Our Land Before We Die
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
In Our Land Before We Die, Jeff Guinn traces the little-known history of the runaway slaves who fled to the Florida Everglades to live alongside the Seminole Indians. Deeply rooted in tribal oral history, and based on extensive interviews with descendants, this book describes the incredible circumstances of a people who sought shelter in the shadow of a tribe whose land and welfare already hung in the balance. And yet, in their tireless journey-from Florida to Indian Territory in Oklahoma; on the seven-hundred-mile flight from persecution that took them across the Rio Grande into Mexico; and then back across the Rio Grande to Texas-they never surrendered the hope of one day attaining land of their own. Our Land Before We Die brings to life the largely forgotten history of a courageous people and the descendants for whom this story is their only legacy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Working with two tellers of the tribal history, Miss Charles Emily Wilson and Willie Warrior, Texas journalist Guinn interviewed more than two dozen people to produce a compelling narrative of the Seminole Negro (pronounced "Nay-gro") tribe's origins and history. In the 18th century, escaped African slaves fled south into Spanish-held Florida and allied themselves with the Seminole Indians, in effect making themselves into a separate tribe. When the Americans under Andrew Jackson invaded Florida, the Negro Seminoles fought side by side with Indian allies to defend villages and land. After the bloodletting of the Seminole Wars of the early 19th century, the Seminole Negroes were removed from Florida and settled in the Indian Territory of what is now Oklahoma. Miserable and alone, most of the tribe walked off the reservation and migrated to Mexico. After the American Civil War, the U.S. government needed troops to help defend the Texas border against Comanches and Apaches, and the group returned and enlisted as scouts to help "pacify" Texas. Four Seminoles earned Medals of Honor for their brave deeds, and the tribe was promised a land of its own. Instead, the Seminoles Negro tribe was disbanded in 1914, and its families were evicted from government-owned land. To this day, their descendants still cry for justice and for a land to call their own. The tribe gathers yearly in Brackettville, Tex., to tell stories to their young people, maintain a cemetery and keep alive their heritage. Guinn depicts all of this clearly and without sentiment, and includes his own involvement with the tribe as part of the narrative, making this an authoritative story of the pursuit of truth.
