In Black America; The Black Seminoles with Dr. Bruce Twymen

thank you. From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is in Black America. I am not an expert on the topic, but it seems that multiculturalism attempts to expand the scope of the educational process in the past, the mainstream of American education

was perhaps narrow in its focus. The curriculum was more limited, but especially over the last 25 years, a multicultural emphasis has brought new information to education. Mainstream administrators should welcome this expansion of the knowledge base. There are parallels between the traditional curriculum and the viability of majority population students, then perhaps there can be some parallels between the addition of multicultural knowledge to the traditional curriculum and the retention of students in general. Dr. Bruce Triman, author of the book, The Black Seminoles and North American Politics. Last November, Florida and the University held its 13th National Higher Education Conference on Student Retention in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The five-day conference gave the participants an opportunity to improve their knowledge and skill in designing and implementing student retention programs, also to gain information that will be helpful towards improving existing student retention programs and to explore issues that influence the retention of minority students in higher education. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, Black Seminoles and North American Politics, but Dr. Bruce Triman in Black America. I hope my topic tonight is one which can help expand the multicultural curriculum. Much of the data in my book has been excluded from the traditional curricula, but it is not new. It comes straight from government files of Spain and Great Britain and the U.S. Congress. Then it dates back to the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Its content is multicultural, with information about European, Native Americans and Africans, as well as various cultural linguistic groups. It projects a broad mix of ethnic interaction. African and Native Americans unite against Europeans. At other times, Europeans and Native Americans fight African slaves. In 1983, Dr. Anita A. Ford, then Director of the Title III Program at Florida A&M University, devised a special model for institutional strategies to increase minority student retention. Now in its 14th year, her conference is the leading student retention conference in the nation and the Otis. This year's conference theme, Student Retention is Multicultural. Those in attendance included Hispanics, Native Americans, Anglos and African Americans. The conference focused on multiculturalistic aspects of student retention.

The participants had an opportunity to discuss, explore, share, and network on multicultural student retention issues. Dr. Bruce Triment is an associate professor of political science at Pravew A&M University. He has done extensive research on the Black Seminole Indians and has brought that knowledge to this year's conference. A key complex issue concerning the topic is who are the Seminole people. Primary sources indicate that the word Seminole is an English distortion of the Spanish word similarine, which meant wild or runaway. Early Spanish settlers first applied the word to cattle, then to Native American slaves. Finally, the term became fixed upon African slaves, while pirates used the abbreviation room. In the 1680s and 90s, the British enslaved both the Africans and Native Americans in

the Carolinas. Both escaped to Spanish Florida as summarized. Later, in the mid 1700s, members of the Creek tribe came to Florida. By the time of British occupation in Florida in 1763, these various Native American and African people were officially labeled as Seminole by the British. Most scholars studied the Seminole people's history by tracing the lineage of the Creek tribe before the advent of the word Seminole. Though the creeks were the most numerous, I focus upon the linguistic roots of the word Seminole as summarized from the Carolinas.

Also I use various government records to show the continuity of the African population from 1693 to 1845. So, though a people called Black Seminoles or Seminole did not exist in name before 1763, they must however be studied through the history of the various components. Just as U.S. citizens, Native Americans, Afro-Americans, Euro-Americans, and Asian-Americans, pushed their lineage long before the political entity of the United States came to exist. Black Seminoles and North American politics essentially is a subplot of a much greater story. And that is the historical competition between Spain and the British for land and

power in the Western Hemisphere. Now I want to mention some of the key political policies and initiatives which were influenced by Black Seminoles. First in setting the stage for North American story, the reverence full of Nichols kept a diary during Sir Francis Drake's 1572 voyage to Panama. Nichols says Drake's mission would have failed and all would have perished without help from the Simurons. Next, British colonial documents revealed that further advances into Spanish territory occurred in 1655. The Simurons played an indispensable role in the British conquest of Spanish Jamaica. After losing Jamaica, the former Spanish governor warned the king that the British

would strike next in Florida. So within 33 years, in 1693, the Spanish king Charles II issued the edict of 1693, ordering the governor of Florida to provide freedom and all possible material assistance to any British slaves who could escape to Florida. The Britain had both Native American and African slaves present in the Carolinas. Africans were at the heart of their economy. The edict focused upon luring African slaves to Florida. In 1739, Spain began to house the African Simurons who came into Florida in the Fort Mosay military settlement, which helped to protect the capital of St. Augustine. From their Florida colony, Spain

sent forth Africans, Spanish, Native American, guerrilla forces from the 1680s to 1763. These allied forces burned British plantations, stole livestock and helped slaves escape. Until they killed settlers. In essence, Spain had turned the tables on its British rivals. British and American Simurons were used to prevent the loss of Florida until 1820. Spain had been an ally of France in the French and Indian War. After Britain's victory in this war, the Treaty of Paris awarded Britain possession of Florida. The most of the British Simurons evacuated to Cuba with the Spanish and untold number remained. During the British occupation

from 1763 to 1783, the slave population far outnumbered British settlers. Many escaped to the Simonos. Spain regained Florida after the American Revolution as an ally of the US. By 1790, one of the first foreign policy initiatives of President George Washington was to give his Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, to negotiate an end to the Edict of 1693. This ended the 100-year-old policy, but did not stop the flow of slaves into Florida. Also in 1790, Washington's Secretary of War Henry Knox negotiated the Treaty of New York. This treaty required the Creek Nation to go into Florida and capture Black Simonos

and return them to slavery. Creek cheese were paid thousands of dollars, but the crease could not achieve this goal, and by 1821, President James Monroe forced them to sign the Treaty of Indian Springs. This treaty forced them to give their land, which was one-third of Georgia, to the United States. Also, the crease had to pay back money they were paid for this purpose. In 1795, the Washington administration signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain. This treaty required the Governor of Florida to capture and return Black Simonos to the U.S. But Spain, like the crease, could not achieve this goal. In a state of the Union message, President Monroe informed Congress that Spain would be forced to surrender

Florida to the U.S. for not returning $5 billion in slave property. This occurred in 1820 in a treaty called Adams Onus, or the Washington Treaty. By 1836, President Andrew Jackson began the Second Seminole War. When he ordered General Scott to move all Native American Simonos west of the Mississippi and the Blacks to be returned to slavery. The Seminole allies fought this war against the U.S. Army between 1836 and 1842. The U.S. could not defeat them and was forced to let all Seminoles go west. The Seminoles fought an extensive guerrilla war, which has often been compared to the Vietnam experience. Throughout the war, weapons were smuggled to the Seminoles into Florida from Cuba. Between 1835 and 1842, 30,000 U.S.

troops fought 2,000 Seminoles. $50 million was spent and 1,500 U.S. soldiers were killed. The Seminoles were settled in Arkansas territory, which is now part of Oklahoma, on Creek tribal land. The Creeks attempted to sell the Black Seminoles into slavery. By 1850, hundreds of Black Seminoles, some Native Seminole and members of the Kick-A-Poo Tribe were given permission to settle in the Mexican state of Curea. In route to Mexico, 90 Black Seminoles were killed by Comanches in Texas. Beginning in 1850, Black Seminoles became a key component of the Mexican military forces in the state of Curea. Variously fighting battles against

the U.S. Army, Texas Rangers, Comanches, and Apaches. Today, many of their descendants still live in Korea, in the colony of Nasi mental near the city of Muscus. In the 1870s, American Army officers traveled to the Black Seminole Village in Mexico and convinced some of them to ride their scouts for the Calvary. Approximately 120 serve their scouts with four winning the Congressional Medal of Honor. Today, many of the descendants live in Texas along the Rio Grande in addition to those in Mexico and Oklahoma. This first slide gives us an overview of the St. Augustine Florida area. We see where the St. Augustine Fort, which was the capital of Spanish Florida, from approximately 1523 until 1820. Okay, this

is just a symbol of the Spanish crown, which is outside of the fort in Florida. And this is a shot of the fort from... Okay, this is a shot of the fort taken from within the fort and you can see some of the St. Augustine community. And this is another shot from within the fort. And during many of the attacks upon the fort, it was said that most of the settlers, most of the Spanish settlers in Florida could all be brought into this one fort, the entire population. Okay, this is a shot of a... of one of the houses that members of the Black

Seminole community lived in after accepting the offer of an American officer to leave their villages in Mexico and come to reside in Bracketville, Texas. And this is when they were scouts for the U.S. Calvary. And this is a picture of some of those scouts. And they served approximately from about 1870 until about World War I. And this is a picture in Bracketville, Texas, which is where most of them were based around the turn of the century. And this is of a school, I think, outside of the school in Bracketville, Texas, members of the Black Seminole community in Texas. And this is a picture of some of the Black Seminoles around World War I. And it's interesting that members of their community, those that

were living in Mexico, fought on the side of Pancho Villa, while those who were living in the United States were fighting against them. Okay, in the city of Bracketville, there is a historical site of Black Seminole. It's officially called the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts Cemetery. And not only are the scouts buried here, but other members, other descendants of the Black Seminole community are buried here. And I believe this is one of the metal of honor winners. And some of these people have descendants both in Texas and in Mexico. This is one of the scouts who originated in Florida and actually migrated into Mexico

then coming back to serve as a scout for the U.S. Army. And these are these more shots from the Black Seminole Cemetery. The headstone to the left is a man by the name of Adam Pain. Adam Pain, a metal honor winner, was killed by a white deputy sheriff who was also a metal honor winner on the Rio Grande in a small town near the Rio Grande in about 1874. And this is probably the only case of one metal honor winner killing another. The metal honor winner that killed Adam Pain, Clarion Windus, was definitely sheriff. And these are just members of the Black Seminole community. And a good number of them migrate back and

forth from Mexico to Texas. Members of the community. The lady on the right, Emily Wilson, she's almost 90. She is a graduate of Prairie View A&M and she is known as the historian of the Black Seminole community in Texas. And these are two members of the Black Seminole community. The gentleman on the left is William Boyer and he is a descendant of the scouts and he's a retired deputy sheriff. Okay, this is the shot leading into the Black Seminole community of Mexico. This is a dirt road going from the town of Musquez to the what they call the colony of Nazi and mental. I would think that only those living

in the United States are considered to be U.S. citizens. But there is some overlap there. So it is possible that, for example, the gentleman who was our guide, it is possible since he owns land in Nazi and mental, it is possible that he is considered to be a Mexican citizen also. Really not sure about that. That's one of those things I hope to be able to look into while I am doing research on this second part of the book. Okay, question over here. The question concerns healthcare and education. Electricity, the village just did within the last five years get running water and electricity. Some running water and electricity. But mainly they have outhouses. The healthcare seem to be good. Seem to be good. Nothing really stood out. And as I said, it is mainly an agricultural community. It is about an

hours ride by automobile to the large town of Musquez. So I would think that they have a lot of home remedies and herbal remedies. And also there is a school in the community. The children go to school up to the sixth grade mainly. But they have to travel pretty far if they want education beyond sixth grade. Okay, question over here. I think most of them, I believe everybody in the community would have been Catholic. Yeah, in Nazi and mental. Now if you are talking about the community, in Texas, I would think that it could be almost anything because they have pretty much assimilated themselves to some extent to the African-American community. But I am really not totally sure about that. The question is, are the Black Seminole and the Native American Seminole living together?

I would, okay, I really haven't done a lot of investigation in Oklahoma. I would think that there could be some communities that are kind of united in Oklahoma. But the Native American Seminole was pretty much left Mexico right about the time that the Civil War was beginning. Because as members, they were considered, always considered by the United States government as members of the Creek Confederacy. The US government always referred to them as the lower creeks. And so they went back to the Creek lands and the Black Seminole population stayed in Mexico until after the war, some came back up to be scouts. The question is, what language do they speak? They definitely speak more than one language. While residing in Florida, they always spoke Spanish, English, and they had a language which is pretty much the gulla language, if you are familiar with the gulla people of South Carolina and Georgia.

They still speak that language to this day. They had a celebration on the Texas side, and especially members of the Texas community still speak that gulla language along with English and a lot of them still speak Spanish. In Nasiamento, I would think that they still can speak the gulla language along with Spanish, but very little English now in Nasiamento. People in this do they own their land. In Mexico, I believe that I am not totally sure what the exact relationship is, but they have had this land granted to them by the Mexican government going back to about 1850. Though the community was moved around from time to time, just depending on what was happening politically in the state of Korea, it seems that as far as I can tell, they plan to have ownership of that land going into the next century or at least

to be residing there. Most of the ones in Del Rio seemed to own their property just as other members of the community in that area of Texas. The question was, how did I gather my data, my Spanish data, especially? I did have an interpreter to interpret some of the old Spanish documents from the archives of the Indies. A young lady at the University of Southern California happened to be living there when I was doing a lot of my research, and a young lady who was from Spain and specialized in old Spanish, translated most of those documents. The other data is primarily contained within British and American documents, and you have to go to the original sources. I think they really, it's really a big, big celebration for them. If the governor of Korea was there

and for what I understand, there were a lot of film crews from various Mexican communities, it must be a pretty big deal. They said that there are a lot of members, a lot of descendants who are scattered in the region, but not still and not so mental. Many of the people work some of the surrounding ranches and plantations, and they said, all of these people or most of these people come back to not so mental for the Juneteenth celebration. So I would think it would be a pretty big deal. The question is, when do they celebrate Juneteenth and not so mental? And I believe they celebrated Juneteenth. I think it was Juneteenth. Question was, is there a lot of intermarriage? And from what I can see, there's quite a bit of intermarriage in not so mental. Many of the people that we saw in the village, I

would say maybe a third of the population there could be readily distinguished as you would distinguish an African-American, but I would say 90% of the people claim lineage to the Black Seminole population. So they had to be quite a bit of intermixture. But there seems to have been less intermixture in Texas, in the Del Rio, Bracket, Algeria. Some more in Mexico, less in the U.S. Dr. Bruce Triman, Associate Professor of Political Science at Preview A&M University. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, write us. Also let us know what radio station you heard is over. I would like to thank Florida A&M University for their assistance in the production of this program. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. Until

we have the opportunity again for IBA Technical Producer, David Alvarez, I'm John L. Hansen Jr. Thank you for joining us today and please join us again next week. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America Cassettes, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712. That's in Black America Cassettes, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712. From the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John L. Hansen Jr. Join me this week on in Black America. They have a large section just for them right next to North American mental. I'm not sure if it is officially part

of North American mental, but it is, it is said to be the Chickapoo, referred to as the Chickapoo Reservation. Black Seminoles and North American politics with Dr. Bruce Triment this week on in Black America.