Letter archive of future Florida Seminole leader Moses Jumper, 1943-44

Archive of five letters from future Seminole leader Moses Jumper while attending high school in Cherokee, North Carolina, 1943-44. Sent to James Y. Black, twelve pages in total, the letters provide a glimpse of Jumper prior to his enlistment during World War II, where he became one of the first Seminoles recorded to have joined the U. S. Navy. In his letter of May 1, 1944, Jumper writes:

I sure have something to tell you now. You said the Seminola did not want the boys to go and fight. Well we have two Seminola boys in the Armed force. One in the Marines, and one in the Navy. They want to fight but they do not want to be taken order from the Indian Service men, and I don't blame them.

Moses Jumper (1926-1992) would go on to marry Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, the second Tribal Council Chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the only woman to have served in that post. Together they helped to organize the Seminole Tribe of Florida, achieving federal recognition in 1957.