the seminole indians of florida.

I believe I have secured an accurate count of the name, sex, age, genders, and place of residence of the Florida Seminole. At the beginning of my visit I found only one Seiniuole with whom I... even the pretense of an English conversation could be risky. Much of the material collected here is due.

480 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

CLOTHING

MACCAL'LKY.I MEN S COSTUME. 483

484 SEMIKOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

They are made to lace high around the lower part of the leg, with the laces running from under the instep upwards. The conservatism of the Seminole Indian is in nothing more evident than in the use, by women, of this much abbreviated covering for the upper part of their bodies.

486 SEMINOLE INDIANS OP FLORIDA

PEBSONAL ADOENMBNT

The front hair hangs down over the forehead and along the cheeks in front of the ears, and this is what we call the "banquet". It seems to be the ambition of the Seminole squaws to gather about their necks like many strings of pearls.

488 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

It is not common for Indian men to wear these ornaments in everyday camp.

490 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

They resolve in their enmity to any representative of the government of one man and anything that bears the stamp of the other government.. familiar with recent history this enmity is only natural and a recognized representative of the government need not be surprised to find in Seminole only forbidden and unlovable. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Seminole, not as a representative of our national government, but as extreme relations, which made them welcome me as a friend. In my intercourse with them I found them to be not only the brave, self-reliant, sharp people who have from time to time resisted the armies of our nation in defense of their rights, but also humanly amiable, affective, truthful, and communicative.

492 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

I will not tell of ''Billy's'' past lives, nor will I tell of ''Billy's' past lives, nor of bystanders who have reached a present pride. In this case the answer of the white man was equally frank: "Mat-te-lo, when the Indians kill Bill^-,. Within the reach of intellectual power and mental processes are the Florida Indians, compared with the intellectual powers and operations of the cultured Americans, quite limited.

I wouldn't answer a misunderstood or incomprehensible question right away, but would answer one question after another before deciding, "I won't." I kept the young man busy for about a fortnight, from half past eight in the morning to five in the afternoon, with only an hour and a half gone.

C HAPTER II

SEMINOLE SOCIETY

THE SEMINOLE FAMILY

496 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

No embarrassment arises from issues relating to the wife's future support, the division of property, or the adjustment of claims for the children's property. What is hers, in the form of property, remains her property, whether she is married or not. To this remote area the woman goes, with some older fennel relatives, at the time when the child is to be born, and there, in a sitting position, holding a strong stick driven into the ground in front of her, she is her baby is freed, who is received and cared for by her supervisors. .. the problems of the Indian mother, followed by a long illness.

The baby, into the world, learns very quickly that he.. can make his own way through it as best he can.

498 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

As a Seminole home is, with but a few independent differences, like almost all the others, we may get a good idea of what it is by describing where the first stone I visited, that of the I-ful- lo-ha-tco or "Charlie Osceola," in the "bad country" on the edge of Big Cypress Swamp. When my guide pointed to the place where "Charlie" lives, I could see nothing but a wide sawgrass marsh surrounding a small island.

500 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

Household appliances are usually hung from building posts and stakes driven into the ground near convenient locations. A. Shelter from the hot sun and frequent rains and a dry floor over wet or waterlogged ground are sufficient for the needs of the Florida Indians. The three complete houses of the ha-tco are situated on three corners of an oblong space, which is perhaps 40 by 30 feet. At the fourth corner is the entrance to the garden, which is in the form of an ellipse, the longest diameter being about 25 feet.

But while the house of I-fal-lo ha-tco is a fair example of the type of dwelling in use throughout the tribe, I cannot pass over without noticing the innovations which have been lately made in the general style. He has created for his family, which consists of a wife and three children, a cypress house and furnished with doors and windows, partitions, floors and ceilings.

502 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

It was made of small poles or sticks covered with the leaves of the palmetto. Above and below it, food, clothing and household utensils were generally preserved; and between the beams of the lodges and the roofs were also stored many articles, especially those for personal use and decoration. Having now seen the formation of the Seminole family, and taken a glance at the permanent and temporary dwellings which it inhabits.

Women not only take care of their children and take care of food preparation and the general well-being of the home, but also labor in the fields. But the men can sometimes be found at the pot or the iron stick, and the women can be tending the livestock.

504 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

CAMP FIRE. . If we look more inward, at tlie intimate home of the Seminole, we notice that the center around which it gathers is the camp. It is a place where family and family with friends enjoy socializing. There the story is told; at its sides latrines are made and household chores are done, not necessarily because of the heat given off by the fire, for it is often so small that its heat is almost imperceptible, but because of its central position in the household economy.

The outer ends of the logs make excellent seats; sometimes they serve as pillows, especially for old men and women who want an afternoon nap. This, placed in a suitable place on the floor near the fire, surrounds more or less members of the household in a seated position.

506 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

Examining my table to find out whether the word as translated describes the fact or not, I note that, with but one exception, which cannot be an exception, each of the twenty-two camps into which the thirty-seven Seminole families were divided is a cami) in which . all the persons except the men are members of eengeus. This second order was given to me by one of the Bird gens and by one who calls himself a distinctive "Tallahassee" Indian.

THE SEMINOLE TRIBE

I have just learned, in addition to what I have just written, that there are several Indians with official titles living at each of the settlements, except at the one at Cat Fish Lake.

SEMINOLE TRIBAL LIFE

They had left their home so they could enjoy a few weeks together, "camping" and making syrup. To obtain the syrup, the Indians had built two rude mills, the cylinders of which, however, were so loosely arranged that a full half of the juice was lost in the process of crushing the cane. Of special interest to me was a platform near the place of boiling, on which lay some deer skins, which had been taken as whole as possible from the bodies of the animals, and had been used as holders for the syrup.

512 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

Common butit practice. among them kill the fish with bow and arrow, and they are quite good at that. The unique industry, in the narrowest sense of the word, of the Seminoles is the production of Koonti flour. The white men call it "Indian bread-root," and lately its value as an article of commerce has been recognized by the whites.

As may be supposed, the Koonti industry, as carried on by the whites, produces a much finer flour than that produced by the Indians. The Indian process, as I observed at Horse Creek, was this: The roots were gathered, the earth was washed from them, and they were piled near the "Koontilog."

516 SEMINOLE IXDIAN8 OF FLORIDA

From the marsh reed, and sometimes from the covering of the stem of the fan palmetto, they make flat baskets and sieves. Use of the palmetto. In this connection I draw attention to the inestimable value of the palmetto tree to the Florida Indians. The trunk of the tree is used to make the frames and platforms of their houses; durable waterproof roofs are made from .. for the houses; with the leaves their huts are covered and beds made which protect the body from the dampness of the ground; the sturdy fiber lying between the stems of the leaves and the bark, furnishes them with material from which they make cordage and cordage of great strength, and from which, if necessary, they could weave cloth for clothing; the soft new growth at the toi) of the tree is very.

Mortar and pestle.—The home-made mortar and pestle has not yet been supplanted by any utensil supplied by the merchant. One end of the tree trunk is hollowed out to a considerable depth, and in this the corn is, by the hammering of a pestle of mastic wood, reduced to hominy, or to the elusive meal of which I have spoken.

618 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

The local report is that when the white men began to send their cattle to the Caloosahatchie River, the Indians marked this tree with this sign. Their festivals are few; so little that the songs of the fathers have mostly been forgotten. They have songs for the Green Corn Dance; they have lullabies; and there is a great song which they sing in praise of drink, which is occasionally heard when the white man.

MACCALLEV.) MORTUARY CUSTOMS. 521

522 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

Me-le said that he knows of a plant whose leaves, when eaten, will give a rattlesnake bite, and that he also knows of a plant which is an antidote to poison ivy or the so-called poison oak. .

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

524 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA

Suppose the spelling of these words could be improved, but I reproduce them phonetically as nearly as possible, not doing what to me ... the corrections would be desirable, The months seem to be simply divided into days, and these are , at least in part, numbered with reference to successive positions of the moon. in the West. First he placed the thumb of the right hand on the little finger of the left, then the right index finger on the other left finger, then the thumb on the other finger, and the forefinger on the other finger and then the thumb on the finger big going now. I thought I had once found him making a clear distinction between green and blue, but as I looked further I was never sure that he would not change the names when asked about one color or the other.

ENVIRONMENT OF THE SEMINOLE

NATURE

The pine island or hammock is a small elevation of the ground and rises a little above the dead level. Captain Hendry asked our Indian companion if he could take him through the darkness to a place called the "Buck Pens." Ko-uipha-tco said he could. Of the surroundings of the Seminole north of Caloosahatchec there is little to be said in modification of what has already been said.

Other than these changes, the topography of all of Florida Indian Country is essentially the same as that going from Myers into Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades. Then the abundance of food, both animal and vegetable, obtainable in this region appeared to me to make up for the necessity of a struggle for existence from the people who live there.

MACCAULEY.) SOCIAL RELATIONS WITH THK WHITES. 531 The Indians have appropriated for their service some of the products