The year 2013 marks the Centennial anniversary of the end of Native American incarcerations in America. To commemorate this chapter in Native American history - one that would reshape Indian-White relations in the United States forever, a Gathering of all Indian tribes with members imprisoned or incarcerated at Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) has been proposed by The Seminole Tribe of Florida.

   The proposal was outlined in a lengthy treatise recounting the struggle between American and native forces, ended in 1913.

   Some say it was Mayor Joe Boles abruptly hanging up on a conference call that soured Seminole interest in the proposal, though he maintained he had another appointment.

   Read the complete proposal here.

   Excerpts:

   The Americans were the first to use Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) as a prison. In October 1837, the fort was crowded with several hundred prisoners. Along with Osceola, many of the important Seminole chiefs had been captured and were now behind fort walls.

   In 1875, Richard Henry Pratt transported a small group of 72 Indian prisoners to St. Augustine. These men, women, and children were shackled and transported by rail to Ft. Marion prison, far from their homelands to a hot, humid climate unfamiliar to them.

   At arrival, Pratt removed the prisoners' shackles and forced cultural assimilation by cutting their hair and issuing them military uniforms. The Indians were expected to polish their buttons and shoes and clean and press their trousers.

   In 1878, Fort Marion's prisoners were given the freedom to leave the fort unchaperoned. Some found employment as day laborers in the neighboring communities. Pratt encouraged the Indians to seek more education, and seventeen went to Hampton University. Others were educated at private colleges in the state of New York. All funds for their education were raised by private benefactors.

   Aside from Pratt's improvements, the steamy Florida lowlands were harsh for the Chiricahuas. They struggled to survive in an impossibly overcrowded, mosquito-infested environment.

   Accustomed to the dry Southwest, the Apaches were affected by the extreme humidity; given meager rations, the prisoners grew malnourished and sick. Lacking access to traditional medicinal plants, the Chiricahuas were helpless to stem the tide of disease.

   By 1889, 119 of the 498 Chiricahuas were dead. 82 of the prisoners were men, and not more than 15 of them had been resisters in the previous years. Even the children who were sent to the Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania succumbed. Approximately a hundred students arrived at Carlisle in 1886, and some 27 would die three years later.

   Image: Plains Indian prisoners arriving at Fort Marion, Unknown photographer, about 1875, Courtesy Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Image 1004474