#Seminole war

[ausetkmt]

270 people dead in an instant at "Negro Fort"

Readers: Boom! A red-hot cannonball, shot from the middle of the Apalachicola River, slammed into a sprawling fort full of Indians and runaway slaves. In a flash, 270 people died.

Here’s more about this tragedy with help from Dale Cox, author of The Fort at Prospect Bluff.

The bluff, on a slow curve 20 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, offers a clear view up the half-mile-wide Apalachicola, a major artery through the South two centuries ago. Whoever would control this piece of land would control shipping along the river.

The tragedy of the "Negro Fort" stemmed from a multinational tug-of-war for the Spanish-held territories of West Florida and East Florida. 

In 1815, during the War of 1812, the British, at war with America, built a fort with bastions 15 feet high and 18 feet thick as a base to recruit escaped slaves and Indians. A year later, the British abandoned it, leaving artillery and military supplies. Blacks and Indians stayed.

About 5 a.m. on July 27, the gunboats carrying Clinch and his men could see the Union Jack and a red flag called "the bloody flag'' - a universal sign of no surrender. From inside, a 32-pound cannonball flew toward the Americans. Clinch returned fire. He launched four cannonballs and fired shots - cannonballs heated red hot for maximum carnage. The first one hit the ammunition pile.

"The explosion was awful and the scene horrible beyond description," Clinch wrote later.

In 1818, during the First Seminole War, Jackson, again, went downriver on a search-and-destroy mission for Seminole villages. He instructed Lt. James Gadsden to build a fort where the former British fort had been. He named it for Gadsden who held the fort despite Spanish protests until Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1821. It was mostly forgotten until the Civil War; Confederate troops occupied it until driven out by malaria.

The fort then fell to neglect. The state took charge of 78 acres in 1961 to create Fort Gadsden State Park. It later came under the management of the U.S. Forest Service and was renamed Prospect Bluff Historic Sites.

[chiniquysposts]

(via This is the true reason for the Seminole Wars in Florida)

[not-so-superheroine]

is anyone here Seminole from the South East region of the US? i am Gullah Geechee and our people have a tied history.

for example we fought a war against white settler colonialists as allies in the Gullah Wars that took place in South Carolina and Florida (you may know the Florida half of it as the "SeminoleWars")

more here: https://twitter.com/geecheesociali1/status/1254956622062989317

my friend wrote it. it is unfortuneatly on twitter so you would need an account.

there is not a lot of free information available on it from the Gullah pov ime.

i am curious about any shared characteristics or practices we have. i am from South Carolina and so is 3/4ths of my family, and the other 1/4 of my family is from from Florida. i don't know them too well due to deaths, but they look like me and also integrate spanish among other things. we (Gullah and Seminole) people had a settlement in (”Spanish”) Florida. we have intermixed but idk how to feel totally because some of us were kept as slaves by the Seminole. we have mixed history, good and bad. let’s chat and build/mend a bridge :)  i've never done any DNA testing, but that's not what I am after here. I just would like to have a cultural exchange, and listen to your history of the events etc. build some bridges in respect to our those of our ancestors who built bridges too. also, my Floridian Descendent of Slavery, Gullah sounding, Spanish patois speaking, family is a little lost to me. if this is you, or you know more, i'd love to be a little less lcultually separated in that regard.

[lightdancer1]

The last community gets three articles for a very obvious reason:

Their existence not only shaped the definition of the USA's southern boundaries (and under the current Governor of Florida's system as such the beginning of Florida's history is now illegal to teach in the state), but did so in a way that helped to launch the career of one Andrew Jackson and touched off the longest Indian War in the Southern United States.

And the reasons for this were that Spanish power in Florida was fairly weak, US power in southern Georgia was weaker, and Maroons took advantage of obvious weaknesses to run away from slavery and built up a strong, well-armed community in alliance with the new Simanoli/Seminole people formed out of the shattered nations of Spanish power and the fall of the Mississippians.

For the so-called 'democrat', the existence of a Black and Indigenous alliance on the border of the Slave Power was an intolerable slight and it was his legacy that set in motion the annexation of Florida and three bloody wars to squelch it.

[theology101]

damn i’ve never had an unimportant opinio i’ve been more pissed about

A STORY ABOUT THE FALL OF DEMOCRACY AND RISE OF FASCISM ISNT AT ALL EQUIVALENT TO AN AUTOCRAT BECOMING A RELIGIOUS AUTOCRAT! THE VIEW OF POLITICS AND SOCIALITY AND COMMUNITY ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! THE FORCE AS A MORAL AND MAGIC SYSTEM IS INCOMPARABLE TO ANYTHING IN DUNE!

If you end your Star Wars understanding with the movies sure I guess, by the Revenge of the Sith Novelization is one of the most poetic and tragic political-love story I’ve ever read. Comparing Feyd to Maul because they’re… angry and bald? Im struggling to get how one of the most eloquent Sith we meet correlates to this fuck.

Plagueis is a political novel on the same scale as Dune, with a far more rich, compelx and well developed universe. Dune is soft Sci-Fi and while a lot of it is really well developed, you can FEEL its gaps in a way you can’t with star wars

[prohibitionpirates]

Seminole was a 188-ft, 845-ton United States Revenue Cutter (Coast Guard Cutter after 1915) constructed by the Columbian Iron Works in Baltimore, Maryland. She entered service in 1900, and after varied and interesting duties before and during the First World War, she played noteworthy part in the Coast Guard’s effort to interdict bootlegging operations at sea during Prohibition in the United States, from 1920 to 1933.

Rum Runner tactics demanded creativity from Coast Guard skippers: Cmdr. Philip H. Scott, who commanded the Seminole in the Rum War’s early days liked to seize rum-running craft and turn them into patrol boats. On one occasion, Scott dressed in civilian clothes and cruised around in a seized tug, making conversation with rum runners. Once he’d determined that they were smuggling, he raised the Coast Guard flag and seized their vessels too.

In 1923, Seminole was detached to Puerto Rico where she served as an independent unit and returned to her permanent station of Wilmington, North Carolina, later that year.

On March 5, 1927, the SS Cabo Hatteras, a Spanish cargo ship, caught fire in the Atlantic Ocean 140 miles southeast of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and was abandoned by her crew, who were rescued by the Spanish steamer Cabo Torres. On March 6, Seminole sank Cabo Hatteras with gunfire to prevent the burned derelict from becoming a hazard to navigation.

In 1929, Seminole transferred to the Great Lakes, where she was stationed at Sault Ste. Marine, Michigan until she was decommissioned in 1934 and transferred to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.

Scott made many seizures while captaining the Seminole, and the Coast Guard as a whole didn’t hesitate to operate seized craft in furtherance of its duties. Estimates vary, but between 450 and 650 rum runners were repurposed by the service.

[hayatheauthor]

The Rafah invasion is happening on the same day as the Met Gala (today)

The previous Rafah invasion took place during the Super Bowl (another major American cultural event)

Yet people have the audacity to say this isn’t a weapon of mass distraction aiming to yet again cover up Israel’s atrocious war crimes

PS: this is all happening even AFTER Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal WHICH ISRAEL REJECTED because they want to continue murdering MILLIONS of civilians

This is what the Americans did to the natives in Seminole, what the British did in 1857. This is the final act in a mass ethnic cleansing, and your governments and medias are trying to COVER IT ALL UP

Free Palestine 🇵🇸 All Eyes On Rafah ‼️❤️‍🩹

[thechanelmuse]

Juneteenth is a Black American holiday. 

We call Juneteenth many things: Black Independence Day, Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day. We celebrate and honor our ancestors. 

December 31 is recognized as Watch Night or Freedom’s Eve in Black American churches because it marks the day our enslaved ancestors were awaiting news of their freedom going into 1863. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But all of the ancestors wouldn’t be freed until June 19, 1865 for those in Galveston, Texas and even January 23, 1866 for those in New Jersey (the last slave state). (It’s also worth noting that our people under the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations wouldn’t be freed until April 28, 1866 and June 14, 1866 for those under the Cherokee Nation by way of the Treaties.)

Since 1866, Black Americans in Texas have been commemorating the emancipation of our people by way of reading the Emancipation Proclamation and coming together to have parades, free festivities, and later on pageants. Thereafter, it spread to select states as an annual day of commemoration of our people in our homeland. 

Here’s a short silent video filmed during the 1925 Juneteenth celebration in Beaumont, Texas:

(It’s also worth noting that the Mascogos tribe in Coahuila, Mexico celebrate Juneteenth over there as well. Quick history lesson: A total of 305,326 Africans were shipped to the US to be enslaved alongside of American Indians who were already or would become enslaved as prisoners of war, as well as those who stayed behind refusing to leave and walk the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. In the United States, you were either enslaved under the English territories, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, or under the Nations of what would called the Five “Civilized” Native American Tribes: Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminoles. Mascogos descend from the Seminoles who escaped slavery during the Seminole Wars, or the Gullah Wars that lasted for more than 100 years if you will, and then settled at El Nacimiento in 1852.)

We largely wave our red, white and blue flags on Juneteenth. These are the only colors that represent Juneteenth. But sometimes you may see others wave our Black American Heritage flag (red, black, and gold).

Juneteenth is a day of respect. It has nothing to do with Africa, diversity, inclusion, immigration, your Pan-African flag, your cashapps, nor your commerce businesses. It is not a day of “what about” isms. It is not a day to tap into your inner colonizer and attempt to wipe out our existence. That is ethnocide and anti-Black American. If you can’t attend a Black American (centered) event that’s filled with education on the day, our music, our food and other centered activities because it’s not centered around yours…that is a you problem. Respect our day for what and whom it stands for in our homeland. 

Juneteenth flag creator: “Boston Ben” Haith 

It was created in 1997. The red, white and blue colors represent the American flag. The five-point star represents the Lone State (Texas). The white burst around the star represents a nova, the beginning of a new star. The new beginning for Black Americans. 

Black American Heritage Flag creators: Melvin Charles & Gleason T. Jackson

It was created in 1967, our Civil Rights era. The color black represents the ethnic pride for who we are. Red represents the blood shed for freedom, equality, justice and human dignity. Gold fig wreath represents intellect, prosperity, and peace. The sword represents the strength and authority exhibited by a Black culture that made many contributions to the world in mathematics, art, medicine, and physical science, heralding the contributions that Black Americans would make in these and other fields. 

SN: While we’re talking about flags, I should note that Grace Wisher, a 13-year-old free Black girl from Baltimore helped stitched the Star Spangled flag, which would inspire the national anthem during her six years of service to Mary Pickersgill. I ain’t even gon hold you. I never looked too far into it, but she prob sewed that whole American flag her damn self. They love lying about history here until you start unearthing them old documents. 

In conclusion, Juneteenth is a Black American holiday. Respect us and our ancestors.

[tangerine-dream-machine]

do you wanna see the west with me?

Notes below!

This is not a realistic road trip at all, but here are the places/activities shown:

Yorktown Battlefield, Virginia: the site where General Cornwallis surrendered in 1781, bringing the end of the Revolutionary War

Liberty Bell, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: the famous bell with the message "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof", and later a symbol of liberty for abolitionists and suffragists

Drive-in theater: outdoor cinemas that reached their peak in popularity in the 1950s to 60s; the film is The Searchers (1956)

Kayaking: a fun lake/ocean activity

Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: this trail crosses nine states and follows the forced displacement of Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Muscogees, and Seminoles due to the Indian Removal Act in 1830

Traffic (and billboards): a bane to many and common in car-dependent cities

Cedar Hill Cemetery, Vicksburg, Mississippi: one of the oldest cemeteries in the US still being used; predates the Civil War and includes a Confederate burial site

Devil's Tower, Wyoming: a majestic (and sacred) butte and the first US national monument

Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah: a flat, empty salt pan estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt and a popular racing site

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming: a geyser in the world's first national park known for its reliable eruptions

Gas station, Nowhere, USA

Horseback riding, Montana: no comment, just a fun time

Las Vegas, Nevada: the world renowned Sin City, a place that caters to many vices

Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, North Dakota: group of missile defense facilities including missile silos and the pyramid-shaped radar system; built in 1975 and decommissioned after one day of operation, a "monument to man's fear and ignorance"

Hoover Dam, Nevada and Arizona: hydroelectric power plant on the Colorado River; the highest dam in the world at the time of its completion in 1935

Space Needle, Seattle, Washington: an observation tower with a revolving restaurant built for the 1962 World Fair "Living in the Space Age", a theme chosen to show the US was not lagging behind the USSR in the Space Race

Sequoia National Park, California: home of the world's largest tree by volume (General Sherman) and the highest point in the contiguous US (Mount Whitney)

Muir Beach Overlook, California: a former base station overlook with dugouts that gained importance immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 as a means to watch for attacks on nearby San Francisco

@usukweek

[dream-world-universe]

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States: Fort Lauderdale is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, 30 miles north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County in Florida. Built in 1838 and first incorporated in 1911, Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale. Wikipedia

[northameicanblog]

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States: Fort Lauderdale is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, 30 miles north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County in Florida. Built in 1838 and first incorporated in 1911, Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale. Wikipedia

[not-so-superheroine]

fun fact, i live in a swamp.  no, it doesn’t smell bad. when you get to the swampy areas there are cypress trees in the water that put of the smell really good.  the marshes near the salt and brackish water that smell like the pluff mud from which the sweetgrass grows. it smellls like dead sea creatures and works like quick sand and the more tou struggle the more you sink. simply do not walk on it. i have literally never in all my years. anyway, living in a swamp is cool. there are all sorts of creatures and plants. you can find and hunt for food. i wouldn’t go swimming in it (don’t die from brain eating amoeba or gators pls. take florida level precautions bc it’s not that that different in coastal neigboring states). we also have lots of swamp themed/related events. my favorite is the hell hole swamp festival, a bomb community event where everyone comes out for essentially a swampy country fair (no rides or funnel cakes but like barbeque and cake and children’s games, and child school choirs, and fun competions. Its also home of the Hell Hole Gator Run, a 10 K. The Hell Hole Talent Show is great too. Just community members of all ages putting on performances and a dinner. If you are from the lowcountry come check it out. we admittedly can be a bit insular, but bring a friend or family and you’ll intergrate right in. express interest in them, their culture, and the geographic area and they will be happy to share.  there are state parks specifically so people can enjoy there time in said swamp. the Santee Canal park has a nature museum that’s pretty cool. you can learn about the ecology of the area and the flora and fauna there in. knowing how to navigate the swamp help the US win the revolutionary war (they didn’t have immunity against malaria and probably got attacked by gators like today’s clueless and or ignorant tourists to the southeast US. like don’t get piss drunk in an area that has deadly wild life and don’t think you’re city smarts apply in nature. they don’t. listen to locals. also don’t screw around with the gators??? we have tourists who pelt them with stones. they are opportunistic hunters who often don’t even mess with you unprompted most of the time. they are important to the enviroment and tourist foolishness can get them put down/ euthanized). i realize i keep pointing out how deadly it can be, but urban places like NYC, Philly, Los Angelos, and Chicago have their potentially deadly issues, just different ones. still places worth visiting and respecting.  but basically, i live in a swamp and it’s great actually. i often feel like Shrek when people come here to live and disrespect the area. it’s a beautiful place, ecologically important, has events you can’t find in urban areas, people (left and right politically) care about ecological preservation (hunters and fisherman are on board). don’t disrespect the swamp because the swamp WILL disrespect you. also don’t try to make it new york city or columbus. (becuse its usually and ohian. they are gentrifying the area and promoting “development” that ruins the natural beauty and ecological important cites that the locals take a lot of pride in and are essential to our way of life. literally stay in Ohio if you can’t intergrate into rural/ small towns in southeast states, deadass. i get so angry, no joke. i love my home and my swamp. the state most hated by south carolinians is ohio and there is a reason for that.) in the words of shrek which often echo in my head: “what are you doing in MY Swamp?!!!” i like it here, you should totally visit and drop you preconceptions to best enjoy the experience, and be on your toes and your best behavior if you are an ohian, because most of us already hate all things ohio and will may mess with you if you have an ohio tag on your car and tick them off on the road for diving rudely or insulting said swamp, and our preferred “lack” of development. We feel about it like shrek did tbh. we want to live in south carolina, not ohio /srs.

[lightdancer1]

The Second Seminole War, incidentally, was the Vietnam equivalent for the US military in the 19th Century:

The Second Seminole War is the true forgotten long war in American military history, the 19th Century equivalent of the Vietnam War. It was a war fought against the largest US communities of Maroons, and as an extension of the Jacksonian Trail of Tears. It was fought by the 19th Century Army, the one that would in the wake of this war go on to much greater relative success in the 1846-8 war, where multiple generals that distinguished themselves in other wars fumbled around much like the Vietnam War generals did for the same reasons.

They were asked to solve a predominantly political problem by military means poorly suited to it, had no idea of the location or nature of the enemy they fought, and were incapable of admitting why their enemies were actually fighting the war. Unlike Vietnam Florida was a part of the US, officially, so there was no lack of will to ensure the nominal territory became actual in the way there was to spend the money and bleed to keep the Mekong Delta run by a kleptocracy.

Thus the US 'won' the war and was able to deport a significant portion of the Seminoles as well as to re-enslave the Maroons of Florida.....and then it had to fight one more war after this one, if a somewhat shorter war, to finish the 'victory' it declared here because it turned out the victory was rather less complete than the reports made it out to be.

[magicaguajiro]

Swamp Witch Travels: The Everglades

The Seminole War that never ended, a charm to Split a Storm and an Ancient Island. For centuries, the Everglades has been the object of wonder of many influential Floridian figures who each recognized its immense beauty and power. This River of Grass is a major center of life and biodiversity, as well as mysteries and Spirits uncharted, but will it still be around for the Swamp Witches of tomorrow?

The Everglades is going to shatter all of your preconceived notions about Swamps. It is a place of great power and duality. On one hand, this aqueous Land is covered in sparkling, clear, MOVING water. This water is the Life and Blood of the state, flowing from the Heart of the Everglades, Okechobee (Big Lake) The health of this ecosystem in turn affects the entire country. On the other hand, a place of Danger, Death and Rot, but for the purpose of Cleansing and Purification (not just rot for rot’s sake). As the water flows through this vast ecosystem, it is cleared of pollutants by plants and limestone while washing away scars left by man on this Land, until all is returned anew. It is a multifaceted, firm but gentle Spirit.

The Everglades is a union, a pact almost, between the Land and the Water to form the Swamp we know and love.

I am no stranger to the Glades. I was born and raised in the western Everglades, in the Big Cypress water basin. Fakahatchee and Picayune Strand were favorites of my parents as I was growing up, and we lived way out in the woods anyways so I always feel at home in the Glades. Many of my Spirits who are intrinsically tied to me, one might call a Spirit Guide or Angel, feel connected to Swamps and places where Water and Land converge. The Everglades is my home, but it is also a Spirit Ally, and a sacred place to the modern Indigenous Peoples of Florida, including the recognized and unrecognized Seminole and Miccosukee.

(PSA: this post will likely be part of a series only scratch the surface of the intricacies related to the Glades.)

Pa-Hay-Okee, “Grassy Waters”

Pa-Hay-Okee is the Seminole-Mikasuki name for the Everglades. I was blessed to be able to take a trip to see the Real Florida when I took an airboat ride with Buffalo Tiger Airboats, owned and operated by Betty Osceola. Betty is a conservationist and member of the Miccosukee tribe, located in the Eastern Everglades. The Seminole and Miccosukee are the descendants of various groups of Florida’s Original People from all over the state. The relationships and history of Florida’s Indigenous groups is complex. Before colonization and to this day we have had multiple groups who all have different beliefs, cultures, origins, and relationships. Today, we have various groups who are federally recognized as well as both Traditional and Reconstructionist groups who don’t seek recognition from the government, the most well-known being the Traditional Seminoles in Big Cypress.

Certain aspects of Seminole culture predate colonization, like the Chickee and some hunting techniques, while others, mainly linguistic and spiritual, are the result of groups joining together or adapting to new circumstances, such as patchwork. Many of the Seminole can trace their ancestry to groups in North Florida and surrounding states. These groups would live in various parts of the State, including the Everglades, at different times of the year following routes taken by seasonal migrations of game and water.

These people were forcibly removed, pushed South or murdered so their land could be taken in a conflict known to the United States as the First, Second and Third Seminole Wars. As they were pushed South, they encountered and assimilated various remaining populations of Pre-Columbian groups like the Calusa and Tequesta.

If you ask the modern members of these tribes, they will tell you it was a single war that is still being fought to this day, although with lawyers instead of weapons. You see, the Seminole and Miccosukee still have never signed a treaty with the US, and continue to have to fight for their Sovereignty and Land to this day. This has earned the Indigenous People of Florida the title of the Unconquered Peoples. Today, the tribes maintain traditional ways while also dealing with ever-encroaching settler beliefs and people. They still live off the land, but through the lens of eco-tourism most often rather than through subsistence living like many elders lived in their youth.

On my airboat trip, I got to stop and walk around Tear Island, a place where two Indigenous families began living in the 1800s and then abandoned in the 1920s. Being on these far off Islands, surrounded by the swamp and only accessible by boat, is where I feel most connected to my own Indigenous Taino ancestors, who would have traversed this same place but in a dugout canoe rather than an Airboat. The spirits of generations of people who lived and passed on are still here, within the water and trees, but also gathering around the cooking chickee when a fire is lit by their descendants.

High Tide at Chokoloskee

Known as the Western Gateway to the Everglades, we have Everglades City. It borders the Big Cypress Preserve and is a great place to stop to visit the Museum of the Everglades. The first settlers came here in the 1800s, it was incorporated in 1923. Past Everglades though, lies Chokoloskee. An Island with a Seminole name meaning ‘Old House’. This Island was only reachable by boat until 1956 when the bridge was built. John Weeks, the first permanent settler of Naples was one of the first settlers here as well. Before that, it was inhabited by the Calusa for more than 1,500 years.

Stop by HavAnnA Cafe on your way to the southern tip of the Island where you’ll find a large red building on stilts. This is the Smallwood Store. Founded in 1906 by Ted Smallwood, this store was one of the only places Indigenous and White Floridians could go to trade for necessities. Ted Smallwood was a well-known ally of the Seminole and Miccosukee peoples, even learning to speak the language. Today, his granddaughter runs the store which is a museum and gift shop. There is even a replica of Ted himself, pictured above.

This history of this store and island is long, and tragic. A nearby massacre during the ‘Third Seminole War’ caused the remaining Indigenous people here to flee the Island. Later on, a famous murder of a well known criminal happened right outside the Smallwood Store. You can read more about both, and the 100 year anniversary of the building being raised here.

This is also a great spot to see where the fresh water of the Everglades meets the saltwater of the Florida Bay. Definitely give this place a visit.

Splitting Storms: An Indigenous Folk Protection Charm

For some time now, I have noted the striking similarities between Seminole and Taíno beliefs around Twins and Weather. We even share a simple protection charm to ward off a bad storm I will share to you all.

In Seminole belief, Twins are intrinsically tied to the weather. Many elders believed that keeping twins together can be dangerous, and they should be raised separately. To them, one is Thunder and the other is Lightning, even going as far to saying that having two twins in the same chickee can cause it to be struck.

In Taíno myth, we have two sets of twins associated with weather. Boinayel and Marohu are the Cemi related to the Wet and Dry seasons, Boinayel being the Raingiver and Marohu literally meaning “Without Clouds”. Then we have the ones who I would say share similarities to the Seminole Twins, Coatrisque and Gautaubá. These are Twin sons of the violent aspect of Atabey, known as Guabancex, Cacique of winds. Coatrisque is torrential rains, while Guatauba is Thunder and Lightning himself.

The charm is very well documented in both groups, as well as many others, and very straightforward. It’s the underlying belief that makes these two charms so similar. The linked article from earlier even includes a brief explanation of it.

Basically, when you know a big storm is coming, you want to place an axe in a spot on the front of your house, usually on a piling or piece of the roof that extends below the ground. Tie it down if you wish, for the winds. If you can, do it so the blade looks like it is coming down on the storm. The goal is to split the storm so it goes around the house. If we look at the myths, it’s clear the axe is there to split the Twins from each other, forcing them to go around the house, leaving it protected.

In the Caribbean, in practices like Lúcúmí and Palo Monte, we see the use of Matari, ‘Thunder Stones’. Genuine thunder stones from the Caribbean are actually said to be relics of Taíno axes, shaped like a tear drop almost, either passed down or found and used for various purposes, one being to ward off Lightning and Thunder!

Will Your Kids Know the Glades?

The Everglades are vital to my spiritual practice and lifestyle, as well as that of thousands of other Floridians. Even if you don’t live in the Swamp, its health affects the entire country.

Today, the dangers facing the Everglades are almost as abundant as the dangers inside it. Overdevelopment threatens the entire state. Just like we saw with Split Oak Forest recently. Environmental Protections seem to mean less and less because they don’t have the teeth to defend themselves. Included in these threatened protections is the sovereignty of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes, who just had to fight to keep Big Cypress as a preserve so they can continue their traditional use. They are fighting to hold onto their Land to this day.

All while threatening the Traditional Use by Indigenous Peoples, they continue to allow oil drilling even approving new projects within Big Cypress. The Army Corps of Engineers also heavily harms the environment every year through mismanagement of Okechobee and of the water levels within the Glades. It is up to everyday Floridians to fight to protect and better manage this precious natural resource before its gone forever. It is up to Witches all over to be stewards of our Lands, wherever that is. For us Florida Witches, we need to organize, donate and hex our politicians.

Luz 🕯️

[reasoningdaily]

The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People

The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People

“A powerful and stirring story.”—San Antonio Express-News “An epic tale of desperate, unwitting fugitives who would—without exaggeration—defeat armed forces both white and Indian, make possible settlement of the West, earn the country's highest military honors, and have nothing to show for it.”—Miami Herald

“This fascinating story chronicles the lives of fugitive slaves who aligned themselves with Seminole Indians in Florida beginning in the early 1800s, fought with them in the Second Seminole War, and were removed, along with them to Indian Territory, where they struggled to remain free. To prevent reenslavement, their remarkable leader, John Horse, led much of the group to Mexico. . . . Recommended.”—

Library Journal “Porter spoke directly with Chief Horse's descendants and with older black Seminoles who either knew him or had heard first-hand stories about him. . . .

A gripping account of a people's struggle both for identity and freedom.”—Naples Daily News “This book's sweep is broad, its story is provocative, and the human saga it evokes is compelling.

No exercise in political correctness, this is a detailed, factual account of a remarkable people's struggle for survival over multiple generations and in the face of calamitous challenges. This history will surprise, while it intrigues. Kenneth Porter has made an enduring contribution, for which we are indebted to him.”—Tampa Tribune