seminolewar

There are a few individuals at our reenactments that need to get with the program and improve your behavior.

There are two recent incidents in the past year that I am thinking about. I will explain without naming names, but I am sure most of you know who they are.

The state of Florida does not tolerate any sexual harassment. The state’s reaction to any allegation of sexual harassment is to terminate the employees immediately without any investigation. And that applies to volunteers as well. As a reenactor, you are a volunteer at the park. So an inappropriate remark or action can cause you to be banned from future events.

Believe me, I have seen it happen. This past summer there was a park manager fired from a major state park for sexual harassment. And in my own park, we had to fire a volunteer for an inappropriate comment.

The definition of sexual harassment has broadened to include more than what it used too. If there was a bystander that heard or saw something that they thought was inappropriate, even if they weren’t involved, they can file charges of harassment.

Both the people I want to use as an example are fairly new to our events, and only been around about 2 or 3 years. But long enough to know better.

The first person seems to find a way to turn every comment into a sexual innuendo. And his girlfriend who tags along is just as bad. This is immature behavior. And you are doing it in front of the public as well. The incident where you walked out wearing panties on your turban and acting surprised that they were there, was offensive to all who saw it. Maybe they didn’t say anything to you, but I sure heard if from them.

The second person is a government employee and should know better, but apparently doesn’t have a clue. I tried explaining it to you, but it did not seem like you got it. You seem to have a thing for carrying young ladies over your shoulder. That behavior is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Last month at an event, you were showing an 8x10 photo of yourself carrying a total stranger in such a manner that she looked naked. Besides being considered sexual harassment, if you were to fall and cause her to be injured, then you had better contact your defense lawyer. And her lawyers would not only go after you, but the state park as well. And that would end that event at that park.

If either of you are banned at one park for these acts of tomfoolery, I will guarantee that the word will get around. Park rangers and park managers talk to each other. A bad reputation gets around as fast.

I would hope that everyone who participates with our events does it to educate people. But with some of you doing these shenanigans, then please stay away from serious living history & educational events, and go play at rendezvous or pow wows instead.

I usually talk about the past as it pertains to other people, and not myself. I will make an exception for today.

It is hard for me to believe that it has been 20 years. On November 9th, 1989, the Berlin Wall opened up. To me, this was one of those momentous occasions in history that I witnessed.

I was in the US Army stationed in Germany at the time. I was personnel and administrative clerk at the headquarters, 2nd Region, US Army Criminal Investigation Command, that covered all of Europe. My duty station was near Heidelberg, Germany.

I had visited Berlin about 14 months before the wall came down. It had seen the city that was an island of capitalism and decadence, surrounded by a sea of communism that was even worse. West Berlin was full of lights and fun, and East Berlin was still a crumbling ruin from the aftermath of World War II.

In 1989, the cold war was getting very hairy, and tensions had been heating up in Europe the past few years. There were a lot of boarder face-offs with the Communists in East Europe, and we almost thought that we were getting close to Armageddon. People were escaping East Germany in record numbers by all sorts of innovative escapes, and spy capers on both sides were running rampant. I was close to the front stage watching this show. Then, the unexpected happened: Peace.

One of the greatest speeches I ever heard in my lifetime was by President Ronald Reagan, when he gave his speech at the Brandenburg gate and said, “Mr. Gorbachav, tear down this wall!” That part of his speech was unscripted, and the greatest presidential speech that I have heard in my lifetime.

On the evening of November 9th, 1989, the East German government suddenly declared that it would open up the wall in Berlin and allow free passage after 40 years of captivity.

It was evening, and Sergeant Major Murphy was driving me back to the barracks after I helped out at the American Boy Scout meeting of Troop 1 in Heidelberg. My roommate/barracks rat, Brian, said that they were going to take down the Berlin Wall. I laughed and didn’t believe him. I guess I was eating crow the next morning when we found out that it was all true.

About two weeks later when everyone was still in the celebration euphoria, I was at a scouting OA meeting in Frankfurt, where one of the scouts who came in from Berlin handed chunks of the wall to everyone present. People were chipping away chunks of the wall for souvenirs faster than termites.

The US Army issued orders that American soldiers were still not allowed to approach the wall. But it was ignored, and soldiers were flocking to Berlin to collect their souvenirs, the order was quickly modified, saying, “Okay, but don’t go any further into East Germany.” They also told us not to take large parts of the wall because it was still East German property; and order that was also ignored.

A year later, Germany was reunited after 45 years of communist oppression.

Not long after, I had to pick up my Sergeant Major at the Air Force base in Frankfurt. He was returning from conducting a command meeting with the top NCO’s of our command, held in Berlin. We were still under orders not to collect too much of the wall. As I picked up the CSM’s suitcase, it must have weighed 150 lbs. And putting it back down on the ground, it made the noise of a substantial pile of rocks. I couldn’t stop laughing.

Somewhere among my curios I still have a couple pieces of the Berlin Wall. The chunks of the wall are an odd sort. As you look at the pieces, you can see mixed up in the cement are glass and other bricks. The wall was created from the ruins of post-World War II Berlin. Now the wall itself has succumbed to ruin. And Berlin was recreated once again.

There are some major events in Creek and Seminole War history for November.

1 November 1840 - Skirmish on the Picolata Road; three soldiers killed.

3 November 1813 - A Tennessee Volunteer Militia force under Andrew Jackson attacks the Red Stick town of Tallushatchee and kills over 200 people. All the men are killed and all the women and children are taken prisoner.

7 November 1814 - Andrew Jackson takes Pensacola from the Spanish with almost no effort and drives away the British. He leaves two days later for New Orleans.

8 November 1813 - Jackson slaughters Red Stick forces at the Battle of Talladega, killing over 300 warriors.

9 November 1839 - Skirmish between the Florida Militia and Seminoles in the area of Micanopy. At least one soldier killed and two wounded.

10 November 1835 - Several brigades of the Florida Militia are mustered to force removal of all Florida Indians.

14 November 1835 - Five chiefs with 450 Seminoles arrive at Fort Brooke to emigrate west.

17-18 November 1836 – Fighting in the area of Wahoo Swamp. Forces under General Call find scattered groups of Seminole but only have a few small skirmishes.

17 November 1843 - General Worth estimates the Florida Indian population around 300.

18 November 1813 - Over 1000 Tennessee soldiers attack and massacre the town of Hillabee. The town had already surrendered to Andrew Jackson before the massacre.

19 November 1857 - Army soldiers find and burn several Miccosukee towns in Big Cypress.

21 November 1817 - The First Seminole War starts as General Edmund P. Gaines attacks Fowltown, a Seminole town on the Flint River in Georgia just north of the Florida border. Town Chief Neamathla had prevented any Americans from travelling the Apalachicola River to Fort Scott or to approach Fowltown.

21 November 1836 - Battle of Wahoo Swamp. Forces under General Call have a large battle with heavily encamped Seminole and Black Seminole forces, but are unable to dislodge their position on the opposite side of a creek. Major David Moniac of the U.S. Creek Regiment is killed. Moniac was the first Indian to attend West Point Military Academy.

24 November 1834 - General Duncan L. Clinch becomes the commander of the Florida forces.

25 November 1837 - Yuchie Billy dies at Fort Marion in St. Augustine.

25 November 1839 - Skirmish in the area between St. Augustine and Picolata.

26 November 1565 - Menendez finds a remaining group of French survivors shipwrecked near Cape Canaveral and sends them back to Spain as slaves. Spain now has firm control over Florida, with no real challenge for the next 135 years.

26 November 1835 - Assassination of Chief Charlie Emathla. General Thompson holds a sale for Indians to sell their cattle before emigrating west. After selling his cattle, Charlie Emathla is murdered by Osceola, who scatters the money on the ground next to the body. It is said that the body remained untouched on the ground for years as Osceola’s warning to all Seminoles who wanted to emigrate. A previous Seminole council had declared a death sentence upon anyone who sold their cattle to the white man.

26 November 1857 - Indians retaliate for the attack on their towns and kill several army horses.

26 November 1857 - A force under Colonel S. St. George Rogers destroy a large Seminole village found at Royal Palm Hammock in the Big Cypress Swamp.

27 November 1857 - Seminole ambush and kill several soldiers who destroyed their town the day before.

28 November 1842 - A Florida Militia company finds an Indian village on Wrights Creek (Holmes County) and kills 22 Indians, taking no prisoners. Even the local white settlers considered this a massacre.

29 November 1813 - Over 200 Red Sticks are killed at the battle of the town of Autossee on the Tallapoosa River.

29 November 1837 - Coacoochee, John Cowaya (an influential Black Seminole leader, also know as John Cavalo, Gopher John, or John Horse) and 18 others make a daring night escape from their prison at Fort Marion in St. Augustine.

29 November 1839 - Secretary of War Poinsett, disappointed with the long duration of the war, writes President Van Buren to remove Governor Call. Robert Reid becomes governor soon after.

30 November 1817 - A Creek/Seminole force under Neamathla retaliates for the destruction of Fowltown, and attacks an American party travelling up the Apalachicola River, killing 34 soldiers, 7 women, and 4 children traveling in the boat. Six soldiers escape to Fort Scott.

30 November 1835 - General Thompson warns white inhabitants of Florida to expect increased Indian attacks.

30 November 1836 - Thomas Lawson becomes Surgeon General. He was an officer with the Louisiana Volunteers under General Gaines at Fort Brooke during the beginning of the 2nd Seminole War.

Late November 1857 - A force of 91 regular Army infantry and Florida militia find a large Seminole town in Big Cypress, but are ambushed by a force of Seminoles twice their number and forced to retreat.

This past weekend was the third Paynes Creek festival. It was moved to October because this is the 160th anniversary of the establishment of Fort Chokonikla at this location.

Paynes Creek flows into the Peace River. An Indian trading post, known as the Kennedy-Darling Store, was established here in 1849 after their trading post at Charlotte Harbor burned down the year before. They moved it further north to be closer to Fort Brooke and further inland. This was considered the northern boundary of the Indian territory. (Although there was no treaty defining the boundary.)

In July 1849, only three weeks after the trading post was open for business, five Indians showed up to trade. That evening, they fired upon the people eating dinner inside the building, but another store worker and his wife escaped. The Indians were suspected to have just raided a settlement near Fort Pierce. This started the "Panic of 1849."

Fort Chokonikla, meaning "burnt house" was built nearby in October 1849. Probably named after the store, which was burned by the Indians who raided it.

In 1850, General David Twiggs met with Billy Bowlegs and negotiated a peace at Fort Chokonikla. So the Panic of 1849 ended quickly, but several forts were established at that time. You can read the rest of the story in the museum. The hours have changed, and I think that Neal told me that the museum is open Thursday to Monday, 10-4.

I really enjoy this park. It is never crowded and always very peaceful. There are a couple trails that you can walk. Here is where Paynes Creek (coming in from the right) flows into the Peace River.

George Payne who headed up the trading post was a naturalist as well. Today the Peace River is known as the main area for fossil hunting in Florida. Payne sent several fossils up to the Smithsonian. (Which then lost them, of course.)

Paynes Creek looks shallow in most places.

You can cross over a suspension bridge and see the grave marker of the store clerks, and also walk to the site of the trading post. The fort site is next to the museum.

The fort was closed in July 1850 due to sickness.

Paynes Creek State Park is not to be confused with Paynes Prairie, which is about 150 miles north. Paynes Creek State Park is in the town of Bowling Green in Hardee County. (Okay, that still doesn't help.) Look for Highway 17 in the center of the state, about 15 or 20 miles south of Bartow (Polk County seat). Follow the signs in Bowling Green off highway 17 to the park.

I want to wrap up my story of my travels early this month. Start from the furthest north I went, to Crystal River. I have been here many times before, but this visit was really significant for me personally. My Mom worked with the Bullens to study and preserve this site in the 1960s and 70s. I thought a lot about her, and it has only been a year since she left, but seems so long already.

The temple mound remains. Some mounds didn't. But the temple mound was damaged because some of it was taken away for fill before they were able to save it all. Sadly, this is still happening to mounds today. These are important cultural sites and should be preserved. Here is the temple mound:

The view on top overlooks the Crystal River.

At one time, before it was removed for road fill, there was a ramp down off the mound that pointed directly to Stele 1. There is a face on the Stele, carved by an ancient resident of this mound city.

When I saw it, I recognized who it was on the Stele. This is from making myself aware of what is going on, and becoming sensitive to a lot of the surroundings. I am not going to explain it any more than that. But when I recognized it, the place became much more familiar, and I felt as if I was looking at an old friend. I am sure it probably sounds strange to you, but it made sense to me.

There are round mounds, square and rectangle mounds, burial or temple mounds. Look for an excellent book by William Romain, "Mysteries of the Hopewell, Astronomers, Geometers, and Magicians of the Eastern Woodlands" that decode the mathematical formula for mounds cities.

The next day I stopped by Dade Battlefield, which I often do if passing by. This area here is where Earl and I have camped during the reenactment for many years. But I probably visit this place more often when nobody is here, than just the reenactment weekend.

I had to stop by the rest of the parks that are in my southwest district, so I can say that I visited or saw all of them. I made it to Honeymoon Island, one of the busiest state parks in Florida. Here is a nice view looking the bay from the top of the interpretive center.

As I observed, a common problem with barrier islands is that they tend to errod away. This view is from one of the restroom buildings, which used to be over land, and is now partly over water.

And I always like to photograph silly park signs. This was by the concession counter. "Avian thefts" refers to birds stealing people's food!

And one of the last places I stopped off was at the Gamble Plantation near Bradenton. In the small town of Ellenton. It is rumored that Confederate Secretary of the Navy Judah Benjamin stayed here before fleeing to Cuba at the end of the Civil War.

Check my earlier blog about Thlocko Tustenuggee, or Tiger Tail. This mansion was built by Robert Gamble. His father John Gamble had the mansion near Tallahassee where Tiger Tail stayed. John's mansion up in north Florida no longer exists, but Robert's mansion remains, although it almost didn't survive, as explained in the museum exhibits. Billy Bowlegs visited here often, and his photo is in the museum.

We have seen the photo in many different books, but it is neat to see the actual print, about the size of a postcard. It was taken during Bowleg's visit to Washington in 1852, and is the earliest photo of a Seminole that we know about.

A great wildlife park to visit is Homosassa Springs State Park. It is on Hwy. 19 between Weeki Wachee and Crystal River. This was once one of the many spring attraction theme parks in Florida. The attraction closed down and was sold to the state several years back. So now it is a wildlife park and education center.

And one of my favorite oddities in the education center is this costume used to feed baby whooping crane chicks. So they don't get imprinted to people and can be re-released back into the wild.

But I really enjoy walking around seeing the native birds. Some of these birds have been injured, and have retired here. Like Sam the bald eagle.

Or this crested cara-cara (is that how you spell it?) that you only see in a few areas around south Florida, like Lake Okeechobee.

These sandhill cranes were tooting up a storm.

Or this cage with a Florida panther. As I found out last week, they seem a lot different in the wild than in a zoo.

Homosassa Springs is a first magnitude spring with clear, fresh water. It is good they have the spring run fenced off from the spring, otherwise the idiots I saw out in the boats would not give the manatees any peace at all. For most people, they are lucky to see even this much of a manatee:

But I lucked out. It was feeding time for the manatees, and as I went to the underwater observation deck, Rosie the Manatee was ready to put on a show.

As I went down the stairs of the observation deck, Rosie was putting on a show, with rolls and underwater acrobatic turns.

Rosie is larger than your average 1,000 lbs. manatee, and weights about 3,600 lbs.

She has lived a long life, but it has been a difficult one, as is for most all manatees, as we see from her scars.

But she has survived, and seems playful as ever.

So it made me wonder what it was like to be a manatee.

The two panthers were here for three nights, and then moved elsewhere. One of them was panther FP158, who was the mother of the four kittens in early 2008. She has a tracking collar. Now I have two game cameras set up along my driveway if they return, courtesy of FWC. They will probably get photos of me going to and fro, at the most.

I saw the panthers at night, anytime I wanted to shine a flashlight out the kitchen window, and saw them either walk by, or the yellow eyes shining back. One morning around 11:30 while I was getting ready to go to work, I looked out the window and saw a big, beautiful cougar cat walk out of the woods, but by the time I had my camera in hand, it was walking back into the tropical hardwood hammock.

I now know from my own experience, that there is a big difference between a Florida panther in a zoo, than one free in the wild. They radiate power. I consider it a blessing to witness what happened.

Weather has changed abruptly. Temperatures changed 20 degrees in one day with out first major cold front. I broke out my jacket last night while working in the park. First time in probably 6 or more months.

I did a program for the A-Liners, a group of people who camp with hard-top pop-up campers. Nice group. Although with my program, I found that you cannot run a powerpoint program done on Office 2007, on a laptop that has Windows 2000.

Now I need to catch up on telling about my adventures from two weeks ago, including Rosie the Manatee!

I had a panther outside my window last night. It looked like a mother cat and at least one young-un. I heard them mewo/yowl off and on for about 3-4 hours, until almost sunrise. After I saw them the second time, I didn't pay them any more attention and left them to enjoy my yard. Then I started dreaming of panthers. About 7 a.m. a plane circled overhead, which I assume was the panther tracking plane.

I went outside at 7:30 this morning, and didn't see much sign that they left behind, but figured they are close, since they spent so long here last night.

Panthers are not unusual here. Last year we had a panther den with four kittens only about a mile from here. And I am just yards away from the campground, where people have seen panthers walk by on a rare occasion when we were not fully occupied.

So, very exciting night. I enjoy the visitors I get here.

Of course, everyone associates Weeki Wachee Springs with mermaids, but there is a lot more to say about it. And I will mention the mermaids.

The world-famous tourist attraction was started by Newt Perry in 1947. Newt was an underwater frogman during WWII, and after the war he started working with film and movies, doing underwater stunt scenes in the freshwater Florida springs. He developed an underwater breathing system for the mermaids at the springs, which is still in use today. Newt did many famous films here, at Silver Springs in Ocala, and Wakulla Springs south of Tallahassee.

For my Seminole War researchers who like the few Seminole War “spaghetti Westerns,” then you may have seen “Distant Drums.” For underwater stunts, Newt did the underwater fight scene in the finale between Cary Grant and the Seminole Chief in “Distant Drums.” It is obvious that it is Newt underwater, unless the Seminole chief suddenly bulked up.

For many years, the attraction at Weeki Wachee was in danger of closing down. But last year it became a Florida state park. So right now it is still in a transition stage.

I have to admit that I love freshwater springs, and have swam in many of them in Florida. Growing up as a kid in Florida, it is just in my nature to jump in the water.

Weeki Wachee is a first magnitude spring, and pumps anywhere from 1 to 1.7 million gallons of water a day. Here is the springhead, with the underwater theater to the right, and highway 19 in the background.

Open in the summer, is the Buccaneer Bay water attraction, which closed for the season on October 1st.

Newt taught his mermaids well, and after more than 60 years since the park attraction opened, and about 15 years after Newt's death, they still do the same underwater stunts. Not every girl can be a mermaid, because they have a grueling training where they learn to hold their breath underwater for 2.5 minutes, and a few of the girls can dive down to the bottom of the spring, an impressive 120 feet below the surface.

And interesting thing to see during the show, were all the slider turtles that were real friendly with the mermaids. For decades, the mermaids have released food for the fish, and the turtles help themselves, too. An interesting thing is that when the ladies changed and were doing the acrobatic swimming without the tails, the turtles were nowhere to be seen. Apparently the turtles associate mermaids with giving them treats, and don't bother with the regular humans with no tails and two legs. I think turtles are smarter than we give them credit for. Here one of the mermaids smiles and gently lifts the fawning turtles out of the way.

Also take the river cruise. This is a guided tour down the Weeki Wachee River. The trip goes down about ½ mile and returns. (No, not in this boat here; a bigger pontoon boat.)

And also of interest, is an Indian mound just above where you embark on the river cruise. A plaque says that there were mass graves here, and items crafted from Spanish artifacts, so this mound shows contact with the first Europeans, maybe Narvaez or deSoto. And then mass burials because of a sudden large loss of the village population; either from disease or warfare with the Spaniards.

Was Weeki Wachee worth the few hours I visited? It certainly was!

Next: Homosassa Springs and Rosie the Manatee puts on a show for some great underwater pics.

One of the best things to come to Tampa since Bobby Henry's village in the early 1980s is the Tampa Bay History Center. It is downtown by the convention center, and three floors of exhibits in a huge, brand new building.

It starts off telling about the Native people, and has a great 20-minute film about the Narvaez expedition and Cabeza de Vaca in 1528, my favorite Spanish conquistador mission that ended 8 years later when the final 4 surviving members arrived in Mexico City. Narvaez was a cruel bastard who sought gold but only found his death. Cabeza de Vaca sought peace with the native people they came across, was enslaved by them, but eventually gained his freedom and traveled as an interesting trader and healer, who became somewhat of a messianic figure among the different tribes he met. So you have an interesting duality of the expedition leader, whom nobody was sad to see his death, and an officer among the expedition who's soul was saved by adapting to the surroundings and found a new life of peace.

Next you enter the gallery about the 2nd Seminole War. And I met and talked with Lt. John T. Sprague for a while. (Who is also a distant relative of mine.)

Sprague is responsible for writing the book, "The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War." It is because of him, that we have much information about the 2nd Seminole War, and he wrote down several speeches and talks with the Seminoles. Including the next audio-visual extravaganza in the museum; a theater that has a stirring rendition of Coacoochee's talk to Col. Worth on July 4th, 1841. All brought to life in a multi-screen theater, where we see Osceola and Coacoochee.

And an interesting item before the theater: Blood stained trousers from the 3rd Seminole War.

The next gallery covers more peaceful times, and has some great exhibits on Seminole patchwork.

Then upstairs is the Florida map room, with some excellent maps from Florida history in the past 500 years. This is where it really pays off to have my digital camera that doesn't need a flash.

Going out back of the museum along the water front, is a whole series of plaques commemorating Fort Brooke, the Indian removal, and the Seminoles struggle.

Underneath a "peace arch" to remind us to heal the wounds of the past and come together as one people.

A few more places of Seminole War history.

North of Tampa along highway 301 is Hillsborough River State Park with Fort Foster. Many of you may have been there before. But right south of there is a rails-to-trails project, called the Old Fort King Trail. This is an abandoned rail bed that has been converted to a bike/walking trail. This isn't the exact path of the Fort Brooke-Fort King road, but it is nice they decided to commemorate it.

And I had one more place I had to visit. About 30 mile north of here is the small community of Istachatta.

I had to stop by here, because Istachatta means Red Man / Red People. It is on the edge of the Cove of the Withlacoochee. One of the areas where the Seminoles hid their families and villages during the 2nd Seminole War.

One hundred years ago, Tampa's main industry was making hand-rolled cigars. This year the last cigar factory closed down in Tampa, putting an end to the industry.

Ybor City was the center of the cigar industry, and you can visit the Ybor City Museum to learn about this multi-ethnic city. It is housed in a former bakery.

The cigar workers came from not only Cuban backgrounds, but also Spanish, Italian, Polish, European Jews, and many others. So Ybor City quickly became a multi-ethnic city. One of the big draws working for the cigar industry, was that for $450 you could buy a factory worker's house. It looks pretty much like a late victorian pre-fab house. Here are a few surviving examples. The house on the left actually has surviving cedar shingles from the 1890s. In 1908, a devastating fire in town burn down hundreds of houses, and the state passed a law after that, that houses had to have tin roofs instead of wood.

Cuba was always unstable, with slave riots in the 1830s, and a terrible civil war in 1867 that caused thousands to flee to south Florida. So by the time of the Spanish American War in 1898, Ybor City became a hotbed for political demonstrations and freedom movements.

Here you can see the worker's tables in a cigar factory. Hand-rolled cigars were in danger of being replaced by machines, and eventually they were, but there was a demand for good quality hand-rolled ones.

But the industry went down hill in the 1930s, as cigars were replaced by cigarettes.

When the industry left town, the mob came in and the main industry became organized crime, until the city cleaned it out in the 1980s. If you go to the Tampa Bay History Center, you can see more items from Ybor City, like this set of "Bolito" balls, an early form of lottery, and this guitar made out of a cigar box. (I had to get a photo of that.)

Tobacco was from the western hemisphere and the first Europeans who arrived found the Native people smoking it for ceremonial uses. I don't smoke myself, but consider it a unique American part of history.

I heard today that Charlie Abbott passed away last week.
He was one of the main characters in living history down here in Collier County, and what a character he was. I am sorry to hear of his passing. At Old Florida Festival at the Collier County Museum, we will have an informal get together to remember him, on Saturday evening, November 7th.

I had the opportunity to meet Willie Johns today. He is on the board for the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation, and one of the historians for the Seminole Tribe. He is Muskogee Seminole, from the Brighton Reservation. It was indeed a pleasure.

Leaving the lighthouse museum and heading back north, I have one more thing to mention. You will notice a range light or secondary lighthouse along the beach on Gasparilla Island. On the same side of the road and just to the south of it, is one of the few undeveloped stretches of brush on the island.

The state wanted to add this property to the park, but the federal government wants a tight hold onto it. Apparently the Dept of Homeland Security thinks that it is a necessary buffer to protect the country in case the towelheads use this as their beach-head to invade America. While the range light sits here as a silent sentinel. (Okay, I have to laugh at myself.)

I feel much safer already!

Moving west and north once off the Island, I make a quick stop at Don Pedro Island.

This area of a few hundred acres and a barrier island looks like a pristine coast scrub area that goes down into a salt marsh. I was impressed to see the leather ferns, which I am accustomed to seeing them in my park, but more as a hammock plant and not in the salt marsh.
And right along side some black mangrove trees.

One of my highlights here was this great blue heron who apparently thinks this dock belongs to him. (He didn't seem interested in what the fisherman had.)

The next stop was Stump Pass Beach on the southern end of Manasota Key. Going through the town, you have to circle around this impressive sculpture.

The rich condos give way to the older Florida beach homes, until the road dead-ends into the parking area of this small beach park. Due to the erosion that can cause havok to a barrier island, it is undergoing some very impressive beach renourishment. Here an area has been replanted with beach grass or sea oats that will stabilize the dunes.

Back on the road and heading north again on highway 41, I noticed a small sign that said "Indian Mound park." Not one to pass up a good mound, I followed it to this small county park in Englewood.

The park is mainly taken over by the boaters and fishermen, who don't seem to pay much attention to the very large mound that his hidden in the trees beyond the picnic pavillions.

Next time: Ybor City Museum, Tampa, Fort Brooke, and Seminole War sites.

I went for a visit to the lighthouse museum on Boca Grande, Gasparilla Island State Park.
The museum is small, but it is full of information about the local history.
It is also quite a drive off the interstate, so plan in at least a few hours. But it is a beautiful area.
After you pay the toll at the bridge onto the island, you pass by the former rail line. Here it is seen from the road as I am driving down.

The rail line was abandon around 1979 as the phosphate industry in Florida closed down. I actually remember it, as I will tell in a few minutes.

This is the lighthouse, circa 1890. It is now the museum. The park office is next to it, housed in the former lighthouse assistant keeper's house.

Here is the museum's panel on the Calusa Indians. As you can see, it is full of information.

For a long time, I wondered about the Spanish fishing rancheros on the southwest coast, that the Army forced to close during the 2nd Seminole War. Fortunately this display includes information about them.

The Spanish fishing rancheros were a hold-over from before Florida was a US territory. The rancheros would operate from about October to March and send about a thousand tons of fish annually to Havana, Cuba. It was the largest economic operation in Florida at the time. So why did the US want to shut them down?

The main reason was economic. All the goods and money were going to Cuba, not the United States. So the US put heavy taxes on them, to the point where it would not be possible for them to make a profit and continue. The government put a revenue agent right next to one of the fishing rancheros here, but it was a dangerous profession, and at least one tax collector was killed. So the US & new territory wanted the money and fish to go to them, not Cuba, and sought to take over the industry.

One of the ways the government sought to destroy the fishing rancheos was to claim that they were conspiring with the Seminoles to raid white plantations, and were bringing in arms and ammunition to support the Indians during the 2nd Seminole War. I would have to look into it further, but I think most of this evidence was fabricated and not true. They would not aggravate a situation that would cause their demise.

Another reason the fishing rancheros because a target, was that they just didn't fit the mold of being a new southern slave territory. The people were mixed races, Spanish, Blacks, and Indians, and intermarried and had children together. And they were free. This just didn't work with a territory and future slave state. This is also where the Spanish Indians came from. They didn't start fighting until later in the war when the government came to close them down, on pretext that they were supporting the Indians.

Earlier in the war, the government sought the people at the rancheros as guides for the Army. That didn't work out, because all of these people lived on the coast and never ventured inland very far. They were unable to guide the Army inland any more than 10 or 20 miles, and were useless as guides. So the government decided if they were not useful as allies, it was time to throw them under the bus.

50 years later, the island became busy once again with the new phosphate industry. This peaked in the early 1900s.

But later in the century, due to environmental concerns of strip mining and cheaper phosphate from Africa, the mines closed down. I can actually remember these mines. As a kid, I used to go fossil hunting in some of the phosphate mines. In junior high, we went on a field trip to the mine and saw a large digging machine. And if you drove up highway 27 at night, you can see the glow from the ore processing plants, which looked pretty impressive. But that is all pretty much gone now. Rail lines would bring the ore down to Boca Grande, and ship it out from here. So Charlotte Harbor was a major deep water port for many years.

Now the main industry is fishing. Looking out from the lighthouse, you can see the pass, and on the other side is Cayo Costa Island.

From this narrow pass, some record tarpon and record hammerhead sharks have been taken out of the water.

You never know when you run across a little bit of history in Florida. You are driving and pass a historical marker, or pass by some unusual structure.

I was going down to Gasparilla Island, and spotted this old structure on a trail head to a bike trail in Charlotte County. It is on cr 771 just below McCall Road.

The bottom of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island used to be a deep water port for loading phosphate onto ships. This building was a bunkhouse that was built in 1907, and moved to the trail head to prevent its destruction from road work.

More later about Gasparilla--I need to get ready for work!

This is very interesting. As soon as I posted the link on facebook, a lot of my friends (Creek ones especially) picked up on it and posted the link as well.

THE removal letter from President Andrew Jackson has been found. For historians and scholars, this is a very significant find. Follow the link to the article here.

This letter can be called THE document that started the Indian Removal, which forced thousands of Native Americans from the Five Civilized Tribes to be forced from their homes. It set the tone for US policy towards all Native American tribes for the next 80 years.

Although excerpts of the letter have been published, it was thought that the original was lost. Now we can read the original, in his original language and wording. I would consider this pretty chilling, thinking what it caused.

After reading it myself, I was struck with how identical the wording is, to what the Seminoles were told by Wiley Thompson in the talks at Fort King, on October 1834 and April 1835, where Thompson is telling them that they MUST remove. It is almost verbatim with what is in this letter!

I probably will be busy the next few days, so before I forget, here are the Seminole War events for October.

4 October 1812 - Facing starvation, Col. Newnan’s force decides to make a nighttime retreat from their breastwork.

5 October 1812 - Newnan’s force continues to be attacked by Seminoles while making their retreat.

8 October 1836 - Seminoles capture and burn the schooner Mary at Tavernier Key.

10 October 1565 - Menendez kills many of the French Huguenots including their leader Ribault.

10 October 1832 - Several of the Seminole chiefs are taken on a tour out west to survey the land that the government had reserved for them. The group includes Jumper, Tuckose Emathla (John Hicks), Holata Emathla, Charley Emathla, Abraham, Coa Hadjo, Yaha Hadjo, and Neha-Thlocco. They were not impressed.

11 October 1812 - Newnan’s force makes it back to Kingsley Plantation for a hero’s party. Their dismal failure was proclaimed a victory in the newspapers, and Newnan is declared a hero.

12 October 1841 - Coacoochee with 210 Seminoles are shipped to the west.

13-17 October 1836 - Governor Call tries to cross the Withlacoochee River and attack the Seminoles. His efforts end in failure when he is unable to find an adequate crossing and is constantly fired upon by Seminoles on the other side.

21 October 1837 - A large Seminole party under Osceola is captured under a flag of truce at Fort Peyton by General Hernandez, under orders of General Jesup.

23-25 October 1834 - Wiley Thompson calls the Seminole chiefs together for a conference at Fort King to get them to emigrate, but it ends with both sides arguing and no agreement reached.

25 October 1841 - Several soldiers drown when their boat capsizes at the Indian River crossing. This is the worst non-combat related accident during the war.

28 October 1838 - The last of the Apalachicola Seminoles are deported to the west.

31 October 1799 - William Augustus Bowles issues a proclamation declaring the 1795 treaty of San Ildefonso between Spain & the U.S. void because it ignored the Indians’ sovereign rights over Florida.

This article appeared in a Sumter County newspaper. Near Lake Panasoffkee, which is also near Abraham's town and near the last battle of the 2nd Seminole War.

http://www.lcni5.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?073+article+News+20090923093345073073003

Is it just me, or wouldn't this be considered grave desecration? (Not that it matters anymore, because I just don't think people care.)

"A more appropriate location"?!? How about keep them where they are at; I think that is the most appropriate location.

Just my thoughts.

One of the major Seminole strategists and leaders during the Second Seminole War was one that has often been overlooked, Thlocko Tustenuggee or Tiger Tail.

His name is confusing, because it is alternately seen as Thlocko or Thlocklo in historical records. Sprague calls him Thlocklo or Fish King, but also uses the Thlocko spelling. Thlathlo is the Muskogee word for fish.

Alternately, Thlocko is the title for a head leader, so Thlocko Tustenuggee means, “Big Warrior” or “Head Warrior.” This is not to be confused with the Seminole Chief Big Warrior, an Alachuca Seminole who was host to William Bartram on Paynes Prairie in the 1770s.

The Thlocko Tustenuggee we want to look at was born about 1791 and known as a Tallahassee Seminole. His father was chief of a town in vicinity of the modern city of Tallahassee.

Below: Tiger Tail from Sprague

An informant to Swanton says that the Tallahassee Seminoles were from the Creek town of Sawokli, which were Hitchiti speakers. This would make sense, because Tallahassee is so close to the huge Miccosukee town on Lake Miccosukee. But it is obvious that Tiger Tail also spoke Muskogee Creek, because his village included Creeks during the war.

His older brother Nethlockemathlar was actually the head leader of the family, but it was said that Tiger Tail was more charismatic than his older brother. Both would resist removal until the end of the war.

I always wonder if Seminole names in history are related to clan affiliations. During the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, Thlocko Tustenuggee was wearing the tail of a Florida panther on his belt. Thereafter he was also known as Tiger Tail because of this. (The term Tiger is the same as Florida Panther among the Seminole & Miccosukee.)

Tiger Tail lived at the plantation of Robert Gamble on the Wakulla River south of Tallahassee. I wonder if that was the old town site of his father’s town, and Gamble was just benevolent enough to let him remain? Whatever the case, it was very helpful to Gamble, who never had any attack or hostility towards him and his plantation during the war.

Tiger Tail spoke perfect English, kept the Sabbath, and was intimately familiar with the habits and customs of the white man. His knowledge of the white man’s ways were no doubt due to his closeness with the Gamble family.

The most amusing incident with Tiger Tail involves territory Governor John Eaton. In 1834, Eaton was appointed as governor, more to get him away from scandal in Washington than anything else. (A story for another time.) The new governor did not have many friends or supporters, even when he moved down to Florida. And the Seminoles were not impressed with him either.

Below: John Eaton

“The Tallahassee chief, Thlocko Tustenuggee (Tiger Tail), is said to have followed Eaton into the governor’s office the first time he appeared there. The Indian stood for a short time with his arms folded, regarding the Governor intently and in silence. Then he turned and stalked out, still without saying a word.” (McReynolds, “The Seminoles”)

Although Tiger TAil did take part in some of the smaller skirmishes, he is not known for fighting in the large battles during the the war. But because of his ability to speak English and knowledge of military tactics, he was an extremely valuable advisor and strategist during the war. He seems to be the one who can be given credit for the second half of the war that turned into a horrific fight of guerrilla warfare. He told his warriors to split into small bands of five and to kill every white man they saw.

In May 1839, General Alexander Macomb met with both Tiger Tail and Halleck Tustenuggee at Fort King to try and bring an end to the war. Both Seminole & Miccosukee warriors that met with Macomb became skillful at meeting with the soldiers to talk about removal, loaded up with food and provisions, and then disappeared back into hiding. They did this several times before the Army learned its lesson.

In November 1840, General Walker Armistead met with several of the war chiefs at Fort King, and tried to persuade and bribe them to remove to Oklahoma. Tiger Tail and Halleck Tustenuggee spent several weeks collecting food and supplies, and then disappeared with nothing left for Armistead. The following year during Green Corn in 1841, both Seminole & Miccosukee leaders made an agreement to refuse any removal, and to execute any among their tribe who would entreat such ideas. Thus they remained the most elusive groups of Seminoles, and the war was not declared over until their capture and removal in 1842.

In the summer of 1841, soldiers discovered Tiger Tail’s village in the cove of the Withlacoochee and burned his dwellings and fields. This was a devastating blow against Tiger Tail, who needed the crops to feed his people. He had to flee to his brother Nethlockemathlar’s village in Annuttiliga Hammock.

Both Alligator and Coacoochee were brought in to negotiate a removal of the Seminoles remaining in Florida. They may have been successful, if not for the constant movement of troops from the Army at the same time. Several officers remarked that this gave the appearance of duplicity and planned treachery of the whites, while talking peace but moving as if they are still at war.

Alligator was actually successful at bringing in Nethlockemathlar and Tiger Tail. But Tiger Tail once more disappeared into the Florida swamp, and right out from under guard at Fort Brooke. Nethlockemathlar felt indignant and betrayed by his brother’s escape after a long and careful negotiation with Alligator.

Tiger Tail was seized after the war was declared over, in late 1842. This was in violation of agreement made between General Worth and the Seminoles at Cedar Key before the end of the war, that they would be allowed to remain in Florida.

Below: General William J. Worth

In late December 1842, Tiger Tail with a few other bands of Creeks and Seminoles left Florida by ship to New Orleans. There they would wait for the river to rise next spring, so the boats could take them to the Indian Territory. Unfortunately Tiger Tail never completed the journey and died in New Orleans. His last wish was that he be positioned on his bed to watch the setting sun. Having his wish granted, his life faded away and disappeared with the daylight.