Grandpa and the Swamp

My grandfather was born on the Choctaw portion of Indian Country in Oklahoma and joined the brand new Air Force in WW1. After the war, he came home to find that his family's land allotment (it was oil rich) had been stolen following his parent’s deaths in the Great Flu epidemic. And he had no home. He decided to put some of his tracking skills to use and went to Florida looking for the Muskogee/Seminole branch of his family. He had often heard about his father’s family but didn't know much about them, only some names and approximately where they might be. This was in the 1920's and they were a part of the Seminole resisters still hiding out in the everglades.

Well, finding them was not so easy. He tramped around in those swamps for about 3 weeks and only his star finding navigational skills kept him from getting totally lost. One day he bent down to a clear running spring to get a drink of water and when he looked up a big cotton-mouth snake was looking him right in the eyes. And just that fast an arrow lodged itself in the snakes head! He looked up to see an arm and bow retreating into a tree.

He never found the hidden Seminole. Grandpa did not look traditional with his military haircut and white man's clothes but he was very dark skinned and obviously Ndn. He told us that when that snake was shot he realized that for sometime someone had been keeping an eye on him and made a point to keep him from getting hurt. But...they couldn't be sure they could trust him and so he wasn't allowed to find them.

In the end he decided that, if they couldn't be found at least they were relatively safe for the time being. He then went back to Baton Rouge, where he had been stationed for a time, and married my Grandmother.

Story told by Mawb