In Miami: A Saga, Evelyn Wilde Mayerson describes the lives of five families, starting with the hardy homesteaders of the post civil war era to their descendants who battle the devastation of hurricane Andrew in 1992 (North Suburban). One family in particular, the Miami Doctor-Cypress family, deals with reoccurring problems generation after generation. As members of the Miccosukee tribe, they have issues involving all ethnic groups, primarily the whites, in Miami. The following excerpts demonstrate how four generations of the Miami Doctor-Sally Cypress family fight to keep the Miccosukee tribe alive.
The story begins in the late nineteenth century in the Floridian Pahokee. The Pahahokee was under the threat of white invasion. The whites are encroaching upon the land where the Miccosukee Indians live, leaving the tribe helpless, with no other choice but to sit back and watch the white settlers invade the land that their ancestors lived on for decades. Aside from occupation, the whites burn cabins and desecrate the mound that is sacred to the Miccosukees. These realities form the hostile relationship between the Miccosukees and whites (Mayerson, BBBT 185).
Miami Doctor is a young but important member of the Miccosukee tribe. He is always under a watchful eye, especially by his uncle Willie Tiger who is headman. Willie and the rest of the family teach Miami Doctor everything he knows about the white man and medicine. Before seeing the white man firsthand, he has a curious and naive view of the settlers. After his encounter with whites, he realizes that they bring nothing but trouble to his tribe (186-7).
It was Willie Tiger and Sally's mother who thought that Sally and Miami Doctor should marry. Miami Doctor needs some convincing because Sally was older than he and had a half-white child who was left in a tree to die (Mayerson, Miami: A Saga 42). Miami Doctor always feels as though his wife does not want to be his wife.
