This reminded me of something I read not too very long ago in the Panton-Leslie Papers. The pelts were listed under the species then condition. I believe it said there was a larger 'trade value' on Panther and Bear. The run of the mill Beaver, Coon, Deer and some gators were less in their trade value. Someone noted years ago they didn't see any snake skin in the papers. I don't remember seeing that item but I'd guess it was because anyone could go pull up a rock and get their own if they were so inclined. Still can in most areas. I killed a Pygmy Rattler last summer. It had the nerve to slither through my flower bed. I sent it back to Slitheryn in pieces. May have been a Malfoy for all I know.

Although the Panton-Leslie stuff is before the WBTS it does give a real insight into the relationship between the different people in the area. They had 'outpost' in a few areas of Alabama and I believe just one in Georgia. Sort of like substations. The Creek traded at one, the Cherokee at another. I saw Choctaw mentioned and I'd think they went to the one in Baldwin County. The reason hubby's however many G's Grandfather missed being in the mess at Ft Mims was because he was on a trading mission. Being a Creek and having Weatherford as a brother in law had to make for some interesting conversation at the outpost. Add the fact that his sister's (sister in law to Weatherford) husband was killed inside Mims I would have RSVP'd NO to a family reunion invite myself. Messy stuff happened back then. Even after McGillivary became a partner in the Panton-Leslie business it was tricky business, that dealing with the tribes. We think politics has advanced? Wrong. It's backslid. Yes I am going somewhere with this mess.

Even then, with the tribes willing to turn on each other, there was some loyalty even in a split family. One member may well have hated the ground the other walked on but when push came to shove, they'd stand next to each other to fire off rounds at an intruder. After they finished that, they may have gone back to fisticuffs on each other. It never changed. The Cherokee, in hopes they would benefit from it, aided Jackson in his attempt to remove every Indian from the Eastern part of the United States. After their part in Horseshoe Bend, why were they surprised he turned on them? It wasn't a secret. He hated Indians. The expanding the Georgians partook of was into the Indian lands into Alabama. Then ol Andy headed South and it was Katie bar the door for the poor mismatched band that called themselves Seminole. Many of them were Black.

Now, if we have the written accounts of the infighting going on in the ranks of the Tribes, add to it the dealing with the devil, 'scuse me, Andy J, and we know they joined together at one point in time believing it would be in their best interest to do so, how can we dismiss any account that a Colored Man picked up a weapon and used it not on the Confederate, but the Union soldiers? Life isn't logical. Real events aren't logical. Doesn't mean they aren't true or they never happened.

Pam