Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-02

T HE SEMINOLE Indians are
going to become citizens OF
the United States. For ninety
years the Seminole Nation mas
been at war-theoretically-
with the Government. Now the TOM
ahawk is to be buried, and the young
bucks and fair maidens of OSceola S
lineage are to forego the inheritance
of their fathers and to step out and
onward, henceforth as citizens. Ana
this at their own request.
Thereby hangs a tale--one or the
most tragic in all American history;
tale of slave days; of a proud race
and a prouder chieftain Of that race;
lands to the West: moss-draped Flor
ida, with it's impenetrable everglades;
treachery; dungeons and undying ha-
tired.
This story has two outstanding
characters in it. one Gen. Andrew
Jackson; the other Osceola. proud
chieftain of the Seminoles.
After the battle of New Orleans
Gen, Jackson was at the height
of his popularity as a military hero.
Congress. to reward him for his serv-
ices to the country after that mem
orable battle, voted him the thanks OF
the Nation and made him commander
in-chief of the Southern division OF the
United States Army. This was IN
1915. In 1918, Jackson led an army
against the Seminole Indians, who
were guilty of raids, and pursued them
into Spanish Florida. Here the Sem
inoles were brutally cut down-two
treacherously murdered-and two
Spanish forces captured. Peace was
made. The Seminoles were not alto
cether guilty in the border warfare
which led to this merciless and In
human treatment.
X Il 4 i
TT is now 1885. Seventeen years
have passed; IT soft years in which
Winter has not been unlike Summer
in Magnolia Land. Seventeen years
during which the moon has risen and
faded along the Suwanee, the ST.
Johns and the Withlacoochee, and
love tales have been told innumer-
able times beneath the festoons OF
Spanish moss by tall, dark-eyed Sem
mole lads.
old folks have died during these
long years, and young ones have
grown to manhood and womanhood;
they have married and now have chill
dren of their own playing around the
doorstep. A thousand changes have
taken place over the land
The greatest change in all the coun-
try of the Seminoles has been the
change of the title to the land from
the border of Georgia to the tip of
the peninsula far to the south. When
first the Seminoles We're driven into
the Florida country it was Spanish:
now it is American. 1t has been
American since July 1921, when the
exchange of flags took place between
the Spanish crown and the Govern
ment of the United States. The Sem
inoles are no longer under Spanish
protection. And now the second chap
ter of this drama takes place.
\ u II
y UNAWAY slaves from Georgia and
IA Alabama masters found sanctu-
airy among the Seminoles. They had
been doing so for years. They found
life easier among the Indians than on
the plantations. They did not have
to work so hard and many of them
had plots of ground to work from
their Indian masters.
The runaways irked the masters Of
the South; they sought to bring back
their runaway possessions. AS a
natural result friction occurred be.
tween the Indians and the United
States Government In the Govern.
ment seeking to recover FOR the
Southern planters their property.