About the Author

Bran M.P. Brooks, DPM, MPH, FACPM, FASPS, is a Catholic, husband, father, and seventh-generation Native Floridian (Ethnic Floridian). Dr. Brooks is a Dartmouth-educated historian, board-certified podiatric surgeon-scientist, and the current Chief of Podiatry at a large health care system in the southeastern United States. Dr. Brooks has authored dozens of peer-reviewed publications, lectured to thousands of people across ten states, and won numerous awards for his research. His hundreds of awards from Catholic schools in Florida are only rivaled by his siblings, Drs. Brad M. Brooks, DO (Psychiatrist and Addictionologist), and Brady M. Brooks, DO (Diagnostic Radiologist). Of note, Dr. Brooks remains the youngest recipient (age 29) of the prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award from Saint Leo University for his work as a Native Floridian cultural preservationist, skill as a surgeon, pioneering the study of Florida's Independent period, and leadership as a knight in promoting eucharistic adoration and the pro-life movement. Dr. Brooks is excited to share his people's unique cultural history and aims to reduce the bias and discrimination that has distorted the lens from which this period of history has been viewed due to the anti-Catholic policies and rhetoric of Governor Sidney Catts.