BLACK INDIANS
compiled by Dee Finney
6-4-03 - DREAM - I was living and working in an apartmnet building - seemingly Milwaukee. The whole thing was really weird but here goes: I was standing in my apartment and my granddaughter Taylar came in with a few femalte native Indian dolls. For some reason this very sad and I picked up the dolls and hugged them. As I laid the doll and its companions donw on a counter to wrap them in dark blue paisly paper, a wizened old native American woman appeared on my left side and handed me many other indian dolls which I also wrapped up in the dark blue paisley paper. The woman went away. from behind me I heard a noise and when I turned I saw a squirrel in an air vent high up on the wall. The vent screen was loose. I could see it was going to get out, so I turned to look for something I oculd capture the squirrel in and all of a sudden the squirrel jumped down on my bed with a companion squirrel. That panicked me. I was going to run to my right but a big rectangular (taller than wide) red vat of red blood appeared and that panicked me even more. So I grabbed my red jacket and purple sweater, my glasses, and all the indian dolls and ran for the door. When I was in the hallway, I saw that I had been in apartment 210 and that the door didn't close so I imagined that the squirrels would get out and get into other people's apartments. I didn't knowo what kind of havoc that would cause. I met some people down on the 1st floor after I went down the stairs - who were looking for someone - it was a father and son, all dressed in white. I went into the office and laid all the indian dolls on the counter and the wrappings came undone. Now I saw that all these indian dolls were also black. the dolls looked thin and guant like they were starving. I wanted to wrap them up again, but some men came into the office who were like authority figures, first a guy fromt he government hwo was looking for the maintenance man. I told him his name was Keith (means from the battlefield) He didn't seem to want to believe me. Then the locksmith named Ward came in - he had a radio with him that was broadcasting the police calls from New York City and he showed me a game he had that folded up and out that showed a series of cops in various position - each one with a gold or ocpped indented button somehwere on their boides and then he handed me a gun to shoot at the cops and kill them - in the game. I noticed that that Iwas wearing a communication evice as a headpiece with a microphone and hearing piece so I could communicate with the cop sin New York City in real time. All of a sudden a large mirror appeared in front of me. I was off to the side enough so I couldn't see my reflection, but I felt a change come ove rme and I was afraid to look in the mirror to see what I looked like. Off to my right was the real me I thought, bu tas I turned the face kept changing and all the faces were males - not all young and not all old - but all male - I wanted to look in the mirror to see who I had become, but I was afraid to see it. |
| In the Southeast many of the run away slaves were taken in by
the Seminoles. They were tribal people fighting oppression and they were
treated as such.
After being brought to America as slaves, thousands of Africans fled to the swamps and marshes of Florida. There they formed an alliance with another group of settlers, refugees from the Creek and other nations who called themselves Seminoles, meaning runaway, and a new race emerged: The Black Seminoles. As early as the 1700's, there were over 100,000 black Indians. The Black Seminole Indian Scouts proved to be some of the most skilled fighters and trackers of the post -- Civil War era. No amount of gallantry, however, won them the land promised under the treaties signed by both General Zachary Taylor and President James Polk. In addition, an ungrateful army later cut their rations. Bitterly disillusioned, many of the scouts left for Mexico, never to return. Today the remaining members of the Black Seminole nation live primarily along the Rio Grande. The history of the Southeast is where most inter-mixing of the blacks and natives took place, but it also took place in other places such as with the Wampoanog in the Northeast and the West. Here a Mountain Man named James Beckwourth, a mulatto who became know as "Bloody Arm", was a well respected warrior who, as legend has it, married into the Crow Nation. Slavery did not consist of only white people owning black people. Actually there were many blacks who were free and many natives that were slaves and many Indians who owned black slaves. During the Revolutionary War many native prisoners were taken for the use of being sold as slaves. There have been thousands and thousands of intermarriages between blacks and Indians -- with whole Indian tribes disappearing into the black community, often enslaved in the process. Blacks have similarly been absorbed by Indian tribes. This was largely do to the fact that until 1909 it was against the law to live in the Southeast and be Native American. It was better to be passed off as black and in slavery than to be removed to Indian Territory. As a result, there are many people of African descent, who, despite their outward appearances, identify as strongly with their Native heritage as any other. In 1879, black Cherokees petitioned for full citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, declaring, "It is our country. There we were born and reared. There are our homes. There are our wives and children, whom we love as dearly as though we were born with red, instead of black skins." Citizenship was granted.
|
Burial Sites of Black Indians Skullyville Black Choctaws at Skullyville Indian Cemetery Old Agency Cemetery - African Creek Cemetery
|