Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve retells the creation story of the Seminole Indians and then describes their early history, daily way of life, ceremonies, disputes with the U.S. government, and the tribe today. The Seminoles once belonged to the Muskogee tribe, called "Creeks" by the white men who found them living along the streams of southern Alabama and Georgia. To escape the white men and their way of life, some of the Creeks moved south into northern Florida. The white men continued to encroach upon the Seminoles' land, so the Seminoles retreated farther south into the Florida Everglades and soon adapted to their new swampy environment, building houses with the leaves of the palmetto trees that grew there.

The Seminoles once had black slaves, but they treated them well. Many Seminoles married blacks, and the Seminoles' population was increased as runaway slaves fled to Florida and joined them. When slave catchers from the slaveholding states came to reclaim the slaves, the great Seminole leader Osceola hid the blacks and mixed-bloods in the swamps, where they would be safe.

The Seminoles fought the U.S. government in three Seminole Wars to defend their right to stay on their land. The government forced most of the Seminoles to comply with the 1828 Indian Removal Act and to move to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, but some Seminoles managed to remain in Florida. They earned the name of "the people who never surrendered."

Ronald Himler's exquisite paintings depict the Seminoles' way of life and capture the history of a proud people.

From the dust jacket