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5. The Third Dimension of Physical and Metaphysical Reality
- University of Nebraska Press
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85 5 The Third Dimension of Physical and Metaphysical Reality My Brothers! The white people got some of our chiefs to sign a paper to give our lands to them but our chiefs did not do as we told them to do; they done wrong; we must do right. The agent tells us we must go away from the lands we live on—our homes, and the graves of our Fathers, and go over the big river [the Mississippi] among the bad Indians. When the agent tells me to go from my home, I hate him, because I love my home, and will not go from it. My Brothers! When the Great Spirit tells me to go with the white man, I go: but he tells me not to go. The white man says I shall go, and he will send people to make me go; but I have a rifle, and I have some powder and some lead. I say, we must not leave our homes and lands. If any of our people want to go west, we won’t let them; and I tell them they are our enemies, and we will treat them so, for the Great Spirit will protect us.1 Indian agent Wiley Thompson took charge. On October 21, 1834, Thompson called the Seminole leaders to meet with him at the Seminole Agency at Fort King in Florida for the distribution of their annuity payment. With the annuity money the Seminoles bought powder and lead balls. Thompson called the Seminoles together to talk about removal. He tried to persuade them that the Creeks wanted them to live among them in the West as one people, as they used to 86 Physical and Metaphysical Reality be. Thompson found this a hard argument to make to the Seminoles, especially to Osceola. Outspoken and a proven warrior many times over, Osceola bristled at Thompson and other whites who wanted to remove his people from their Florida homeland. Osceola’s reputation in war and medicine was well known. His credentials in medicine derived from the teaching of his elder friend Abeca, a renowned medicine maker who was also known as Sam Jones.2 This fateful meeting began at 11:00 a.m., as the bright yellow sun approached midday. Leaves of the oak trees had already fallen, marking the cycle of the seasons. Thompson reminded the Seminoles of their previous signing of the Treaty of Fort Gibson on March 28, 1833. A Seminole delegation of several leaders had been transported to visit a potential new homeland in Indian Territory, located west of the Mississippi River. American officials persuaded the delegation to sign a removal treaty. Thompson asked the Seminoles at Fort King several questions and pressed for their responses to support removal . He asked if they would accept the invitation of the Creeks in the West to live next to them in Indian Territory. The agent asked if they wanted cattle or money upon their arrival in the West. He wanted to know if the Seminoles would go by boat or travel over land. Last, Thompson wanted to know if they wanted their next annuity in money or in goods. The Seminoles withdrew to talk among themselves and wished to meet with Thompson later, possibly the next day. As they discussed the situation, Osceola grew furious at the idea of giving up their homeland and being moved to some strange land in the West. In this moment of anger, he rallied the support of his fellow Seminoles with his speech above. Osceola shared the personal experience of rejecting the ways of the whites although he was part white. In 1804 a young Muscogee woman gave birth to a bright young child. The child, who would one day be known as Osceola, was born in a cabin along the Chattahoochee River near present-day Tuskegee , Alabama.3 Osceola was born in a red tvlvn (town) called Tallahassee , which supplied Red Stick warriors to fight and defend other tvlvns, while white tvlvns provided peace leaders and studied the ways of nature; the two categories of communities are described more [3.89.72.221] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:59 GMT) Physical and Metaphysical Reality 87 fully later in this chapter. Young Osceola learned early in life to respect the Chattahoochee and all other waters as water represented one of the four elemental powers of the Muscogee-Seminole universe. In this way of the Muscogee people, Osceola learned the ancient ways...