Matilda Houstoun

In 1882, English travel writer Matilda Charlotte Houstoun wrote about her previous visit to Fort Pike and described the imprisoned Seminoles’ lively time playing games and dancing while imprisoned at the fort and that the Seminole people “appeared to set but little value on money and no doubt they would have preferred ‘whiskey or rum.’” Houstoun's attitude reflects ignorant, racist notions colonizers promoted to justify indigenous genocide and displacement. These negative stereotypes persist today. [3]