Maroon hunting and trapping technology is derived from a combination of European, African, and indigenous techniques.

Ndjuka boys setting a kaapana (trap) for birds made from split sticks and baited with grains of rice, Diitabiki, Suriname, 1991.
Photograph by Diana Baird N'Diaye


 

" . . . What the Aluku people really know well and what our ancestors really knew is how to deal with the dangers of the forest."

— Papa Tobu, Aluku elder and village leader, Komontibo, French Guiana, 1991.

 

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Major Charles Aarons and his apprentices making a fishpot, a type of fish trap used by Maroons, Moore Town, Jamaica, 1991.
Photograph by Diana Baird N'Diaye


 

"Together we rode against the white man to preserve our freedom, and together we created a Seminole society from both Indian and African roots."

— Charles Emily Wilson, Seminole Maroon elder and community historian, Brackettville, Texas, 1992

 

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African Seminole leader John Horse (also known as Gopher John and Juan Caballo). Engraving from a line drawing by N. Orr from Joshua Giddings’ The Exiles of Florida, 1858.
Courtesy of The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio


 

"John Horse was the one with Chief Wild Cat that led the group of Seminoles from Florida into Oklahoma . . . he was our black leader."

— William "Dub" Warrior, Seminole Maroon community historian, Brackettville, Texas, 1992

 

 

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Seminole Indian Chief Coacoochee (also known as Wild Cat).  Engraving from a line drawing by N. Orr from Joshua Giddings’ The Exiles of Florida, 1858.
Courtesy of The University of Texas Institute for Texan Cultures at San Antonio

 


 

 

 

 

Man dressed in leaves for ambush holding a jonga (spear), Moore Town, Jamaica, 1978.
Photograph by Jefferson Miller.
Graphic courtesy of Kenneth Bilby


 

"Nanny used nature as her greatest ally . . . She got her warriors and clothed them in vines and green leaves of trees."

— Colonel C.L.G. Harris, leader of the Windward Maroons, Moore Town, Jamaica, 1992

 

 

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Native Americans taught Maroons in Suriname and French Guiana how to use a matapi (plaited straw sieve) to press poisonous juices out of cassava root to make the plant edible. A native plant of the Americas and still grown as a staple food today, cassava root is eaten as flat cakes in some regions and as kwaka (cassava cereal) in others.

Matapi (plaited straw sieve), Suriname, 1997.
Courtesy of Thomas Polimé


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Women peeling cassava for grating, Langa Tabiki, Suriname, 1995.


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Woman grating cassava, Moitaki, Suriname, 1995.


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Matapi (plaited straw sieve) attached to tree to drain the cassava’s poisonous juices, Moitaki, Suriname, 1995.


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Woman sifting cassava, Langa Tabiki, Suriname, 1995.


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Woman stirring kwaka (cassava cereal), Langa Tabiki, Suriname, 1995.


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Woman baking cassava cakes on a griddle, Diitabiki, Suriname, 1991.

Photographs by Thomas Polimé and Diana Baird N’Diaye