But a couple of hundred Seminoles hid in the Everglades, led by such legendary chiefs as Osceola and Billy Bowlegs, where they camped out for decades and resisted government forces. Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the vast majority of tribe members were forcibly relocated to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma, over 1,000 miles to the west. Known as the “unconquered tribe”, they have long boasted of their status as the only Native American tribe to refuse to sign a peace treaty with the US government. In many ways, the flashy new building is a fitting symbol of Seminole defiance. Following centuries of persecution and displacement, the tribe now has just over 4,000 members, scattered across six sites around the state and headquartered in the 500-acre Hollywood reservation, where the Hard Rock hotel now stands. The hotel is the work of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, a Native American group whose population on the peninsula numbered 200,000, when Spanish colonisers first arrived in the 1500s. And it is all the more remarkable given that it has been built by a community that was almost hounded from existence. It is an unlikely thing to find standing in the middle of this non-place of parking lots, dive bars and pawn shops.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |