The 181st Anniversary Seminole
MaroonSpiritual Remembrance

The 181^st anniversary of two 1838 battles which changed the history of Palm Beach County, Florida, and the Nation, will be commemorated with the Annual Seminole Maroon Spiritual Remembrance ceremony at historic Loxahatchee Battlefield Park, in Jupiter, Florida, on Sunday, January 20, 2019 (the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend), from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The Battlefield is adjacent to Riverbend Park, 9060 West Indiantown Road (one mile west of Florida’s Turnpike and I-95).

The popular Annual Remembrance honors the memory of the fallen on both sides, with multicultural prayers and interactive rituals, historical presentations and displays, “Village Talk” for open community participation, and concludes with Battlefield tours conducted by Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists.

A Pivotal Moment in History
The occasion commemorates the two encounters 181 years ago when approximately 200 Native and African American Seminoles (largely survivors of the Christmas Day, 1837 Battle of Okeechobee farther north) confronted first a U.S. Naval expeditionary force, which they ambushed and defeated on January 15, in “Powell’s Battle”; and secondly a much larger force of 1,500 U.S. troops and Tennessee Volunteers, which succeeded in dispersing but not defeating the surviving Seminoles on January 24, in “Jesup’s Battle.”

(Survivors would later be lured to Fort Jupiter under a white flag of truce, where they were captured and deported on the Trail of Tears to present-day Oklahoma, where their descendants still reside, with branches in Texas and Mexico, while some being turned over to “slave catchers” as pretended “recaptured runaways” and taken northward into the Southern states to be sold.)

Months later, remaining survivors in Florida would be further dispersed, and impoverished, following the final significant battle of the Second Seminole War, near present-day Fort Lauderdale, but it was the Battles of the Loxahatchee that finally broke effective Seminole defense in Florida against settler encroachment in what had been “Freedom Land” for self-liberating Native and African Americans.

All Are Welcome
As throughout the more than two decades since the first annual Remembrance, this occasion welcomes all to a spiritual experience which combines historical information and education with prayerful meditations, particularly on Dr. King’s profound teachings on nonviolence as we honor the victims of warfare at a sacred site, consecrated by every life that was touched by the two battles fought there.

Admission is open and free to the public.

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