American History on Christmas Eve

Picture of John Horse from Beyond Tourism: Florida's Yesteryear

In the sad history of America's treatment of both Native Americans and Africans, here is an amazing tale of Christmas Eve, 1837:

Each Christmas Eve marks the anniversary of a battle for liberty in 1837 on the banks of Lake Okeechobee, Florida, that helped shape the United States of America. An estimated 380 to 480 freedom-fighting African and Indian members of the Seminole nation threw back more than a thousand U.S. Army and other troops led by Colonel Zachary Taylor, a future President of the United States. The Seminoles so badly mauled Taylor’s invasion force that he ordered his soldiers to fall back, bury their dead, tend to their wounded . . . and ponder the largest single US defeat in decades of Indian warfare. The battle of Lake Okeechobee is not a story you will find in school or college textbooks or Hollywood movies, so it has slipped from the public consciousness. But in a country that cherishes its gallant freedom-fighting heritage, Black and Red Seminoles of Florida in 1837 sent everyone a message that deserves to be remembered and honored.

Despite what really happened, Colonel Taylor would claim victory, receive a promotion in the military, and eventually become elected President of the United States based on his reputation as an "Indian Fighter".  But the fight put forth by this mixed raced group of Seminoles is an amazing symbol of struggle against both the institution of slavery, as well as the American slaughter of Native Americans and the takeover of their land.  Read more about it at William Lorenz Katz's website here.