From the 1820s into the 1850s, our U.S. government made war on the Seminole Indians of Florida, killing some, and as in any war, both sides lost lives.
Pamela Haag’s new account, The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture, informs that Colt’s gun factory, then of Paterson, N.J., at one point in the late 1830s delivered 500 rifles and a few pistols to Col. William Harney for use against the Seminoles. Some Seminole dead were women and children in their homes. Ironically, the central location of present-day Orlando coincides with the final Seminole lands, before they were made to walk west.
The tragic Pulse killing this week is nearly 200 years later, and in the same vicinity, and with loss of innocent lives, as in the Seminole Wars. Ironically, some news announcements call the Pulse tragedy the largest loss of death in mass killing in the U.S., while others qualify that with “in modern times.” The latter admits our extermination of Native Americans, also in large, tragic numbers – in Florida and other places.
LYNN RUDMIN CHONG
Sanbornton