It’s rodeo season here in Houston! The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo begins tomorrow, March 1, and boasts the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world. Rodeo performances have been popular since the late 19th century, and most are familiar with the events that comprise professional rodeos, such as team roping, steer wrestling, and bull riding; however, many rodeo-goers may be unfamiliar with the key role that Black and African Americans have played in the development of the all-American sport.
Read moreSeminole Freedmen and Black Native Citizenship
The widespread recognition of Native Americans’ participation in and profit from the institution of slavery is relatively new. More attention has been focused on the issue with recent re-evaluations of the United States’ history of racism, and it remains a complex issue for many Americans who identify as both Black and Native. This history of enslavement of African Americans and people of African descent by Native Americans results in bureaucratic, political, and social challenges for descendants of those enslaved, such as the Seminole Freedmen, or Black Seminoles.
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