SW020 Seminole War Interpreter, Craftsman Trades on Past to Preserve Tribe's Future

One of the premises of this podcast is how the Seminole Wars of the 19th century dead past continue to resonate even to our own times. This may be a hard case to make to a Florida population largely transplanted from elsewhere. For those native to the Sunshine State living outside of the reservation, the case is bit easier.

But, for the Seminole, who trace a heritage in Florida back centuries if not millennia, the past is not dead, as the great novelist William Faulkner put it; it is not even past.

Our guest explains how Seminole still think about those wars all the time as part of their upbringing. They listen to stories about the wars passed down from generation to generation. Even as they reflect on what happened to them in the past, though, Seminole keep themselves well prepared for any recurrence of it in the future.

They are, after all, the unconquered Seminole. The tribe that never signed a peace treaty with the US government ending those Florida wars. They have a reputation to sustain.

Not that they long to go back to war with the US government.

I’m just saying.

Joining us is Brian Zepeda, a member of the Panther Clan who calls Naples, Florida as his home. The tribal artist, although raised in a traditional Seminole village on a reservation, credits the importance of learning his trade in art as equally important as the survival skills his multi-generation family instilled in him. He appears as a living history interpreter at various Seminole Wars battle reenactments throughout Florida in state parks and on the Seminole reservation.

Brian offers a rare glimpse into the Seminole perspective on the wars, on how some of the most popular stories about it, such as the fate of Osceola, differ noticeably from the Seminole understanding, and on how the Seminole maintain their culture today while having fully adapted to 21st century America. [Photos courtesy Brian Zepeda]

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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