Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1914 — UNJUST TO SEMINOLES [ARTICLE]

UNJUST TO SEMINOLES

WRITER CRITICIZES COURSE OF THE UNITED STATES. Indians Justified in Their Resistance to Removal From Their Lands, According to the Rev. Thomae B. Gregory. It was 68 years ago that the Dade massacre took place near Fort Drane, in Florida, writes the Rev. Thomas H. Gregory. Major Dade and his command of 100 men were attacked by the Seminoles and completely wiped out, only four of the force escaping. The head and front of the Seminole war, in the course of which this “massacre” occurred, was Osceola, as pure a patriot and as gallant fighter as ever broke Into history. The Seminoles were dissatisfied with' a treaty that a few chiefs had made for their emigration west of the Mississippi, and when Gen. Thompson was sent to remove them by force they arose, under the leadership of Osceola, and began fighting for the land that .had come down to them from their fathers. They did just what the Americans would certainly have done under similar conditions. The United States troops were invaders and the Seminoles resisted them. Major Dade and his men were invaders and the Seminoles killed them. The fact that a little bunch of chiefs, assisted by American “diplomacy” and firewater, had made a “treaty” giving away their country did not seem sufficiently sacred to the red men to justify them in submitting to the American claims. Osceola fought like a lion for two years' against vastly. superior numbers, and in 1837 was made a prisoner by General Jesup, while holding a conference with him under a flag of truce, and imprisoned in Fort Moultrie until his death which took place two years later. Beaten in the field and bereft of their great leader, the Seminoles retired to the swampy fastnesses of the everglades and kept up the fight for five years longer, successfully resisting the onslaughts of more than 16,000 American troops. To this day the descendants of the Seminoles are to be found in the big Florida swamp, preserving in their features and in their courage the characteristics of their stalwart and gamy ancestors. Osceola had every cause to hate the white man. His wife was seized as a slave, and when he protested and threatened revenge he was seized by Gen. Thompson and imprisoned for six days in irons. For this outrage Osceola killed Thompson, for doing which he was dubbed a “ferocious savage” and declared an outlaw. Great is the mystery of the white man’s justice! It is no wonder that the children of the forest were never able to understand the ethics and religion of the paleface.