November 2022

Seminole Days 2022

Seminole Days 2022 was amazing! This Seminole Days, the first we've been able to celebrate in-person since 2019, was one of the most well-attended celebrations. We appreciated everyone who took the time to travel to Brackettville to help us celebrate and honor the legacy of the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts. Enjoy a few of the photos that were taken during the event.

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Johnny Montgomery's Latest Paintings

We were honored to have Johnny Montgomery attend Seminole Days. He brought several of his paintings along with him. They were displayed in the Carver School throughout the weekend. He calls his work "cultural art." Many of his paintings depict Black Seminoles  and important events from our history. 

November is Native American Heritage Month

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November is Native American Heritage Month.

From Wikipedia:"On August 3, 1990, President of the United States George H. W. Bush declared the month of November as National American Indian Heritage Month, thereafter commonly referred to as Native American Heritage Month. The bill read in part that 'the President has authorised and requested to call upon Federal, State and local Governments, groups and organisations and the people of the United States to observe such month with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities.' This landmark bill honouring America's tribal people represented a major step in the establishment of this celebration which began in 1976 when a Cherokee/Osage Indian named Jerry C. Elliott-High Eagle authored Native American Awareness Week legislation the first historical week of recognition in the nation for native peoples. This led to 1986 with then-President Ronald Reagan proclaiming November 23–30, 1986, as 'American Indian Week.'
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This commemorative month aims to provide a platform for Native people in the United States of America to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways and concepts of life. This gives Native people the opportunity to express to their community, both city, county and state officials their concerns and solutions for building bridges of understanding and friendship in their local area. Federal Agencies are encouraged to provide educational programs for their employees regarding Native American history, rights, culture and contemporary issues, to better assist them in their jobs and for overall awareness."
For more information, click the button below

Native American Heritage Month

4th Annual Texas Veterans Hall of Fame
​Induction Ceremony - Denton, TEXAS

Members of the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association will be participating in the 4th Annual Texas Veterans Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The event will take place in Denton, Texas. The four Medal of Honor recipients buried at the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery will be honored. They are Adam Payne, Isaac Payne, John Ward, and Pompey Factor. Clarion Windus, the fifth Medal of Honor recipient who is buried at the Masonic cemetery in Brackettville, will also be honored. 
​For more information, click the button below.

Texas Veterans

Gullah Homecomings Symposium:
Four Sierra Leone - Gullah Homecomings

Another important event will be taking place in December. The Four Sierra Leone - Gullah Homecomings will take place on Saturday, December 3, beginning at 2PM EST at the Auditorium of the Technical College of the Low Country (104 Reynolds Street, Beaufort, SC 29902).
For more information and to purchase tickets, click the button below: 

Buy Tickets at Eventbrite

The Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc:
Telling the full history

One of our sister organizations received a grant that will enable them to present their annual spiritual rememberance/family reunion for five days in January. Make plans to attend this important event.

FLORIDA BLACK HISTORICAL RESEARCH PROJECT, INC. RECEIVES NATIONAL GRANT FUNDINGFlorida 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.

Florida Black Hisotrical Research Project Inc

membership

Is it time to renew your membership? Our website makes it easy. Just click the button below to become a new member or to renew your membership. Or you can send us your check or money order by mail, if you prefer. Your membership is very important to us. There truly is strength in numbers. Become a member of the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association today. Thank you!

Membership

We want to say "thank you" to everyone who has supported SISCA, especially in recent months, as we prepared for Seminole Days and during Seminole Days. We truly cannot thank you enough.