Review
The stories of three great Indian leaders: Osceola, Tecumseh and Cochise who fought bravely for rights to their lands. Osceola fought in a deadly Florida swamp; Tecumseh tried to unite all the tribes; Cochise became a great warrior when a promise was broken. Ann McGovern's biographies are masterful." --
Teacher's Guide, 9/2/70
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From A Season of Fear: All that winter the frontier was aflame. The people of Florida slept restlessly. Who could tell when a cabin or a barn would suddenly be set on fire?
Would they wake to see a band of armed Indians at their window?
It was a season of fear. Then it was spring. And, for the Seminoles, it was a season of hunger. There had been no time to plant corn or to hunt game in the forest. Their cattle had long since been taken by the whites.
Sometimes the warriors told their women and children to stay hidden in the swamps. They dared not then come out to hunt or fish. Sometimes the women and children went hungry for hours, even days, shivering in their wet, cold clothes.
They longed for their homes, their villages, and their cornfields and gardens in their light, bright, sunlit world. Now their homes were the dark swamps where wild, tangled greens hid them from enemy eyes.
Sometimes, from the swamps where they lay hidden they could hear the enemy coming close. Then quickly the Seminole women would bury the children in pits they had dug. They would cover their children's faces with palm leaves and warn them softly not to c ry out. Only when their children were safe, would they look to themselves. Then they hid in the water, covering their faces with lily pads.
Yet great as their suffering was the Seminoles would not give up.
