Simply Seminole

Created by the Native Americans of southern Florida, Seminole strip piecing is based on a simple form of decorative patchwork. It is a quilting technique perfectly geared for today's tools, fabrics, and lifestyles--a technique that rewards busy quilters with magnificent results in record time. And now, with Simply Seminole, quilters who have mastered the basics can even begin designing their own unique bands! Includes 36 designs, complete with instructions and diagrams.

This definitive account of the final war between the US government and Florida’s Seminole tribe “brings to life a conflict that is largely ignored” (San Francisco Book Review). Spanning a period of over forty years (1817–1858), the three Seminole Wars were America’s longest, costliest, and deadliest Indian wars, surpassing the more famous ones fought in the West. After an uneasy peace following the conclusion of the second Seminole War in 1842, a series of hostile events, followed by a string of murders in 1849 and 1850, made confrontation inevitable. The war was also known as the “Billy Bowlegs War” because Billy Bowlegs, Holata Micco, was the central Seminole leader in this the last Indian war to be fought east of the Mississippi River. Pushed by increasing encroachment into their territory, he led a raid near Fort Myers. A series of violent skirmishes ensued. The vastness of the Floridian wilderness and the difficulties of the terrain and climate caused problems for the army, but they had learned lessons from the second war, and, amongst other new tactics, employed greater use of boats, eventually securing victory by cutting off food supplies. History of the Third Seminole War is a detailed narrative of the war and its causes, containing numerous firsthand accounts from participants in the conflict, derived from virtually all the available primary sources, collected over many years. “Any reader interested in learning more about Indian wars, Army history, or Florida history will profit from reading this book,” as well as Civil War enthusiasts, since many of the officers earned their stripes in the earlier conflict (The Journal of America’s Military Past).

Literature and educational books about Native Americans frequently present stereotypical images or depict the people as they existed hundreds of years ago. Seeking to dispel misrepresentations, this book examines Native American culture as it exists today as well as its historical background. Reproducible activities, biographies of real people, and accurate background information help educators present a realistic and diverse picture of Native Americans in the twentieth century. With each lesson, the authors include a suggested grade level, materials list, objectives, readings, activities, enrichment extensions, and a list of resources for further study. Chapters cover ground rules, homes and environment, growing up and growing old, a day in the life, communications, arts, economics, and socio-political struggles. Appendixes contain oral history guidelines, global information sources, lists of Native media, and related Web sites.

In Our Land Before We Die, Jeff Guinn traces the little-known history of the runaway slaves who fled to the Florida Everglades to live alongside the Seminole Indians. Deeply rooted in tribal oral history, and based on extensive interviews with descendants, this book describes the incredible circumstances of a people who sought shelter in the shadow of a tribe whose land and welfare already hung in the balance. And yet, in their tireless journey-from Florida to Indian Territory in Oklahoma; on the seven-hundred-mile flight from persecution that took them across the Rio Grande into Mexico; and then back across the Rio Grande to Texas-they never surrendered the hope of one day attaining land of their own. Our Land Before We Die brings to life the largely forgotten history of a courageous people and the descendants for whom this story is their only legacy.

Ethnomathematics of Negev Bedouins’ Existence in Forms, Symbols, and Geometric Patterns provokes a journey into the world of Negev Bedouins and attests to the beauty and sophistication of mathematics that occurs naturally in their craftwork, structures, games, and throughout Bedouin life. The major focus is Bedouin women’s traditional craftwork by which they reflect social and cultural activities in their weaving, embroidery, and similar pursuits. Their creations reveal mathematical ideas incorporated in embroidery compositions in repeated patterns of flowers and geometric figures in varying scales. The women use ground staked looms, stabilized by block-stones, to make multi-color, repeating pattern strip-rugs in a process practiced for generations. An image of this appears in the book’s cover photo collage. Bedouin men construct dwellings, tents, desert wells, and such. They and their children play games attuned to sand and other specific desert conditions. These activities of Bedouin women, men, and children require mathematical thinking and strategic reasoning to achieve desired outcomes. The book opens with a narrative of Bedouin history, followed by a brief overview of ethnomathematics, and concludes with discussion about bridging the gap between school mathematics experiences and those outside school. It considers mathematically problematic situations embedded in Bedouin sociocultural heritage likely to appeal to teachers for use with school students. The book is intended for a diverse audience from Bedouin communities in different countries to the general public and professionals, including ethnomathematicians and mathematics educators. Numerous photographs document the examples of Bedouin ethnomathematics. They are the subject of considerable analysis and appear throughout the book.

Chief Zakiya Hahta Nashoba tells a story of how she conquered paper genocide and discovered her Native American roots.

President by Massacre pulls back the curtain of "expansionism," revealing how Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor massacred Indians to "open" land to slavery and oligarchic fortunes. President by Massacre examines the way in which presidential hopefuls through the first half of the nineteenth century parlayed militarily mounted land grabs into "Indian-hating" political capital to attain the highest office in the United States. The text zeroes in on three eras of U.S. "expansionism" as it led to the massacre of Indians to "open" land to African slavery while luring lower European classes into racism's promise to raise "white" above "red" and "black." This book inquires deeply into the existence of the affected Muskogee ("Creek"), Shawnee, Sauk, Meskwaki ("Fox"), and Seminole, before and after invasion, showing what it meant to them to have been so displaced and to have lost a large percentage of their members in the process. It additionally addresses land seizures from these and the Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa, Black Hawk, and Osceola tribes. President by Massacre is written for undergraduate and graduate readers who are interested in the Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands, U.S. slavery, and the settler politics of U.S. expansionism.