Video
Program Booklet
Local Coverage of the Seminole Maroon Reunion
From the South Florida Times, January 12, 2023
“BLACK BORDER WARRIORS: THE SEMINOLE NEGRO INDIAN SCOUTS”: The Best Documentary winner at the 2018 Black International Cinema Berlin will be shown Friday, Jan. 13, at 6:30 p.m. at Palm Beach State College, Palm Beach Gardens Campus, 3160 PGA Blvd, Meldon Hall, Room BB111. The awardwinning film tells the epic story of Seminole Maroons exiled from their settlements in Florida. The screening is part of activities commemorating the 185-Year Anniversary of the1838 Second Seminole War at Loxahatchee River Battlefield on Indiantown Rd. in Jupiter, Jan. 11-15, and includes a question/answer session with Minnesota filmmaker Joseph Hill.
The landmark "Reunion" will bring together Seminole Maroon ("Black Seminole") descendants and friends
from around the Maroon Diaspora – Oklahoma, Mexico, Texas, the Bahamas, Florida itself, and beyond – on their Ancestral homeland, at the site of the two decisive 1838 Battles of the Loxahatchee River during the "Second Seminole War." Indigenous architect Chris Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico, and founding principal of studio:indigenous, will provide the final keynote address on Sunday, Jan. 15, the weekend of MLK holiday.
Included in the five-day commemorative event are a tour of historic sites in and around Palm Beach County that are related to the pivotal events of the Second Seminole War that culminated at Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park; a twoday symposium and keynote presentations on The Negro Fort, Angola and the Bahamas, The Trail of Tears and the Oklahoma Seminole Bands, Texas, Mexico and the Seminole Indian Scouts will be hosted by Palm Beach State College; and a two-day slate of programs commemorating the historic military site. Visit eventbrite.com or fbhrpinc.org.
Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc. Receives National Grant Funding
Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc. (FBHRP) has received $50,000 from Telling the Full History Preservation Fund—a grant program from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, made possible through the National Endowment for the Humanities under the American Rescue Plan.
The funding enables the planning and presentation of a five-day “185-Year Seminole Maroon Family Reunion,” on January 11-15, 2023, a physical and virtual gathering in Jupiter Florida (in present-day Palm Beach County), site of the two pivotal 1838 Battles of the Loxahatchee River during the Second Seminole War, which significantly altered the course of full American history.
The event also marks the 25th anniversary of the groundbreaking “160-Year Family Reunion” held in 1998, which brought Oklahoma Seminole Maroon (“Black Seminole” or “Estelusti”) descendants (of Trail of Tears survivors) to their Ancestral homeland of Florida for the first time, garnering remarkably broad local interest and support, and establishing permanent networks and exchanges which continue today, with January’s event expanding to include Maroon descendant communities in Mexico, Texas, and the Bahamas as well as Oklahoma and Florida itself.
FBHRP is one of 80 organizations that received $25,000 or $50,000 grants to interpret and preserve historic places of importance that embody the history of underrepresented communities in our nation.
Telling the Full History grants support the core activities of humanities-based organizations as these organizations recover from the pandemic, using historic places as catalysts for a more just and equitable society. To learn more about this program, visit Forum.SavingPlaces.org/tellingthefullhistoryfund.