UNF professor tries to shed light on Southeastern Indian tribe

[Tacachale]

Interesting article on the Yamasee, a majorly important Native American people in the early 18th century who go mostly undiscussed today. UNF history prof Denise Bossy is writing a book on them, which I am greatly looking forward to. A group in Orange Springs, Florida near Ocala identifies as the Oklevueha Band of Yamasee Seminoles.

The Yamasee Indians were hard to pin down.

That was a necessary survival strategy for the Southeastern native people, who as the 1600s bled into the 1700s found themselves caught between rival Indian groups and Europeans trying to capture them for slaves, land-hungry American colonists, and the ruling powers of the British in South Carolina and the Spanish in St. Augustine.

It worked this way, says Denise Bossy, a University of North Florida history professor who's writing a book on the Yamasee: They made themselves valuable to the British when convenient, to the Spanish when needed. They took in new members, new life, including other Indians and many escaped African slaves. They joined other tribes, including the disparate groups that eventually become known in Florida as the Seminole.

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http://jacksonville.com/reason/2017-05-15/unf-professor-tries-shed-light-southeastern-indian-tribe