(dramatic music)
- Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.
In the 1800s, it was called Fort Marion.
And Fort Marion served the U.S. Army in a number of ways.
One of the more unique ways was that it was a prison for Native Americans.
In 1886, there were over 500 Apache prisoners brought here.
Many visitors to the fort ask about Geronimo.
This group, they are his people.
But he never makes it to the fort.
However, his wives and children do.
In fact, one of his wives has a baby here.
The fort was never meant for that, for women to be giving birth.
It's not sanitary for people to live in long-term, diseases are a problem,
and so eventually this group, after about seven, eight months,
they're moved from Fort Marion to Alabama.
But the same thing kind of happens there.
So they're moved from Alabama to Oklahoma.
They don't get released until 1913 or 14.
It was three decades of imprisonment for their people.
You know, today the Castillo, it holds a lot
of different memories for a lot of different groups of people
and I encourage you to come here and explore what it holds for you.
But I can tell you one of the unique things left behind from these periods,
there's ledger art that the Plains Indians created,
and there are engravings done into the wall by the prisoners.
And truly, those physical things help tell their story.
So please, come, check it out.