Like many Americans, my ancestors came to this land as immigrants. The first, Scottish highlander William MacTavish, arrived to America in the 1700s,, looking for a new home and a new life. He found it, along with a wife, a squaw from the Seminole Indian Tribe in Florida.
My great-great grandmother was Seminole, a true native of this place called America. Like too many of what are the true Native Americans, her tribe fond hardships and broken promises. The Seminole Tribe never signed a peace treaty with the European squatters who took control of the land. The Seminoles consider their nation still at war.
My ancestry is mostly Scottish. William MacTavish later changed his surname to Thompson, partly because of discrimination against Scots at the time. I also have some Seminole in my genes, along with traits of Black Irish. Stored away in one of our closets is the MacTavish tartan from County MacTavish.
Notes the history of Clan MacTavish:
Qualified statement: Thom(p)son styled surnames within Clan MacTavish, are those who descend from a MacTavish ancestor, and, who Anglicized or aliased their surname. As ‘Thomas’ derived surnames are extremely prevalent in Scotland, such names have multiple, diverse and storied origins, thusly not all with these names are related to each other whatsoever, or to Clan MacTavish. There was a Thomas, Tom, or Tommy, in nearly every glen in Scotland, making it impossible for all with such Thomas surnames to be related to any single or particular group, family, or clan. For instance, there are Thomsons in the Highland Clan MacThomas, who are not related to Clan MacTavish. There are also Thomsons who originate in the Borders and Lowlands who are not of Celtic/Gaelic stock, and also not related to either Clan MacTavish, or to Clan MacThomas.
I bring all this up because of the escalating murder of immigrants in the United States because of the the Immigrations Customs Enforcement (ICE) American Gestapo murders of valid immigrants and U.S. citizens. Their deaths come because of the wannabe fascist dictator, convicted felon and sexual predator Donald Trump, whose White Supremacist actions are plundering the land we love and the democracy we are losing.
Trump is a bigot who wants a nation where Nationalist hate dominates. His appointed Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who brags he is really Trump’s “Secretary of War, is firing officers of color and females in gender while declaring America must be a “Christian nation.” He vows to drive out other religions in a nation what should be a diverse country. Trump frequently endorses candidates who preach racism, bigotry and violence.
Miscreants like Trump, Hegseth and cowardly Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson are destroying what little is left of the America that we once loved and a home my ancestor William MacTavish wanted to become part of centuries ago. Even though he faced discrimination, he pressed on to remain.
As a 78-year-old man with a heart condition and a wireless pacemaker in the lower cavity of my heart, I hope to spend whatever time I have left on this earth to help those who want to remove Trump from office and see that he is charged, tried and sent to prison for the rest of his toxic, demented life for treason. That outcome is the only real way to Make America Great Again.
My great-great grandmother was a proud member of The Seminole Indian Tribe of of Florida. Rather than surrender, more than 300 members of the Tribe disappeared into the Everglades. The remain there as part of the Seminole Indian Nation in Oklahoma, along with the Apalachicola Tribe and 34 Muscogees — all are part of the Seminole Nation.