The Big Cypress Shootout

Fight on the Florida frontier: Big Cypress Shootout brings Second Seminole War to life

By Lance ShearerBefore Mao Zedong, before the Viet Cong, long before Iraq and Afghanistan, the Seminole Tribe of Florida showed the United States how frustrating and costly asymmetrical warfare can be.

The tribe, still known as the “Unconquered Seminole Tribe” for good reason, will host a re-enactment of the skirmishes of the Second Seminole War on Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3, at Billie Swamp Safari in an event called the Big Cypress Shootout.

As a Neapolitan, you could be forgiven for assuming something called the Big Cypress Shootout is a golf tournament, but this shootout will feature rougher roughs, “shootin’ irons” instead of nine irons, and musket balls rather than golf balls. Actually, the muskets carried by the re-enactors, will be fired repeatedly but won’t be shotted, and if all goes according to plan, the battles over the weekend will end with Army and Indian participants shaking hands and perhaps sharing a cold one.

But from 1835 to 1842, the fighting was deadly, in what was the longest, costliest and bloodiest of the wars fought by the Army against the native peoples. The re-enactments will feature colorful costumes and uniforms, mounted soldiers, musket fire and booms of cannon detonations.Comment:  For more on the Seminoles, see Seminole Tree Proposed as Historic Place and Indians, Terrorists = US Enemies.

Below:  "The Seminole Tribe will present a re-enactment of the Second Seminole War at the Big Cypress Shootout at Billie Swamp Safari from March 2-3, 2013. The Seminoles’ struggle to remain on their homeland will be re-enacted and will feature authentic weapons, attire and tactics typical of the war."