among the Seminole bands with whom they lived, but who, even so, were more free than their brethren still in bondage on the plantations of the Old South).

In the throes of discontent over slavery, the U.S. military was re-forged, after the War of 1812, in the crucible that was untamed Florida where America's officers and enlisted men met the toughest enemy they had faced until then in some of the most hostile terrain in a kind of forerunner to the guerilla conflict that would later be fought by the American military in Vietnam. In the end, the casualties suffered by American soldiers were substantial, as much from disease incurred in the back country swamp lands of central and south Florida as from the depredations of battle.

Nonetheless the Seminoles and their allies were relentlessly whittled down by a force much vaster than themselves (they were estimated to have been no more than about 5,000 at their height including maybe 500-1,000 escaped African and mixed-race slaves and their children). Those of the Seminole (themselves a motley amalgam of many different tribal groups and bands from the Creek confederation in Alabama and Georgia) who survived and many of their black allies were shipped off to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi in what is today Oklahoma, under terms of a treaty that had been foisted on them through subterfuge (during Jackson's subsequent presidency) and which they ultimately had no choice but to accept.

The American Army grew in capacity from the adversity of the seemingly never-ending Florida campaign (it took seven years of bloody conflict and killing) and many of the officers tempered there went on to play major roles in the Mexican War of 1845 and the American Civil War which was to finally split the country over the slavery question in 1860. Slavery was a major issue in the Second Seminole War and many in the U.S. military bridled at the role they were obliged to play in seizing and re-enslaving free blacks in the course of the war. The upper echelons of the American forces were conflicted and, even when they acted with perfidy, as General Thomas Sydney Jesup did in breaking truce terms he had previously agreed to in order to treacherously seize Seminole leaders, they were rarely at ease in meeting the demands of the plantation-owning settlers and slave hunters.

Jesup, especially, tried several times to end the war by offering advantageous terms to the blacks, whom he thought the critical factor behind the Seminoles' continued resistance, but his inability to live up to his word in the crunch created ongoing problems for him and prolonged the war, even as it led to problems in later days for those blacks who accepted his offer of freedom in return for surrender.

Mahon does a yeoman's job in culling the facts from the vast array of sources but his writing is dry and detailed and not always easy to read as some here have noted. But this is not a book meant for easy reading. For that, interested readers may want to access any number of popularized and therefore simpler accounts. But for a definitive look at the course of the war itself, nothing is richer or more reliable than Mahon's fine work.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

The "must have" title of the Second Seminole War
Mahon's work is simply timeless.It is the best overview, with some detail, of the Second Seminole conflict.There is sufficient detail for the history buff, while giving the novice a great foundation for further reading (Dade's Last Battle comes to mind).I did not find the reading difficult at all, and have re-read the book several times.If you want one title for this period of history, or if you are starting a collection, this is one title you "must have"

Forgotten Florida History
The book should be part of all Native Floridians recommeded reading.The history of our state is more than tourist and palm trees. Before there was a wild west there was an wild and undeveloped area called Florida.This book is for those interested in history and the people that lived in the area.

Forgotten Florida History
The book should be part of all Native Floridians recommeded reading.The history of our state is more than tourist and palm trees. Before there was a wild west there was an wild and undeveloped area called Florida.This book is for those interested in history and the people that lived in the area.

Forgotten Florida History
The book should be part of all Native Floridians recommeded reading.The history of our state is more than tourist and palm trees. Before there was a wild west there was an wild and undeveloped area called Florida.This book is for those interested in history and the people that lived in the area. ... Read more

Product Description
Follow this captivating historical account of the Seminoles from an ancient Florida of some 30 million years ago, when it existed only as a few sandy islands in the Gulf of Mexico. Continue on through the Seminole Wars and on to a modern day Florida boasting a highly successful 21st Century Florida Seminole population.

Explore how the Paleoindians, the first Native Americans, who were possibly Florida’s first “snowbirds” lived. Examine the devastating effects of the European arrival on the Native populations. See how the Seminoles adapted culturally to Florida, and how they lived so harmoniously with nature. Take a look at the role of the Seminole chiefs and black Seminoles in the three Seminole Wars. Empathize with the wrenching and unnecessary removal of many of the Florida Seminoles to “Indian Territory.”

Discover the fascinating facts behind the three Seminole Wars. Property was not the real issue behind these Wars…SLAVERY was the root cause.

Come with Dr. Towers on a journey that will take you through the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of these proud and unconquered people.

“Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1, Spring.

Customer Reviews (1)

Nothing New
If you are looking for a very brief and non-authoritative overview of the Seminole, then this book is for you.I have read numerous titles on the Seminole, yet this one offers nothing new or unique to the discussion.Anyone who has read the major title on the Seminole could have put this book together.Though written by a "Dr." (as clearly noted on the cover), she brings no real expertise that I can determine.There are several other authors I would recommend as a starting place: Covington, Mahon, Weisman, and Wickman come to mind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

History of a Southern People
The Seminoles are one of the most fascinating Nations of North America, and this book does a wonderful job explaining their history and background. The first chapter explains the origins of the Seminole Nation, being the descendants of various survivors of Florida Nations such as the Mayucas, Ays, Timuqua, Tegesta and others decimated by the Spanish conquistadors, refugee Creek Indians from the Southeastern US and runaway black slaves. It also gives some cultural background on the Seminole and their languages (Muskogee, Hitchiti and Miccosukee). Thus the Seminole are in fact a recent Nation of runaways and refugees (as their name in fact means). It then goes on in the next chapters to show Seminole relations with both the United States and Spain (who then controlled Florida) in the early days, and how difficult things were living between two colonial powers.

It gives some interesting details concerning the Seminoles and their alliances, treaties and dealings with Spain, the US government and the Creeks around the 1800's, and ultimately how things changed for the Seminole with the United State's acquisition of Florida from Spain. A great deal of the book then focuses on Indian removal and the Seminole Wars. Like the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaw and Choctaw, the Seminole found themselves illegally deported from their homelands in the Southeast to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and fought greatly to resist it. In part this was because the Euro-Americans wanted Seminole lands in Florida, but in part because of the Seminole's adoption of runaway slaves.

The Seminole Wars were fascinating (and quite needless) wars which wound up costing the US government thirty million dollars and the lives of over a thousand marines and soldiers. Quite ironic that Jackson was so determined to drive the Seminole from their homeland; something that he failed in as hundreds of Seminole remained in Florida. The book then goes on to a fascinating chapter on the Southeastern Indians in the Civil War, and how the Cherokee, Seminoles and Creeks were devestated by the war, and how they probably would have preferred neutrality. It gives details on activites in the Civil War, including why so many Southern Nations found themselves sympathyzing with the Confederates (the same people who wanted to claim their homelands ironically) and why so many later switched to the Union. It then goes to another chapter on how life changed for the Seminoles after the Civil War.

Interestingly enough the book closes out looking at the transition towards US citizenship for the Seminoles. It ends in the early part of the 1900s, but it does a very nice job showing just how much the Seminoles had changed since they came into being as a Nation and what they had gone through. Ultimately its a very nice book on the history of the Seminoles, and if you have an interest in Native American history I strongly recommend this book and others in the Civilization of the American Indians series from the University of Oklahoma. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Some good information, but old-fashioned
This book includes good historical information about the formation of the Seminoles and about the Seminole Wars, but it's not nearly so concerned with who the Seminoles are today.It also contains disturbing, seemingly unaware antiquated terminolgy like "war whoop," "savage," "semi-civilized" and "warpath," makes claims about the practice of scalping that go undocumented in the text, doesn't always distinguish between Maskoki and Mikasuki terms, and has a really odd epilogue.Four useful appendicies.Maybe good historical background, but not so great as a recent history of the Seminoles or as anthropology. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1979, Florida Seminoles opened the first tribally operated high-stakes bingo hall in North America. At the time, their annual budget stood at less than $2 million. By 2006, net income from gaming had surpassed $600 million. This dramatic shift from poverty to relative economic security has created tangible benefits for tribal citizens, including employment, universal health insurance, and social services. Renewed political self-governance and economic strength have reversed decades of U.S. settler-state control. At the same time, gaming has brought new dilemmas to reservation communities and triggered outside accusations that Seminoles are sacrificing their culture by embracing capitalism. In High Stakes, Jessica R. Cattelino tells the story of Seminoles' complex efforts to maintain politically and culturally distinct values in a time of new prosperity.

Cattelino presents a vivid ethnographic account of the history and consequences of Seminole gaming. Drawing on research conducted with tribal permission, she describes casino operations, chronicles the everyday life and history of the Seminole Tribe, and shares the insights of individual Seminoles. At the same time, she unravels the complex connections among cultural difference, economic power, and political rights. Through analyses of Seminole housing, museum and language programs, legal disputes, and everyday activities, she shows how Seminoles use gaming revenue to enact their sovereignty. They do so in part, she argues, through relations of interdependency with others. High Stakes compels rethinking of the conditions of indigeneity, the power of money, and the meaning of sovereignty. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Exactly as promised, very happy!
Book was exactly as promised in listing and arrived in excellent condition in a timely manner. ... Read more

Product Description
This account traces the history and customs of the Seminoles from their origin to recent times. History, religion, rites and ceremonies, traditional foods, legal status, language, are all explored. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Outdated and offensive
Please note that while the second edition of this book was published in 1997, the first edition came along in 1956 and the text has not been updated accordingly.In its day I suppose this book would have served its purpose well.That purpose being to expose white settlers to the presence of Florida's Seminole Indians; to show them these Indians were not violent savages, who needed to be feared, nor were they uneducated ruffians living in the Everglades, the country's marshiest swampland by choice.However, that day is 45 years or more gone by.Now, this book is outdated and definitely serves as a sign of the times it was written in, referring to the Seminoles as "social outcasts" and implying that their ways are uncivilized.However, the reason I scored this book so high is because it does contain a lot of historical information about the early migrations of the Seminoles into Florida.

Throughout the book, Neill, places the time constraint on claims and comments of "now" which is of course immensely outdated.Because of the books age, one cannot apply any of Neill's comments to the present-day situation of Florida's Seminoles.But, his research can be helpful when wanting to know more about the history of the Seminoles.For that reason and that reason alone does this book score as high as it does.

Why 2 Stars?: While this book is very dated and may accidentally provide some readers with misinformation as to the current situation of the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida, it does also contain some very useful historical information. ... Read more

Product Description
Early in this century, the Native Americans known as the Florida Seminoles struggled to survive in an environment altered by the drainage of the Everglades and a dwindling demand for hides. Patsy West describes how they turned to tourism and discovered another marketable commodity - their own culture. Though their exhibition economy originally was condemned by the government, it provided income for families as well as a lasting cultural identity for the people. Today, the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida promote their tourist activities to world-wide markets as "cultural heritage and ecotourism." Illustrated with thirty evocative photographs, West's book supplies an original and colorful social and economic history of an unconquered people. Often told in the words of the many Seminoles whom West interviewed, this book is the only one available on the topic of the cultural tourism activities of an Indian tribe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Hey, Amazon, can't you read?Or just can't spell?
Couldn't help but notice that whoever wrote up your promo of this book didn't bother to check the spelling of the title.It's "The Enduring SEMINOLES," with an "n", not Semioles.Wouldn't be so bad except it's the name of a well-known Native American people, and the misspelling is repeated throughout the blurb, even though the book title is plain to see in the photo of the cover.
... Read more