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+Project Gutenberg's The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Seminole Indians of Florida
+       Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the
+       Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84,
+       Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532
+
+Author: Clay MacCauley
+
+Release Date: September 1, 2006 [EBook #19155]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Carlo Traverso, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at
+http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ Smithsonian Institution--Bureau of Ethnology.
+
+        THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
+
+                       by
+
+                CLAY MacCAULEY.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                  Page.
+
+  Letter of transmittal                            475
+  Introduction                                     477
+
+CHAPTER I.
+  Personal characteristics                         481
+    Physical characteristics                       481
+      Physique of the men                          481
+      Physique of the women                        482
+    Clothing                                       482
+      Costume of the men                           483
+      Costume of the women                         485
+    Personal adornment                             486
+      Hairdressing                                 466
+      Ornamentation of clothing                    487
+      Use of beads                                 487
+      Silver disks                                 488
+      Ear rings                                    488
+      Finger rings                                 489
+      Silver vs. gold                              489
+      Crescents                                    489
+    Me-le                                          489
+    Psychical characteristics                      490
+      Ko-nip-ha-tco                                492
+      Intellectual ability                         493
+
+CHAPTER II.
+  Seminole society                                 495
+    The Seminole family                            495
+      Courtship                                    496
+      Marriage                                     496
+      Divorce                                      498
+      Childbirth                                   497
+      Infancy                                      497
+      Childhood                                    498
+      Seminole dwellings--
+          I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s house                  499
+      Home life                                    503
+      Food                                         504
+      Camp fire                                    505
+      Manner of eating                             505
+      Amusements                                   506
+    The Seminole gens                              507
+      Fellowhood                                   508
+    The Seminole tribe                             508
+      Tribal organization                          508
+      Seat of government                           508
+      Tribal officers                              509
+      Name of tribe                                509
+
+CHAPTER III.
+  Seminole tribal life                             510
+    Industries                                     510
+      Agriculture                                  510
+        Soil                                       510
+        Corn                                       510
+        Sugar cane                                 511
+      Hunting                                      512
+      Fishing                                      513
+      Stock raising                                513
+      Koonti                                       513
+      Industrial statistics                        516
+    Arts                                           516
+      Industrial arts                              516
+        Utensils and implements                    516
+        Weapons                                    516
+        Weaving and basket making                  517
+        Uses of the palmetto                       517
+        Mortar and pestle                          517
+        Canoe making                               517
+        Fire making                                518
+        Preparation of skins                       518
+      Ornamental arts                              518
+        Music                                      519
+    Religion                                       519
+      Mortuary customs                             520
+      Green Corn Dance                             522
+      Use of Medicines                             523
+    General observations                           523
+      Standard of value                            523
+      Divisions of time                            524
+      Numeration                                   525
+      Sense of color                               525
+      Education                                    526
+      Slavery                                      526
+      Health                                       526
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+  Environment of the Seminole                      527
+    Nature                                         527
+    Man                                            529
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  Plate XIX. Seminole dwelling                     500
+    Fig. 60. Map of Florida                        477
+         61. Seminole costume                      483
+         62. Key West Billy                        484
+         63. Seminole costume                      485
+         64. Manner of wearing the hair            486
+         65. Manner of piercing the ear            488
+         66. Baby cradle or hammock                497
+         67. Temporary dwelling                    502
+         68. Sugar cane crusher                    511
+         69. Koonti log                            514
+         70. Koonti pestles                        514
+         71. Koonti mash vessel                    514
+         72. Koonti strainer                       515
+         73. Mortar and pestle                     517
+         74. Hide stretcher                        518
+         75. Seminole bier                         510
+         76. Seminole grave                        521
+         77. Green Corn Dance                      523
+
+
+
+
+LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
+
+
+    Minneapolis, Minn., _June_ 24,1884.
+
+SIR: During the winter of 1880-’81 I visited Florida, commissioned by
+you to inquire into the condition and to ascertain the number of the
+Indians commonly known as the Seminole then in that State. I spent part
+of the months of January, February, and March in an endeavor to
+accomplish this purpose. I have the honor to embody the result of my
+work in the following report.
+
+On account of causes beyond my control the paper does not treat of these
+Indians as fully as I had intended it should. Owing to the ignorance
+prevailing even in Florida of the locations of the homes of the Seminole
+and also to the absence of routes of travel in Southern Florida, much
+of my time at first was consumed in reaching the Indian country. On
+arriving there, I found myself obliged to go among the Indians ignorant
+of their language and without an interpreter able to secure me
+intelligible interviews with them except in respect to the commonest
+things. I was compelled, therefore, to rely upon observation and upon
+very simple, perhaps sometimes misunderstood, speech for what I have
+here placed on record. But while the report is only a sketch of a
+subject that would well reward thorough study, it may be found to
+possess value as a record of facts concerning this little-known remnant
+of a once powerful people.
+
+I have secured, I think, a correct census of the Florida Seminole by
+name, sex, age, gens, and place of living. I have endeavored to present
+a faithful portraiture of their appearance and personal characteristics,
+and have enlarged upon their manners and customs, as individuals and as
+a society, as much as the material at my command will allow; but under
+the disadvantageous circumstances to which allusion has already been
+made, I have been able to gain little more than a superficial and
+partial knowledge of their social organization, of the elaboration among
+them of the system of gentes, of their forms and methods of government,
+of their tribal traditions and modes of thinking, of their religious
+beliefs and practices, and of many other things manifesting what is
+distinctive in the life of a people. For these reasons I submit this
+report more as a guide for future investigation than as a completed
+result.
+
+At the beginning of my visit I found but one Seminole with whom I could
+hold even the semblance of an English conversation. To him I am indebted
+for a large part of the material here collected. To him, in particular,
+I owe the extensive Seminole vocabulary now in possession of the Bureau
+of Ethnology. The knowledge of the Seminole language which I gradually
+acquired enabled me, in my intercourse with other Indians, to verify and
+increase the information I had received from him.
+
+In conclusion, I hope that, notwithstanding the unfortunate delays which
+have occurred in the publication of this report, it will still be found
+to add something to our knowledge of this Indian tribe not without value
+to those who make man their peculiar study.
+
+    Very respectfully,
+
+        CLAY MacCAULEY.
+
+  Maj. J. W. POWELL,
+
+    _Director Bureau of Ethnology._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
+
+By Clay MacCauley.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 60. Map of Florida.]
+
+There were in Florida, October 1, 1880, of the Indians commonly known as
+Seminole, two hundred and eight. They constituted thirty-seven families,
+living in twenty-two camps, which were gathered into five widely
+separated groups or settlements. These settlements, from the most
+prominent natural features connected with them, I have named, (1) The
+Big Cypress Swamp settlement; (2) Miami River settlement; (3) Fish
+Eating Creek settlement; (4) Cow Creek settlement; and (5) Cat Fish Lake
+settlement. Their locations are, severally: The first, in Monroe County,
+in what is called the “Devil’s Garden,” on the northwestern edge of the
+Big Cypress Swamp, from fifteen to twenty miles southwest of Lake
+Okeechobee; the second, in Dade County, on the Little Miami River, not
+far from Biscayne Bay, and about ten miles north of the site of what
+was, during the great Seminole war, Fort Dallas; the third, in Manatee
+County, on a creek which empties from the west into Lake Okeechobee,
+probably five miles from its mouth; the fourth, in Brevard County, on a
+stream running southward, at a point about fifteen miles northeast of
+the entrance of the Kissimmee River into Lake Okeechobee; and the fifth,
+on a small lake in Polk County, lying nearly midway between lakes Pierce
+and Rosalie, towards the headwaters of the Kissimmee River. The
+settlements are from forty to seventy miles apart, in an otherwise
+almost uninhabited region, which is in area about sixty by one hundred
+and eighty miles. The camps of which each settlement is composed lie at
+distances from one another varying from a half mile to two or more
+miles. In tabular form the population of the settlements appears as
+follows:
+
+  --------------+---+-------------------------------------------------
+                |   |                Population.
+                |   +-------------------------------------+------+----
+                |   |  Divided according to age and sex.  |      | T
+                | C |                                     |      | o
+                | a +-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-----+Résumé| t
+                | m |Below|     |     |     |       | Over|  by  | a
+   Settlements  | p |  5  | 5-10|10-15|15-20| 20-60 | 60  | sex. | l
+                | s | yrs.| yrs.| yrs.| yrs.|  yrs. | yrs.|      | s
+                +---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+                |No.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.| F. |M.|F.| M.|F.|Tot.
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+  1. Big Cypress|10 | 4| 5|a2| 2|10| 4| 9| 2|15|b15 | 2| 3| 42|31|73
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  2. Miami River| 5 | 5| 4| 4| 4| 5| 3| 7| 5|10| 13 | 1| 2| 32|31|63
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  3. Fish Eating|   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+     Creek      | 4 |a1| 1|--| 2|a2|--| 3| 1|a5|ab10| 4| 3| 15|17|32
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  4. Cow Creek  | 1 | 2| 1|--|--| 1|--|--| 1| 4|  3 |--|--|  7| 5|12
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  5. Cat Fish   |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+     Lake       | 2 |--| 2| 3| 2| 4| 1| 4| 1|a4|ab5 | 1| 1| 16|12|28
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+  Totals       {|   |12|13| 9|10|22| 8|23|10|38| 46 | 8| 9|112|96|208
+               {|   +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+               {|22 |  25 |  19 |  30 |  33 |   84  |  17 |  208 |
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+
+  _a_ One mixed blood.
+  _b_ One black.
+
+Or, for the whole tribe--
+
+  Males under 10 years of age               21
+  Males between 10 and 20 years of age      45
+  Males between 20 and 60 years of age      38
+  Males over 60 years of age                 8
+                                            -- 112
+  Females under 10 years of age             23
+  Females between 10 and 20 years of age    18
+  Females between 20 and 60 years of age    46
+  Females over 60 years of age               9
+                                            --  96
+                                               ---
+                                               208
+
+In this table it will be noticed that the total population consists of
+112 males and 96 females, an excess of males over females of 16. This
+excess appears in each of the settlements, excepting that of Fish Eating
+Creek, a fact the more noteworthy, from its relation to the future of
+the tribe, since polygamous, or certainly duogamous, marriage generally
+prevails as a tribal custom, at least at the Miami River and the Cat
+Fish Lake settlements. It will also be observed that between twenty and
+sixty years of age, or the ordinary range of married life, there are 38
+men and 46 women; or, if the women above fifteen years of age are
+included as wives for the men over twenty years of age, there are 38 men
+and 56 women. Now, almost all these 56 women are the wives of the 38
+men. Notice, however, the manner in which the children of these people
+are separated in sex. At present there are, under twenty years of age,
+66 boys, and, under fifteen years of age, but 31 girls; or, setting
+aside the 12 boys who are under five years of age, there are, as future
+possible husbands and wives, 54 boys between five and twenty years of
+age and 31 girls under fifteen years of age--an excess of 23 boys. For a
+polygamous society, this excess in the number of the male sex certainly
+presents a puzzling problem. The statement I had from some cattlemen in
+mid-Florida I have thus found true, namely, that the Seminole are
+producing more men than women. What bearing this peculiarity will have
+upon the future of these Indians can only be guessed at. It is beyond
+question, however, that the tribe is increasing in numbers, and
+increasing in the manner above described.
+
+There is no reason why the tribe should not increase, and increase
+rapidly, if the growth in numbers be not checked by the non-birth of
+females. The Seminole have not been at war for more than twenty years.
+Their numbers are not affected by the attacks of wild animals or noxious
+reptiles. They are not subject to devastating diseases. But once during
+the last twenty years, as far as I could learn, has anything like an
+epidemic afflicted them. Besides, at all the settlements except the
+northernmost, the one at Cat Fish Lake, there is an abundance of food,
+both animal and vegetable, easily obtained and easily prepared for
+eating. The climate in which these Indians live is warm and equable
+throughout the year. They consequently do not need much clothing or
+shelter. They are not what would be called intemperate, nor are they
+licentious. The “sprees” in which they indulge when they make their
+visits to the white man’s settlements are too infrequent to warrant us
+in classing them as intemperate. Their sexual morality is a matter of
+common notoriety. The white half-breed does not exist among the Florida
+Seminole, and nowhere could I learn that the Seminole woman is other
+than virtuous and modest. The birth of a white half-breed would be
+followed by the death of the Indian mother at the hands of her own
+people. The only persons of mixed breed among them are children of
+Indian fathers by negresses who have been adopted into the tribe. Thus
+health, climate, food, and personal habits apparently conduce to an
+increase in numbers. The only explanation I can suggest of the fact that
+there are at present but 208 Seminole in Florida is that at the close of
+the last war which the United States Government waged on these Indians
+there were by no means so many of them left in the State as is popularly
+supposed. As it is, there are now but 17 persons of the tribe over sixty
+years of age, and no unusual mortality has occurred, certainly among the
+adults, during the last twenty years. Of the 84 persons between twenty
+and sixty years of age, the larger number are less than forty years old;
+and under twenty years of age there are 107 persons, or more than half
+the whole population. The population tables of the Florida Indians
+present, therefore, some facts upon which it may be interesting to
+speculate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Personal Characteristics.
+
+
+It will be convenient for me to describe the Florida Seminole as they
+present themselves, first as individuals, and next as members of a
+society. I know it is impossible to separate, really, the individual as
+such from the individual as a member of society; nevertheless, there is
+the man as we see him, having certain characteristics which, we call
+personal, or his own, whencesoever derived, having a certain physique
+and certain, distinguishing psychical qualities. As such I will first
+attempt to describe the Seminole. Then we shall be able the better to
+look at him as he is in his relations with his fellows: in the family,
+in the community, or in any of the forms of the social life of his
+tribe.
+
+
+Physical Characteristics.
+
+Physique of the Men.
+
+Physically both men and women are remarkable. The men, as a rule,
+attract attention by their height, fullness and symmetry of development,
+and the regularity and agreeableness of their features. In muscular
+power and constitutional ability to endure they excel. While these
+qualities distinguish, with a few exceptions, the men of the whole
+tribe, they are particularly characteristic of the two most widely
+spread of the families of which the tribe is composed. These are the
+Tiger and Otter clans, which, proud of their lines of descent, have been
+preserved through a long and tragic past with exceptional freedom from
+admixture with degrading blood. Today their men might be taken as types
+of physical excellence. The physique of every Tiger warrior especially I
+met would furnish proof of this statement. The Tigers are dark,
+copper-colored fellows, over six feet in height, with limbs in good
+proportion; their hands and feet well shaped and not very large; their
+stature erect; their bearing a sign of self-confident power; their
+movements deliberate, persistent, strong. Their heads are large, and
+their foreheads full and marked. An almost universal characteristic of
+the Tiger’s face is its squareness, a widened and protruding
+under-jawbone giving this effect to it. Of other features, I noticed
+that under a large forehead are deep set, bright, black eyes, small, but
+expressive of inquiry and vigilance; the nose is slightly aquiline and
+sensitively formed about the nostrils; the lips are mobile, sensuous,
+and not very full, disclosing, when they smile, beautiful regular teeth;
+and the whole face is expressive of the man’s sense of having
+extraordinary ability to endure and to achieve. Two of the warriors
+permitted me to manipulate the muscles of their bodies. Under my touch
+these were more like rubber than flesh. Noticeable among all are the
+large calves of their legs, the size of the tendons of their lower
+limbs, and the strength of their toes. I attribute this exceptional
+development to the fact that they are not what we would call “horse
+Indians” and that they hunt barefoot over their wide domain. The same
+causes, perhaps, account for the only real deformity I noticed in the
+Seminole physique, namely, the diminutive toe-nails, and for the heavy,
+cracked, and seamed skin which covers the soles of their feet. The feet
+being otherwise well formed, the toes have only narrow shells for nails,
+these lying sunken across the middles of the tough cushions of flesh,
+which, protuberant about them, form the toe-tips. But, regarded as a
+whole, in their physique the Seminole warriors, especially the men of
+the Tiger and Otter gentes, are admirable. Even among the children this
+physical superiority is seen. To illustrate, one morning Ko-i-ha-tco’s
+son, Tin-fai-yai-ki, a tall, slender boy, not quite twelve years old,
+shouldered a heavy “Kentucky” rifle, left our camp, and followed in his
+father’s long footsteps for a day’s hunt. After tramping all day, at
+sunset he reappeared in the camp, carrying slung across his shoulders,
+in addition to rifle and accouterments, a deer weighing perhaps fifty
+pounds, a weight he had borne for miles. The same boy, in one day, went
+with some older friends to his permanent home, 20 miles away, and
+returned. There are, as I have said, exceptions to this rule of unusual
+physical size and strength, but these are few; so few that, disregarding
+them, we may pronounce the Seminole men handsome and exceptionally
+powerful.
+
+Physique of the Women.
+
+The women to a large extent share the qualities of the men. Some are
+proportionally tall and handsome, though, curiously enough, many,
+perhaps a majority, are rather under than over the average height of
+women. As a rule, they exhibit great bodily vigor. Large or small, they
+possess regular and agreeable features, shapely and well developed
+bodies, and they show themselves capable of long continued and severe
+physical exertion. Indeed, the only Indian women I have seen with
+attractive features and forms are among the Seminole. I would even
+venture to select from among these Indians three persons whom I could,
+without much fear of contradiction, present as types respectively of a
+handsome, a pretty, and a comely woman. Among American Indians, I am
+confident that the Seminole women are of the first rank.
+
+
+Clothing.
+
+But how is this people clothed? While the clothing of the Seminole is
+simple and scanty, it is ample for his needs and suitable to the life he
+leads. The materials of which the clothing is made are now chiefly
+fabrics manufactured by the white man: calico, cotton cloth, ginghams,
+and sometimes flannels. They also use some materials prepared by
+themselves, as deer and other skins. Of ready made articles for wear
+found in the white trader’s store, they buy small woolen shawls,
+brilliantly colored cotton handkerchiefs, now and then light woolen
+blankets, and sometimes, lately, though very seldom, shoes.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 61. Seminole costume.]
+
+Costume of the Men.
+
+The costume of the Seminole warrior at home consists of a shirt, a
+neckerchief, a turban, a breech cloth, and, very rarely, moccasins.
+On but one Indian in camp did I see more than this; on many, less. The
+shirt is made of some figured or striped cotton cloth, generally of
+quiet colors. It hangs from the neck to the knees, the narrow, rolling
+collar being closely buttoned about the neck, the narrow wristbands of
+the roomy sleeves buttoned about the wrists. The garment opens in front
+for a few inches, downward from the collar, and is pocketless. A belt of
+leather or buckskin usually engirdles the man’s waist, and from it are
+suspended one or more pouches, in which powder, bullets, pocket knife,
+a piece of flint, a small quantity of paper, and like things for use in
+hunting are carried. From the belt hang also one or more hunting knives,
+each nearly 10 inches in length. I questioned one of the Indians about
+having no pockets in his shirt, pointing out to him the wealth in this
+respect of the white man’s garments, and tried to show him how, on his
+shirt, as on mine, these convenient receptacles could be placed, and to
+what straits he was put to carry his pipe, money, and trinkets. He
+showed little interest in my proposed improvement on his dress.
+
+Having no pockets, the Seminole is obliged to submit to several
+inconveniences; for instance, he wears his handkerchief about his neck.
+I have seen as many as six, even eight, handkerchiefs tied around his
+throat, their knotted ends pendant over his breast; as a rule, they are
+bright red and yellow things, of whose possession and number he is quite
+proud. Having no pockets, the Seminole, only here and there, one
+excepted, carries whatever money he obtains from time to time in a
+knotted corner of one or more of his handkerchiefs.
+
+The next article of the man’s ordinary costume is the turban. This
+is a remarkable structure and gives to its wearer much of his unique
+appearance. At present it is made of one or more small shawls. These
+shawls are generally woolen and copied in figure and color from the
+plaid of some Scotch clan. They are so folded that they are about 3
+inches wide and as long as the diagonal of the fabric. They are then,
+one or more of them successively, wrapped tightly around the head, the
+top of the head remaining bare; the last end of the last shawl is tucked
+skillfully and firmly away, without the use of pins, somewhere in the
+many folds of the turban. The structure when finished looks like a
+section of a decorated cylinder crowded down upon the man’s head. I
+examined one of these turbans and found it a rather firm piece of work,
+made of several shawls wound into seven concentric rings. It was over 20
+inches in diameter, the shell of the cylinder being perhaps 7 inches
+thick and 3 in width. This head-dress, at the southern settlements, is
+regularly worn in the camps and sometimes on the hunt. While hunting,
+however, it seems to be the general custom, for the warriors to go
+bareheaded. At the northern camps, a kerchief bound about the head
+frequently takes the place of the turban in everyday life, but on
+dress or festival occasions, at both the northern and the southern
+settlements, this curious turban is the customary covering for the head
+of the Seminole brave. Having no pockets in his dress, he has discovered
+that the folds of his turban may be put to a pocket’s uses. Those who
+use tobacco (I say “those” because the tobacco habit is by no means
+universal among the red men of Florida) frequently carry their pipes and
+other articles in their turbans.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 62. Key West Billy.]
+
+When the Seminole warrior makes his rare visits to the white man’s
+settlements, he frequently adds to his scanty camp dress leggins and
+moccasins.
+
+In the camps I saw but one Indian wearing leggins (Fig. 62); he,
+however, is in every way a peculiar character among his people, and is
+objectionably favorable to the white man and the white man’s ways. He
+is called by the white men “Key West Billy,” having received this name
+because he once made a voyage in a canoe out of the Everglades and along
+the line of keys south of the Florida mainland to Key West, where he
+remained for some time. The act itself was so extraordinary, and it was
+so unusual for a Seminole to enter a white man’s town and remain there
+for any length of time, that a commemorative name was bestowed upon him.
+The materials of which the leggins of the Seminole are usually made is
+buckskin. I saw, however, one pair of leggins made of a bright red
+flannel, and ornamented along the outer seams with a blue and white
+cross striped braid. The moccasins, also, are made of buckskin, of
+either a yellow or dark red color. They are made to lace high about the
+lower part of the leg, the lacing running from below the instep upward.
+As showing what changes are going on among the Seminole, I may mention
+that a few of them possess shoes, and one is even the owner of a pair
+of frontier store boots. The blanket is not often worn by the Florida
+Indians. Occasionally, in their cool weather, a small shawl, of the kind
+made to do service in the turban, is thrown about the shoulders. Oftener
+a piece of calico or white cotton cloth, gathered about the neck,
+becomes the extra protection against mild coolness in their winters.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 63. Seminole costume.]
+
+Costume of the Women.
+
+The costume of the women is hardly more complex than that of the men. It
+consists, apparently, of but two garments, one of which, for lack of a
+better English word, I name a short shirt, the other a long skirt. The
+shirt is cut quite low at the neck and is just long enough to cover the
+breasts. Its sleeves are buttoned close about the wrists. The garment is
+otherwise buttonless, being wide enough at the neck for it to be easily
+put on or taken off over the head. The conservatism of the Seminole
+Indian is shown in nothing more clearly than in the use, by the women,
+of this much abbreviated covering for the upper part of their bodies.
+The women are noticeably modest, yet it does not seem to have occurred
+to them that by making a slight change in their upper garment they might
+free themselves from frequent embarrassment. In going about their work
+they were constantly engaged in what our street boys would call “pulling
+down their vests.” This may have been done because a stranger’s eyes
+were upon them; but I noticed that in rising or in sitting down, or at
+work, it was a perpetually renewed effort on their part to lengthen by a
+pull the scanty covering hanging over their breasts. Gathered about the
+waist is the other garment, the skirt, extending to the feet and often
+touching the ground. This is usually made of some dark colored calico or
+gingham. The cord by which the petticoat is fastened is often drawn so
+tightly about the waist that it gives to that part of the body a rather
+uncomfortable appearance. This is especially noticeable because the
+shirt is so short that a space of two or more inches on the body is left
+uncovered between it and the skirt. I saw no woman wearing moccasins,
+and I was told that the women never wear them. For head wear the women
+have nothing, unless the cotton cloth, or small shawl, used about the
+shoulders in cool weather, and which at times is thrown or drawn over
+the head, may be called that. (Fig. 63.)
+
+Girls from seven to ten years old are clothed with only a petticoat
+and boys about the same age wear only a shirt. Younger children are,
+as a rule, entirely naked. If clothed at anytime, it is only during
+exceptionally cool weather or when taken by their parents on a journey
+to the homes of the palefaces.
+
+
+Personal Adornment.
+
+The love of personal adornment shows itself among the Seminole as among
+other human beings.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 64. Manner of wearing the hair.]
+
+Hair Dressing.
+
+The coarse, brilliant, black hair of which they are possessors is taken
+care of in an odd manner. The men cut all their hair close to the head,
+except a strip about an inch wide, running over the front of the scalp
+from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width,
+perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the nape
+of the neck. At each temple a heavy tuft is allowed to hang to the
+bottom of the lobe of the ear. The long hair of the strip crossing to
+the neck is generally gathered and braided into two ornamental queues.
+I did not learn that these Indians are in the habit of plucking the hair
+from their faces. I noticed, however, that the moustache is commonly
+worn among them and that a few of them are endowed with a rather bold
+looking combination of moustache and imperial. As an exception to the
+uniform style of cutting the hair of the men, I recall the comical
+appearance of a small negro half breed at the Big Cypress Swamp. His
+brilliant wool was twisted into many little sharp cones, which stuck out
+over his head like so many spikes on an ancient battle club. For some
+reason there seems to be a much greater neglect of the care of the hair,
+and, indeed, of the whole person, in the northern than in the southern
+camps.
+
+The women dress their hair more simply than the men. From a line
+crossing the head from ear to ear the hair is gathered up and bound,
+just above the neck, into a knot somewhat like that often made by the
+civilized woman, the Indian woman’s hair being wrought more into the
+shape of a cone, sometimes quite elongated and sharp at the apex. A
+piece of bright ribbon is commonly used at the end as a finish to the
+structure. The front hair hangs down over the forehead and along the
+cheeks in front of the ears, being what we call “banged.” The only
+exception to this style of hair dressing I saw was the manner in which
+Ci-ha-ne, a negress, had disposed of her long crisp tresses. Hers was
+a veritable Medusa head. A score or more of dangling, snaky plaits,
+hanging down over her black face and shoulders gave her a most repulsive
+appearance. Among the little Indian girls the hair is simply braided
+into a queue and tied with a ribbon, as we often see the hair upon the
+heads of our school children.
+
+Ornamentation Of Clothing.
+
+The clothing of both men and women is ordinarily more or less
+ornamented. Braids and strips of cloth of various colors are used and
+wrought upon the garments into odd and sometimes quite tasteful shapes.
+The upper parts of the shirts of the women are usually embroidered with
+yellow, red, and brown braids. Sometimes as many as five of these braids
+lie side by side, parallel with the upper edge of the garment or
+dropping into a sharp angle between the shoulders. Occasionally a very
+narrow cape, attached, I think, to the shirt, and much ornamented with
+braids or stripes, hangs just over the shoulders and back. The same
+kinds of material used for ornamenting the shirt are also used in
+decorating the skirt above the lower edge of the petticoat. The women
+embroider along this edge, with their braids and the narrow colored
+stripes, a border of diamond and square shaped figures, which is often
+an elaborate decoration to the dress. In like manner many of the shirts
+of the men are made pleasing to the eye. I saw no ornamentation in
+curves: it was always in straight lines and angles.
+
+Use Of Beads.
+
+My attention was called to the remarkable use of beads among these
+Indian women, young and old. It seems to be the ambition of the Seminole
+squaws to gather about their necks as many strings of beads as can be
+hung there and as they can carry. They are particular as to the quality
+of the beads they wear. They are satisfied with nothing meaner than a
+cut glass bead, about a quarter of an inch or more in length, generally
+of some shade of blue, and costing (so I was told by a trader at Miami)
+$1.75 a pound. Sometimes, but not often, one sees beads of an inferior
+quality worn.
+
+These beads must be burdensome to their wearers. In the Big Cypress
+Swamp settlement one day, to gratify my curiosity as to how many strings
+of beads these women can wear, I tried to count those worn by “Young
+Tiger Tail’s” wife, number one, Mo-ki, who had come through the
+Everglades to visit her relatives. She was the proud wearer of certainly
+not fewer than two hundred strings of good sized beads. She had six
+quarts (probably a peck of the beads) gathered about her neck, hanging
+down her back, down upon her breasts, filling the space under her chin,
+and covering her neck up to her ears. It was an effort for her to move
+her head. She, however, was only a little, if any, better off in her
+possessions than most of the others. Others were about equally burdened.
+Even girl babies are favored by their proud mammas with a varying
+quantity of the coveted neck wear. The cumbersome beads are said to be
+worn by night as well as by day.
+
+Silver Disks.
+
+Conspicuous among the other ornaments worn by women are silver disks,
+suspended in a curve across the shirt fronts, under and below the beads.
+As many as ten or more are worn by one woman. These disks are made by
+men, who may be called “jewelers to the tribe,” from silver quarters and
+half dollars. The pieces of money are pounded quite thin, made concave,
+pierced with holes, and ornamented by a groove lying just inside the
+circumference. Large disks made from half dollars may be called “breast
+shields.” They are suspended, one over each breast. Among the disks
+other ornaments are often suspended. One young woman I noticed
+gratifying her vanity with not only eight disks made of silver quarters,
+but also with three polished copper rifle shells, one bright brass
+thimble, and a buckle hanging among them. Of course the possession of
+these and like treasures depends upon the ability and desire of one and
+another to secure them.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 65. Manner of piercing the ear.]
+
+Ear Rings.
+
+Ear rings are not generally worn by the Seminole. Those worn are usually
+made of silver and are of home manufacture. The ears of most of the
+Indians, however, appear to be pierced, and, as a rule, the ears of the
+women are pierced many times; for what purpose I did not discover. Along
+and in the upper edges of the ears of the women from one to ten or more
+small holes have been made. In most of these holes I noticed bits of
+palmetto wood, about a fifth of an inch in length and in diameter the
+size of a large pin. Seemingly they were not placed there to remain only
+while the puncture was healing. (Fig. 65.)
+
+Piercing the ears excepted, the Florida Indians do not now mutilate
+their bodies for beauty’s sake. They no longer pierce the lips or the
+nose; nor do they use paint upon their persons, I am told, except at
+their great annual festival, the Green Corn Dance, and upon the faces of
+their dead.
+
+Finger Rings.
+
+Nor is the wearing of finger rings more common than that of rings for
+the ears. The finger rings I saw were all made of silver and showed good
+workmanship. Most of them were made with large elliptical tablets on
+them, extending from knuckle to knuckle. These also were home-made.
+
+Silver vs. Gold.
+
+I saw no gold ornaments. Gold, even gold money, does not seem to be
+considered of much value by the Seminole. He is a monometalist, and his
+precious metal is silver. I was told by a cattle dealer of an Indian who
+once gave him a twenty dollar gold piece for $17 in silver, although
+assured that the gold piece was worth more than the silver, and in my
+own intercourse with the Seminole I found them to manifest, with few
+exceptions, a decided preference for silver. I was told that the
+Seminole are peculiar in wishing to possess nothing that is not genuine
+of its apparent kind. Traders told me that, so far as the Indians know,
+they will buy of them only what is the best either of food or of
+material for wear or ornament.
+
+Crescents, Wristlets, and Belts.
+
+The ornaments worn by the men which are most worthy of attention are
+crescents, varying in size and value. These are generally about five
+inches long, an inch in width at the widest part, and of the thickness
+of ordinary tin. These articles are also made from silver coins and are
+of home manufacture. They are worn suspended from the neck by cords,
+in the cusps of the crescents, one below another, at distances apart of
+perhaps two and a half inches. Silver wristlets are used by the men for
+their adornment. They are fastened about the wrists by cords or thongs
+passing through holes in the ends of the metal. Belts, and turbans too,
+are often ornamented with fanciful devices wrought out of silver. It is
+not customary for the Indian men to wear these ornaments in everyday
+camp life. They appear with them on a festival occasion or when they
+visit some trading post.
+
+
+Me-Le.
+
+A sketch made by Lieutenant Brown, of Saint Francis Barracks, Saint
+Augustine, Florida, who accompanied me on my trip to the Cat Fish Lake
+settlement, enables me to show, in gala dress, Me-le, a half breed
+Seminole, the son of an Indian, Ho-laq-to-mik-ko, by a negress adopted
+into the tribe when a child.
+
+  [Transcriber’s Note:
+  The picture described does not appear in the printed text, and is not
+  included in the List of Illustrations.]
+
+Me-le sat for his picture in my room at a hotel in Orlando. He had just
+come seventy miles from his home, at Cat Fish Lake, to see the white man
+and a white man’s town. He was clothed “in his best,” and, moreover, had
+just purchased and was wearing a pair of store boots in addition to his
+home-made finery. He was the owner of the one pair of red flannel
+leggins of which I have spoken. These were not long enough to cover the
+brown skin of his sturdy thighs. His ornaments were silver crescents,
+wristlets, a silver studded belt, and a peculiar battlement-like band of
+silver on the edge of his turban. Notice his uncropped head of
+luxuriant, curly hair, the only exception I observed to the singular cut
+of hair peculiar to the Seminole men. Me-le, however, is in many other
+more important respects an exceptional character. He is not at all in
+favor with the Seminole of pure blood. “Me-le ho-lo-wa kis” (Me-le is
+of no account) was the judgment passed upon him to me by some of the
+Indians. Why? Because he likes the white man and would live the white
+man’s life if he knew how to break away safely from his tribe. He has
+been progressive enough to build for himself a frame house, inclosed on
+all sides and entered by a door. More than that, he is not satisfied
+with the hunting habits and the simple agriculture of his people, nor
+with their ways of doing other things. He has started an orange grove,
+and in a short time will have a hundred trees, so he says, bearing
+fruit. He has bought and uses a sewing machine, and he was intelligent
+enough, so the report goes, when the machine had been taken to pieces in
+his presence, to put it together again without mistake. He once called
+off for me from a newspaper the names of the letters of our alphabet,
+and legibly wrote his English name, “John Willis Mik-ko.” Mik-ko has a
+restless, inquisitive mind, and deserves the notice and care of those
+who are interested in the progress of this people. Seeking him one day
+at Orlando, I found him busily studying the locomotive engine of the
+little road which had been pushed out into that part of the frontier
+of Florida’s civilized population. Next morning he was at the station
+to see the train depart, and told me he would like to go with me to
+Jacksonville. He is the only Florida Seminole, I believe, who had at
+that time seen a railway.
+
+
+Psychical Characteristics.
+
+I shall now glance at what may more properly be called the psychical
+characteristics of the Florida Indians. I have been led to the
+conclusion that for Indians they have attained a relatively high degree
+of psychical development. They are an uncivilized, I hardly like to call
+them a savage, people. They are antagonistic to white men, as a race,
+and to the white man’s culture, but they have characteristics of their
+own, many of which are commendable. They are decided in their enmity to
+any representative of the white man’s government and to everything which
+bears upon it the government’s mark. To one, however, who is acquainted
+with recent history this enmity is but natural, and a confessed
+representative of the government need not be surprised at finding in the
+Seminole only forbidding and unlovely qualities. But when suspicion is
+disarmed, one whom they have welcomed to their confidence will find them
+evincing characteristics which will excite his admiration and esteem.
+I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Seminole, not as a
+representative of our National Government, but under conditions which
+induced them to welcome me as a friend. In my intercourse with them, I
+found them to be not only the brave, self reliant, proud people who have
+from time to time withstood our nation’s armies in defense of their
+rights, but also a people amiable, affectionate, truthful, and
+communicative. Nor are they devoid of a sense of humor. With only few
+exceptions, I found them genial. Indeed, the old chief, Tûs-te-nûg-ge,
+a man whose warwhoop and deadly hand, during the last half century, have
+often been heard and felt among the Florida swamps and prairies, was the
+only one disposed to sulk in my presence and to repel friendly advances.
+He called me to him when I entered the camp where he was, and, with
+great dignity of manner, asked after my business among his people.
+After listening, through my interpreter, to my answers to his questions,
+he turned from me and honored me no further. I call the Seminole
+communicative, because most with whom I spoke were eager to talk, and,
+as far as they could with the imperfect means at their disposal, to give
+me the information I sought. “Doctor Na-ki-ta” (Doctor What-is-it) I was
+playfully named at the Cat Fish Lake settlement; yet the people there
+were seemingly as ready to try to answer as I was to ask, “What is it?”
+I said they are truthful. That is their reputation with many of the
+white men I met, and I have reason to believe that the reputation is
+under ordinary circumstances well founded. They answered promptly and
+without equivocation “No” or “Yes” or “I don’t know.” And they are
+affectionate to one another, and, so far as I saw, amiable in their
+domestic and social intercourse. Parental affection is characteristic of
+their home life, as several illustrative instances I might mention would
+show. I will mention one. Täl-la-häs-ke is the father of six fine
+looking boys, ranging in age from four to eighteen years. Seven months
+before I met him his wife died, and when I was at his camp this strong
+Indian appeared to have become both mother and father to his children.
+His solicitous affection seemed continually to follow these boys,
+watching their movements and caring for their comfort. Especially did he
+throw a tender care about the little one of his household. I have seen
+this little fellow clambering, just like many a little paleface, over
+his father’s knees and back, persistently demanding attention but in
+no way disturbing the father’s amiability or serenity, even while the
+latter was trying to oblige me by answering puzzling questions upon
+matters connected with his tribe. One night, as Lieutenant Brown and
+I sat by the campfire at Täl-la-häs-ke’s lodge--the larger boys, two
+Seminole negresses, three pigs, and several dogs, together with
+Täl-la-häs-ke, forming a picturesque circle in the ashes around the
+bright light--I heard muffled moans from the little palmetto shelter on
+my right, under which the three smaller boys were bundled up in cotton
+cloth on deer skins for the night’s sleep. Upon the moans followed
+immediately the frightened cry of the baby boy, waking out of bad dreams
+and crying for the mother who could not answer; “Its-ki, Its-ki”
+(mother, mother) begged the little fellow, struggling from under his
+covering. At once the big Indian grasped his child, hugged him to his
+breast, pressed the little head to his cheek, consoling him all the
+while with caressing words, whose meaning I felt, though I could not
+have translated them into English, until the boy, wide awake, laughed
+with his father and us all and was ready to be again rolled up beside
+his sleeping brothers. I have said also that the Seminole are frank.
+Formal or hypocritical courtesy does not characterize them. One of my
+party wished to accompany Ka-tca-la-ni (“Yellow Tiger”) on a hunt. He
+wished to see how the Indian would find, approach, and capture his game.
+“Me go hunt with you, Tom, to-day?” asked our man. “No,” answered Tom,
+and in his own language continued, “not to-day; to-morrow.” To-morrow
+came, and, with it, Tom to our camp. “You can go to Horse Creek with me;
+then I hunt alone and you come back,” was the Indian’s remark as both
+set out. I afterwards learned that Ka-tca-la-ni was all kindness on the
+trail to Horse Creek, three miles away, aiding the amateur hunter in his
+search for game and giving him the first shot at what was started. At
+Horse Creek, however, Tom stopped, and, turning to his companion,
+said, “Now you hi-e-pus (go)!” That was frankness indeed, and quite
+refreshing to us who had not been honored by it. But equally outspoken,
+without intending offense, I found them always. You could not mistake
+their meaning, did you understand their words. Diplomacy seems, as yet,
+to be an unlearned art among them.
+
+Ko-Nip-Ha-Tco.
+
+Here is another illustration of their frankness. One Indian,
+Ko-nip-ha-tco (“Billy”), a brother of “Key West Billy,” has become so
+desirous of identifying himself with the white people that in 1879 he
+came to Capt. F. A. Hendry, at Myers, and asked permission to live with
+him. Permission was willingly given, and when I went to Florida this
+“Billy” had been studying our language and ways for more than a year.
+At that time he was the only Seminole who had separated himself from his
+people and had cast in his lot with the whites. He had clothed himself
+in our dress and taken to the bed and table, instead of the ground and
+kettle, for sleep and food. “Me all same white man,” he boastfully told
+me one day. But I will not here relate the interesting story of
+“Billy’s” previous life or of his adventures in reaching his present
+proud position. It is sufficient to say that, for the time at least,
+he had become in the eyes of his people a member of a foreign community.
+As may be easily guessed, Ko-nip-ha-tco’s act was not at all looked upon
+with favor by the Indians; it was, on the contrary, seriously opposed.
+Several tribal councils made him the subject of discussion, and once,
+during the year before I met him, five of his relatives came to Myers
+and compelled him to return with them for a time to his home at the Big
+Cypress Swamp. But to my illustration of Seminole frankness: In the
+autumn of 1880, Mat-te-lo, a prominent Seminole, was at Myers and
+happened to meet Captain Hendry. While they stood together “Billy”
+passed. Hardly had the young fellow disappeared when Mat-te-lo said to
+Captain Hendry, “Bum-by. Indian kill Billy.” But an answer came. In this
+case the answer of the white man was equally frank: “Mat-te-lo, when
+Indian kill Billy, white man kill Indian, remember.” And so the talk
+ended, the Seminole looking hard at the captain to try to discover
+whether he had meant what he said.
+
+
+Intellectual Ability.
+
+In range of intellectual power and mental processes the Florida Indians,
+when compared with the intellectual abilities and operations of the
+cultivated American, are quite limited. But if the Seminole are to be
+judged by comparison with other American aborigines, I believe they
+easily enter the first class. They seem to be mentally active. When the
+full expression of any of my questions failed, a substantive or two, an
+adverb, and a little pantomime generally sufficed to convey the meaning
+to my hearers. In their intercourse with one another, they are, as a
+rule, voluble, vivacious, showing the possession of relatively active
+brains and mental fertility. Certainly, most of the Seminole I met
+cannot justly be called either stupid or intellectually sluggish,
+and I observed that, when invited to think of matters with which they
+are not familiar or which are beyond the verge of the domain which
+their intellectual faculties have mastered, they nevertheless bravely
+endeavored to satisfy me before they were willing to acknowledge
+themselves powerless. They would not at once answer a misunderstood or
+unintelligible question, but would return inquiry upon inquiry, before
+the decided “I don’t know” was uttered. Those with whom I particularly
+dealt were exceptionally patient under the strains to which I put their
+minds. Ko-nip-ha-tco, by no means a brilliant member of his tribe, is
+much to be commended for his patient, persistent, intellectual industry.
+I kept the young fellow busy for about a fortnight, from half-past eight
+in the morning until five in the afternoon, with but an hour and a
+half’s intermission at noon. Occupying our time with inquiries not very
+interesting to him, about the language and life of his people, I could
+see how much I wearied him. Often I found by his answers that his brain
+was, to a degree, paralyzed by the long continued tension to which it
+was subjected. But he held on bravely through the severe heat of an
+attic room at Myers. Despite the insects, myriads of which took a great
+interest in us and our surroundings, despite the persistent invitation
+of the near woods to him to leave “Doctor Na-ki-ta” and to tramp off in
+them on a deer hunt (for “Billy” is a lover of the woods and a bold and
+successful hunter), he held on courageously. The only sign of weakening
+he made was on one day, about noon, when, after many, to me, vexatious
+failures to draw from him certain translations into his own language of
+phrases containing verbs illustrating variations of mood, time, number,
+&c., he said to me: “Doctor, how long you want me to tell you Indian
+language?” “Why?” I replied, “are you tired, Billy?” “No,” he answered,
+“a littly. Me think me tell you all. Me don’t know English language.
+Bum-by you come, next winter, me tell you all. Me go school. Me learn.
+Me go hunt deer to-mollow.” I was afraid of losing my hold upon him, for
+time was precious. “Billy,” I said, “you go now. You hunt to-day. I need
+you just three days more and then you can hunt all the time. To-morrow
+come, and I will ask you easier questions.” After only a moment’s
+hesitation, “Me no go, Doctor; me stay,” was his courageous decision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Seminole Society.
+
+
+As I now direct attention to the Florida Seminole in their relations
+with one another, I shall first treat of that relationship which lies
+at the foundation of society, marriage or its equivalent, the result
+of which is a body of people more or less remotely connected with one
+another and designated by the term “kindred.” This is shown either in
+the narrow limits of what may be named the family or in the larger
+bounds of what is called the clan or gens. I attempted to get full
+insight into the system of relationships in which Seminole kinship is
+embodied, and, while my efforts were not followed by an altogether
+satisfactory result, I saw enough to enable me to say that the Seminole
+relationships are essentially those of what we may call their “mother
+tribe,” the Creek. The Florida Seminole are a people containing, to some
+extent, the posterity of tribes diverse from the Creek in language and
+in social and political organization; but so strong has the Creek
+influence been in their development that the Creek language, Creek
+customs, and Creek regulations have been the guiding forces in their
+history, forces by which, in fact, the characteristics of the other
+peoples have yielded, have been practically obliterated.
+
+I have made a careful comparison of the terms of Seminole relationship I
+obtained with those of the Creek Indians, embodied in Dr. L. H. Morgan’s
+Consanguinity and Affinity of the American Indians, and I find that, as
+far as I was able to go, they are the same, allowing for the natural
+differences of pronunciation of the two peoples. The only seeming
+difference of relationships lies in the names applied to some of the
+lineal descendants, descriptive instead of classificatory names being
+used.
+
+I have said, “as far as I was able to go.” I found, for example, that
+beyond the second collateral line among consanguineous kindred my
+interpreter would answer my question only by some such answer as “I
+don’t know” or “No kin,” and that, beyond the first collateral line of
+kindred by marriage, except for a very few relationships, I could obtain
+no answer.
+
+
+The Seminole Family.
+
+The family consists of the husband, one or more wives, and their
+children. I do not know what limit tribal law places to the number of
+wives the Florida Indian may have, but certainly he may possess two.
+There are several Seminole families in which duogamy exists.
+
+Courtship.
+
+I learned the following facts concerning the formation of a family:
+A young warrior, at the age of twenty or less, sees an Indian maiden of
+about sixteen years, and by a natural impulse desires to make her his
+wife. What follows? He calls his immediate relatives to a council and
+tells them of his wish. If the damsel is not a member of the lover’s
+own gens and if no other impediment stands in the way of the proposed
+alliance, they select, from their own number, some who, at an
+appropriate time, go to the maiden’s kindred and tell them that they
+desire the maid to receive their kinsman as her husband. The girl’s
+relatives then consider the question. If they decide in favor of the
+union, they interrogate the prospective bride as to her disposition
+towards the young man. If she also is willing, news of the double
+consent is conveyed through the relatives, on both sides, to the
+prospective husband. From that moment there is a gentle excitement in
+both households. The female relatives of the young man take to the house
+of the betrothed’s mother a blanket or a large piece of cotton cloth and
+a bed canopy--in other words, the furnishing of a new bed. Thereupon
+there is returned thence to the young man a wedding costume, consisting
+of a newly made shirt.
+
+Marriage.
+
+Arrangements for the marriage being thus completed, the marriage takes
+place by the very informal ceremony of the going of the bridegroom, at
+sunset of an appointed day, to the home of his mother-in-law, where he
+is received by his bride. From that time he is her husband. The next
+day, husband and wife appear together in the camp, and are thenceforth
+recognized as a wedded pair. After the marriage, through what is the
+equivalent of the white man’s honeymoon, and often for a much longer
+period, the new couple remain at the home of the mother-in-law. It is
+the man and not the woman among these Indians who leaves father and
+mother and cleaves unto the mate. After a time, especially as the family
+increases, the wedded pair build one or more houses for independent
+housekeeping, either at the camp of the wife’s mother or elsewhere,
+excepting among the husband’s relatives.
+
+Divorce.
+
+The home may continue until death breaks it up. Sometimes, however,
+it occurs that most hopeful matrimonial beginnings, among the Florida
+Seminole, as elsewhere, end in disappointment and ruin. How divorce
+is accomplished I could not learn. I pressed the question upon
+Ko-nip-ha-tco, but his answer was, “Me don’t know; Indian no tell me
+much.” All the light I obtained upon the subject comes from Billy’s
+first reply, “He left her.” In fact, desertion seems to be the only
+ceremony accompanying a divorce. The husband, no longer satisfied with
+his wife, leaves her; she returns to her family, and the matter is
+ended. There is no embarrassment growing out of problems respecting the
+woman’s future support, the division of property, or the adjustment of
+claims for the possession of the children. The independent self-support
+of every adult, healthy Indian, female as well as male, and the gentile
+relationship, which is more wide reaching and authoritative than that
+of marriage, have already disposed of these questions, which are usually
+so perplexing for the white man. So far as personal maintenance is
+concerned, a woman is, as a rule, just as well off without a husband
+as with one. What is hers, in the shape of property, remains her own
+whether she is married or not. In fact, marriage among these Indians
+seems to be but the natural mating of the sexes, to cease at the option
+of either of the interested parties. Although I do not know that the
+wife may lawfully desert her husband, as well as the husband his wife,
+from some facts learned I think it probable that she may.
+
+Childbirth.
+
+According to information received a prospective mother, as the hour of
+her confinement approaches, selects a place for the birth of her child
+not far from the main house of the family, and there, with some friends,
+builds a small lodge, covering the top and sides of the structure
+generally with the large leaves of the cabbage palmetto. To this
+secluded place the woman, with some elderly female relatives, goes at
+the time the child is to be born, and there, in a sitting posture, her
+hands grasping a strong stick driven into the ground before her, she
+is delivered of her babe, which is received and cared for by her
+companions. Rarely is the Indian mother’s labor difficult or followed by
+a prolonged sickness. Usually she returns to her home with her little
+one within four days after its birth.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 66. Baby cradle or hammock.]
+
+Infancy.
+
+The baby, well into the world, learns very quickly that he is to make
+his own way through it as best he may. His mother is prompt to nourish
+him and solicitous in her care for him if he falls ill, but, as far as
+possible, she goes her own way and leaves the little fellow to go his.
+From the first she gives her child the perfectly free use of his body
+and, within a limited area, of the camp ground. She does not bundle him
+into a motionless thing or bind him helplessly on a board; on the
+contrary, she does not trouble her child even with clothing. The Florida
+Indian baby, when very young, spends his time, naked, in a hammock, or
+on a deer skin, or on the warm earth. (Fig. 66.)
+
+The Seminole mother, I was informed, is not in the habit of soothing
+her baby with song. Nevertheless, sometimes one may hear her or an old
+grandam crooning a monotonous refrain as she crouches on the ground
+beside the swinging hammock of a baby. I heard one of these refrains,
+and, as nearly as I could catch it, it ran thus:
+
+  [Illustration: Music]
+
+  No-wut-tca, No-wut-tca.
+
+The hammock was swung in time with the song. The singing was slow in
+movement and nasal in quality. The last note was unmusical and uttered
+quite staccato.
+
+There are times, to be sure, when the Seminole mother carries her baby.
+He is not always left to his pleasure on the ground or in a hammock.
+When there is no little sister or old grandmother to look after the
+helpless creature and the mother is forced to go to any distance from
+her house or lodge, she takes him with her. This she does, usually, by
+setting him astride one of her hips and holding him there. If she wishes
+to have both her arms free, however, she puts the baby into the center
+of a piece of cotton cloth, ties opposite corners of the cloth together,
+and slings her burden over her shoulders and upon her back, where, with
+his brown legs astride his mother’s hips, the infant rides, generally
+with much satisfaction. I remember seeing, one day, one jolly little
+fellow, lolling and rollicking on his mother’s back, kicking her and
+tugging away at the strings of beads which hung temptingly between her
+shoulders, while the mother, hand-free, bore on one shoulder a log,
+which, a moment afterwards, still keeping her baby on her back as she
+did so, she chopped into small wood for the camp fire.
+
+Childhood.
+
+But just as soon as the Seminole baby has gained sufficient strength to
+toddle he learns that the more he can do for himself and the more he can
+contribute to the general domestic welfare the better he will get along
+in life. No small amount of the labor in a Seminole household is done by
+children, even as young as four years of age. They can stir the soup
+while it is boiling; they can aid in kneading the dough for bread;
+they can wash the “Koonti” root, and even pound it; they can watch and
+replenish the fire; they contribute in this and many other small ways to
+the necessary work of the home. I am not to be understood, of course, as
+saying that the little Seminole’s life is one of severe labor. He has
+plenty of time for games and play of all kinds, and of these I shall
+hereafter speak. Yet, as soon as he is able to play, he finds that with
+his play he must mix work in considerable measure.
+
+Seminole Dwellings--I-Ful-Lo-Ha-Tco’s House.
+
+Now that we have seen the Seminole family formed, let us look at its
+home. The Florida Indians are not nomads. They have fixed habitations:
+settlements in well defined districts, permanent camps, houses or
+wigwams which, remain from year to year the abiding places of their
+families, and gardens and fields which for indefinite periods are used
+by the same owners. There are times during the year when parties gather
+into temporary camps for a few weeks. Now perhaps they gather upon some
+rich Koonti ground, that they may dig an extra quantity of this root and
+make flour from it; now, that they may have a sirup making festival,
+they go to some fertile sugar cane hammock; or again, that they may have
+a hunt, they camp where a certain kind of game has been discovered in
+abundance. And they all, as a rule, go to a central point, once a year
+and share there their great feast, the Green Corn Dance. Besides, as I
+was told, these Indians are frequent visitors to one another, acting in
+turn as guests and hosts for a few days at a time. But it is the fact,
+nevertheless, that for much the greater part of the year the Seminole
+families are at their homes, occupying houses, surrounded by many
+comforts and living a life of routine industry.
+
+As one Seminole home is, with but few unimportant differences, like
+nearly all the others, we can get a good idea of what it is by
+describing here the first one I visited, that of I-ful-lo-ha-tco, or
+“Charlie Osceola,” in the “Bad Country,” on the edge of the Big Cypress
+Swamp.
+
+When my guide pointed out to me the locality where “Charlie” lives, I
+could see nothing but a wide saw-grass marsh surrounding a small island.
+The island seemed covered with a dense growth of palmetto and other
+trees and tangled shrubbery, with a few banana plants rising among
+them. No sign of human habitation was visible. This invisibility
+of a Seminole’s house from the vicinity may be taken as a marked
+characteristic of his home. If possible, he hides his house, placing
+it on an island and in a jungle. As we neared the hammock we found that
+approach to it was difficult. On horseback there was no trouble in
+getting through the water and the annoying saw-grass, but I found it
+difficult to reach the island with my vehicle, which was loaded with our
+provisions and myself. On the shore of “Charlie’s” island is a piece of
+rich land of probably two acres in extent. At length I landed, and soon,
+to my surprise, entered a small, neat clearing, around which were built
+three houses, excellent of their kind, and one insignificant structure.
+Beyond these, well fenced with palmetto logs, lay a small garden. No one
+of the entire household--father, mother, and child--was at home. Where
+they had gone we did not learn until later. We found them next day at a
+sirup making at “Old Tommy’s” field, six miles away. Having, in the
+absence of the owner, a free range of the camp, I busied myself in
+noting what had been left in it and what were its peculiarities. Among
+the first things I picked up was a “cow’s horn.”
+
+This, my guide informed me, was used in calling from camp to camp.
+Mounting a pile of logs, “Billy” tried with it to summon “Charlie,”
+thinking he might be somewhere near. Meanwhile I continued my search.
+I noticed some terrapin shells lying on a platform in one of the houses,
+the breast shell pierced with two holes. “Wear them at Green Corn
+Dance,” said “Billy.” I caught sight of some dressed buckskins lying on
+a rafter of a house, and an old fashioned rifle, with powder horn and
+shot flask. I also saw a hoe; a deep iron pot; a mortar, made from a
+live oak (?) log, probably fifteen inches in diameter and twenty-four in
+height, and beside it a pestle, made from mastic wood, perhaps four feet
+and a half in length.
+
+A bag of corn hung from a rafter, and near it a sack of clothing, which
+I did not examine. A skirt, gayly ornamented, hung there also. There
+were several basketware sieves, evidently home made, and various bottles
+lying around the place. I did not search among the things laid away on
+the rafters under the roof. A sow, with several pigs, lay contentedly
+under the platform of one of the houses. And near by, in the saw-grass,
+was moored a cypress “dug-out,” about fifteen feet long, pointed at bow
+and stern.
+
+Dwellings throughout the Seminole district are practically uniform in
+construction. With but slight variations, the accompanying sketch of
+I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s main dwelling shows what style of architecture
+prevails in the Florida Everglades. (Pl. XIX.)
+
+This house is approximately 16 by 9 feet in ground measurement, made
+almost altogether, if not wholly, of materials taken from the palmetto
+tree. It is actually but a platform elevated about three feet from the
+ground and covered with a palmetto thatched roof, the roof being not
+more than 12 feet above the ground at the ridge pole, or 7 at the eaves.
+Eight upright palmetto logs, unsplit and undressed, support the roof.
+Many rafters sustain the palmetto thatching. The platform is composed of
+split palmetto logs lying transversely, flat sides up, upon beams which
+extend the length of the building and are lashed to the uprights by
+palmetto ropes, thongs, or trader’s ropes. This platform is peculiar,
+in that it fills the interior of the building like a floor and serves to
+furnish the family with a dry sitting or lying down place when, as often
+happens, the whole region is under water. The thatching of the roof is
+quite a work of art: inside, the regularity and compactness of the
+laying of the leaves display much skill and taste on the part of the
+builder; outside--with the outer layers there seems to have been less
+care taken than with those within--the mass of leaves of which the roof
+is composed is held in place and made firm by heavy logs, which, bound
+together in pairs, are laid upon it astride the ridge. The covering is,
+I was informed, water tight and durable and will resist even a violent
+wind. Only hurricanes can tear it off, and these are so infrequent in
+Southern Florida that no attempt is made to provide against them.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  Bureau of Ethnology
+  Fifth Annual Report Pl. XIX
+  Seminole Dwelling.]
+
+The Seminole’s house is open on all sides and without rooms. It is, in
+fact, only a covered platform. The single equivalent for a room in it is
+the space above the joists which are extended across the building at the
+lower edges of the roof. In this are placed surplus food and general
+household effects out of use from time to time. Household utensils are
+usually suspended from the uprights of the building and from pronged
+sticks driven into the ground near by at convenient places.
+
+From this description the Seminole’s house may seem a poor kind of
+structure to use as a dwelling; yet if we take into account the climate
+of Southern Florida nothing more would seem to be necessary. A shelter
+from the hot sun and the frequent rains and a dry floor above the damp
+or water covered ground are sufficient for the Florida Indian’s needs.
+
+I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s three houses are placed at three corners of an oblong
+clearing, which is perhaps 40 by 30 feet. At the fourth corner is the
+entrance into the garden, which is in shape an ellipse, the longer
+diameter being about 25 feet. The three houses are alike, with the
+exception that in one of them the elevated platform is only half the
+size of those of the others. This difference seems to have been made on
+account of the camp fire. The fire usually burns in the space around
+which the buildings stand. During the wet season, however, it is moved
+into the sheltered floor in the building having the half platform. At
+Tus-ko-na’s camp, where several families are gathered, I noticed one
+building without the interior platform. This was probably the wet
+weather kitchen.
+
+To all appearance there is no privacy in these open houses. The only
+means by which it seems to be secured is by suspending, over where one
+sleeps, a canopy of thin cotton cloth or calico, made square or oblong
+in shape, and nearly three feet in height. This serves a double use,
+as a private room and as a protection against gnats and mosquitoes.
+
+But while I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s house is a fair example of the kind of
+dwelling in use throughout the tribe, I may not pass unnoticed some
+innovations which have lately been made upon the general style. There
+are, I understand, five inclosed houses, which were built and are owned
+by Florida Indians. Four of these are covered with split cypress planks
+or slabs; one is constructed of logs.
+
+Progressive “Key West Billy” has gone further than any other one,
+excepting perhaps Me-le, in the white man’s ways of house building.
+He has erected for his family, which consists of one wife and three
+children, a cypress board house, and furnished it with doors and
+windows, partitions, floors, and ceiling. In the house are one upper and
+one or two lower rooms. Outside, he has a stairway to the upper floor,
+and from the upper floor a balcony. He possesses also an elevated bed,
+a trunk for his clothing, and a straw hat.
+
+Besides the permanent home for the Seminole family, there is also the
+lodge which it occupies when for any cause it temporarily leaves the
+house. The lodges, or the temporary structures which the Seminole make
+when “camping out,” are, of course, much simpler and less comfortable
+than their houses. I had the privilege of visiting two “camping”
+parties--one of forty-eight Indians, at Tak-o-si-mac-la’s cane field, on
+the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp; the other of twenty-two persons, at a
+Koonti ground, on Horse Creek, not far from the site of what was, long
+ago, Fort Davenport.
+
+I found great difficulty in reaching the “camp” at the sugar cane field.
+I was obliged to leave my conveyance some distance from the island on
+which the cane field was located. When we arrived at the shore of the
+saw-grass marsh no outward sign indicated the presence of fifty Indians
+so close at hand; but suddenly three turbaned Seminole emerged from the
+marsh, as we stood there. Learning from our guide our business, they
+cordially offered to conduct us through the water and saw-grass to the
+camp. The wading was annoying and, to me, difficult; but at length we
+secured dry footing in the jungle on the island, and after a tortuous
+way through the tangled vegetation, which walled in the camp from the
+prairie, we entered the large clearing and the collection of lodges
+where the Indians were. These lodges, placed very close together and
+seemingly without order, were almost all made of white cotton cloths,
+which were each stretched over ridge poles and tied to four corner
+posts. The lodges were in shape like the fly of a wall tent, simply a
+sheet stretched for a cover.
+
+At a Koonti ground on Horse Creek I met the Cat Fish Lake Indians. They
+had been forced to leave their homes to secure an extra supply of Koonti
+flour, because, as I understood the woman who told me, some animals had
+eaten all their sweet potatoes. The lodges of this party differed from
+those of the southern Indians in being covered above and around with
+palmetto leaves and in being shaped some like wall tents and others like
+single-roofed sheds. The accompanying sketch shows what kind of a
+shelter Täl-la-häs-ke had made for himself fit Horse Creek. (Fig. 67.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 67. Temporary dwelling.]
+
+Adjoining each of these lodges was a platform, breast high. These were
+made of small poles or sticks covered with, the leaves of the palmetto.
+Upon and under these, food, clothing, and household utensils, generally,
+were kept; and between the rafters of the lodges and the roofs, also,
+many articles, especially those for personal use and adornment, were
+stored.
+
+Home Life.
+
+Having now seen the formation of the Seminole family and taken a glance
+at the dwellings, permanent and temporary, which it occupies, we are
+prepared to look at its household life. I was surprised by the industry
+and comparative prosperity and, further, by the cheerfulness and mutual
+confidence, intimacy, and affection of these Indians in their family
+intercourse.
+
+The Seminole family is industrious. All its members work who are able to
+do so, men as well as women. The former are not only hunters, fishermen,
+and herders, but agriculturists also. The women not only care for their
+children and look after the preparation of food and the general welfare
+of the home, but are, besides, laborers in the fields. In the Seminole
+family, both, husband and wife are land proprietors and cultivators.
+Moreover, as we have seen, all children able to labor contribute their
+little to the household prosperity. From these various domestic
+characteristics, an industrious family life almost necessarily follows.
+The disesteem in which Tûs-ko-na, a notorious loafer at the Big Cypress
+Swamp, is held by the other Indians shows that laziness is not
+countenanced among the Seminole.
+
+But let me not be misunderstood here. By a Seminole’s industry I do
+not mean the persistent and rapid labor of the white man of a northern
+community. The Indian is not capable of this, nor is he compelled to
+imitate it. I mean only that, in describing him, it is but just for me
+to say that he is a worker and not a loafer.
+
+As a result of the domestic industry it would be expected that we should
+find comparative prosperity prevailing among all Seminole families; and
+this is the fact. Much of the Indian’s labor is wasted through his
+ignorance of the ways by which it might be economized. He has no
+labor saving or labor multiplying machines. There is but little
+differentiation of function in either family or tribe. Each worker does
+all kinds of work. Men give themselves to the hunt, women to the house,
+and both to the field. But men may be found sometimes at the cooking
+pot or toasting stick and women may be seen taking care of cattle and
+horses. Men bring home deer and turkeys, &c.; women spend days in
+fishing. Both men and women are tailors, shoemakers, flour makers, cane
+crushers and sirup boilers, wood hewers and bearers, and water carriers.
+There are but few domestic functions which may be said to belong
+exclusively, on the one hand, to men, or, on the other, to women.
+
+Out of the diversified domestic industry, as I have said, comes
+comparative prosperity. The home is all that the Seminole family needs
+or desires for its comfort. There is enough clothing, or the means to
+get it, for every one. Ordinarily more than a sufficient quantity of
+clothes is possessed by each member of a family. No one lacks money or
+the material with which to obtain that which money purchases. Nor
+need any ever hunger, since the fields and nature offer them food in
+abundance. The families of the northern camps are not as well provided
+for by bountiful nature as those south of the Caloosahatchie River. Yet,
+though at my visit to the Cat Fish Lake Indians in midwinter the sweet
+potatoes were all gone, a good hunting ground and fertile fields of
+Koonti were near at hand for Tcup-ko’s people to visit and use to their
+profit.
+
+Food.
+
+Read the bill of fare from which the Florida Indians may select, and
+compare with that the scanty supplies within reach of the North Carolina
+Cherokee or the Lake Superior Chippewa. Here is a list of their meats:
+Of flesh, at any time venison, often opossum, sometimes rabbit and
+squirrel, occasionally bear, and a land terrapin, called the “gopher,”
+and pork whenever they wish it. Of wild fowl, duck, quail, and turkey in
+abundance. Of home reared fowl, chickens, more than they are willing to
+use. Of fish, they can catch myriads of the many kinds which teem in the
+inland waters of Florida, especially of the large bass, called “trout”
+by the whites of the State, while on the seashore they can get many
+forms of edible marine life, especially turtles and oysters. Equally
+well off are these Indians in respect to grains, vegetables, roots,
+and fruits. They grow maize in considerable quantity, and from it make
+hominy and flour, and all the rice they need they gather from the
+swamps. Their vegetables are chiefly sweet potatoes, large and much
+praised melons and pumpkins, and, if I may classify it with vegetables,
+the tender new growth of the tree called the cabbage palmetto. Among
+roots, there is the great dependence of these Indians, the abounding
+Koonti; also the wild potato, a small tuber found in black swamp land,
+and peanuts in great quantities. Of fruits, the Seminole family may
+supply itself with bananas, oranges (sour and sweet), limes, lemons,
+guavas, pineapples, grapes (black and red), cocoa nuts, cocoa plums, sea
+grapes, and wild plums. And with even this enumeration the bill of fare
+is not exhausted. The Seminole, living in a perennial summer, is never
+at a loss when he seeks something, and something good, to eat. I have
+omitted from the above list honey and the sugar cane juice and sirup,
+nor have I referred to the purchases the Indians now and then make from
+the white man, of salt pork, wheat flour, coffee, and salt, and of the
+various canned delicacies, whose attractive labels catch their eyes.
+
+These Indians are not, of course, particularly provident. I was told,
+however, that they are beginning to be ambitious to increase their
+little herds of horses and cattle and their numbers of chickens and
+swine.
+
+Camp Fire.
+
+Entering the more interior, the intimate home life of the Seminole, one
+observes that the center about which it gathers is the camp fire. This
+is never large except on a cool night, but it is of unceasing interest
+to the household. It is the place where the food is prepared, and where,
+by day, it is always preparing. It is the place where the social
+intercourse of the family, and of the family with their friends, is
+enjoyed. There the story is told; by its side toilets are made and
+household duties are performed, not necessarily on account of the warmth
+the fire gives, for it is often so small that its heat is almost
+imperceptible, but because of its central position in the household
+economy. This fire is somewhat singularly constructed; the logs used
+for it are of considerable length, and are laid, with some regularity,
+around a center, like the radii of a circle. These logs are pushed
+directly inward as the inner ends are consumed. The outer ends of the
+logs make excellent seats; sometimes they serve as pillows, especially
+for old men and women wishing to take afternoon, naps.
+
+Beds and bedding are of far less account to the Seminole family than the
+camp fire. The bed is often only the place where one chooses to lie. It
+is generally, however, chosen under the sheltering roof on the elevated
+platform, or, when made in the lodge, on palmetto leaves. It is
+pillowless, and has covering or not, as the sleeper may wish. If a cover
+is used, it is, as a rule, only a thin blanket or a sheet of cotton
+cloth, besides, during most of the year, the canopy or mosquito bar.
+
+Manner Of Eating.
+
+Next in importance to the camp fire in the life of the Seminole
+household naturally comes the eating of what is prepared there. There
+is nothing very formal in that. The Indians do not set a table or lay
+dishes and arrange chairs. A good sized kettle, containing stewed meat
+and vegetables, is the center around which, the family gathers for its
+meal. This, placed in some convenient spot on the ground near the fire,
+is surrounded by more or fewer of the members of the household in a
+sitting posture. If all that they have to eat at that time is contained
+in the kettle, each, extracts, with his fingers or his knife, a piece of
+meat or a bone with meat on it, and, holding it in one hand, eats, while
+with the other hand each, in turn, supplies himself, by means of a great
+wooden spoon, from the porridge in the pot.
+
+The Seminole, however, though observing meal times with some regularity,
+eats just as his appetite invites. If it happens that he has a side of
+venison roasting before the fire, he will cut from it at any time during
+the day and, with the piece of meat in one hand and a bit of Koonti or
+of different bread in the other, satisfy his appetite. Not seldom, too,
+he rises during the night and breaks his sleep by eating a piece of the
+roasting meat. The kettle and big spoon stand always ready for those who
+at any moment may hunger. There is little to be said about eating in a
+Seminole household, therefore, except that when its members eat together
+they make a kettle the center of their group and that much of their
+eating is done without reference to one another.
+
+Amusements.
+
+But one sees the family at home, not only working and sleeping and
+eating, but also engaged in amusing itself. Especially among the
+children, various sports are indulged in. I took some trouble to learn
+what amusements the little Seminole had invented or received. I obtained
+a list of them which might as well be that of the white man’s as of the
+Indian’s child. The Seminole has a doll, i.e., a bundle of rags, a stick
+with a bit of cloth wrapped about it, or something that serves just as
+well as this. The children build little houses for their dolls and name
+them “camps.” Boys take their bows and arrows and go into the bushes and
+kill small birds, and on returning say they have been “turkey-hunting.”
+Children sit around a small piece of land and, sticking blades of grass
+into the ground, name it a “corn field.” They have the game of “hide and
+seek.” They use the dancing rope, manufacture a “see-saw,” play “leap
+frog,” and build a “merry-go-round.” Carrying a small stick, they say
+they carry a rifle. I noticed some children at play one day sitting near
+a dried deer skin, which lay before them stiff and resonant. They had
+taken from the earth small tubers about an inch in diameter found on the
+roots of a kind of grass and called “deer-food.” Through them they had
+thrust sharp sticks of the thickness of a match and twice as long,
+making what we would call “teetotums.” These, by a quick twirl between
+the palms of the hands, were set to spinning on the deer skin. The four
+children were keeping a dozen or more of these things going. The sport
+they called “a dance.”
+
+I need only add that the relations among the various members of the
+Indian family in Florida are, as a rule, so well adjusted and observed
+that home life goes on without discord. The father is beyond question
+master in his home. To the mother belongs a peculiar domestic importance
+from her connection with her gens, but both she and her children seek
+first to know and to do the will of the actual lord of the household.
+The father is the master without being a tyrant; the mother is a subject
+without being a slave; the children have not yet learned self-assertion
+in opposition to their parents: consequently, there is no constraint in
+family intercourse. The Seminole household is cheerful, its members are
+mutually confiding, and, in the Indian’s way, intimate and affectionate.
+
+
+The Seminole Gens.
+
+Of this larger body of kindred, existing, as I could see, in very
+distinct form among the Seminole, I gained but little definite
+knowledge. What few facts I secured are here placed on record.
+
+After I was enabled to make my inquiry understood, I sought to learn
+from my respondent the name of the gens to which each Indian whose name
+I had received belonged. As the result, I found that the two hundred and
+eight Seminole now in Florida are divided into the following gentes and
+in the following numbers:
+
+  1. Wind gens                    21
+  2. Tiger gens                   58
+  3. Otter gens                   39
+  4. Bird gens                    41
+  5. Deer gens                    18
+  6. Snake gens                   15
+  7. Bear gens                     4
+  8. Wolf gens                     1
+  9. Alligator gens                1
+     Unknown gentes               10
+                                 ---
+     Total                       208
+
+I endeavored, also, to learn the name the Indians use for gens or clan,
+and was told that it is “Po-ha-po-hûm-ko-sin;” the best translation I
+can give of the name is “Those of one camp or house.”
+
+Examining my table to find whether or not the word as translated
+describes the fact, I notice that, with but one exception, which may
+not, after all, prove to be an exception, each of the twenty-two camps
+into which the thirty-seven Seminole families are divided is a camp in
+which all the persons but the husbands are members of one gens. The
+camp at Miami is an apparent exception. There Little Tiger, a rather
+important personage, lives with a number of unmarried relatives. A Wolf
+has married one of Little Tiger’s sisters and lives in the camp, as
+properly he should. Lately Tiger himself has married an Otter, but,
+instead of leaving his relatives and going to the camp of his wife’s
+kindred, his wife has taken up her home with his people.
+
+At the Big Cypress Swamp I tried to discover the comparative rank or
+dignity of the various clans. In reply, I was told by one of the Wind
+clan that they are graded in the following order. At the northernmost
+camp, however, another order appears to have been established.
+
+  _Big Cypress camp._
+
+  1. The Wind.
+  2. The Tiger.
+  3. The Otter.
+  4. The Bird.
+  5. The Deer.
+  6. The Snake.
+  7. The Bear.
+  8. The Wolf.
+
+  _Northernmost camp._
+
+  1. The Tiger.
+  2. The Wind.
+  3. The Otter.
+  4. The Bird.
+  5. The Bear.
+  6. The Deer.
+  7. The Buffalo.
+  8. The Snake.
+  9. The Alligator.
+  10. The Horned Owl.
+
+This second order was given to me by one of the Bird gens and by one who
+calls himself distinctively a “Tallahassee” Indian. The Buffalo and the
+Horned Owl clans seem now to be extinct in Florida, and I am not
+altogether sure that the Alligator clan also has not disappeared.
+
+The gens is “a group of relatives tracing a common lineage to some
+remote ancestor. This lineage is traced by some tribes through the
+mother and by others through the father.” “The gens is the grand unit of
+social organization, and for many purposes is the basis of governmental
+organization.” To the gens belong also certain rights and duties.
+
+Of the characteristics of the gentes of the Florida Seminole, I know
+only that a man may not marry a woman of his own clan, that the children
+belong exclusively to the mother, and that by birth they are members of
+her own gens. So far as duogamy prevails now among the Florida Indians,
+I observed that both the wives, in every case, were members of one gens.
+I understand also that there are certain games in which men selected
+from gentes as such are the contesting participants.
+
+Fellowhood.
+
+In this connection I may say that if I was understood in my inquiries
+the Seminole have also the institution of “Fellowhood” among them. Major
+Powell thus describes this institution: “Two young men agree to be life
+friends, ‘more than brothers,’ confiding without reserve each in the
+other and protecting each the other from all harm.”
+
+
+The Seminole Tribe.
+
+Tribal Organization.
+
+The Florida Seminole, considered as a tribe, have a very imperfect
+organization. The complete tribal society of the past was much broken
+up through wars with the United States. These wars having ended in the
+transfer of nearly the whole of the population to the Indian Territory,
+the few Indians remaining in Florida were consequently left in a
+comparatively disorganized condition. There is, however, among these
+Indians a simple form of government, to which the inhabitants of at
+least the three southern settlements submit. The people of Cat Fish Lake
+and Cow Creek settlements live in a large measure independent of or
+without civil connection with the others. Tcup-ko calls his people
+“Tallahassee Indians.” He says that they are not “the same” as the Fish
+Eating Creek, Big Cypress, and Miami people. I learned, moreover, that
+the ceremony of the Green Corn Dance may take place at the three last
+named settlements and not at those of the north. The “Tallahassee
+Indians” go to Fish Eating Creek if they desire to take part in the
+festival.
+
+Seat Of Government.
+
+So far as there is a common seat of government, it is located at Fish
+Eating Creek, where reside the head chief and big medicine man of the
+Seminole, Tûs-ta-nûg-ge, and his brother, Hŏs-pa-ta-ki, also a medicine
+man. These two are called the Tus-ta-nûg-ul-ki, or “great heroes” of the
+tribe. At this settlement, annually, a council, composed of minor chiefs
+from the various settlements, meets and passes upon the affairs of the
+tribe.
+
+Tribal Officers.
+
+What the official organization of the tribe is I do not know. My
+respondent could not tell me. I learned, in addition to what I have
+just written, only that there are several Indians with official titles,
+living at each of the settlements, except at the one on Cat Fish Lake.
+These were classified as follows:
+
+  Settlements        | Chief and     | War    | Little | Medicine men.
+                     | medicine man. | chiefs | chiefs |
+  -------------------+---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+  Big Cypress Swamp  |               |    2   |    2   |     1
+  Miami River        |               |    1   |        |     1
+  Fish Eating Creek  |       1       |        |        |     1
+  Cow Creek          |               |        |        |     2
+                     +---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+  Total              |       1       |    3   |    2   |     5
+  -------------------+---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+
+Name Of Tribe.
+
+I made several efforts to discover the tribal name by which these
+Indians now designate themselves. The name Seminole they reject. In
+their own language it means “a wanderer,” and, when used as a term of
+reproach, “a coward.” Ko-nip-ha-tco said, “Me no Sem-ai-no-le; Seminole
+cow, Seminole deer, Seminole rabbit; me no Seminole. Indians gone
+Arkansas Seminole.” He meant that timidity and flight from danger are
+“Seminole” qualities, and that the Indians who had gone west at the
+bidding of the Government were the true renegades. This same Indian
+informed me that the people south of the Caloosahatchie River, at Miami
+and the Big Cypress Swamp call themselves “Kän-yuk-sa Is-ti-tca-ti,”
+i.e., “Kän-yuk-sa red men.” Kän-yuk-sa is their word for what we know as
+Florida. It is composed of I-kan-a, “ground,” and I-yuk-sa, “point” or
+“tip,” i.e., point of ground, or peninsula. At the northern camps the
+name appropriate to the people there, they say, is “Tallahassee
+Indians.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Seminole Tribal Life.
+
+
+We may now look at the life of the Seminole in its broader relations
+to the tribal organization. Some light has already been thrown on this
+subject by the preceding descriptions of the personal characteristics
+and social relations of these Indians. But there are other matters to be
+considered, as, for example, industries, arts, religion, and the like.
+
+
+Industries.
+
+Agriculture.
+
+Prominent among the industries is agriculture. The Florida Indians have
+brought one hundred or more acres of excellent land under a rude sort of
+cultivation. To each family belong, by right of use and agreement with
+other Indians, fields of from one to four acres in extent. The only
+agricultural implement they have is the single bladed hoe common on the
+southern plantation. However, nothing more than this is required.
+
+_Soil._-- The ground they select is generally in the interiors of the
+rich, hammocks which abound in the swamps and prairies of Southern
+Florida. There, with a soil unsurpassed in fertility and needing only to
+be cleared of trees, vines, underbrush, &c., one has but to plant corn,
+sweet potatoes, melons, or any thing else suited to the climate, and
+keep weeds from the growing vegetation, that he may gather a manifold
+return. The soil is wholly without gravel, stones, or rocks. It is soft,
+black, and very fertile. To what extent the Indians carry agriculture
+I do not know. I am under the impression, however, that they do not
+attempt to grow enough to provide much against the future. But, as they
+have no season in the year wholly unproductive and for which they must
+make special provision, their improvidence is not followed by serious
+consequences.
+
+_Corn._--The chief product of their agriculture is corn. This becomes
+edible in the months of May and June and at this time it is eaten in
+great quantities. Then it is that the annual festival called the “Green
+Corn Dance” is celebrated. When the corn ripens, a quantity of it is
+laid aside and gradually used in the form of hominy and of what I heard
+described as an “exceedingly beautiful meal, white as the finest wheat
+flour.” This meal is produced by a slow and tedious process. The corn is
+hulled and the germ cut out, so that there is only a pure white residue.
+This is then reduced by mortar and pestle to an almost impalpable dust.
+From this flour a cake is made, which, is said to be very pleasant to
+the taste.
+
+_Sugar cane._--Another product of their agriculture is the sugar cane.
+In growing this they are the producers of perhaps the finest sugar cane
+grown in America; but they are not wise enough to make it a source of
+profit to themselves. It seems to be cultivated more as a passing
+luxury. It was at “Old Tommy’s” sugar field I met the forty-eight of the
+people of the Big Cypress Swamp settlement already mentioned. They had
+left their homes that they might have a pleasuring for a few weeks
+together, “camping out” and making and eating sirup. The cane which had
+been grown there was the largest I or my companion, Capt. F. A. Hendry,
+of Myers, had ever seen. It was two inches or more in diameter, and, as
+we guessed, seventeen feet or more in length. To obtain the sirup the
+Indians had constructed two rude mills, the cylinders of which, however,
+were so loosely adjusted that full half the juice was lost in the
+process of crushing the cane. The juice was caught in various kinds of
+iron and tin vessels, kettles, pails, and cans, and after having been,
+strained was boiled until the proper consistency was reached.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 68. Sugar cane crusher.]
+
+At the time we were at the camp quite a quantity of the sirup had been
+made. It stood around the boiling place in kettles, large and small, and
+in cans bearing the labels of well known Boston and New York packers,
+which had been purchased at Myers. Of special interest to me was a
+platform near the boiling place, on which lay several deer skins, that
+had been taken as nearly whole as possible from the bodies of the
+animals, and utilized as holders of the sirup. They were filled with the
+sweet stuff, and the ground beneath was well covered by a slow leakage
+from them. “Key West Billy” offered me some of the cane juice to drink.
+It was clean looking and served in a silver gold lined cup of spotless
+brilliancy. It made a welcome and delicious drink. I tasted some of the
+sirup also, eating it Indian fashion, i.e., I pared some of their small
+boiled wild potatoes and, dipping them into the sweet liquid, ate them.
+The potato itself tastes somewhat like a boiled chestnut.
+
+The sugar cane mill was a poor imitation of a machine the Indians had
+seen among the whites. Its cylinders were made of live oak; the driving
+cogs were cut from a much harder wood, the mastic, I was told; and these
+were so loosely set into the cylinders that I could take them out with
+thumb and forefinger. (Fig. 68.)
+
+It is not necessary to speak in particular of the culture of sweet
+potatoes, beans, melons, &c. At best it is very primitive. It is,
+however, deserving of mention that the Seminole have around their houses
+at least a thousand banana plants. When it is remembered that a hundred
+bananas are not an overlarge yield for one plant, it is seen how well
+off, so far as this fruit is concerned, these Indians are.
+
+Hunting.
+
+Next in importance as an industry of the tribe (if it may be so called)
+is hunting. Southern Florida abounds in game and the Indians have only
+to seek in order to find it. For this purpose they use the rifle. The
+bow and arrow are no longer used for hunting purposes except by the
+smaller children. The rifles are almost all the long, heavy, small bore
+“Kentucky” rifle. This is economical of powder and lead, and for this
+reason is preferred by many to even the modern improved weapons which
+carry fixed ammunition. The Seminole sees the white man so seldom and
+lives so far from trading posts that he is not willing to be confined to
+the use of the prepared cartridge.
+
+A few breech loading rifles are owned in the tribe. The shot gun is much
+disliked by the Seminole. There is only one among them, and that is a
+combination of shot gun with rifle. I made a careful count of their fire
+arms, and found that they own, of “Kentucky” rifles, 63; breech loading
+rifles, 8; shot gun and rifle, 1; revolvers, 2--total, 74.
+
+_Methods of hunting._--The Seminole always hunt their game on foot. They
+can approach a deer to within sixty yards by their method of rapidly
+nearing him while he is feeding, and standing perfectly still when he
+raises his head. They say that they are able to discover by certain
+movements on the part of the deer when the head is about to be lifted.
+They stand side to the animal. They believe that they can thus deceive
+the deer, appearing to them as stumps or trees. They lure turkeys within
+shooting distance by an imitation of the calls of the bird. They leave
+small game, such as birds, to the children. One day, while some of our
+party were walking near Horse Creek with Ka-tca-la-ni, a covey of quail
+whirred out of the grass. By a quick jerk the Indian threw his ramrod
+among the birds and billed one. He appeared to regard this feat as
+neither accidental nor remarkable.
+
+I sought to discover how many deer the Seminole annually kill, but
+could get no number which I can call trustworthy. I venture twenty-five
+hundred as somewhere near a correct estimate.
+
+Otter hunting is another of the Seminole industries. This animal has
+been pursued with the rifle and with the bow and arrow. Lately the
+Indians have heard of the trap. When we left Horse Creek, a request was
+made by one of them to our guide to purchase for him six otter traps for
+use in the Cat Fish Lake camp.
+
+Fishing.
+
+Fishing is also a profitable industry. For this the hook and line are
+often used; some also use the spoon hook. But it is a common practice
+among them to kill the fish with bow and arrow, and in this they are
+quite skillful. One morning some boys brought me a bass, weighing
+perhaps sis pounds, which one of them had shot with an arrow.
+
+Stock Raising.
+
+Stock raising, in a small way, may be called a Seminole industry.
+I found that at least fifty cattle, and probably more, are owned by
+members of the tribe and that the Seminole probably possess a thousand
+swine and five hundred chickens. The latter are of an excellent breed.
+At Cat Fish Lake an unusual interest in horses seems now to be
+developing. I found there twenty horses. I was told that there are
+twelve horses at Fish Eating Creek, and I judge that between thirty-five
+and forty of these animals are now in possession of the tribe.
+
+Koonti.
+
+The unique industry, in the more limited sense of the word, of the
+Seminole is the making of the Koonti flour. Koonti is a root containing
+a large percentage of starch. It is said to yield a starch equal to
+that of the best Bermuda arrowroot. White men call it the “Indian
+bread root,” and lately its worth as an article of commerce has been
+recognized by the whites. There are now at least two factories in
+operation in Southern Florida in which the Koonti is made into a flour
+for the white man’s market. I was at one such factory at Miami and saw
+another near Orlando. I ate of a Koonti pudding at Miami, and can say
+that, as it was there prepared and served with milk and guava jelly, it
+was delicious. As might be supposed, the Koonti industry, as carried on
+by the whites, produces a far finer flour than that which the Indians
+manufacture. The Indian process, as I watched it at Horse Creek, was
+this: The roots were gathered, the earth was washed from them, and they
+were laid in heaps near the “Koonti log.”
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 69. Koonti log.]
+
+The Koonti log, so called, was the trunk of a large pine tree, in which
+a number of holes, about nine inches square at the top, their sides
+sloping downward to a point, had been cut side by side. Each of these
+holes was the property of some one of the squaws or of the children of
+the camp. For each of the holes, which were to serve as mortars, a
+pestle made of some hard wood had been furnished. (Fig. 69.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 70. Koonti pestles.]
+
+The first step in the process was to reduce the washed Koonti to a kind
+of pulp. This was done by chopping it into small pieces and filling with
+it one of the mortars and pounding it with a pestle. The contents of the
+mortar were then laid upon a small platform. Each worker had a platform.
+When a sufficient quantity of the root had been pounded the whole mass
+was taken to the creek near by and thoroughly saturated with water in a
+vessel made of bark.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 71. Koonti mash vessel.]
+
+The pulp was then washed in a straining cloth, the starch of the Koonti
+draining into a deer hide suspended below.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 72. Koonti strainer.]
+
+When the starch had been thoroughly washed from the mass the latter was
+thrown away, and the starchy sediment in the water in the deerskin left
+to ferment. After some days the sediment was taken from the water and
+spread upon palmetto leaves to dry. When dried, it was a yellowish white
+flour, ready for use. In the factory at Miami substantially this process
+is followed, the chief variation from it being that the Koonti is passed
+through several successive fermentations, thereby making it purer and
+whiter than the Indian product. Improved appliances for the manufacture
+are used by the white man.
+
+The Koonti bread, as I saw it among the Indians, was of a bright orange
+color, and rather insipid, though not unpleasant to the taste. It was
+saltless. Its yellow color was owing to the fact that the flour had had
+but one fermentation.
+
+Industrial Statistics.
+
+The following is a summary of the results of the industries now engaged
+in by the Florida Indians. It shows what is approximately true of these
+at the present time:
+
+  Acres under cultivation                    100
+  Corn raised                     bushels    500
+  Sugarcane                       gallons  1,500
+  Cattle                     number owned     50
+  Swine                            do.     1,000
+  Chickens                         do.       500
+  Horses                           do.        35
+  Koonti                          bushels  5,000
+  Sweet potatoes                   do.       ...
+  Melons                           number  3,000
+
+
+Arts.
+
+Industrial Arts.
+
+In reference to the way in which, the Seminole Indians have met
+necessities for invention and have expressed the artistic impulse,
+I found little to add to what I have already placed on record.
+
+_Utensils and implements._--The proximity of this people to the
+Europeans for the last three centuries, while it has not led them to
+adopt the white man’s civilization in matters of government, religion,
+language, manners, and customs, has, nevertheless, induced them to
+appropriate for their own use some of the utensils, implements, weapons,
+&c., of the strangers. For example, it was easy for the ancestors of
+these Indians to see that the iron kettle of the white man was better in
+every way than their own earthenware pots. Gradually, therefore, the art
+of making pottery died out among them, and now, as I believe, there is
+no pottery whatever in use among the Florida Indians. They neither make
+nor purchase it. They no longer buy even small articles of earthenware,
+preferring tin instead, Iron implements likewise have supplanted those
+made of stone. Even their word for stone, “Tcat-to,” has been applied
+to iron. They purchase hoes, hunting knives, hatchets, axes, and, for
+special use in their homes, knives nearly two feet in length. With these
+long knives they dress timber, chop meat, etc.
+
+_Weapons._--They continue the use of the bow and arrow, but no longer
+for the purposes of war, or, by the adults, for the purposes of hunting.
+The rifle serves them much better. It seems to be customary for every
+male in the tribe over twelve years of age to provide himself with a
+rifle. The bow, as now made, is a single piece of mulberry or other
+elastic wood and is from four to six feet in length; the bowstring is
+made of twisted deer rawhide; the arrows are of cane and of hard wood
+and vary in length from two to four feet; they are, as a rule, tipped
+with a sharp conical roll of sheet iron. The skill of the young men in
+the use of the bow and arrow is remarkable.
+
+_Weaving and basket making._--The Seminole are not now weavers. Their
+few wants for clothing and bedding are supplied by fabrics manufactured
+by white men. They are in a small way, however, basket makers. From the
+swamp cane, and sometimes from the covering of the stalk of the fan
+palmetto, they manufacture flat baskets and sieves for domestic service.
+
+_Uses of the palmetto._--In this connection I call attention to the
+inestimable value of the palmetto tree to the Florida Indians. From the
+trunk of the tree the frames and platforms of their houses are made; of
+its leaves durable water tight roofs are made for the houses; with the
+leaves their lodges are covered and beds protecting the body from the
+dampness of the ground are made; the tough fiber which lies between the
+stems of the leaves and the bark furnishes them with material from which
+they make twine and rope of great strength and from which they could,
+were it necessary, weave cloth for clothing; the tender new growth at
+the top of the tree is a very nutritious and palatable article of food,
+to be eaten either raw or baked; its taste is somewhat like that of the
+chestnut; its texture is crisp like that of our celery stalk.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 73. Mortar and pestle.]
+
+_Mortar and pestle._--The home made mortar and pestle has not yet been
+supplanted by any utensil furnished by the trader. This is still the
+best mill they have in which to grind their corn. The mortar is made
+from a log of live oak (?) wood, ordinarily about two feet in length
+and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. One end of the log is
+hollowed out to quite a depth, and in this, by the hammering of a pestle
+made of mastic wood, the corn is reduced to hominy or to the impalpable
+flour of which I have spoken. (Fig. 73.)
+
+_Canoe making._--Canoe making is still one of their industrial arts, the
+canoe being their chief means of transportation. The Indian settlements
+are all so situated that the inhabitants of one can reach those of the
+others by water. The canoe is what is known as a “dugout,” made from the
+cypress log.
+
+_Fire making._--The art of fire making by simple friction is now, I
+believe, neglected among the Seminole, unless at the starting of the
+sacred fire for the Green Corn Dance. A fire is now kindled either by
+the common Ma-tci (matches) of the civilized man or by steel and flint,
+powder and paper. “Tom Tiger” showed me how he builds a fire when away
+from home. He held, crumpled between the thumb and forefinger of the
+left hand, a bit of paper. In the folds of the paper he poured from his
+powder horn a small quantity of gunpowder. Close beside the paper he
+held also a piece of flint. Striking this flint with a bit of steel and
+at the same time giving to the left hand a quick upward movement, he
+ignited the powder and paper. From this he soon made a fire among the
+pitch pine chippings he had previously prepared.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 74. Hide stretcher.]
+
+_Preparation of skins._--I did not learn just how the Indians dress deer
+skins, but I observed that they had in use and for sale the dried skin,
+with the hair of the animal left on it; the bright yellow buckskin, very
+soft and strong; and also the dark red buckskin, which evidently had
+passed, in part of its preparation, through smoke. I was told that the
+brains of the animal serve an important use in the skin dressing
+process. The accompanying sketch shows a simple frame in use for
+stretching and drying the skin. (Fig. 74)
+
+Ornamental Arts.
+
+In my search for evidence of the working of the art instinct proper,
+i.e., in ornamental or fine art, I found but little to add to what
+has been already said. I saw but few attempts at ornamentation beyond
+those made on the person and on clothing. Houses, canoes, utensils,
+implements, weapons, were almost all without carving or painting. In
+fact, the only carving I noticed in the Indian country was on a pine
+tree near Myers. It was a rude outline of the head of a bull. The local
+report is that when the white men began to send their cattle south of
+the Caloosahatchie River the Indians marked this tree with this sign.
+The only painting I saw was the rude representation of a man, upon the
+shaft of one of the pestles used at the Koonti log at Horse Creek. It
+was made by one of the girls for her own amusement.
+
+I have already spoken of the art of making silver ornaments.
+
+_Music._--Music, as far as I could discover, is but little in use among
+the Seminole. Their festivals are few; so few that the songs of the
+fathers have mostly been forgotten. They have songs for the Green Corn
+Dance; they have lullabys; and there is a doleful song they sing in
+praise of drink, which is occasionally heard when the white man has sold
+Indians whisky on coming to town. Knowing the motive of the song, I
+thought the tune stupid and maudlin. Without pretending to reproduce it
+exactly, I remember it as something like this:
+
+  [Illustration: Music]
+  My precious drink, I fondly love thee.
+  Standing I take thee. And walk until morning. Yo-wan-ha-de.
+
+I give a free translation of the Indian words and an approximation to
+the tune. The last note in this, as in the lullaby I noted above, is
+unmusical and staccato.
+
+
+Religion.
+
+I could learn but little of the religious faiths and practices existing
+among the Florida Indians. I was struck, however, in making my
+investigations, by the evident influence Christian teaching has had upon
+the native faith. How far it has penetrated the inherited thought of the
+Indian I do not know. But, in talking with Ko-nip-ha-tco, he told me
+that his people believe that the Koonti root was a gift from God; that
+long ago the “Great Spirit” sent Jesus Christ to the earth with the
+precious plant, and that Jesus had descended upon the world at Cape
+Florida and there given the Koonti to “the red men.” In reference to
+this tradition, it is to be remembered that during the seventeenth
+century the Spaniards had vigorous missions among the Florida Indians.
+Doubtless it was from these that certain Christian names and beliefs now
+traceable among the Seminole found way into the savage creed and ritual.
+
+I attempted several times to obtain from my interpreter a statement of
+the religious beliefs he had received from his people. I cannot affirm
+with confidence that success followed my efforts.
+
+He told me that his people believe in a “Great Spirit,” whose name is
+His-a-kit-a-mis-i. This word, I have good reason to believe, means “the
+master of breath.” The Seminole for breath is His-a-kit-a.
+
+I cannot be sure that Ko-nip-ha-tco knew anything of what I meant by
+the word “spirit.” I tried to convey my meaning to him, but I think I
+failed. He told me that the place to which Indians go after death is
+called “Po-ya-fi-tsa” and that the Indians who have died are the
+Pi-ya-fits-ul-ki, or “the people of Po-ya-fi-tsa.” That was our nearest
+understanding of the word “spirit” or “soul.”
+
+Mortuary Customs.
+
+As the Seminole mortuary customs are closely connected with their
+religious beliefs, it will be in place to record here what I learned of
+them. The description refers particularly to the death and burial of a
+child.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 75. Seminole bier.]
+
+The preparation for burial began as soon as death had taken place. The
+body was clad in a new shirt, a new handkerchief being tied about the
+neck and another around the head. A spot of red paint was placed on the
+right cheek and one of black upon the left. The body was laid face
+upwards. In the left hand, together with a bit of burnt wood, a small
+bow about twelve inches in length was placed, the hand lying naturally
+over the middle of the body. Across the bow, held by the right hand,
+was laid an arrow, slightly drawn. During these preparations, the women
+loudly lamented, with hair disheveled. At the same time some men had
+selected a place for the burial and made the grave in this manner:
+Two palmetto logs of proper size were split. The four pieces were then
+firmly placed on edge, in the shape of an oblong box, lengthwise east
+and west. In this box a floor was laid, and over this a blanket was
+spread. Two men, at next sunrise, carried the body from the camp to the
+place of burial, the body being suspended at feet thighs, back, and neck
+from a long pole (Fig. 75). The relatives followed. In the grave, which
+is called “To-hŏp-ki”--a word used by the Seminole for “stockade,” or
+“fort,” also, the body was then laid the feet to the east. A blanket was
+then carefully wrapped around the body. Over this palmetto leaves were
+placed and the grave was tightly closed by a covering of logs. Above the
+box a roof was then built. Sticks, in the form of an _X_, were driven
+into the earth across the overlying logs; these were connected by a
+pole, and this structure was covered thickly with palmetto leaves.
+(Fig. 76.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 76. Seminole grave.]
+
+The bearers of the body then made a large fire at each end of the
+“To-hŏp-ki.” With this the ceremony at the grave ended and all returned
+to the camp. During that day and for three days thereafter the relatives
+remained at home and refrained from work. The fires at the grave were
+renewed at sunset by those who had made them, and after nightfall
+torches were there waved in the air, that “the bad birds of the night”
+might not get at the Indian lying in his grave. The renewal of the fires
+and waving of the torches were repeated three days. The fourth day the
+fires were allowed to die out. Throughout the camp “medicine” had been
+sprinkled at sunset for three days. On the fourth day it was said that
+the Indian “had gone.” From that time the mourning ceased and the
+members of the family returned to their usual occupations.
+
+The interpretation of the ceremonies just mentioned, as given me, is
+this: The Indian was laid in his grave to remain there, it was believed,
+only until the fourth day. The fires at head and feet, as well as the
+waving of the torches, were to guard him from the approach of “evil
+birds” who would harm him. His feet were placed toward the east, that
+when he arose to go to the skies he might go straight to the sky path,
+which commenced at the place of the sun’s rising; that were he laid with
+the feet in any other direction he would not know when he rose what path
+to take and he would be lost in the darkness. He had with him his bow
+and arrow, that he might procure food on his way. The piece of burnt
+wood in his hand was to protect him from the “bad birds” while he was on
+his skyward journey. These “evil birds” are called Ta-lak-i-çlak-o. The
+last rite paid to the Seminole dead is at the end of four moons. At that
+time the relatives go to the To-hŏp-ki and cut from around it the
+overgrowing grass. A widow lives with disheveled hair for the first
+twelve moons of her widowhood.
+
+Green Corn Dance.
+
+The one institution at present in which the religious beliefs of the
+Seminole find special expression is what is called the “Green Corn
+Dance.” It is the occasion for an annual purification and rejoicing.
+I could get no satisfactory description of the festival. No white man,
+so I was told, has seen it, and the only Indian I met who could in any
+manner speak English, made but an imperfect attempt to describe it. In
+fact, he seemed unwilling to talk about it. He told me, however, that as
+the season for holding the festival approaches the medicine men assemble
+and, through their ceremonies, decide when it shall take place, and, if
+I caught his meaning, determine also how long the dance shall continue.
+Others, on the contrary, told me that the dance is always continued for
+four days.
+
+Fifteen days previous to the festival heralds are sent from the lodge
+of the medicine men to give notice to all the camps of the day when the
+dance will commence. Small sticks are thereupon hung up in each camp,
+representing the number of days between that date and the day of the
+beginning of the dance. With the passing of each day one of these sticks
+is thrown away. The day the last one is cast aside the families go to
+the appointed place. At the dancing ground they find the selected space
+arranged as in the accompanying diagram (Fig. 77).
+
+The evening of the first day the ceremony of taking the “Black Drink,”
+Pa-sa-is-kit-a, is endured. This drink was described to me as having
+both a nauseating smell and taste. It is probably a mixture similar to
+that used by the Creek in the last century at a like ceremony. It acts
+as both an emetic and a cathartic, and it is believed among the Indians
+that unless one drinks of it he will be sick at some time in the year,
+and besides that he cannot safely eat of the green corn of the feast.
+During the drinking the dance begins and proceeds; in it the medicine
+men join.
+
+At that time the Medicine Song is sung. My Indian would not repeat
+this song for me. He declared that any one who sings the Medicine Song,
+except at the Green Corn Dance or as a medicine man, will certainly meet
+with some harm. That night, after the “Black Drink” has had its effect,
+the Indians sleep. The next morning they eat of the green corn. The day
+following is one of fasting, but the next day is one of great feasting,
+“Hom-pi-ta-çlak-o,” in which “Indian eat all time,” “Hom-pis-yak-i-ta.”
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 77. Green Corn Dance.]
+
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------
+                            ++++++
+    N.                      Squaws
+    |
+   -+-E         “O-PÛN-KA-TO-LO-KA-TI”
+    |             or the Dance Circle
+    S.                                   “HIL-LIS-WA-MA-TOE-UL-KI”
+                                          Men who watch the
+  +--+                      \ | /          medicine fire
+  |  |                     -- O --          ++
+  |  |                      / | \              X           +++
+  |  |                                      Medicine      Medicine
+  +--+                    The Fire or        Fire          Men
+  “TEOK-KO-CLACO”    “O-PÛN-KA-TOT-KIT-A”
+  House where the
+  warriors sit.
+                            Squaws
+                            ++++++
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Use Of Medicines.
+
+Concerning the use by the Indians of medicine against sickness, I
+learned only that they are in the habit of taking various herbs for
+their ailments. What part incantation or sorcery plays in the healing
+of disease I do not know. Nor did I learn what the Indians think of the
+origin and effects of dreams. Me-le told me that he knows of a plant the
+leaves of which, eaten, will cure the bite of a rattlesnake, and that he
+knows also of a plant which is an antidote to the noxious effects of the
+poison ivy or so-called poison oak.
+
+
+General Observations.
+
+I close this chapter by putting upon record a few general observations,
+as an aid to future investigation into Seminole life.
+
+Standard of Value.
+
+The standard of value among the Florida Indians is now taken from the
+currency of the United States. The unit they seem to have adopted, at
+least at the Big Cypress Swamp settlement, is twenty-five cents, which
+they call “Kan-cat-ka-hum-kin” (literally, “one mark on the ground”). At
+Miami a trader keeps his accounts with the Indians in single marks or
+pencil strokes. For example, an Indian brings to him buck skins, for
+which the trader allows twelve “chalks.” The Indian, not wishing then to
+purchase anything, receives a piece of paper marked in this way:
+
+   “IIII--IIII--IIII.
+    J. W. E. owes Little Tiger $3.”
+
+At his next visit the Indian may buy five “marks” worth of goods. The
+trader then takes the paper and returns it to Little Tiger changed as
+follows:
+
+   “IIII--III.
+    J. W. E. owes Little Tiger
+      $1.75.”
+
+Thus the account is kept until all the “marks” are crossed off, when
+the trader takes the paper into his own possession. The value of the
+purchases made at Miami by the Indians, I was informed, is annually
+about $2,000. This is, however, an amount larger than would be the
+average for the rest of the tribe, for the Miami Indians do a
+considerable business in the barter and sale of ornamental plumage.
+
+What the primitive standard of value among the Seminole was is suggested
+to me by their word for money, “Tcat-to Ko-na-wa.” “Ko-na-wa” means
+beads, and “Tcat-to,” while it is the name for iron and metal, is also
+the name for stone. “Tcat-to” probably originally meant stone. Tcat-to
+Ko-na-wa (i.e., stone beads) was, then, the primitive money. With
+“Hat-ki,” or white, added, the word means silver; with “La-ni,” or
+yellow, added, it means gold. For greenbacks they use the words
+“Nak-ho-tsi Tcat-to Ko-na-wa,” which is, literally, “paper stone beads.”
+
+Their methods of measuring are now, probably, those of the white man. I
+questioned my respondent closely, but could gain no light upon the terms
+he used as equivalents for our measurements.
+
+Divisions Of Time.
+
+I also gained but little knowledge of their divisions of time. They have
+the year, the name for which is the same as that used for summer, and in
+their year are twelve months, designated, respectively:
+
+   1. Çla-fŭts-u-tsi, Little Winter.
+   2. Ho-ta-li-ha-si, Wind Moon.
+   3. Ho-ta-li-ha-si-çlak-o, Big Wind Moon.
+   4. Ki-ha-su-tsi, Little Mulberry Moon.
+   5. Ki-ha-si-çlat-o, Big Mulberry Moon.
+   6. Ka-too-ha-si.
+   7. Hai-yu-tsi.
+   8. Hai-yu-tsi-çlak-o.
+   9. O-ta-wŭs-ku-tsi.
+  10. O-ta-wŭs-ka-çlak-o.
+  11. I-ho-li.
+  12. Çla-fo-çlak-o, Big Winter.
+
+I suppose that the spelling of these words could be improved, but I
+reproduce them phonetically as nearly as I can, not making what to me
+would be desirable corrections. The months appear to be divided simply
+into days, and these are, in part at least, numbered by reference to
+successive positions of the moon at sunset. When I asked Täl-la-häs-ke
+how long he would stay at his present camp, he made reply by pointing,
+to the new moon in the west and sweeping his hand from west to east to
+where the moon would be when he should go home. He meant to answer,
+about ten days thence. The day is divided by terms descriptive of the
+positions of the sun in the sky from dawn to sunset.
+
+Numeration.
+
+The Florida Indians can count, by their system, indefinitely. Their
+system of numeration is quinary, as will appear from the following list:
+
+   1. Hûm-kin.
+   2. Ho-_ko-lin_.
+   3. To-_tei-nin_.
+   4. _Os-tin_.
+   5. Tsaq-ke-pin.
+   6. I-pa-kin.
+   7. _Ko-lo_-pa-kin.
+   8. _Tci-na_-pa-kin
+   9. _Os-ta_-pa-kin.
+  10. Pa-lin.
+  11. Pa-lin-hûm-kin, _i.e._, ten one, &c.
+  20. Pa-li-ho-ko-lin, _i.e._, two tens.
+
+As a guide towards a knowledge of the primitive manner of counting the
+method used by an old man in his intercourse with me will serve. He
+wished to count eight. He first placed the thumb of the right hand upon
+the little finger of the left, then the right forefinger upon the next
+left hand finger, then the thumb on the next finger, and the forefinger
+on the next, and then the thumb upon the thumb; leaving now the thumb
+of the right hand resting upon the thumb of the left, he counted the
+remaining numbers on the right hand, using for this purpose the fore
+and middle fingers of the left; finally he shut the fourth and little
+fingers of the right hand down upon its palm, and raising his hands,
+thumbs touching, the counted fingers outspread, he showed me eight as
+the number of horses of which I had made inquiry.
+
+Sense Of Color.
+
+Concerning the sense of color among these Indians, I found that my
+informant at least possessed it to only a very limited degree. Black and
+white were clear to his sight, and for these he had appropriate names
+Also for brown, which was to him a “yellow black,” and for gray, which
+was a “white black.” For some other colors his perception was distinct
+and the names he used proper. But a name for blue he applied to many
+other colors, shading from violet to green. A name for red followed a
+succession of colors all the way from scarlet to pink. A name for yellow
+he applied to dark orange and thence to a list of colors through to
+yellow’s lightest and most delicate tint. I thought that at one time I
+had found him making a clear distinction between green and blue, but as
+I examined further I was never certain that he would not exchange the
+names when asked about one or the other color.
+
+Education.
+
+The feeling of the tribe is antagonistic to even such primary education
+as reading, writing, and calculation. About ten years ago an attempt,
+the only attempt in modern times, to establish schools among them was
+made by Rev. Mr. Frost, now at Myers, Fla. He did not succeed.
+
+Slavery.
+
+By reference to the population table, it will be noticed that there are
+three negroes and seven persons of mixed breed among the Seminole. It
+has been said that these negroes were slaves and are still held as
+slaves by the Indians. I saw nothing and could not hear of anything
+to justify this statement. One Indian is, I know, married to a negress,
+and the two negresses in the tribe live apparently on terms of perfect
+equality with the other women. Me-le goes and comes as he sees fit.
+No one attempts to control his movements. It may be that long ago the
+Florida Indians held negroes as slaves, but my impression is to the
+contrary. The Florida Indians, I think, rather offered a place of refuge
+for fugitive bondmen and gradually made them members of their tribe.
+
+Health.
+
+In the introduction to this report I said that the health of the
+Seminole is good. As confirming this statement, I found that the deaths
+during the past year had been very few. I had trustworthy information
+concerning the deaths of only four persons. One of these deaths was of
+an old woman, O-pa-ka, at the Fish Eating Creek settlement; another was
+of Täl-la-häs-ke’s wife, at Cat Fish Lake settlement; another was of a
+sister of Täl-la-häs-ke; and the last was of a child, at Cow Creek
+settlement. At the Big Cypress Swamp settlement I was assured that no
+deaths had occurred either there or at Miami during the year. On the
+contrary, however, I was told by some white people at Miami that several
+children had died at the Indian camp near there in the year past.
+Täl-la-häs-ke said to me, “Twenty moons ago, heap pickaninnies die!” And
+I was informed by others that about two years before there had been
+considerable fatality among children, as the consequence of a sort of
+epidemic at one of the northern camps. Admitting the correctness of
+these reports, I have no reason to modify my general statement that the
+health of the Seminole is good and that they are certainly increasing
+their number. Their appearance indicates excellent health and their
+environment is in their favor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Environment Of The Seminole.
+
+
+Nature.
+
+Southern Florida, the region to which most of the Seminole have been
+driven by the advances of civilization, is, taken all in all, unlike any
+other part of our country. In climate it is subtropical; in character
+of soil it shows a contrast of comparative barrenness and abounding
+fertility; and in topography it is a plain, with hardly any perceptible
+natural elevations or depressions. The following description, based upon
+the notes of my journey to the Big Cypress Swamp, indicates the
+character of the country generally. I left Myers, on the Caloosahatchie
+River, a small settlement composed principally of cattlemen, one morning
+in the month of February. Even in February the sun was so hot that
+clothing was a burden. As we started upon our journey, which was to be
+for a distance of sixty miles or more, my attention was called to the
+fact that the harness of the horse attached to my buggy was without the
+breeching. I was told that this part of the harness would not be needed,
+so level should we find the country. Our way, soon after leaving the
+main street of Myers, entered pine woods. The soil across which we
+traveled at first was a dry, dazzling white sand, over which, was
+scattered a growth of dwarf palmetto. The pine trees were not near
+enough together to shade us from the fierce, sun. This sparseness of
+growth, and comparative absence of shade, is one marked characteristic
+of Florida’s pine woods. Through this thin forest we drove all the day.
+The monotonous scenery was unchanged except that at a short distance
+from Myers it was broken by swamps and ponds. So far as the appearance
+of the country around as indicated, we could not tell whether we were
+two miles or twenty from our starting point. Nearly half our way during
+the first day lay through water, and yet we were in the midst of what is
+called the winter “dry season.” The water took the shape here of a swamp
+and there of a pond, but where the swamp or the pond began or ended it
+was scarcely possible to tell, one passed by almost imperceptible
+degrees from dry land to moist and from moist land into pool or marsh.
+Generally, however, the swamps were filled with a growth of cypress
+trees. These cypress groups were well defined in the pine woods by the
+closeness of their growth and the sharpness of the boundary of the
+clusters. Usually, too, the cypress swamps were surrounded by rims of
+water grasses. Six miles from Myers we crossed a cypress swamp, in which
+the water at its greatest depth was from one foot to two feet deep.
+A wagon road had been cut through the dense growth of trees, and the
+trees were covered with hanging mosses and air plants.
+
+The ponds differed from the swamps only in being treeless. They are open
+sheets of water surrounded by bands of greater or less width of tall
+grasses. The third day, between 30 and 40 miles from Myers, we left the
+pine tree lands and started across what are called in Southern Florida
+the “prairies.” These are wide stretches covered with grass and with
+scrub palmetto and dotted at near intervals with what are called pine
+“islands” or “hammocks” and cypress swamps. The pine island or hammock
+is a slight elevation of the soil, rising a few inches above the dead
+level. The cypress swamp, on the contrary, seems to have its origin only
+in a slight depression in the plain. Where there is a ring of slight
+depression, inclosing a slight elevation, there is generally a
+combination of cypress and pine and oak growth. For perhaps 15 miles we
+traveled that third day over this expanse of grass; most of the way we
+were in water, among pine islands, skirting cypress swamps and saw-grass
+marshes, and being jolted through thick clumps of scrub palmetto. Before
+nightfall we reached the district occupied by the Indians, passing there
+into what is called the “Bad Country,” an immense expanse of submerged
+land, with here and there islands rising from it, as from the drier
+prairies. We had a weird ride that afternoon and night: Now we passed
+through saw-grass 5 or 6 feet high and were in water 6 to 20 inches in
+depth; then we encircled some impenetrable jungle of vines and trees,
+and again we took our way out upon a vast expanse of water and grass. At
+but one place in a distance of several miles was it dry enough for one
+to step upon the ground without wetting the feet. We reached that place
+at nightfall, but found no wood there for making a fire. We were 4 miles
+then from any good camping ground. Captain Hendry asked our Indian
+companion whether he could take us through the darkness to a place
+called the “Buck Pens.” Ko-nip-ha-tco said he could. Under his guidance
+we started in the twilight, the sky covered with clouds. The night which
+followed was starless, and soon we were splashing through a country
+which, to my eyes, was trackless. There were visible to me no landmarks.
+But our Indian, following a trail made by his own people, about nine
+o’clock brought us to the object of our search. A black mass suddenly
+appeared in the darkness. It was the pine island we were seeking, the
+“Buck Pens.”
+
+On our journey that day we had crossed a stream, so called, the
+Ak-ho-lo-wa-koo-tci. So level is the country, however, and so sluggish
+the flow of water there that this river, where we crossed it, was more
+like a swamp than a stream. Indeed, in Southern Florida the streams,
+for a long distance from what would be called their sources, are more a
+succession of swamps than well defined currents confined to channels by
+banks. They have no real shores until they are well on their way towards
+the ocean.
+
+Beyond the point I reached, on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp, lie
+the Everglades proper, a wide district with, only deeper water and
+better defined islands than those which mark the “Bad Country” and the
+“Devil’s Garden” I had entered.
+
+The description I have given refers to that part of the State of Florida
+lying south of the Caloosahatchee River. It is in this watery prairie
+and Everglade region that we find the immediate environment of most of
+the Seminole Indians. Of the surroundings of the Seminole north of the
+Caloosahatchee there is but little to say in modification of what has
+already been said. Near the Fish Eating Creek settlement there is a
+somewhat drier prairie land than that which I have just described. The
+range of barren sand hills which extends from the north along the middle
+of Florida to the headwaters of the Kissimmee River ends at Cat Fish
+Lake. Excepting these modifications, the topography of the whole Indian
+country of Florida is substantially the same as that which we traversed
+on the way from Myers into the Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades.
+
+Over this wide and seeming level of land and water, as I have said,
+there is a subtropical climate. I visited the Seminole in midwinter;
+yet, for all that my northern senses could discover, we were in the
+midst of summer. The few deciduous trees there were having a midyear
+pause, but trees with dense foliage, flowers, fruit, and growing grass
+were to be seen everywhere. The temperature was that of a northern June.
+By night we made our beds on the ground without discomfort from cold,
+and by day we were under the heat of a summer sun. There was certainly
+nothing in the climate to make one feel the need of more clothing or
+shelter than would protect from excessive heat or rain.
+
+Then the abundance of food, both animal and vegetable, obtainable in
+that region seemed to me to do away with the necessity, on the part of
+the people living there, for a struggle for existence. As I have already
+stated, the soil is quite barren over a large part of the district; but,
+on the other hand, there is also in many places a fertility of soil that
+cannot be surpassed. Plantings are followed by superabundant harvests,
+and the hunter is richly rewarded. But I need not repeat what has
+already been said; it suffices to note that the natural environment
+of the Seminole is such that ordinary effort serves to supply them,
+physically, with more than they need.
+
+
+Man.
+
+When we consider, in connection with these facts, what I have also
+before said, that these Indians are in no exceptional danger from wild
+animals or poisonous reptiles, that they need not specially guard
+against epidemic disease, and when we remember that they are native to
+whatever influences might affect injuriously persons from other parts of
+the country, we can easily see how much more favorably situated for
+physical prosperity they are than others of their kind. In fact, nature
+has made physical life so easy to them that their great danger lies in
+the possible want or decadence of the moral, strength needed to maintain
+them in a vigorous use of their powers. This moral strength to some
+degree they have, but in large measure it had its origin in and has been
+preserved by their struggles with man rather than with nature. The wars
+of their ancestors, extending over nearly two centuries, did the most to
+make them the brave and proud people they are. It is through the effects
+of these chiefly that they have been kept from becoming indolent and
+effeminate. They are now strong, fearless, haughty, and independent.
+But the near future is to initiate a new epoch in their history, an era
+in which their career may be the reverse of what it has been. Man is
+becoming a factor of new importance in their environment. The moving
+lines of the white population are closing in upon the land of the
+Seminole. There is no farther retreat to which they can go. It is their
+impulse to resist the intruders, but some of them are at last becoming
+wise enough to know that they cannot contend successfully with the white
+man. It is possible that even their few warriors may make an effort to
+stay the oncoming hosts, but ultimately they will either perish in the
+futile attempt or they will have to submit to a civilization which,
+until now, they have been able to repel and whose injurious
+accompaniments may degrade and destroy them. Hitherto the white man’s
+influence has been comparatively of no effect except in arousing in the
+Indian his more violent passions, and in exciting him to open hostility.
+For more than three centuries the European has been face to face with
+the Florida Indian and the two have never really been friends. Through
+the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the peninsula was the scene of
+frequently renewed warfare. Spaniard, Frenchman, Englishman, and
+Spaniard, in turn, kept the country in an unsettled state, and when the
+American Union received the province from Spain, sixty years ago, it
+received with it, in the tribe of the Seminole, an embittered and
+determined race of hostile subjects. This people our Government has
+never been able to conciliate or to conquer. A different Indian policy,
+or a different administration of it, might have prevented the disastrous
+wars of the last half century; but, as all know, the Seminole have
+always lived within our borders as aliens. It is only of late years, and
+through natural necessities, that any friendly intercourse of white man
+and Indian has been secured. The Indian has become too weak to contend
+successfully against his neighbor and the white man has learned enough
+to refrain from arousing the vindictiveness of the savage. The few white
+men now on the border line in Florida are, with only some exceptions,
+cattle dealers or traders seeking barter with the red men. The cattlemen
+sometimes meet the Indians on the prairies and are friendly with them
+for the sake of their stock, which often strays into the Seminole
+country. The other places of contact of the whites and Seminole are
+the settlements of Myers, Miami, Bartow, Fort Meade, and Tampa, all,
+however, centers of comparatively small population. To these places,
+at infrequent intervals., the Indians go for purposes of trade.
+
+The Indians have appropriated for their service some of the products of
+European civilization, such as weapons, implements, domestic utensils,
+fabrics for clothing, &c. Mentally, excepting a few religious ideas
+which they received long ago from the teaching of Spanish missionaries
+and, in the southern settlements, excepting some few Spanish words, the
+Seminole have accepted and appropriated practically nothing from, the
+white man. The two peoples remain, as they always have been, separate
+and independent. Up to the present, therefore, the human environment
+has had no effect upon the Indians aside from that which has just been
+noticed, except to arouse them to war and to produce among them war’s
+consequences.
+
+But soon a great and rapid change must take place. The large immigration
+of a white population into Florida, and especially the attempts at
+present being made to drain Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, make it
+certain, as I have said, that the Seminole is about to enter a future
+unlike any past he has known. But now that new factors are beginning to
+direct his career, now that he can no longer retreat, now that he can
+no longer successfully contend, now that he is to be forced into close,
+unavoidable contact with men he has known only as enemies, what will he
+become? If we anger him, he still can do much harm before we can conquer
+him; but if we seek, by a proper policy, to do him justice, he yet may
+be made our friend and ally. Already, to the dislike of the old men of
+the tribe, some young braves show a willingness to break down the
+ancient barriers between them and our people, and I believe it possible
+that with encouragement, at a time not far distant, all these Indians
+may become our friends, forgetting their tragic past in a peaceful and
+prosperous future.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Big Cypress Swamp Seminole settlement      477, 478, 499, 507, 529
+Billy, brother of Key West Billy                 492-494, 499, 528
+Brown, Lieutenant, aid of, among Seminole                      489
+Catfish Lake Seminole settlement                     477, 478, 509
+Cow Creek Seminole settlement                             477, 478
+Cypress swamps, Florida                                    527-529
+Devil’s Garden, Florida                                        478
+Hendry, F. A., aid in Florida                        492, 511, 528
+Key West Billy                                            484, 485
+Koonti, preparation of                                     513-516
+  Seminole tradition of origin of                              519
+Me-le the Seminole                                        489, 490
+Miami River Seminole settlement                           477, 478
+
+
+
+Errata
+
+(Table of Contents)
+Use of Medicines...
+  _missing from printed text_
+(Green Corn Dance diagram)
+“TEOK-KO-CLACO”
+  _may be error for -ÇLAC-O_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Seminole Indians of Florida
+       Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the
+       Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84,
+       Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532
+
+Author: Clay MacCauley
+
+Release Date: September 1, 2006 [EBook #19155]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Carlo Traverso, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by the Biblioth�que nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at
+http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ Smithsonian Institution--Bureau of Ethnology.
+
+        THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
+
+                       by
+
+                CLAY MacCAULEY.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                  Page.
+
+  Letter of transmittal                            475
+  Introduction                                     477
+
+CHAPTER I.
+  Personal characteristics                         481
+    Physical characteristics                       481
+      Physique of the men                          481
+      Physique of the women                        482
+    Clothing                                       482
+      Costume of the men                           483
+      Costume of the women                         485
+    Personal adornment                             486
+      Hairdressing                                 466
+      Ornamentation of clothing                    487
+      Use of beads                                 487
+      Silver disks                                 488
+      Ear rings                                    488
+      Finger rings                                 489
+      Silver vs. gold                              489
+      Crescents                                    489
+    Me-le                                          489
+    Psychical characteristics                      490
+      Ko-nip-ha-tco                                492
+      Intellectual ability                         493
+
+CHAPTER II.
+  Seminole society                                 495
+    The Seminole family                            495
+      Courtship                                    496
+      Marriage                                     496
+      Divorce                                      498
+      Childbirth                                   497
+      Infancy                                      497
+      Childhood                                    498
+      Seminole dwellings--
+          I-ful-lo-ha-tco's house                  499
+      Home life                                    503
+      Food                                         504
+      Camp fire                                    505
+      Manner of eating                             505
+      Amusements                                   506
+    The Seminole gens                              507
+      Fellowhood                                   508
+    The Seminole tribe                             508
+      Tribal organization                          508
+      Seat of government                           508
+      Tribal officers                              509
+      Name of tribe                                509
+
+CHAPTER III.
+  Seminole tribal life                             510
+    Industries                                     510
+      Agriculture                                  510
+        Soil                                       510
+        Corn                                       510
+        Sugar cane                                 511
+      Hunting                                      512
+      Fishing                                      513
+      Stock raising                                513
+      Koonti                                       513
+      Industrial statistics                        516
+    Arts                                           516
+      Industrial arts                              516
+        Utensils and implements                    516
+        Weapons                                    516
+        Weaving and basket making                  517
+        Uses of the palmetto                       517
+        Mortar and pestle                          517
+        Canoe making                               517
+        Fire making                                518
+        Preparation of skins                       518
+      Ornamental arts                              518
+        Music                                      519
+    Religion                                       519
+      Mortuary customs                             520
+      Green Corn Dance                             522
+      Use of Medicines                             523
+    General observations                           523
+      Standard of value                            523
+      Divisions of time                            524
+      Numeration                                   525
+      Sense of color                               525
+      Education                                    526
+      Slavery                                      526
+      Health                                       526
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+  Environment of the Seminole                      527
+    Nature                                         527
+    Man                                            529
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  Plate XIX. Seminole dwelling                     500
+    Fig. 60. Map of Florida                        477
+         61. Seminole costume                      483
+         62. Key West Billy                        484
+         63. Seminole costume                      485
+         64. Manner of wearing the hair            486
+         65. Manner of piercing the ear            488
+         66. Baby cradle or hammock                497
+         67. Temporary dwelling                    502
+         68. Sugar cane crusher                    511
+         69. Koonti log                            514
+         70. Koonti pestles                        514
+         71. Koonti mash vessel                    514
+         72. Koonti strainer                       515
+         73. Mortar and pestle                     517
+         74. Hide stretcher                        518
+         75. Seminole bier                         510
+         76. Seminole grave                        521
+         77. Green Corn Dance                      523
+
+
+
+
+LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
+
+
+    Minneapolis, Minn., _June_ 24,1884.
+
+SIR: During the winter of 1880-'81 I visited Florida, commissioned by
+you to inquire into the condition and to ascertain the number of the
+Indians commonly known as the Seminole then in that State. I spent part
+of the months of January, February, and March in an endeavor to
+accomplish this purpose. I have the honor to embody the result of my
+work in the following report.
+
+On account of causes beyond my control the paper does not treat of these
+Indians as fully as I had intended it should. Owing to the ignorance
+prevailing even in Florida of the locations of the homes of the Seminole
+and also to the absence of routes of travel in Southern Florida, much
+of my time at first was consumed in reaching the Indian country. On
+arriving there, I found myself obliged to go among the Indians ignorant
+of their language and without an interpreter able to secure me
+intelligible interviews with them except in respect to the commonest
+things. I was compelled, therefore, to rely upon observation and upon
+very simple, perhaps sometimes misunderstood, speech for what I have
+here placed on record. But while the report is only a sketch of a
+subject that would well reward thorough study, it may be found to
+possess value as a record of facts concerning this little-known remnant
+of a once powerful people.
+
+I have secured, I think, a correct census of the Florida Seminole by
+name, sex, age, gens, and place of living. I have endeavored to present
+a faithful portraiture of their appearance and personal characteristics,
+and have enlarged upon their manners and customs, as individuals and as
+a society, as much as the material at my command will allow; but under
+the disadvantageous circumstances to which allusion has already been
+made, I have been able to gain little more than a superficial and
+partial knowledge of their social organization, of the elaboration among
+them of the system of gentes, of their forms and methods of government,
+of their tribal traditions and modes of thinking, of their religious
+beliefs and practices, and of many other things manifesting what is
+distinctive in the life of a people. For these reasons I submit this
+report more as a guide for future investigation than as a completed
+result.
+
+At the beginning of my visit I found but one Seminole with whom I could
+hold even the semblance of an English conversation. To him I am indebted
+for a large part of the material here collected. To him, in particular,
+I owe the extensive Seminole vocabulary now in possession of the Bureau
+of Ethnology. The knowledge of the Seminole language which I gradually
+acquired enabled me, in my intercourse with other Indians, to verify and
+increase the information I had received from him.
+
+In conclusion, I hope that, notwithstanding the unfortunate delays which
+have occurred in the publication of this report, it will still be found
+to add something to our knowledge of this Indian tribe not without value
+to those who make man their peculiar study.
+
+    Very respectfully,
+
+        CLAY MacCAULEY.
+
+  Maj. J. W. POWELL,
+
+    _Director Bureau of Ethnology._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
+
+By Clay MacCauley.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 60. Map of Florida.]
+
+There were in Florida, October 1, 1880, of the Indians commonly known as
+Seminole, two hundred and eight. They constituted thirty-seven families,
+living in twenty-two camps, which were gathered into five widely
+separated groups or settlements. These settlements, from the most
+prominent natural features connected with them, I have named, (1) The
+Big Cypress Swamp settlement; (2) Miami River settlement; (3) Fish
+Eating Creek settlement; (4) Cow Creek settlement; and (5) Cat Fish Lake
+settlement. Their locations are, severally: The first, in Monroe County,
+in what is called the "Devil's Garden," on the northwestern edge of the
+Big Cypress Swamp, from fifteen to twenty miles southwest of Lake
+Okeechobee; the second, in Dade County, on the Little Miami River, not
+far from Biscayne Bay, and about ten miles north of the site of what
+was, during the great Seminole war, Fort Dallas; the third, in Manatee
+County, on a creek which empties from the west into Lake Okeechobee,
+probably five miles from its mouth; the fourth, in Brevard County, on a
+stream running southward, at a point about fifteen miles northeast of
+the entrance of the Kissimmee River into Lake Okeechobee; and the fifth,
+on a small lake in Polk County, lying nearly midway between lakes Pierce
+and Rosalie, towards the headwaters of the Kissimmee River. The
+settlements are from forty to seventy miles apart, in an otherwise
+almost uninhabited region, which is in area about sixty by one hundred
+and eighty miles. The camps of which each settlement is composed lie at
+distances from one another varying from a half mile to two or more
+miles. In tabular form the population of the settlements appears as
+follows:
+
+  --------------+---+-------------------------------------------------
+                |   |                Population.
+                |   +-------------------------------------+------+----
+                |   |  Divided according to age and sex.  |      | T
+                | C |                                     |      | o
+                | a +-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-----+R�sum�| t
+                | m |Below|     |     |     |       | Over|  by  | a
+   Settlements  | p |  5  | 5-10|10-15|15-20| 20-60 | 60  | sex. | l
+                | s | yrs.| yrs.| yrs.| yrs.|  yrs. | yrs.|      | s
+                +---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+                |No.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.| F. |M.|F.| M.|F.|Tot.
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+  1. Big Cypress|10 | 4| 5|a2| 2|10| 4| 9| 2|15|b15 | 2| 3| 42|31|73
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  2. Miami River| 5 | 5| 4| 4| 4| 5| 3| 7| 5|10| 13 | 1| 2| 32|31|63
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  3. Fish Eating|   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+     Creek      | 4 |a1| 1|--| 2|a2|--| 3| 1|a5|ab10| 4| 3| 15|17|32
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  4. Cow Creek  | 1 | 2| 1|--|--| 1|--|--| 1| 4|  3 |--|--|  7| 5|12
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  5. Cat Fish   |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+     Lake       | 2 |--| 2| 3| 2| 4| 1| 4| 1|a4|ab5 | 1| 1| 16|12|28
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+  Totals       {|   |12|13| 9|10|22| 8|23|10|38| 46 | 8| 9|112|96|208
+               {|   +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+               {|22 |  25 |  19 |  30 |  33 |   84  |  17 |  208 |
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+
+  _a_ One mixed blood.
+  _b_ One black.
+
+Or, for the whole tribe--
+
+  Males under 10 years of age               21
+  Males between 10 and 20 years of age      45
+  Males between 20 and 60 years of age      38
+  Males over 60 years of age                 8
+                                            -- 112
+  Females under 10 years of age             23
+  Females between 10 and 20 years of age    18
+  Females between 20 and 60 years of age    46
+  Females over 60 years of age               9
+                                            --  96
+                                               ---
+                                               208
+
+In this table it will be noticed that the total population consists of
+112 males and 96 females, an excess of males over females of 16. This
+excess appears in each of the settlements, excepting that of Fish Eating
+Creek, a fact the more noteworthy, from its relation to the future of
+the tribe, since polygamous, or certainly duogamous, marriage generally
+prevails as a tribal custom, at least at the Miami River and the Cat
+Fish Lake settlements. It will also be observed that between twenty and
+sixty years of age, or the ordinary range of married life, there are 38
+men and 46 women; or, if the women above fifteen years of age are
+included as wives for the men over twenty years of age, there are 38 men
+and 56 women. Now, almost all these 56 women are the wives of the 38
+men. Notice, however, the manner in which the children of these people
+are separated in sex. At present there are, under twenty years of age,
+66 boys, and, under fifteen years of age, but 31 girls; or, setting
+aside the 12 boys who are under five years of age, there are, as future
+possible husbands and wives, 54 boys between five and twenty years of
+age and 31 girls under fifteen years of age--an excess of 23 boys. For a
+polygamous society, this excess in the number of the male sex certainly
+presents a puzzling problem. The statement I had from some cattlemen in
+mid-Florida I have thus found true, namely, that the Seminole are
+producing more men than women. What bearing this peculiarity will have
+upon the future of these Indians can only be guessed at. It is beyond
+question, however, that the tribe is increasing in numbers, and
+increasing in the manner above described.
+
+There is no reason why the tribe should not increase, and increase
+rapidly, if the growth in numbers be not checked by the non-birth of
+females. The Seminole have not been at war for more than twenty years.
+Their numbers are not affected by the attacks of wild animals or noxious
+reptiles. They are not subject to devastating diseases. But once during
+the last twenty years, as far as I could learn, has anything like an
+epidemic afflicted them. Besides, at all the settlements except the
+northernmost, the one at Cat Fish Lake, there is an abundance of food,
+both animal and vegetable, easily obtained and easily prepared for
+eating. The climate in which these Indians live is warm and equable
+throughout the year. They consequently do not need much clothing or
+shelter. They are not what would be called intemperate, nor are they
+licentious. The "sprees" in which they indulge when they make their
+visits to the white man's settlements are too infrequent to warrant us
+in classing them as intemperate. Their sexual morality is a matter of
+common notoriety. The white half-breed does not exist among the Florida
+Seminole, and nowhere could I learn that the Seminole woman is other
+than virtuous and modest. The birth of a white half-breed would be
+followed by the death of the Indian mother at the hands of her own
+people. The only persons of mixed breed among them are children of
+Indian fathers by negresses who have been adopted into the tribe. Thus
+health, climate, food, and personal habits apparently conduce to an
+increase in numbers. The only explanation I can suggest of the fact that
+there are at present but 208 Seminole in Florida is that at the close of
+the last war which the United States Government waged on these Indians
+there were by no means so many of them left in the State as is popularly
+supposed. As it is, there are now but 17 persons of the tribe over sixty
+years of age, and no unusual mortality has occurred, certainly among the
+adults, during the last twenty years. Of the 84 persons between twenty
+and sixty years of age, the larger number are less than forty years old;
+and under twenty years of age there are 107 persons, or more than half
+the whole population. The population tables of the Florida Indians
+present, therefore, some facts upon which it may be interesting to
+speculate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Personal Characteristics.
+
+
+It will be convenient for me to describe the Florida Seminole as they
+present themselves, first as individuals, and next as members of a
+society. I know it is impossible to separate, really, the individual as
+such from the individual as a member of society; nevertheless, there is
+the man as we see him, having certain characteristics which, we call
+personal, or his own, whencesoever derived, having a certain physique
+and certain, distinguishing psychical qualities. As such I will first
+attempt to describe the Seminole. Then we shall be able the better to
+look at him as he is in his relations with his fellows: in the family,
+in the community, or in any of the forms of the social life of his
+tribe.
+
+
+Physical Characteristics.
+
+Physique of the Men.
+
+Physically both men and women are remarkable. The men, as a rule,
+attract attention by their height, fullness and symmetry of development,
+and the regularity and agreeableness of their features. In muscular
+power and constitutional ability to endure they excel. While these
+qualities distinguish, with a few exceptions, the men of the whole
+tribe, they are particularly characteristic of the two most widely
+spread of the families of which the tribe is composed. These are the
+Tiger and Otter clans, which, proud of their lines of descent, have been
+preserved through a long and tragic past with exceptional freedom from
+admixture with degrading blood. Today their men might be taken as types
+of physical excellence. The physique of every Tiger warrior especially I
+met would furnish proof of this statement. The Tigers are dark,
+copper-colored fellows, over six feet in height, with limbs in good
+proportion; their hands and feet well shaped and not very large; their
+stature erect; their bearing a sign of self-confident power; their
+movements deliberate, persistent, strong. Their heads are large, and
+their foreheads full and marked. An almost universal characteristic of
+the Tiger's face is its squareness, a widened and protruding
+under-jawbone giving this effect to it. Of other features, I noticed
+that under a large forehead are deep set, bright, black eyes, small, but
+expressive of inquiry and vigilance; the nose is slightly aquiline and
+sensitively formed about the nostrils; the lips are mobile, sensuous,
+and not very full, disclosing, when they smile, beautiful regular teeth;
+and the whole face is expressive of the man's sense of having
+extraordinary ability to endure and to achieve. Two of the warriors
+permitted me to manipulate the muscles of their bodies. Under my touch
+these were more like rubber than flesh. Noticeable among all are the
+large calves of their legs, the size of the tendons of their lower
+limbs, and the strength of their toes. I attribute this exceptional
+development to the fact that they are not what we would call "horse
+Indians" and that they hunt barefoot over their wide domain. The same
+causes, perhaps, account for the only real deformity I noticed in the
+Seminole physique, namely, the diminutive toe-nails, and for the heavy,
+cracked, and seamed skin which covers the soles of their feet. The feet
+being otherwise well formed, the toes have only narrow shells for nails,
+these lying sunken across the middles of the tough cushions of flesh,
+which, protuberant about them, form the toe-tips. But, regarded as a
+whole, in their physique the Seminole warriors, especially the men of
+the Tiger and Otter gentes, are admirable. Even among the children this
+physical superiority is seen. To illustrate, one morning Ko-i-ha-tco's
+son, Tin-fai-yai-ki, a tall, slender boy, not quite twelve years old,
+shouldered a heavy "Kentucky" rifle, left our camp, and followed in his
+father's long footsteps for a day's hunt. After tramping all day, at
+sunset he reappeared in the camp, carrying slung across his shoulders,
+in addition to rifle and accouterments, a deer weighing perhaps fifty
+pounds, a weight he had borne for miles. The same boy, in one day, went
+with some older friends to his permanent home, 20 miles away, and
+returned. There are, as I have said, exceptions to this rule of unusual
+physical size and strength, but these are few; so few that, disregarding
+them, we may pronounce the Seminole men handsome and exceptionally
+powerful.
+
+Physique of the Women.
+
+The women to a large extent share the qualities of the men. Some are
+proportionally tall and handsome, though, curiously enough, many,
+perhaps a majority, are rather under than over the average height of
+women. As a rule, they exhibit great bodily vigor. Large or small, they
+possess regular and agreeable features, shapely and well developed
+bodies, and they show themselves capable of long continued and severe
+physical exertion. Indeed, the only Indian women I have seen with
+attractive features and forms are among the Seminole. I would even
+venture to select from among these Indians three persons whom I could,
+without much fear of contradiction, present as types respectively of a
+handsome, a pretty, and a comely woman. Among American Indians, I am
+confident that the Seminole women are of the first rank.
+
+
+Clothing.
+
+But how is this people clothed? While the clothing of the Seminole is
+simple and scanty, it is ample for his needs and suitable to the life he
+leads. The materials of which the clothing is made are now chiefly
+fabrics manufactured by the white man: calico, cotton cloth, ginghams,
+and sometimes flannels. They also use some materials prepared by
+themselves, as deer and other skins. Of ready made articles for wear
+found in the white trader's store, they buy small woolen shawls,
+brilliantly colored cotton handkerchiefs, now and then light woolen
+blankets, and sometimes, lately, though very seldom, shoes.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 61. Seminole costume.]
+
+Costume of the Men.
+
+The costume of the Seminole warrior at home consists of a shirt, a
+neckerchief, a turban, a breech cloth, and, very rarely, moccasins.
+On but one Indian in camp did I see more than this; on many, less. The
+shirt is made of some figured or striped cotton cloth, generally of
+quiet colors. It hangs from the neck to the knees, the narrow, rolling
+collar being closely buttoned about the neck, the narrow wristbands of
+the roomy sleeves buttoned about the wrists. The garment opens in front
+for a few inches, downward from the collar, and is pocketless. A belt of
+leather or buckskin usually engirdles the man's waist, and from it are
+suspended one or more pouches, in which powder, bullets, pocket knife,
+a piece of flint, a small quantity of paper, and like things for use in
+hunting are carried. From the belt hang also one or more hunting knives,
+each nearly 10 inches in length. I questioned one of the Indians about
+having no pockets in his shirt, pointing out to him the wealth in this
+respect of the white man's garments, and tried to show him how, on his
+shirt, as on mine, these convenient receptacles could be placed, and to
+what straits he was put to carry his pipe, money, and trinkets. He
+showed little interest in my proposed improvement on his dress.
+
+Having no pockets, the Seminole is obliged to submit to several
+inconveniences; for instance, he wears his handkerchief about his neck.
+I have seen as many as six, even eight, handkerchiefs tied around his
+throat, their knotted ends pendant over his breast; as a rule, they are
+bright red and yellow things, of whose possession and number he is quite
+proud. Having no pockets, the Seminole, only here and there, one
+excepted, carries whatever money he obtains from time to time in a
+knotted corner of one or more of his handkerchiefs.
+
+The next article of the man's ordinary costume is the turban. This
+is a remarkable structure and gives to its wearer much of his unique
+appearance. At present it is made of one or more small shawls. These
+shawls are generally woolen and copied in figure and color from the
+plaid of some Scotch clan. They are so folded that they are about 3
+inches wide and as long as the diagonal of the fabric. They are then,
+one or more of them successively, wrapped tightly around the head, the
+top of the head remaining bare; the last end of the last shawl is tucked
+skillfully and firmly away, without the use of pins, somewhere in the
+many folds of the turban. The structure when finished looks like a
+section of a decorated cylinder crowded down upon the man's head. I
+examined one of these turbans and found it a rather firm piece of work,
+made of several shawls wound into seven concentric rings. It was over 20
+inches in diameter, the shell of the cylinder being perhaps 7 inches
+thick and 3 in width. This head-dress, at the southern settlements, is
+regularly worn in the camps and sometimes on the hunt. While hunting,
+however, it seems to be the general custom, for the warriors to go
+bareheaded. At the northern camps, a kerchief bound about the head
+frequently takes the place of the turban in everyday life, but on
+dress or festival occasions, at both the northern and the southern
+settlements, this curious turban is the customary covering for the head
+of the Seminole brave. Having no pockets in his dress, he has discovered
+that the folds of his turban may be put to a pocket's uses. Those who
+use tobacco (I say "those" because the tobacco habit is by no means
+universal among the red men of Florida) frequently carry their pipes and
+other articles in their turbans.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 62. Key West Billy.]
+
+When the Seminole warrior makes his rare visits to the white man's
+settlements, he frequently adds to his scanty camp dress leggins and
+moccasins.
+
+In the camps I saw but one Indian wearing leggins (Fig. 62); he,
+however, is in every way a peculiar character among his people, and is
+objectionably favorable to the white man and the white man's ways. He
+is called by the white men "Key West Billy," having received this name
+because he once made a voyage in a canoe out of the Everglades and along
+the line of keys south of the Florida mainland to Key West, where he
+remained for some time. The act itself was so extraordinary, and it was
+so unusual for a Seminole to enter a white man's town and remain there
+for any length of time, that a commemorative name was bestowed upon him.
+The materials of which the leggins of the Seminole are usually made is
+buckskin. I saw, however, one pair of leggins made of a bright red
+flannel, and ornamented along the outer seams with a blue and white
+cross striped braid. The moccasins, also, are made of buckskin, of
+either a yellow or dark red color. They are made to lace high about the
+lower part of the leg, the lacing running from below the instep upward.
+As showing what changes are going on among the Seminole, I may mention
+that a few of them possess shoes, and one is even the owner of a pair
+of frontier store boots. The blanket is not often worn by the Florida
+Indians. Occasionally, in their cool weather, a small shawl, of the kind
+made to do service in the turban, is thrown about the shoulders. Oftener
+a piece of calico or white cotton cloth, gathered about the neck,
+becomes the extra protection against mild coolness in their winters.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 63. Seminole costume.]
+
+Costume of the Women.
+
+The costume of the women is hardly more complex than that of the men. It
+consists, apparently, of but two garments, one of which, for lack of a
+better English word, I name a short shirt, the other a long skirt. The
+shirt is cut quite low at the neck and is just long enough to cover the
+breasts. Its sleeves are buttoned close about the wrists. The garment is
+otherwise buttonless, being wide enough at the neck for it to be easily
+put on or taken off over the head. The conservatism of the Seminole
+Indian is shown in nothing more clearly than in the use, by the women,
+of this much abbreviated covering for the upper part of their bodies.
+The women are noticeably modest, yet it does not seem to have occurred
+to them that by making a slight change in their upper garment they might
+free themselves from frequent embarrassment. In going about their work
+they were constantly engaged in what our street boys would call "pulling
+down their vests." This may have been done because a stranger's eyes
+were upon them; but I noticed that in rising or in sitting down, or at
+work, it was a perpetually renewed effort on their part to lengthen by a
+pull the scanty covering hanging over their breasts. Gathered about the
+waist is the other garment, the skirt, extending to the feet and often
+touching the ground. This is usually made of some dark colored calico or
+gingham. The cord by which the petticoat is fastened is often drawn so
+tightly about the waist that it gives to that part of the body a rather
+uncomfortable appearance. This is especially noticeable because the
+shirt is so short that a space of two or more inches on the body is left
+uncovered between it and the skirt. I saw no woman wearing moccasins,
+and I was told that the women never wear them. For head wear the women
+have nothing, unless the cotton cloth, or small shawl, used about the
+shoulders in cool weather, and which at times is thrown or drawn over
+the head, may be called that. (Fig. 63.)
+
+Girls from seven to ten years old are clothed with only a petticoat
+and boys about the same age wear only a shirt. Younger children are,
+as a rule, entirely naked. If clothed at anytime, it is only during
+exceptionally cool weather or when taken by their parents on a journey
+to the homes of the palefaces.
+
+
+Personal Adornment.
+
+The love of personal adornment shows itself among the Seminole as among
+other human beings.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 64. Manner of wearing the hair.]
+
+Hair Dressing.
+
+The coarse, brilliant, black hair of which they are possessors is taken
+care of in an odd manner. The men cut all their hair close to the head,
+except a strip about an inch wide, running over the front of the scalp
+from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width,
+perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the nape
+of the neck. At each temple a heavy tuft is allowed to hang to the
+bottom of the lobe of the ear. The long hair of the strip crossing to
+the neck is generally gathered and braided into two ornamental queues.
+I did not learn that these Indians are in the habit of plucking the hair
+from their faces. I noticed, however, that the moustache is commonly
+worn among them and that a few of them are endowed with a rather bold
+looking combination of moustache and imperial. As an exception to the
+uniform style of cutting the hair of the men, I recall the comical
+appearance of a small negro half breed at the Big Cypress Swamp. His
+brilliant wool was twisted into many little sharp cones, which stuck out
+over his head like so many spikes on an ancient battle club. For some
+reason there seems to be a much greater neglect of the care of the hair,
+and, indeed, of the whole person, in the northern than in the southern
+camps.
+
+The women dress their hair more simply than the men. From a line
+crossing the head from ear to ear the hair is gathered up and bound,
+just above the neck, into a knot somewhat like that often made by the
+civilized woman, the Indian woman's hair being wrought more into the
+shape of a cone, sometimes quite elongated and sharp at the apex. A
+piece of bright ribbon is commonly used at the end as a finish to the
+structure. The front hair hangs down over the forehead and along the
+cheeks in front of the ears, being what we call "banged." The only
+exception to this style of hair dressing I saw was the manner in which
+Ci-ha-ne, a negress, had disposed of her long crisp tresses. Hers was
+a veritable Medusa head. A score or more of dangling, snaky plaits,
+hanging down over her black face and shoulders gave her a most repulsive
+appearance. Among the little Indian girls the hair is simply braided
+into a queue and tied with a ribbon, as we often see the hair upon the
+heads of our school children.
+
+Ornamentation Of Clothing.
+
+The clothing of both men and women is ordinarily more or less
+ornamented. Braids and strips of cloth of various colors are used and
+wrought upon the garments into odd and sometimes quite tasteful shapes.
+The upper parts of the shirts of the women are usually embroidered with
+yellow, red, and brown braids. Sometimes as many as five of these braids
+lie side by side, parallel with the upper edge of the garment or
+dropping into a sharp angle between the shoulders. Occasionally a very
+narrow cape, attached, I think, to the shirt, and much ornamented with
+braids or stripes, hangs just over the shoulders and back. The same
+kinds of material used for ornamenting the shirt are also used in
+decorating the skirt above the lower edge of the petticoat. The women
+embroider along this edge, with their braids and the narrow colored
+stripes, a border of diamond and square shaped figures, which is often
+an elaborate decoration to the dress. In like manner many of the shirts
+of the men are made pleasing to the eye. I saw no ornamentation in
+curves: it was always in straight lines and angles.
+
+Use Of Beads.
+
+My attention was called to the remarkable use of beads among these
+Indian women, young and old. It seems to be the ambition of the Seminole
+squaws to gather about their necks as many strings of beads as can be
+hung there and as they can carry. They are particular as to the quality
+of the beads they wear. They are satisfied with nothing meaner than a
+cut glass bead, about a quarter of an inch or more in length, generally
+of some shade of blue, and costing (so I was told by a trader at Miami)
+$1.75 a pound. Sometimes, but not often, one sees beads of an inferior
+quality worn.
+
+These beads must be burdensome to their wearers. In the Big Cypress
+Swamp settlement one day, to gratify my curiosity as to how many strings
+of beads these women can wear, I tried to count those worn by "Young
+Tiger Tail's" wife, number one, Mo-ki, who had come through the
+Everglades to visit her relatives. She was the proud wearer of certainly
+not fewer than two hundred strings of good sized beads. She had six
+quarts (probably a peck of the beads) gathered about her neck, hanging
+down her back, down upon her breasts, filling the space under her chin,
+and covering her neck up to her ears. It was an effort for her to move
+her head. She, however, was only a little, if any, better off in her
+possessions than most of the others. Others were about equally burdened.
+Even girl babies are favored by their proud mammas with a varying
+quantity of the coveted neck wear. The cumbersome beads are said to be
+worn by night as well as by day.
+
+Silver Disks.
+
+Conspicuous among the other ornaments worn by women are silver disks,
+suspended in a curve across the shirt fronts, under and below the beads.
+As many as ten or more are worn by one woman. These disks are made by
+men, who may be called "jewelers to the tribe," from silver quarters and
+half dollars. The pieces of money are pounded quite thin, made concave,
+pierced with holes, and ornamented by a groove lying just inside the
+circumference. Large disks made from half dollars may be called "breast
+shields." They are suspended, one over each breast. Among the disks
+other ornaments are often suspended. One young woman I noticed
+gratifying her vanity with not only eight disks made of silver quarters,
+but also with three polished copper rifle shells, one bright brass
+thimble, and a buckle hanging among them. Of course the possession of
+these and like treasures depends upon the ability and desire of one and
+another to secure them.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 65. Manner of piercing the ear.]
+
+Ear Rings.
+
+Ear rings are not generally worn by the Seminole. Those worn are usually
+made of silver and are of home manufacture. The ears of most of the
+Indians, however, appear to be pierced, and, as a rule, the ears of the
+women are pierced many times; for what purpose I did not discover. Along
+and in the upper edges of the ears of the women from one to ten or more
+small holes have been made. In most of these holes I noticed bits of
+palmetto wood, about a fifth of an inch in length and in diameter the
+size of a large pin. Seemingly they were not placed there to remain only
+while the puncture was healing. (Fig. 65.)
+
+Piercing the ears excepted, the Florida Indians do not now mutilate
+their bodies for beauty's sake. They no longer pierce the lips or the
+nose; nor do they use paint upon their persons, I am told, except at
+their great annual festival, the Green Corn Dance, and upon the faces of
+their dead.
+
+Finger Rings.
+
+Nor is the wearing of finger rings more common than that of rings for
+the ears. The finger rings I saw were all made of silver and showed good
+workmanship. Most of them were made with large elliptical tablets on
+them, extending from knuckle to knuckle. These also were home-made.
+
+Silver vs. Gold.
+
+I saw no gold ornaments. Gold, even gold money, does not seem to be
+considered of much value by the Seminole. He is a monometalist, and his
+precious metal is silver. I was told by a cattle dealer of an Indian who
+once gave him a twenty dollar gold piece for $17 in silver, although
+assured that the gold piece was worth more than the silver, and in my
+own intercourse with the Seminole I found them to manifest, with few
+exceptions, a decided preference for silver. I was told that the
+Seminole are peculiar in wishing to possess nothing that is not genuine
+of its apparent kind. Traders told me that, so far as the Indians know,
+they will buy of them only what is the best either of food or of
+material for wear or ornament.
+
+Crescents, Wristlets, and Belts.
+
+The ornaments worn by the men which are most worthy of attention are
+crescents, varying in size and value. These are generally about five
+inches long, an inch in width at the widest part, and of the thickness
+of ordinary tin. These articles are also made from silver coins and are
+of home manufacture. They are worn suspended from the neck by cords,
+in the cusps of the crescents, one below another, at distances apart of
+perhaps two and a half inches. Silver wristlets are used by the men for
+their adornment. They are fastened about the wrists by cords or thongs
+passing through holes in the ends of the metal. Belts, and turbans too,
+are often ornamented with fanciful devices wrought out of silver. It is
+not customary for the Indian men to wear these ornaments in everyday
+camp life. They appear with them on a festival occasion or when they
+visit some trading post.
+
+
+Me-Le.
+
+A sketch made by Lieutenant Brown, of Saint Francis Barracks, Saint
+Augustine, Florida, who accompanied me on my trip to the Cat Fish Lake
+settlement, enables me to show, in gala dress, Me-le, a half breed
+Seminole, the son of an Indian, Ho-laq-to-mik-ko, by a negress adopted
+into the tribe when a child.
+
+  [Transcriber's Note:
+  The picture described does not appear in the printed text, and is not
+  included in the List of Illustrations.]
+
+Me-le sat for his picture in my room at a hotel in Orlando. He had just
+come seventy miles from his home, at Cat Fish Lake, to see the white man
+and a white man's town. He was clothed "in his best," and, moreover, had
+just purchased and was wearing a pair of store boots in addition to his
+home-made finery. He was the owner of the one pair of red flannel
+leggins of which I have spoken. These were not long enough to cover the
+brown skin of his sturdy thighs. His ornaments were silver crescents,
+wristlets, a silver studded belt, and a peculiar battlement-like band of
+silver on the edge of his turban. Notice his uncropped head of
+luxuriant, curly hair, the only exception I observed to the singular cut
+of hair peculiar to the Seminole men. Me-le, however, is in many other
+more important respects an exceptional character. He is not at all in
+favor with the Seminole of pure blood. "Me-le ho-lo-wa kis" (Me-le is
+of no account) was the judgment passed upon him to me by some of the
+Indians. Why? Because he likes the white man and would live the white
+man's life if he knew how to break away safely from his tribe. He has
+been progressive enough to build for himself a frame house, inclosed on
+all sides and entered by a door. More than that, he is not satisfied
+with the hunting habits and the simple agriculture of his people, nor
+with their ways of doing other things. He has started an orange grove,
+and in a short time will have a hundred trees, so he says, bearing
+fruit. He has bought and uses a sewing machine, and he was intelligent
+enough, so the report goes, when the machine had been taken to pieces in
+his presence, to put it together again without mistake. He once called
+off for me from a newspaper the names of the letters of our alphabet,
+and legibly wrote his English name, "John Willis Mik-ko." Mik-ko has a
+restless, inquisitive mind, and deserves the notice and care of those
+who are interested in the progress of this people. Seeking him one day
+at Orlando, I found him busily studying the locomotive engine of the
+little road which had been pushed out into that part of the frontier
+of Florida's civilized population. Next morning he was at the station
+to see the train depart, and told me he would like to go with me to
+Jacksonville. He is the only Florida Seminole, I believe, who had at
+that time seen a railway.
+
+
+Psychical Characteristics.
+
+I shall now glance at what may more properly be called the psychical
+characteristics of the Florida Indians. I have been led to the
+conclusion that for Indians they have attained a relatively high degree
+of psychical development. They are an uncivilized, I hardly like to call
+them a savage, people. They are antagonistic to white men, as a race,
+and to the white man's culture, but they have characteristics of their
+own, many of which are commendable. They are decided in their enmity to
+any representative of the white man's government and to everything which
+bears upon it the government's mark. To one, however, who is acquainted
+with recent history this enmity is but natural, and a confessed
+representative of the government need not be surprised at finding in the
+Seminole only forbidding and unlovely qualities. But when suspicion is
+disarmed, one whom they have welcomed to their confidence will find them
+evincing characteristics which will excite his admiration and esteem.
+I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Seminole, not as a
+representative of our National Government, but under conditions which
+induced them to welcome me as a friend. In my intercourse with them, I
+found them to be not only the brave, self reliant, proud people who have
+from time to time withstood our nation's armies in defense of their
+rights, but also a people amiable, affectionate, truthful, and
+communicative. Nor are they devoid of a sense of humor. With only few
+exceptions, I found them genial. Indeed, the old chief, T�s-te-n�g-ge,
+a man whose warwhoop and deadly hand, during the last half century, have
+often been heard and felt among the Florida swamps and prairies, was the
+only one disposed to sulk in my presence and to repel friendly advances.
+He called me to him when I entered the camp where he was, and, with
+great dignity of manner, asked after my business among his people.
+After listening, through my interpreter, to my answers to his questions,
+he turned from me and honored me no further. I call the Seminole
+communicative, because most with whom I spoke were eager to talk, and,
+as far as they could with the imperfect means at their disposal, to give
+me the information I sought. "Doctor Na-ki-ta" (Doctor What-is-it) I was
+playfully named at the Cat Fish Lake settlement; yet the people there
+were seemingly as ready to try to answer as I was to ask, "What is it?"
+I said they are truthful. That is their reputation with many of the
+white men I met, and I have reason to believe that the reputation is
+under ordinary circumstances well founded. They answered promptly and
+without equivocation "No" or "Yes" or "I don't know." And they are
+affectionate to one another, and, so far as I saw, amiable in their
+domestic and social intercourse. Parental affection is characteristic of
+their home life, as several illustrative instances I might mention would
+show. I will mention one. T�l-la-h�s-ke is the father of six fine
+looking boys, ranging in age from four to eighteen years. Seven months
+before I met him his wife died, and when I was at his camp this strong
+Indian appeared to have become both mother and father to his children.
+His solicitous affection seemed continually to follow these boys,
+watching their movements and caring for their comfort. Especially did he
+throw a tender care about the little one of his household. I have seen
+this little fellow clambering, just like many a little paleface, over
+his father's knees and back, persistently demanding attention but in
+no way disturbing the father's amiability or serenity, even while the
+latter was trying to oblige me by answering puzzling questions upon
+matters connected with his tribe. One night, as Lieutenant Brown and
+I sat by the campfire at T�l-la-h�s-ke's lodge--the larger boys, two
+Seminole negresses, three pigs, and several dogs, together with
+T�l-la-h�s-ke, forming a picturesque circle in the ashes around the
+bright light--I heard muffled moans from the little palmetto shelter on
+my right, under which the three smaller boys were bundled up in cotton
+cloth on deer skins for the night's sleep. Upon the moans followed
+immediately the frightened cry of the baby boy, waking out of bad dreams
+and crying for the mother who could not answer; "Its-ki, Its-ki"
+(mother, mother) begged the little fellow, struggling from under his
+covering. At once the big Indian grasped his child, hugged him to his
+breast, pressed the little head to his cheek, consoling him all the
+while with caressing words, whose meaning I felt, though I could not
+have translated them into English, until the boy, wide awake, laughed
+with his father and us all and was ready to be again rolled up beside
+his sleeping brothers. I have said also that the Seminole are frank.
+Formal or hypocritical courtesy does not characterize them. One of my
+party wished to accompany Ka-tca-la-ni ("Yellow Tiger") on a hunt. He
+wished to see how the Indian would find, approach, and capture his game.
+"Me go hunt with you, Tom, to-day?" asked our man. "No," answered Tom,
+and in his own language continued, "not to-day; to-morrow." To-morrow
+came, and, with it, Tom to our camp. "You can go to Horse Creek with me;
+then I hunt alone and you come back," was the Indian's remark as both
+set out. I afterwards learned that Ka-tca-la-ni was all kindness on the
+trail to Horse Creek, three miles away, aiding the amateur hunter in his
+search for game and giving him the first shot at what was started. At
+Horse Creek, however, Tom stopped, and, turning to his companion,
+said, "Now you hi-e-pus (go)!" That was frankness indeed, and quite
+refreshing to us who had not been honored by it. But equally outspoken,
+without intending offense, I found them always. You could not mistake
+their meaning, did you understand their words. Diplomacy seems, as yet,
+to be an unlearned art among them.
+
+Ko-Nip-Ha-Tco.
+
+Here is another illustration of their frankness. One Indian,
+Ko-nip-ha-tco ("Billy"), a brother of "Key West Billy," has become so
+desirous of identifying himself with the white people that in 1879 he
+came to Capt. F. A. Hendry, at Myers, and asked permission to live with
+him. Permission was willingly given, and when I went to Florida this
+"Billy" had been studying our language and ways for more than a year.
+At that time he was the only Seminole who had separated himself from his
+people and had cast in his lot with the whites. He had clothed himself
+in our dress and taken to the bed and table, instead of the ground and
+kettle, for sleep and food. "Me all same white man," he boastfully told
+me one day. But I will not here relate the interesting story of
+"Billy's" previous life or of his adventures in reaching his present
+proud position. It is sufficient to say that, for the time at least,
+he had become in the eyes of his people a member of a foreign community.
+As may be easily guessed, Ko-nip-ha-tco's act was not at all looked upon
+with favor by the Indians; it was, on the contrary, seriously opposed.
+Several tribal councils made him the subject of discussion, and once,
+during the year before I met him, five of his relatives came to Myers
+and compelled him to return with them for a time to his home at the Big
+Cypress Swamp. But to my illustration of Seminole frankness: In the
+autumn of 1880, Mat-te-lo, a prominent Seminole, was at Myers and
+happened to meet Captain Hendry. While they stood together "Billy"
+passed. Hardly had the young fellow disappeared when Mat-te-lo said to
+Captain Hendry, "Bum-by. Indian kill Billy." But an answer came. In this
+case the answer of the white man was equally frank: "Mat-te-lo, when
+Indian kill Billy, white man kill Indian, remember." And so the talk
+ended, the Seminole looking hard at the captain to try to discover
+whether he had meant what he said.
+
+
+Intellectual Ability.
+
+In range of intellectual power and mental processes the Florida Indians,
+when compared with the intellectual abilities and operations of the
+cultivated American, are quite limited. But if the Seminole are to be
+judged by comparison with other American aborigines, I believe they
+easily enter the first class. They seem to be mentally active. When the
+full expression of any of my questions failed, a substantive or two, an
+adverb, and a little pantomime generally sufficed to convey the meaning
+to my hearers. In their intercourse with one another, they are, as a
+rule, voluble, vivacious, showing the possession of relatively active
+brains and mental fertility. Certainly, most of the Seminole I met
+cannot justly be called either stupid or intellectually sluggish,
+and I observed that, when invited to think of matters with which they
+are not familiar or which are beyond the verge of the domain which
+their intellectual faculties have mastered, they nevertheless bravely
+endeavored to satisfy me before they were willing to acknowledge
+themselves powerless. They would not at once answer a misunderstood or
+unintelligible question, but would return inquiry upon inquiry, before
+the decided "I don't know" was uttered. Those with whom I particularly
+dealt were exceptionally patient under the strains to which I put their
+minds. Ko-nip-ha-tco, by no means a brilliant member of his tribe, is
+much to be commended for his patient, persistent, intellectual industry.
+I kept the young fellow busy for about a fortnight, from half-past eight
+in the morning until five in the afternoon, with but an hour and a
+half's intermission at noon. Occupying our time with inquiries not very
+interesting to him, about the language and life of his people, I could
+see how much I wearied him. Often I found by his answers that his brain
+was, to a degree, paralyzed by the long continued tension to which it
+was subjected. But he held on bravely through the severe heat of an
+attic room at Myers. Despite the insects, myriads of which took a great
+interest in us and our surroundings, despite the persistent invitation
+of the near woods to him to leave "Doctor Na-ki-ta" and to tramp off in
+them on a deer hunt (for "Billy" is a lover of the woods and a bold and
+successful hunter), he held on courageously. The only sign of weakening
+he made was on one day, about noon, when, after many, to me, vexatious
+failures to draw from him certain translations into his own language of
+phrases containing verbs illustrating variations of mood, time, number,
+&c., he said to me: "Doctor, how long you want me to tell you Indian
+language?" "Why?" I replied, "are you tired, Billy?" "No," he answered,
+"a littly. Me think me tell you all. Me don't know English language.
+Bum-by you come, next winter, me tell you all. Me go school. Me learn.
+Me go hunt deer to-mollow." I was afraid of losing my hold upon him, for
+time was precious. "Billy," I said, "you go now. You hunt to-day. I need
+you just three days more and then you can hunt all the time. To-morrow
+come, and I will ask you easier questions." After only a moment's
+hesitation, "Me no go, Doctor; me stay," was his courageous decision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Seminole Society.
+
+
+As I now direct attention to the Florida Seminole in their relations
+with one another, I shall first treat of that relationship which lies
+at the foundation of society, marriage or its equivalent, the result
+of which is a body of people more or less remotely connected with one
+another and designated by the term "kindred." This is shown either in
+the narrow limits of what may be named the family or in the larger
+bounds of what is called the clan or gens. I attempted to get full
+insight into the system of relationships in which Seminole kinship is
+embodied, and, while my efforts were not followed by an altogether
+satisfactory result, I saw enough to enable me to say that the Seminole
+relationships are essentially those of what we may call their "mother
+tribe," the Creek. The Florida Seminole are a people containing, to some
+extent, the posterity of tribes diverse from the Creek in language and
+in social and political organization; but so strong has the Creek
+influence been in their development that the Creek language, Creek
+customs, and Creek regulations have been the guiding forces in their
+history, forces by which, in fact, the characteristics of the other
+peoples have yielded, have been practically obliterated.
+
+I have made a careful comparison of the terms of Seminole relationship I
+obtained with those of the Creek Indians, embodied in Dr. L. H. Morgan's
+Consanguinity and Affinity of the American Indians, and I find that, as
+far as I was able to go, they are the same, allowing for the natural
+differences of pronunciation of the two peoples. The only seeming
+difference of relationships lies in the names applied to some of the
+lineal descendants, descriptive instead of classificatory names being
+used.
+
+I have said, "as far as I was able to go." I found, for example, that
+beyond the second collateral line among consanguineous kindred my
+interpreter would answer my question only by some such answer as "I
+don't know" or "No kin," and that, beyond the first collateral line of
+kindred by marriage, except for a very few relationships, I could obtain
+no answer.
+
+
+The Seminole Family.
+
+The family consists of the husband, one or more wives, and their
+children. I do not know what limit tribal law places to the number of
+wives the Florida Indian may have, but certainly he may possess two.
+There are several Seminole families in which duogamy exists.
+
+Courtship.
+
+I learned the following facts concerning the formation of a family:
+A young warrior, at the age of twenty or less, sees an Indian maiden of
+about sixteen years, and by a natural impulse desires to make her his
+wife. What follows? He calls his immediate relatives to a council and
+tells them of his wish. If the damsel is not a member of the lover's
+own gens and if no other impediment stands in the way of the proposed
+alliance, they select, from their own number, some who, at an
+appropriate time, go to the maiden's kindred and tell them that they
+desire the maid to receive their kinsman as her husband. The girl's
+relatives then consider the question. If they decide in favor of the
+union, they interrogate the prospective bride as to her disposition
+towards the young man. If she also is willing, news of the double
+consent is conveyed through the relatives, on both sides, to the
+prospective husband. From that moment there is a gentle excitement in
+both households. The female relatives of the young man take to the house
+of the betrothed's mother a blanket or a large piece of cotton cloth and
+a bed canopy--in other words, the furnishing of a new bed. Thereupon
+there is returned thence to the young man a wedding costume, consisting
+of a newly made shirt.
+
+Marriage.
+
+Arrangements for the marriage being thus completed, the marriage takes
+place by the very informal ceremony of the going of the bridegroom, at
+sunset of an appointed day, to the home of his mother-in-law, where he
+is received by his bride. From that time he is her husband. The next
+day, husband and wife appear together in the camp, and are thenceforth
+recognized as a wedded pair. After the marriage, through what is the
+equivalent of the white man's honeymoon, and often for a much longer
+period, the new couple remain at the home of the mother-in-law. It is
+the man and not the woman among these Indians who leaves father and
+mother and cleaves unto the mate. After a time, especially as the family
+increases, the wedded pair build one or more houses for independent
+housekeeping, either at the camp of the wife's mother or elsewhere,
+excepting among the husband's relatives.
+
+Divorce.
+
+The home may continue until death breaks it up. Sometimes, however,
+it occurs that most hopeful matrimonial beginnings, among the Florida
+Seminole, as elsewhere, end in disappointment and ruin. How divorce
+is accomplished I could not learn. I pressed the question upon
+Ko-nip-ha-tco, but his answer was, "Me don't know; Indian no tell me
+much." All the light I obtained upon the subject comes from Billy's
+first reply, "He left her." In fact, desertion seems to be the only
+ceremony accompanying a divorce. The husband, no longer satisfied with
+his wife, leaves her; she returns to her family, and the matter is
+ended. There is no embarrassment growing out of problems respecting the
+woman's future support, the division of property, or the adjustment of
+claims for the possession of the children. The independent self-support
+of every adult, healthy Indian, female as well as male, and the gentile
+relationship, which is more wide reaching and authoritative than that
+of marriage, have already disposed of these questions, which are usually
+so perplexing for the white man. So far as personal maintenance is
+concerned, a woman is, as a rule, just as well off without a husband
+as with one. What is hers, in the shape of property, remains her own
+whether she is married or not. In fact, marriage among these Indians
+seems to be but the natural mating of the sexes, to cease at the option
+of either of the interested parties. Although I do not know that the
+wife may lawfully desert her husband, as well as the husband his wife,
+from some facts learned I think it probable that she may.
+
+Childbirth.
+
+According to information received a prospective mother, as the hour of
+her confinement approaches, selects a place for the birth of her child
+not far from the main house of the family, and there, with some friends,
+builds a small lodge, covering the top and sides of the structure
+generally with the large leaves of the cabbage palmetto. To this
+secluded place the woman, with some elderly female relatives, goes at
+the time the child is to be born, and there, in a sitting posture, her
+hands grasping a strong stick driven into the ground before her, she
+is delivered of her babe, which is received and cared for by her
+companions. Rarely is the Indian mother's labor difficult or followed by
+a prolonged sickness. Usually she returns to her home with her little
+one within four days after its birth.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 66. Baby cradle or hammock.]
+
+Infancy.
+
+The baby, well into the world, learns very quickly that he is to make
+his own way through it as best he may. His mother is prompt to nourish
+him and solicitous in her care for him if he falls ill, but, as far as
+possible, she goes her own way and leaves the little fellow to go his.
+From the first she gives her child the perfectly free use of his body
+and, within a limited area, of the camp ground. She does not bundle him
+into a motionless thing or bind him helplessly on a board; on the
+contrary, she does not trouble her child even with clothing. The Florida
+Indian baby, when very young, spends his time, naked, in a hammock, or
+on a deer skin, or on the warm earth. (Fig. 66.)
+
+The Seminole mother, I was informed, is not in the habit of soothing
+her baby with song. Nevertheless, sometimes one may hear her or an old
+grandam crooning a monotonous refrain as she crouches on the ground
+beside the swinging hammock of a baby. I heard one of these refrains,
+and, as nearly as I could catch it, it ran thus:
+
+  [Illustration: Music]
+
+  No-wut-tca, No-wut-tca.
+
+The hammock was swung in time with the song. The singing was slow in
+movement and nasal in quality. The last note was unmusical and uttered
+quite staccato.
+
+There are times, to be sure, when the Seminole mother carries her baby.
+He is not always left to his pleasure on the ground or in a hammock.
+When there is no little sister or old grandmother to look after the
+helpless creature and the mother is forced to go to any distance from
+her house or lodge, she takes him with her. This she does, usually, by
+setting him astride one of her hips and holding him there. If she wishes
+to have both her arms free, however, she puts the baby into the center
+of a piece of cotton cloth, ties opposite corners of the cloth together,
+and slings her burden over her shoulders and upon her back, where, with
+his brown legs astride his mother's hips, the infant rides, generally
+with much satisfaction. I remember seeing, one day, one jolly little
+fellow, lolling and rollicking on his mother's back, kicking her and
+tugging away at the strings of beads which hung temptingly between her
+shoulders, while the mother, hand-free, bore on one shoulder a log,
+which, a moment afterwards, still keeping her baby on her back as she
+did so, she chopped into small wood for the camp fire.
+
+Childhood.
+
+But just as soon as the Seminole baby has gained sufficient strength to
+toddle he learns that the more he can do for himself and the more he can
+contribute to the general domestic welfare the better he will get along
+in life. No small amount of the labor in a Seminole household is done by
+children, even as young as four years of age. They can stir the soup
+while it is boiling; they can aid in kneading the dough for bread;
+they can wash the "Koonti" root, and even pound it; they can watch and
+replenish the fire; they contribute in this and many other small ways to
+the necessary work of the home. I am not to be understood, of course, as
+saying that the little Seminole's life is one of severe labor. He has
+plenty of time for games and play of all kinds, and of these I shall
+hereafter speak. Yet, as soon as he is able to play, he finds that with
+his play he must mix work in considerable measure.
+
+Seminole Dwellings--I-Ful-Lo-Ha-Tco's House.
+
+Now that we have seen the Seminole family formed, let us look at its
+home. The Florida Indians are not nomads. They have fixed habitations:
+settlements in well defined districts, permanent camps, houses or
+wigwams which, remain from year to year the abiding places of their
+families, and gardens and fields which for indefinite periods are used
+by the same owners. There are times during the year when parties gather
+into temporary camps for a few weeks. Now perhaps they gather upon some
+rich Koonti ground, that they may dig an extra quantity of this root and
+make flour from it; now, that they may have a sirup making festival,
+they go to some fertile sugar cane hammock; or again, that they may have
+a hunt, they camp where a certain kind of game has been discovered in
+abundance. And they all, as a rule, go to a central point, once a year
+and share there their great feast, the Green Corn Dance. Besides, as I
+was told, these Indians are frequent visitors to one another, acting in
+turn as guests and hosts for a few days at a time. But it is the fact,
+nevertheless, that for much the greater part of the year the Seminole
+families are at their homes, occupying houses, surrounded by many
+comforts and living a life of routine industry.
+
+As one Seminole home is, with but few unimportant differences, like
+nearly all the others, we can get a good idea of what it is by
+describing here the first one I visited, that of I-ful-lo-ha-tco, or
+"Charlie Osceola," in the "Bad Country," on the edge of the Big Cypress
+Swamp.
+
+When my guide pointed out to me the locality where "Charlie" lives, I
+could see nothing but a wide saw-grass marsh surrounding a small island.
+The island seemed covered with a dense growth of palmetto and other
+trees and tangled shrubbery, with a few banana plants rising among
+them. No sign of human habitation was visible. This invisibility
+of a Seminole's house from the vicinity may be taken as a marked
+characteristic of his home. If possible, he hides his house, placing
+it on an island and in a jungle. As we neared the hammock we found that
+approach to it was difficult. On horseback there was no trouble in
+getting through the water and the annoying saw-grass, but I found it
+difficult to reach the island with my vehicle, which was loaded with our
+provisions and myself. On the shore of "Charlie's" island is a piece of
+rich land of probably two acres in extent. At length I landed, and soon,
+to my surprise, entered a small, neat clearing, around which were built
+three houses, excellent of their kind, and one insignificant structure.
+Beyond these, well fenced with palmetto logs, lay a small garden. No one
+of the entire household--father, mother, and child--was at home. Where
+they had gone we did not learn until later. We found them next day at a
+sirup making at "Old Tommy's" field, six miles away. Having, in the
+absence of the owner, a free range of the camp, I busied myself in
+noting what had been left in it and what were its peculiarities. Among
+the first things I picked up was a "cow's horn."
+
+This, my guide informed me, was used in calling from camp to camp.
+Mounting a pile of logs, "Billy" tried with it to summon "Charlie,"
+thinking he might be somewhere near. Meanwhile I continued my search.
+I noticed some terrapin shells lying on a platform in one of the houses,
+the breast shell pierced with two holes. "Wear them at Green Corn
+Dance," said "Billy." I caught sight of some dressed buckskins lying on
+a rafter of a house, and an old fashioned rifle, with powder horn and
+shot flask. I also saw a hoe; a deep iron pot; a mortar, made from a
+live oak (?) log, probably fifteen inches in diameter and twenty-four in
+height, and beside it a pestle, made from mastic wood, perhaps four feet
+and a half in length.
+
+A bag of corn hung from a rafter, and near it a sack of clothing, which
+I did not examine. A skirt, gayly ornamented, hung there also. There
+were several basketware sieves, evidently home made, and various bottles
+lying around the place. I did not search among the things laid away on
+the rafters under the roof. A sow, with several pigs, lay contentedly
+under the platform of one of the houses. And near by, in the saw-grass,
+was moored a cypress "dug-out," about fifteen feet long, pointed at bow
+and stern.
+
+Dwellings throughout the Seminole district are practically uniform in
+construction. With but slight variations, the accompanying sketch of
+I-ful-lo-ha-tco's main dwelling shows what style of architecture
+prevails in the Florida Everglades. (Pl. XIX.)
+
+This house is approximately 16 by 9 feet in ground measurement, made
+almost altogether, if not wholly, of materials taken from the palmetto
+tree. It is actually but a platform elevated about three feet from the
+ground and covered with a palmetto thatched roof, the roof being not
+more than 12 feet above the ground at the ridge pole, or 7 at the eaves.
+Eight upright palmetto logs, unsplit and undressed, support the roof.
+Many rafters sustain the palmetto thatching. The platform is composed of
+split palmetto logs lying transversely, flat sides up, upon beams which
+extend the length of the building and are lashed to the uprights by
+palmetto ropes, thongs, or trader's ropes. This platform is peculiar,
+in that it fills the interior of the building like a floor and serves to
+furnish the family with a dry sitting or lying down place when, as often
+happens, the whole region is under water. The thatching of the roof is
+quite a work of art: inside, the regularity and compactness of the
+laying of the leaves display much skill and taste on the part of the
+builder; outside--with the outer layers there seems to have been less
+care taken than with those within--the mass of leaves of which the roof
+is composed is held in place and made firm by heavy logs, which, bound
+together in pairs, are laid upon it astride the ridge. The covering is,
+I was informed, water tight and durable and will resist even a violent
+wind. Only hurricanes can tear it off, and these are so infrequent in
+Southern Florida that no attempt is made to provide against them.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  Bureau of Ethnology
+  Fifth Annual Report Pl. XIX
+  Seminole Dwelling.]
+
+The Seminole's house is open on all sides and without rooms. It is, in
+fact, only a covered platform. The single equivalent for a room in it is
+the space above the joists which are extended across the building at the
+lower edges of the roof. In this are placed surplus food and general
+household effects out of use from time to time. Household utensils are
+usually suspended from the uprights of the building and from pronged
+sticks driven into the ground near by at convenient places.
+
+From this description the Seminole's house may seem a poor kind of
+structure to use as a dwelling; yet if we take into account the climate
+of Southern Florida nothing more would seem to be necessary. A shelter
+from the hot sun and the frequent rains and a dry floor above the damp
+or water covered ground are sufficient for the Florida Indian's needs.
+
+I-ful-lo-ha-tco's three houses are placed at three corners of an oblong
+clearing, which is perhaps 40 by 30 feet. At the fourth corner is the
+entrance into the garden, which is in shape an ellipse, the longer
+diameter being about 25 feet. The three houses are alike, with the
+exception that in one of them the elevated platform is only half the
+size of those of the others. This difference seems to have been made on
+account of the camp fire. The fire usually burns in the space around
+which the buildings stand. During the wet season, however, it is moved
+into the sheltered floor in the building having the half platform. At
+Tus-ko-na's camp, where several families are gathered, I noticed one
+building without the interior platform. This was probably the wet
+weather kitchen.
+
+To all appearance there is no privacy in these open houses. The only
+means by which it seems to be secured is by suspending, over where one
+sleeps, a canopy of thin cotton cloth or calico, made square or oblong
+in shape, and nearly three feet in height. This serves a double use,
+as a private room and as a protection against gnats and mosquitoes.
+
+But while I-ful-lo-ha-tco's house is a fair example of the kind of
+dwelling in use throughout the tribe, I may not pass unnoticed some
+innovations which have lately been made upon the general style. There
+are, I understand, five inclosed houses, which were built and are owned
+by Florida Indians. Four of these are covered with split cypress planks
+or slabs; one is constructed of logs.
+
+Progressive "Key West Billy" has gone further than any other one,
+excepting perhaps Me-le, in the white man's ways of house building.
+He has erected for his family, which consists of one wife and three
+children, a cypress board house, and furnished it with doors and
+windows, partitions, floors, and ceiling. In the house are one upper and
+one or two lower rooms. Outside, he has a stairway to the upper floor,
+and from the upper floor a balcony. He possesses also an elevated bed,
+a trunk for his clothing, and a straw hat.
+
+Besides the permanent home for the Seminole family, there is also the
+lodge which it occupies when for any cause it temporarily leaves the
+house. The lodges, or the temporary structures which the Seminole make
+when "camping out," are, of course, much simpler and less comfortable
+than their houses. I had the privilege of visiting two "camping"
+parties--one of forty-eight Indians, at Tak-o-si-mac-la's cane field, on
+the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp; the other of twenty-two persons, at a
+Koonti ground, on Horse Creek, not far from the site of what was, long
+ago, Fort Davenport.
+
+I found great difficulty in reaching the "camp" at the sugar cane field.
+I was obliged to leave my conveyance some distance from the island on
+which the cane field was located. When we arrived at the shore of the
+saw-grass marsh no outward sign indicated the presence of fifty Indians
+so close at hand; but suddenly three turbaned Seminole emerged from the
+marsh, as we stood there. Learning from our guide our business, they
+cordially offered to conduct us through the water and saw-grass to the
+camp. The wading was annoying and, to me, difficult; but at length we
+secured dry footing in the jungle on the island, and after a tortuous
+way through the tangled vegetation, which walled in the camp from the
+prairie, we entered the large clearing and the collection of lodges
+where the Indians were. These lodges, placed very close together and
+seemingly without order, were almost all made of white cotton cloths,
+which were each stretched over ridge poles and tied to four corner
+posts. The lodges were in shape like the fly of a wall tent, simply a
+sheet stretched for a cover.
+
+At a Koonti ground on Horse Creek I met the Cat Fish Lake Indians. They
+had been forced to leave their homes to secure an extra supply of Koonti
+flour, because, as I understood the woman who told me, some animals had
+eaten all their sweet potatoes. The lodges of this party differed from
+those of the southern Indians in being covered above and around with
+palmetto leaves and in being shaped some like wall tents and others like
+single-roofed sheds. The accompanying sketch shows what kind of a
+shelter T�l-la-h�s-ke had made for himself fit Horse Creek. (Fig. 67.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 67. Temporary dwelling.]
+
+Adjoining each of these lodges was a platform, breast high. These were
+made of small poles or sticks covered with, the leaves of the palmetto.
+Upon and under these, food, clothing, and household utensils, generally,
+were kept; and between the rafters of the lodges and the roofs, also,
+many articles, especially those for personal use and adornment, were
+stored.
+
+Home Life.
+
+Having now seen the formation of the Seminole family and taken a glance
+at the dwellings, permanent and temporary, which it occupies, we are
+prepared to look at its household life. I was surprised by the industry
+and comparative prosperity and, further, by the cheerfulness and mutual
+confidence, intimacy, and affection of these Indians in their family
+intercourse.
+
+The Seminole family is industrious. All its members work who are able to
+do so, men as well as women. The former are not only hunters, fishermen,
+and herders, but agriculturists also. The women not only care for their
+children and look after the preparation of food and the general welfare
+of the home, but are, besides, laborers in the fields. In the Seminole
+family, both, husband and wife are land proprietors and cultivators.
+Moreover, as we have seen, all children able to labor contribute their
+little to the household prosperity. From these various domestic
+characteristics, an industrious family life almost necessarily follows.
+The disesteem in which T�s-ko-na, a notorious loafer at the Big Cypress
+Swamp, is held by the other Indians shows that laziness is not
+countenanced among the Seminole.
+
+But let me not be misunderstood here. By a Seminole's industry I do
+not mean the persistent and rapid labor of the white man of a northern
+community. The Indian is not capable of this, nor is he compelled to
+imitate it. I mean only that, in describing him, it is but just for me
+to say that he is a worker and not a loafer.
+
+As a result of the domestic industry it would be expected that we should
+find comparative prosperity prevailing among all Seminole families; and
+this is the fact. Much of the Indian's labor is wasted through his
+ignorance of the ways by which it might be economized. He has no
+labor saving or labor multiplying machines. There is but little
+differentiation of function in either family or tribe. Each worker does
+all kinds of work. Men give themselves to the hunt, women to the house,
+and both to the field. But men may be found sometimes at the cooking
+pot or toasting stick and women may be seen taking care of cattle and
+horses. Men bring home deer and turkeys, &c.; women spend days in
+fishing. Both men and women are tailors, shoemakers, flour makers, cane
+crushers and sirup boilers, wood hewers and bearers, and water carriers.
+There are but few domestic functions which may be said to belong
+exclusively, on the one hand, to men, or, on the other, to women.
+
+Out of the diversified domestic industry, as I have said, comes
+comparative prosperity. The home is all that the Seminole family needs
+or desires for its comfort. There is enough clothing, or the means to
+get it, for every one. Ordinarily more than a sufficient quantity of
+clothes is possessed by each member of a family. No one lacks money or
+the material with which to obtain that which money purchases. Nor
+need any ever hunger, since the fields and nature offer them food in
+abundance. The families of the northern camps are not as well provided
+for by bountiful nature as those south of the Caloosahatchie River. Yet,
+though at my visit to the Cat Fish Lake Indians in midwinter the sweet
+potatoes were all gone, a good hunting ground and fertile fields of
+Koonti were near at hand for Tcup-ko's people to visit and use to their
+profit.
+
+Food.
+
+Read the bill of fare from which the Florida Indians may select, and
+compare with that the scanty supplies within reach of the North Carolina
+Cherokee or the Lake Superior Chippewa. Here is a list of their meats:
+Of flesh, at any time venison, often opossum, sometimes rabbit and
+squirrel, occasionally bear, and a land terrapin, called the "gopher,"
+and pork whenever they wish it. Of wild fowl, duck, quail, and turkey in
+abundance. Of home reared fowl, chickens, more than they are willing to
+use. Of fish, they can catch myriads of the many kinds which teem in the
+inland waters of Florida, especially of the large bass, called "trout"
+by the whites of the State, while on the seashore they can get many
+forms of edible marine life, especially turtles and oysters. Equally
+well off are these Indians in respect to grains, vegetables, roots,
+and fruits. They grow maize in considerable quantity, and from it make
+hominy and flour, and all the rice they need they gather from the
+swamps. Their vegetables are chiefly sweet potatoes, large and much
+praised melons and pumpkins, and, if I may classify it with vegetables,
+the tender new growth of the tree called the cabbage palmetto. Among
+roots, there is the great dependence of these Indians, the abounding
+Koonti; also the wild potato, a small tuber found in black swamp land,
+and peanuts in great quantities. Of fruits, the Seminole family may
+supply itself with bananas, oranges (sour and sweet), limes, lemons,
+guavas, pineapples, grapes (black and red), cocoa nuts, cocoa plums, sea
+grapes, and wild plums. And with even this enumeration the bill of fare
+is not exhausted. The Seminole, living in a perennial summer, is never
+at a loss when he seeks something, and something good, to eat. I have
+omitted from the above list honey and the sugar cane juice and sirup,
+nor have I referred to the purchases the Indians now and then make from
+the white man, of salt pork, wheat flour, coffee, and salt, and of the
+various canned delicacies, whose attractive labels catch their eyes.
+
+These Indians are not, of course, particularly provident. I was told,
+however, that they are beginning to be ambitious to increase their
+little herds of horses and cattle and their numbers of chickens and
+swine.
+
+Camp Fire.
+
+Entering the more interior, the intimate home life of the Seminole, one
+observes that the center about which it gathers is the camp fire. This
+is never large except on a cool night, but it is of unceasing interest
+to the household. It is the place where the food is prepared, and where,
+by day, it is always preparing. It is the place where the social
+intercourse of the family, and of the family with their friends, is
+enjoyed. There the story is told; by its side toilets are made and
+household duties are performed, not necessarily on account of the warmth
+the fire gives, for it is often so small that its heat is almost
+imperceptible, but because of its central position in the household
+economy. This fire is somewhat singularly constructed; the logs used
+for it are of considerable length, and are laid, with some regularity,
+around a center, like the radii of a circle. These logs are pushed
+directly inward as the inner ends are consumed. The outer ends of the
+logs make excellent seats; sometimes they serve as pillows, especially
+for old men and women wishing to take afternoon, naps.
+
+Beds and bedding are of far less account to the Seminole family than the
+camp fire. The bed is often only the place where one chooses to lie. It
+is generally, however, chosen under the sheltering roof on the elevated
+platform, or, when made in the lodge, on palmetto leaves. It is
+pillowless, and has covering or not, as the sleeper may wish. If a cover
+is used, it is, as a rule, only a thin blanket or a sheet of cotton
+cloth, besides, during most of the year, the canopy or mosquito bar.
+
+Manner Of Eating.
+
+Next in importance to the camp fire in the life of the Seminole
+household naturally comes the eating of what is prepared there. There
+is nothing very formal in that. The Indians do not set a table or lay
+dishes and arrange chairs. A good sized kettle, containing stewed meat
+and vegetables, is the center around which, the family gathers for its
+meal. This, placed in some convenient spot on the ground near the fire,
+is surrounded by more or fewer of the members of the household in a
+sitting posture. If all that they have to eat at that time is contained
+in the kettle, each, extracts, with his fingers or his knife, a piece of
+meat or a bone with meat on it, and, holding it in one hand, eats, while
+with the other hand each, in turn, supplies himself, by means of a great
+wooden spoon, from the porridge in the pot.
+
+The Seminole, however, though observing meal times with some regularity,
+eats just as his appetite invites. If it happens that he has a side of
+venison roasting before the fire, he will cut from it at any time during
+the day and, with the piece of meat in one hand and a bit of Koonti or
+of different bread in the other, satisfy his appetite. Not seldom, too,
+he rises during the night and breaks his sleep by eating a piece of the
+roasting meat. The kettle and big spoon stand always ready for those who
+at any moment may hunger. There is little to be said about eating in a
+Seminole household, therefore, except that when its members eat together
+they make a kettle the center of their group and that much of their
+eating is done without reference to one another.
+
+Amusements.
+
+But one sees the family at home, not only working and sleeping and
+eating, but also engaged in amusing itself. Especially among the
+children, various sports are indulged in. I took some trouble to learn
+what amusements the little Seminole had invented or received. I obtained
+a list of them which might as well be that of the white man's as of the
+Indian's child. The Seminole has a doll, i.e., a bundle of rags, a stick
+with a bit of cloth wrapped about it, or something that serves just as
+well as this. The children build little houses for their dolls and name
+them "camps." Boys take their bows and arrows and go into the bushes and
+kill small birds, and on returning say they have been "turkey-hunting."
+Children sit around a small piece of land and, sticking blades of grass
+into the ground, name it a "corn field." They have the game of "hide and
+seek." They use the dancing rope, manufacture a "see-saw," play "leap
+frog," and build a "merry-go-round." Carrying a small stick, they say
+they carry a rifle. I noticed some children at play one day sitting near
+a dried deer skin, which lay before them stiff and resonant. They had
+taken from the earth small tubers about an inch in diameter found on the
+roots of a kind of grass and called "deer-food." Through them they had
+thrust sharp sticks of the thickness of a match and twice as long,
+making what we would call "teetotums." These, by a quick twirl between
+the palms of the hands, were set to spinning on the deer skin. The four
+children were keeping a dozen or more of these things going. The sport
+they called "a dance."
+
+I need only add that the relations among the various members of the
+Indian family in Florida are, as a rule, so well adjusted and observed
+that home life goes on without discord. The father is beyond question
+master in his home. To the mother belongs a peculiar domestic importance
+from her connection with her gens, but both she and her children seek
+first to know and to do the will of the actual lord of the household.
+The father is the master without being a tyrant; the mother is a subject
+without being a slave; the children have not yet learned self-assertion
+in opposition to their parents: consequently, there is no constraint in
+family intercourse. The Seminole household is cheerful, its members are
+mutually confiding, and, in the Indian's way, intimate and affectionate.
+
+
+The Seminole Gens.
+
+Of this larger body of kindred, existing, as I could see, in very
+distinct form among the Seminole, I gained but little definite
+knowledge. What few facts I secured are here placed on record.
+
+After I was enabled to make my inquiry understood, I sought to learn
+from my respondent the name of the gens to which each Indian whose name
+I had received belonged. As the result, I found that the two hundred and
+eight Seminole now in Florida are divided into the following gentes and
+in the following numbers:
+
+  1. Wind gens                    21
+  2. Tiger gens                   58
+  3. Otter gens                   39
+  4. Bird gens                    41
+  5. Deer gens                    18
+  6. Snake gens                   15
+  7. Bear gens                     4
+  8. Wolf gens                     1
+  9. Alligator gens                1
+     Unknown gentes               10
+                                 ---
+     Total                       208
+
+I endeavored, also, to learn the name the Indians use for gens or clan,
+and was told that it is "Po-ha-po-h�m-ko-sin;" the best translation I
+can give of the name is "Those of one camp or house."
+
+Examining my table to find whether or not the word as translated
+describes the fact, I notice that, with but one exception, which may
+not, after all, prove to be an exception, each of the twenty-two camps
+into which the thirty-seven Seminole families are divided is a camp in
+which all the persons but the husbands are members of one gens. The
+camp at Miami is an apparent exception. There Little Tiger, a rather
+important personage, lives with a number of unmarried relatives. A Wolf
+has married one of Little Tiger's sisters and lives in the camp, as
+properly he should. Lately Tiger himself has married an Otter, but,
+instead of leaving his relatives and going to the camp of his wife's
+kindred, his wife has taken up her home with his people.
+
+At the Big Cypress Swamp I tried to discover the comparative rank or
+dignity of the various clans. In reply, I was told by one of the Wind
+clan that they are graded in the following order. At the northernmost
+camp, however, another order appears to have been established.
+
+  _Big Cypress camp._
+
+  1. The Wind.
+  2. The Tiger.
+  3. The Otter.
+  4. The Bird.
+  5. The Deer.
+  6. The Snake.
+  7. The Bear.
+  8. The Wolf.
+
+  _Northernmost camp._
+
+  1. The Tiger.
+  2. The Wind.
+  3. The Otter.
+  4. The Bird.
+  5. The Bear.
+  6. The Deer.
+  7. The Buffalo.
+  8. The Snake.
+  9. The Alligator.
+  10. The Horned Owl.
+
+This second order was given to me by one of the Bird gens and by one who
+calls himself distinctively a "Tallahassee" Indian. The Buffalo and the
+Horned Owl clans seem now to be extinct in Florida, and I am not
+altogether sure that the Alligator clan also has not disappeared.
+
+The gens is "a group of relatives tracing a common lineage to some
+remote ancestor. This lineage is traced by some tribes through the
+mother and by others through the father." "The gens is the grand unit of
+social organization, and for many purposes is the basis of governmental
+organization." To the gens belong also certain rights and duties.
+
+Of the characteristics of the gentes of the Florida Seminole, I know
+only that a man may not marry a woman of his own clan, that the children
+belong exclusively to the mother, and that by birth they are members of
+her own gens. So far as duogamy prevails now among the Florida Indians,
+I observed that both the wives, in every case, were members of one gens.
+I understand also that there are certain games in which men selected
+from gentes as such are the contesting participants.
+
+Fellowhood.
+
+In this connection I may say that if I was understood in my inquiries
+the Seminole have also the institution of "Fellowhood" among them. Major
+Powell thus describes this institution: "Two young men agree to be life
+friends, 'more than brothers,' confiding without reserve each in the
+other and protecting each the other from all harm."
+
+
+The Seminole Tribe.
+
+Tribal Organization.
+
+The Florida Seminole, considered as a tribe, have a very imperfect
+organization. The complete tribal society of the past was much broken
+up through wars with the United States. These wars having ended in the
+transfer of nearly the whole of the population to the Indian Territory,
+the few Indians remaining in Florida were consequently left in a
+comparatively disorganized condition. There is, however, among these
+Indians a simple form of government, to which the inhabitants of at
+least the three southern settlements submit. The people of Cat Fish Lake
+and Cow Creek settlements live in a large measure independent of or
+without civil connection with the others. Tcup-ko calls his people
+"Tallahassee Indians." He says that they are not "the same" as the Fish
+Eating Creek, Big Cypress, and Miami people. I learned, moreover, that
+the ceremony of the Green Corn Dance may take place at the three last
+named settlements and not at those of the north. The "Tallahassee
+Indians" go to Fish Eating Creek if they desire to take part in the
+festival.
+
+Seat Of Government.
+
+So far as there is a common seat of government, it is located at Fish
+Eating Creek, where reside the head chief and big medicine man of the
+Seminole, T�s-ta-n�g-ge, and his brother, Hos-pa-ta-ki, also a medicine
+man. These two are called the Tus-ta-n�g-ul-ki, or "great heroes" of the
+tribe. At this settlement, annually, a council, composed of minor chiefs
+from the various settlements, meets and passes upon the affairs of the
+tribe.
+
+Tribal Officers.
+
+What the official organization of the tribe is I do not know. My
+respondent could not tell me. I learned, in addition to what I have
+just written, only that there are several Indians with official titles,
+living at each of the settlements, except at the one on Cat Fish Lake.
+These were classified as follows:
+
+  Settlements        | Chief and     | War    | Little | Medicine men.
+                     | medicine man. | chiefs | chiefs |
+  -------------------+---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+  Big Cypress Swamp  |               |    2   |    2   |     1
+  Miami River        |               |    1   |        |     1
+  Fish Eating Creek  |       1       |        |        |     1
+  Cow Creek          |               |        |        |     2
+                     +---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+  Total              |       1       |    3   |    2   |     5
+  -------------------+---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+
+Name Of Tribe.
+
+I made several efforts to discover the tribal name by which these
+Indians now designate themselves. The name Seminole they reject. In
+their own language it means "a wanderer," and, when used as a term of
+reproach, "a coward." Ko-nip-ha-tco said, "Me no Sem-ai-no-le; Seminole
+cow, Seminole deer, Seminole rabbit; me no Seminole. Indians gone
+Arkansas Seminole." He meant that timidity and flight from danger are
+"Seminole" qualities, and that the Indians who had gone west at the
+bidding of the Government were the true renegades. This same Indian
+informed me that the people south of the Caloosahatchie River, at Miami
+and the Big Cypress Swamp call themselves "K�n-yuk-sa Is-ti-tca-ti,"
+i.e., "K�n-yuk-sa red men." K�n-yuk-sa is their word for what we know as
+Florida. It is composed of I-kan-a, "ground," and I-yuk-sa, "point" or
+"tip," i.e., point of ground, or peninsula. At the northern camps the
+name appropriate to the people there, they say, is "Tallahassee
+Indians."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Seminole Tribal Life.
+
+
+We may now look at the life of the Seminole in its broader relations
+to the tribal organization. Some light has already been thrown on this
+subject by the preceding descriptions of the personal characteristics
+and social relations of these Indians. But there are other matters to be
+considered, as, for example, industries, arts, religion, and the like.
+
+
+Industries.
+
+Agriculture.
+
+Prominent among the industries is agriculture. The Florida Indians have
+brought one hundred or more acres of excellent land under a rude sort of
+cultivation. To each family belong, by right of use and agreement with
+other Indians, fields of from one to four acres in extent. The only
+agricultural implement they have is the single bladed hoe common on the
+southern plantation. However, nothing more than this is required.
+
+_Soil._-- The ground they select is generally in the interiors of the
+rich, hammocks which abound in the swamps and prairies of Southern
+Florida. There, with a soil unsurpassed in fertility and needing only to
+be cleared of trees, vines, underbrush, &c., one has but to plant corn,
+sweet potatoes, melons, or any thing else suited to the climate, and
+keep weeds from the growing vegetation, that he may gather a manifold
+return. The soil is wholly without gravel, stones, or rocks. It is soft,
+black, and very fertile. To what extent the Indians carry agriculture
+I do not know. I am under the impression, however, that they do not
+attempt to grow enough to provide much against the future. But, as they
+have no season in the year wholly unproductive and for which they must
+make special provision, their improvidence is not followed by serious
+consequences.
+
+_Corn._--The chief product of their agriculture is corn. This becomes
+edible in the months of May and June and at this time it is eaten in
+great quantities. Then it is that the annual festival called the "Green
+Corn Dance" is celebrated. When the corn ripens, a quantity of it is
+laid aside and gradually used in the form of hominy and of what I heard
+described as an "exceedingly beautiful meal, white as the finest wheat
+flour." This meal is produced by a slow and tedious process. The corn is
+hulled and the germ cut out, so that there is only a pure white residue.
+This is then reduced by mortar and pestle to an almost impalpable dust.
+From this flour a cake is made, which, is said to be very pleasant to
+the taste.
+
+_Sugar cane._--Another product of their agriculture is the sugar cane.
+In growing this they are the producers of perhaps the finest sugar cane
+grown in America; but they are not wise enough to make it a source of
+profit to themselves. It seems to be cultivated more as a passing
+luxury. It was at "Old Tommy's" sugar field I met the forty-eight of the
+people of the Big Cypress Swamp settlement already mentioned. They had
+left their homes that they might have a pleasuring for a few weeks
+together, "camping out" and making and eating sirup. The cane which had
+been grown there was the largest I or my companion, Capt. F. A. Hendry,
+of Myers, had ever seen. It was two inches or more in diameter, and, as
+we guessed, seventeen feet or more in length. To obtain the sirup the
+Indians had constructed two rude mills, the cylinders of which, however,
+were so loosely adjusted that full half the juice was lost in the
+process of crushing the cane. The juice was caught in various kinds of
+iron and tin vessels, kettles, pails, and cans, and after having been,
+strained was boiled until the proper consistency was reached.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 68. Sugar cane crusher.]
+
+At the time we were at the camp quite a quantity of the sirup had been
+made. It stood around the boiling place in kettles, large and small, and
+in cans bearing the labels of well known Boston and New York packers,
+which had been purchased at Myers. Of special interest to me was a
+platform near the boiling place, on which lay several deer skins, that
+had been taken as nearly whole as possible from the bodies of the
+animals, and utilized as holders of the sirup. They were filled with the
+sweet stuff, and the ground beneath was well covered by a slow leakage
+from them. "Key West Billy" offered me some of the cane juice to drink.
+It was clean looking and served in a silver gold lined cup of spotless
+brilliancy. It made a welcome and delicious drink. I tasted some of the
+sirup also, eating it Indian fashion, i.e., I pared some of their small
+boiled wild potatoes and, dipping them into the sweet liquid, ate them.
+The potato itself tastes somewhat like a boiled chestnut.
+
+The sugar cane mill was a poor imitation of a machine the Indians had
+seen among the whites. Its cylinders were made of live oak; the driving
+cogs were cut from a much harder wood, the mastic, I was told; and these
+were so loosely set into the cylinders that I could take them out with
+thumb and forefinger. (Fig. 68.)
+
+It is not necessary to speak in particular of the culture of sweet
+potatoes, beans, melons, &c. At best it is very primitive. It is,
+however, deserving of mention that the Seminole have around their houses
+at least a thousand banana plants. When it is remembered that a hundred
+bananas are not an overlarge yield for one plant, it is seen how well
+off, so far as this fruit is concerned, these Indians are.
+
+Hunting.
+
+Next in importance as an industry of the tribe (if it may be so called)
+is hunting. Southern Florida abounds in game and the Indians have only
+to seek in order to find it. For this purpose they use the rifle. The
+bow and arrow are no longer used for hunting purposes except by the
+smaller children. The rifles are almost all the long, heavy, small bore
+"Kentucky" rifle. This is economical of powder and lead, and for this
+reason is preferred by many to even the modern improved weapons which
+carry fixed ammunition. The Seminole sees the white man so seldom and
+lives so far from trading posts that he is not willing to be confined to
+the use of the prepared cartridge.
+
+A few breech loading rifles are owned in the tribe. The shot gun is much
+disliked by the Seminole. There is only one among them, and that is a
+combination of shot gun with rifle. I made a careful count of their fire
+arms, and found that they own, of "Kentucky" rifles, 63; breech loading
+rifles, 8; shot gun and rifle, 1; revolvers, 2--total, 74.
+
+_Methods of hunting._--The Seminole always hunt their game on foot. They
+can approach a deer to within sixty yards by their method of rapidly
+nearing him while he is feeding, and standing perfectly still when he
+raises his head. They say that they are able to discover by certain
+movements on the part of the deer when the head is about to be lifted.
+They stand side to the animal. They believe that they can thus deceive
+the deer, appearing to them as stumps or trees. They lure turkeys within
+shooting distance by an imitation of the calls of the bird. They leave
+small game, such as birds, to the children. One day, while some of our
+party were walking near Horse Creek with Ka-tca-la-ni, a covey of quail
+whirred out of the grass. By a quick jerk the Indian threw his ramrod
+among the birds and billed one. He appeared to regard this feat as
+neither accidental nor remarkable.
+
+I sought to discover how many deer the Seminole annually kill, but
+could get no number which I can call trustworthy. I venture twenty-five
+hundred as somewhere near a correct estimate.
+
+Otter hunting is another of the Seminole industries. This animal has
+been pursued with the rifle and with the bow and arrow. Lately the
+Indians have heard of the trap. When we left Horse Creek, a request was
+made by one of them to our guide to purchase for him six otter traps for
+use in the Cat Fish Lake camp.
+
+Fishing.
+
+Fishing is also a profitable industry. For this the hook and line are
+often used; some also use the spoon hook. But it is a common practice
+among them to kill the fish with bow and arrow, and in this they are
+quite skillful. One morning some boys brought me a bass, weighing
+perhaps sis pounds, which one of them had shot with an arrow.
+
+Stock Raising.
+
+Stock raising, in a small way, may be called a Seminole industry.
+I found that at least fifty cattle, and probably more, are owned by
+members of the tribe and that the Seminole probably possess a thousand
+swine and five hundred chickens. The latter are of an excellent breed.
+At Cat Fish Lake an unusual interest in horses seems now to be
+developing. I found there twenty horses. I was told that there are
+twelve horses at Fish Eating Creek, and I judge that between thirty-five
+and forty of these animals are now in possession of the tribe.
+
+Koonti.
+
+The unique industry, in the more limited sense of the word, of the
+Seminole is the making of the Koonti flour. Koonti is a root containing
+a large percentage of starch. It is said to yield a starch equal to
+that of the best Bermuda arrowroot. White men call it the "Indian
+bread root," and lately its worth as an article of commerce has been
+recognized by the whites. There are now at least two factories in
+operation in Southern Florida in which the Koonti is made into a flour
+for the white man's market. I was at one such factory at Miami and saw
+another near Orlando. I ate of a Koonti pudding at Miami, and can say
+that, as it was there prepared and served with milk and guava jelly, it
+was delicious. As might be supposed, the Koonti industry, as carried on
+by the whites, produces a far finer flour than that which the Indians
+manufacture. The Indian process, as I watched it at Horse Creek, was
+this: The roots were gathered, the earth was washed from them, and they
+were laid in heaps near the "Koonti log."
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 69. Koonti log.]
+
+The Koonti log, so called, was the trunk of a large pine tree, in which
+a number of holes, about nine inches square at the top, their sides
+sloping downward to a point, had been cut side by side. Each of these
+holes was the property of some one of the squaws or of the children of
+the camp. For each of the holes, which were to serve as mortars, a
+pestle made of some hard wood had been furnished. (Fig. 69.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 70. Koonti pestles.]
+
+The first step in the process was to reduce the washed Koonti to a kind
+of pulp. This was done by chopping it into small pieces and filling with
+it one of the mortars and pounding it with a pestle. The contents of the
+mortar were then laid upon a small platform. Each worker had a platform.
+When a sufficient quantity of the root had been pounded the whole mass
+was taken to the creek near by and thoroughly saturated with water in a
+vessel made of bark.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 71. Koonti mash vessel.]
+
+The pulp was then washed in a straining cloth, the starch of the Koonti
+draining into a deer hide suspended below.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 72. Koonti strainer.]
+
+When the starch had been thoroughly washed from the mass the latter was
+thrown away, and the starchy sediment in the water in the deerskin left
+to ferment. After some days the sediment was taken from the water and
+spread upon palmetto leaves to dry. When dried, it was a yellowish white
+flour, ready for use. In the factory at Miami substantially this process
+is followed, the chief variation from it being that the Koonti is passed
+through several successive fermentations, thereby making it purer and
+whiter than the Indian product. Improved appliances for the manufacture
+are used by the white man.
+
+The Koonti bread, as I saw it among the Indians, was of a bright orange
+color, and rather insipid, though not unpleasant to the taste. It was
+saltless. Its yellow color was owing to the fact that the flour had had
+but one fermentation.
+
+Industrial Statistics.
+
+The following is a summary of the results of the industries now engaged
+in by the Florida Indians. It shows what is approximately true of these
+at the present time:
+
+  Acres under cultivation                    100
+  Corn raised                     bushels    500
+  Sugarcane                       gallons  1,500
+  Cattle                     number owned     50
+  Swine                            do.     1,000
+  Chickens                         do.       500
+  Horses                           do.        35
+  Koonti                          bushels  5,000
+  Sweet potatoes                   do.       ...
+  Melons                           number  3,000
+
+
+Arts.
+
+Industrial Arts.
+
+In reference to the way in which, the Seminole Indians have met
+necessities for invention and have expressed the artistic impulse,
+I found little to add to what I have already placed on record.
+
+_Utensils and implements._--The proximity of this people to the
+Europeans for the last three centuries, while it has not led them to
+adopt the white man's civilization in matters of government, religion,
+language, manners, and customs, has, nevertheless, induced them to
+appropriate for their own use some of the utensils, implements, weapons,
+&c., of the strangers. For example, it was easy for the ancestors of
+these Indians to see that the iron kettle of the white man was better in
+every way than their own earthenware pots. Gradually, therefore, the art
+of making pottery died out among them, and now, as I believe, there is
+no pottery whatever in use among the Florida Indians. They neither make
+nor purchase it. They no longer buy even small articles of earthenware,
+preferring tin instead, Iron implements likewise have supplanted those
+made of stone. Even their word for stone, "Tcat-to," has been applied
+to iron. They purchase hoes, hunting knives, hatchets, axes, and, for
+special use in their homes, knives nearly two feet in length. With these
+long knives they dress timber, chop meat, etc.
+
+_Weapons._--They continue the use of the bow and arrow, but no longer
+for the purposes of war, or, by the adults, for the purposes of hunting.
+The rifle serves them much better. It seems to be customary for every
+male in the tribe over twelve years of age to provide himself with a
+rifle. The bow, as now made, is a single piece of mulberry or other
+elastic wood and is from four to six feet in length; the bowstring is
+made of twisted deer rawhide; the arrows are of cane and of hard wood
+and vary in length from two to four feet; they are, as a rule, tipped
+with a sharp conical roll of sheet iron. The skill of the young men in
+the use of the bow and arrow is remarkable.
+
+_Weaving and basket making._--The Seminole are not now weavers. Their
+few wants for clothing and bedding are supplied by fabrics manufactured
+by white men. They are in a small way, however, basket makers. From the
+swamp cane, and sometimes from the covering of the stalk of the fan
+palmetto, they manufacture flat baskets and sieves for domestic service.
+
+_Uses of the palmetto._--In this connection I call attention to the
+inestimable value of the palmetto tree to the Florida Indians. From the
+trunk of the tree the frames and platforms of their houses are made; of
+its leaves durable water tight roofs are made for the houses; with the
+leaves their lodges are covered and beds protecting the body from the
+dampness of the ground are made; the tough fiber which lies between the
+stems of the leaves and the bark furnishes them with material from which
+they make twine and rope of great strength and from which they could,
+were it necessary, weave cloth for clothing; the tender new growth at
+the top of the tree is a very nutritious and palatable article of food,
+to be eaten either raw or baked; its taste is somewhat like that of the
+chestnut; its texture is crisp like that of our celery stalk.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 73. Mortar and pestle.]
+
+_Mortar and pestle._--The home made mortar and pestle has not yet been
+supplanted by any utensil furnished by the trader. This is still the
+best mill they have in which to grind their corn. The mortar is made
+from a log of live oak (?) wood, ordinarily about two feet in length
+and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. One end of the log is
+hollowed out to quite a depth, and in this, by the hammering of a pestle
+made of mastic wood, the corn is reduced to hominy or to the impalpable
+flour of which I have spoken. (Fig. 73.)
+
+_Canoe making._--Canoe making is still one of their industrial arts, the
+canoe being their chief means of transportation. The Indian settlements
+are all so situated that the inhabitants of one can reach those of the
+others by water. The canoe is what is known as a "dugout," made from the
+cypress log.
+
+_Fire making._--The art of fire making by simple friction is now, I
+believe, neglected among the Seminole, unless at the starting of the
+sacred fire for the Green Corn Dance. A fire is now kindled either by
+the common Ma-tci (matches) of the civilized man or by steel and flint,
+powder and paper. "Tom Tiger" showed me how he builds a fire when away
+from home. He held, crumpled between the thumb and forefinger of the
+left hand, a bit of paper. In the folds of the paper he poured from his
+powder horn a small quantity of gunpowder. Close beside the paper he
+held also a piece of flint. Striking this flint with a bit of steel and
+at the same time giving to the left hand a quick upward movement, he
+ignited the powder and paper. From this he soon made a fire among the
+pitch pine chippings he had previously prepared.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 74. Hide stretcher.]
+
+_Preparation of skins._--I did not learn just how the Indians dress deer
+skins, but I observed that they had in use and for sale the dried skin,
+with the hair of the animal left on it; the bright yellow buckskin, very
+soft and strong; and also the dark red buckskin, which evidently had
+passed, in part of its preparation, through smoke. I was told that the
+brains of the animal serve an important use in the skin dressing
+process. The accompanying sketch shows a simple frame in use for
+stretching and drying the skin. (Fig. 74)
+
+Ornamental Arts.
+
+In my search for evidence of the working of the art instinct proper,
+i.e., in ornamental or fine art, I found but little to add to what
+has been already said. I saw but few attempts at ornamentation beyond
+those made on the person and on clothing. Houses, canoes, utensils,
+implements, weapons, were almost all without carving or painting. In
+fact, the only carving I noticed in the Indian country was on a pine
+tree near Myers. It was a rude outline of the head of a bull. The local
+report is that when the white men began to send their cattle south of
+the Caloosahatchie River the Indians marked this tree with this sign.
+The only painting I saw was the rude representation of a man, upon the
+shaft of one of the pestles used at the Koonti log at Horse Creek. It
+was made by one of the girls for her own amusement.
+
+I have already spoken of the art of making silver ornaments.
+
+_Music._--Music, as far as I could discover, is but little in use among
+the Seminole. Their festivals are few; so few that the songs of the
+fathers have mostly been forgotten. They have songs for the Green Corn
+Dance; they have lullabys; and there is a doleful song they sing in
+praise of drink, which is occasionally heard when the white man has sold
+Indians whisky on coming to town. Knowing the motive of the song, I
+thought the tune stupid and maudlin. Without pretending to reproduce it
+exactly, I remember it as something like this:
+
+  [Illustration: Music]
+  My precious drink, I fondly love thee.
+  Standing I take thee. And walk until morning. Yo-wan-ha-de.
+
+I give a free translation of the Indian words and an approximation to
+the tune. The last note in this, as in the lullaby I noted above, is
+unmusical and staccato.
+
+
+Religion.
+
+I could learn but little of the religious faiths and practices existing
+among the Florida Indians. I was struck, however, in making my
+investigations, by the evident influence Christian teaching has had upon
+the native faith. How far it has penetrated the inherited thought of the
+Indian I do not know. But, in talking with Ko-nip-ha-tco, he told me
+that his people believe that the Koonti root was a gift from God; that
+long ago the "Great Spirit" sent Jesus Christ to the earth with the
+precious plant, and that Jesus had descended upon the world at Cape
+Florida and there given the Koonti to "the red men." In reference to
+this tradition, it is to be remembered that during the seventeenth
+century the Spaniards had vigorous missions among the Florida Indians.
+Doubtless it was from these that certain Christian names and beliefs now
+traceable among the Seminole found way into the savage creed and ritual.
+
+I attempted several times to obtain from my interpreter a statement of
+the religious beliefs he had received from his people. I cannot affirm
+with confidence that success followed my efforts.
+
+He told me that his people believe in a "Great Spirit," whose name is
+His-a-kit-a-mis-i. This word, I have good reason to believe, means "the
+master of breath." The Seminole for breath is His-a-kit-a.
+
+I cannot be sure that Ko-nip-ha-tco knew anything of what I meant by
+the word "spirit." I tried to convey my meaning to him, but I think I
+failed. He told me that the place to which Indians go after death is
+called "Po-ya-fi-tsa" and that the Indians who have died are the
+Pi-ya-fits-ul-ki, or "the people of Po-ya-fi-tsa." That was our nearest
+understanding of the word "spirit" or "soul."
+
+Mortuary Customs.
+
+As the Seminole mortuary customs are closely connected with their
+religious beliefs, it will be in place to record here what I learned of
+them. The description refers particularly to the death and burial of a
+child.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 75. Seminole bier.]
+
+The preparation for burial began as soon as death had taken place. The
+body was clad in a new shirt, a new handkerchief being tied about the
+neck and another around the head. A spot of red paint was placed on the
+right cheek and one of black upon the left. The body was laid face
+upwards. In the left hand, together with a bit of burnt wood, a small
+bow about twelve inches in length was placed, the hand lying naturally
+over the middle of the body. Across the bow, held by the right hand,
+was laid an arrow, slightly drawn. During these preparations, the women
+loudly lamented, with hair disheveled. At the same time some men had
+selected a place for the burial and made the grave in this manner:
+Two palmetto logs of proper size were split. The four pieces were then
+firmly placed on edge, in the shape of an oblong box, lengthwise east
+and west. In this box a floor was laid, and over this a blanket was
+spread. Two men, at next sunrise, carried the body from the camp to the
+place of burial, the body being suspended at feet thighs, back, and neck
+from a long pole (Fig. 75). The relatives followed. In the grave, which
+is called "To-hop-ki"--a word used by the Seminole for "stockade," or
+"fort," also, the body was then laid the feet to the east. A blanket was
+then carefully wrapped around the body. Over this palmetto leaves were
+placed and the grave was tightly closed by a covering of logs. Above the
+box a roof was then built. Sticks, in the form of an _X_, were driven
+into the earth across the overlying logs; these were connected by a
+pole, and this structure was covered thickly with palmetto leaves.
+(Fig. 76.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 76. Seminole grave.]
+
+The bearers of the body then made a large fire at each end of the
+"To-hop-ki." With this the ceremony at the grave ended and all returned
+to the camp. During that day and for three days thereafter the relatives
+remained at home and refrained from work. The fires at the grave were
+renewed at sunset by those who had made them, and after nightfall
+torches were there waved in the air, that "the bad birds of the night"
+might not get at the Indian lying in his grave. The renewal of the fires
+and waving of the torches were repeated three days. The fourth day the
+fires were allowed to die out. Throughout the camp "medicine" had been
+sprinkled at sunset for three days. On the fourth day it was said that
+the Indian "had gone." From that time the mourning ceased and the
+members of the family returned to their usual occupations.
+
+The interpretation of the ceremonies just mentioned, as given me, is
+this: The Indian was laid in his grave to remain there, it was believed,
+only until the fourth day. The fires at head and feet, as well as the
+waving of the torches, were to guard him from the approach of "evil
+birds" who would harm him. His feet were placed toward the east, that
+when he arose to go to the skies he might go straight to the sky path,
+which commenced at the place of the sun's rising; that were he laid with
+the feet in any other direction he would not know when he rose what path
+to take and he would be lost in the darkness. He had with him his bow
+and arrow, that he might procure food on his way. The piece of burnt
+wood in his hand was to protect him from the "bad birds" while he was on
+his skyward journey. These "evil birds" are called Ta-lak-i-�lak-o. The
+last rite paid to the Seminole dead is at the end of four moons. At that
+time the relatives go to the To-hop-ki and cut from around it the
+overgrowing grass. A widow lives with disheveled hair for the first
+twelve moons of her widowhood.
+
+Green Corn Dance.
+
+The one institution at present in which the religious beliefs of the
+Seminole find special expression is what is called the "Green Corn
+Dance." It is the occasion for an annual purification and rejoicing.
+I could get no satisfactory description of the festival. No white man,
+so I was told, has seen it, and the only Indian I met who could in any
+manner speak English, made but an imperfect attempt to describe it. In
+fact, he seemed unwilling to talk about it. He told me, however, that as
+the season for holding the festival approaches the medicine men assemble
+and, through their ceremonies, decide when it shall take place, and, if
+I caught his meaning, determine also how long the dance shall continue.
+Others, on the contrary, told me that the dance is always continued for
+four days.
+
+Fifteen days previous to the festival heralds are sent from the lodge
+of the medicine men to give notice to all the camps of the day when the
+dance will commence. Small sticks are thereupon hung up in each camp,
+representing the number of days between that date and the day of the
+beginning of the dance. With the passing of each day one of these sticks
+is thrown away. The day the last one is cast aside the families go to
+the appointed place. At the dancing ground they find the selected space
+arranged as in the accompanying diagram (Fig. 77).
+
+The evening of the first day the ceremony of taking the "Black Drink,"
+Pa-sa-is-kit-a, is endured. This drink was described to me as having
+both a nauseating smell and taste. It is probably a mixture similar to
+that used by the Creek in the last century at a like ceremony. It acts
+as both an emetic and a cathartic, and it is believed among the Indians
+that unless one drinks of it he will be sick at some time in the year,
+and besides that he cannot safely eat of the green corn of the feast.
+During the drinking the dance begins and proceeds; in it the medicine
+men join.
+
+At that time the Medicine Song is sung. My Indian would not repeat
+this song for me. He declared that any one who sings the Medicine Song,
+except at the Green Corn Dance or as a medicine man, will certainly meet
+with some harm. That night, after the "Black Drink" has had its effect,
+the Indians sleep. The next morning they eat of the green corn. The day
+following is one of fasting, but the next day is one of great feasting,
+"Hom-pi-ta-�lak-o," in which "Indian eat all time," "Hom-pis-yak-i-ta."
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 77. Green Corn Dance.]
+
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------
+                            ++++++
+    N.                      Squaws
+    |
+   -+-E         "O-P�N-KA-TO-LO-KA-TI"
+    |             or the Dance Circle
+    S.                                   "HIL-LIS-WA-MA-TOE-UL-KI"
+                                          Men who watch the
+  +--+                      \ | /          medicine fire
+  |  |                     -- O --          ++
+  |  |                      / | \              X           +++
+  |  |                                      Medicine      Medicine
+  +--+                    The Fire or        Fire          Men
+  "TEOK-KO-CLACO"    "O-P�N-KA-TOT-KIT-A"
+  House where the
+  warriors sit.
+                            Squaws
+                            ++++++
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Use Of Medicines.
+
+Concerning the use by the Indians of medicine against sickness, I
+learned only that they are in the habit of taking various herbs for
+their ailments. What part incantation or sorcery plays in the healing
+of disease I do not know. Nor did I learn what the Indians think of the
+origin and effects of dreams. Me-le told me that he knows of a plant the
+leaves of which, eaten, will cure the bite of a rattlesnake, and that he
+knows also of a plant which is an antidote to the noxious effects of the
+poison ivy or so-called poison oak.
+
+
+General Observations.
+
+I close this chapter by putting upon record a few general observations,
+as an aid to future investigation into Seminole life.
+
+Standard of Value.
+
+The standard of value among the Florida Indians is now taken from the
+currency of the United States. The unit they seem to have adopted, at
+least at the Big Cypress Swamp settlement, is twenty-five cents, which
+they call "Kan-cat-ka-hum-kin" (literally, "one mark on the ground"). At
+Miami a trader keeps his accounts with the Indians in single marks or
+pencil strokes. For example, an Indian brings to him buck skins, for
+which the trader allows twelve "chalks." The Indian, not wishing then to
+purchase anything, receives a piece of paper marked in this way:
+
+   "IIII--IIII--IIII.
+    J. W. E. owes Little Tiger $3."
+
+At his next visit the Indian may buy five "marks" worth of goods. The
+trader then takes the paper and returns it to Little Tiger changed as
+follows:
+
+   "IIII--III.
+    J. W. E. owes Little Tiger
+      $1.75."
+
+Thus the account is kept until all the "marks" are crossed off, when
+the trader takes the paper into his own possession. The value of the
+purchases made at Miami by the Indians, I was informed, is annually
+about $2,000. This is, however, an amount larger than would be the
+average for the rest of the tribe, for the Miami Indians do a
+considerable business in the barter and sale of ornamental plumage.
+
+What the primitive standard of value among the Seminole was is suggested
+to me by their word for money, "Tcat-to Ko-na-wa." "Ko-na-wa" means
+beads, and "Tcat-to," while it is the name for iron and metal, is also
+the name for stone. "Tcat-to" probably originally meant stone. Tcat-to
+Ko-na-wa (i.e., stone beads) was, then, the primitive money. With
+"Hat-ki," or white, added, the word means silver; with "La-ni," or
+yellow, added, it means gold. For greenbacks they use the words
+"Nak-ho-tsi Tcat-to Ko-na-wa," which is, literally, "paper stone beads."
+
+Their methods of measuring are now, probably, those of the white man. I
+questioned my respondent closely, but could gain no light upon the terms
+he used as equivalents for our measurements.
+
+Divisions Of Time.
+
+I also gained but little knowledge of their divisions of time. They have
+the year, the name for which is the same as that used for summer, and in
+their year are twelve months, designated, respectively:
+
+   1. �la-futs-u-tsi, Little Winter.
+   2. Ho-ta-li-ha-si, Wind Moon.
+   3. Ho-ta-li-ha-si-�lak-o, Big Wind Moon.
+   4. Ki-ha-su-tsi, Little Mulberry Moon.
+   5. Ki-ha-si-�lat-o, Big Mulberry Moon.
+   6. Ka-too-ha-si.
+   7. Hai-yu-tsi.
+   8. Hai-yu-tsi-�lak-o.
+   9. O-ta-wus-ku-tsi.
+  10. O-ta-wus-ka-�lak-o.
+  11. I-ho-li.
+  12. �la-fo-�lak-o, Big Winter.
+
+I suppose that the spelling of these words could be improved, but I
+reproduce them phonetically as nearly as I can, not making what to me
+would be desirable corrections. The months appear to be divided simply
+into days, and these are, in part at least, numbered by reference to
+successive positions of the moon at sunset. When I asked T�l-la-h�s-ke
+how long he would stay at his present camp, he made reply by pointing,
+to the new moon in the west and sweeping his hand from west to east to
+where the moon would be when he should go home. He meant to answer,
+about ten days thence. The day is divided by terms descriptive of the
+positions of the sun in the sky from dawn to sunset.
+
+Numeration.
+
+The Florida Indians can count, by their system, indefinitely. Their
+system of numeration is quinary, as will appear from the following list:
+
+   1. H�m-kin.
+   2. Ho-_ko-lin_.
+   3. To-_tei-nin_.
+   4. _Os-tin_.
+   5. Tsaq-ke-pin.
+   6. I-pa-kin.
+   7. _Ko-lo_-pa-kin.
+   8. _Tci-na_-pa-kin
+   9. _Os-ta_-pa-kin.
+  10. Pa-lin.
+  11. Pa-lin-h�m-kin, _i.e._, ten one, &c.
+  20. Pa-li-ho-ko-lin, _i.e._, two tens.
+
+As a guide towards a knowledge of the primitive manner of counting the
+method used by an old man in his intercourse with me will serve. He
+wished to count eight. He first placed the thumb of the right hand upon
+the little finger of the left, then the right forefinger upon the next
+left hand finger, then the thumb on the next finger, and the forefinger
+on the next, and then the thumb upon the thumb; leaving now the thumb
+of the right hand resting upon the thumb of the left, he counted the
+remaining numbers on the right hand, using for this purpose the fore
+and middle fingers of the left; finally he shut the fourth and little
+fingers of the right hand down upon its palm, and raising his hands,
+thumbs touching, the counted fingers outspread, he showed me eight as
+the number of horses of which I had made inquiry.
+
+Sense Of Color.
+
+Concerning the sense of color among these Indians, I found that my
+informant at least possessed it to only a very limited degree. Black and
+white were clear to his sight, and for these he had appropriate names
+Also for brown, which was to him a "yellow black," and for gray, which
+was a "white black." For some other colors his perception was distinct
+and the names he used proper. But a name for blue he applied to many
+other colors, shading from violet to green. A name for red followed a
+succession of colors all the way from scarlet to pink. A name for yellow
+he applied to dark orange and thence to a list of colors through to
+yellow's lightest and most delicate tint. I thought that at one time I
+had found him making a clear distinction between green and blue, but as
+I examined further I was never certain that he would not exchange the
+names when asked about one or the other color.
+
+Education.
+
+The feeling of the tribe is antagonistic to even such primary education
+as reading, writing, and calculation. About ten years ago an attempt,
+the only attempt in modern times, to establish schools among them was
+made by Rev. Mr. Frost, now at Myers, Fla. He did not succeed.
+
+Slavery.
+
+By reference to the population table, it will be noticed that there are
+three negroes and seven persons of mixed breed among the Seminole. It
+has been said that these negroes were slaves and are still held as
+slaves by the Indians. I saw nothing and could not hear of anything
+to justify this statement. One Indian is, I know, married to a negress,
+and the two negresses in the tribe live apparently on terms of perfect
+equality with the other women. Me-le goes and comes as he sees fit.
+No one attempts to control his movements. It may be that long ago the
+Florida Indians held negroes as slaves, but my impression is to the
+contrary. The Florida Indians, I think, rather offered a place of refuge
+for fugitive bondmen and gradually made them members of their tribe.
+
+Health.
+
+In the introduction to this report I said that the health of the
+Seminole is good. As confirming this statement, I found that the deaths
+during the past year had been very few. I had trustworthy information
+concerning the deaths of only four persons. One of these deaths was of
+an old woman, O-pa-ka, at the Fish Eating Creek settlement; another was
+of T�l-la-h�s-ke's wife, at Cat Fish Lake settlement; another was of a
+sister of T�l-la-h�s-ke; and the last was of a child, at Cow Creek
+settlement. At the Big Cypress Swamp settlement I was assured that no
+deaths had occurred either there or at Miami during the year. On the
+contrary, however, I was told by some white people at Miami that several
+children had died at the Indian camp near there in the year past.
+T�l-la-h�s-ke said to me, "Twenty moons ago, heap pickaninnies die!" And
+I was informed by others that about two years before there had been
+considerable fatality among children, as the consequence of a sort of
+epidemic at one of the northern camps. Admitting the correctness of
+these reports, I have no reason to modify my general statement that the
+health of the Seminole is good and that they are certainly increasing
+their number. Their appearance indicates excellent health and their
+environment is in their favor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Environment Of The Seminole.
+
+
+Nature.
+
+Southern Florida, the region to which most of the Seminole have been
+driven by the advances of civilization, is, taken all in all, unlike any
+other part of our country. In climate it is subtropical; in character
+of soil it shows a contrast of comparative barrenness and abounding
+fertility; and in topography it is a plain, with hardly any perceptible
+natural elevations or depressions. The following description, based upon
+the notes of my journey to the Big Cypress Swamp, indicates the
+character of the country generally. I left Myers, on the Caloosahatchie
+River, a small settlement composed principally of cattlemen, one morning
+in the month of February. Even in February the sun was so hot that
+clothing was a burden. As we started upon our journey, which was to be
+for a distance of sixty miles or more, my attention was called to the
+fact that the harness of the horse attached to my buggy was without the
+breeching. I was told that this part of the harness would not be needed,
+so level should we find the country. Our way, soon after leaving the
+main street of Myers, entered pine woods. The soil across which we
+traveled at first was a dry, dazzling white sand, over which, was
+scattered a growth of dwarf palmetto. The pine trees were not near
+enough together to shade us from the fierce, sun. This sparseness of
+growth, and comparative absence of shade, is one marked characteristic
+of Florida's pine woods. Through this thin forest we drove all the day.
+The monotonous scenery was unchanged except that at a short distance
+from Myers it was broken by swamps and ponds. So far as the appearance
+of the country around as indicated, we could not tell whether we were
+two miles or twenty from our starting point. Nearly half our way during
+the first day lay through water, and yet we were in the midst of what is
+called the winter "dry season." The water took the shape here of a swamp
+and there of a pond, but where the swamp or the pond began or ended it
+was scarcely possible to tell, one passed by almost imperceptible
+degrees from dry land to moist and from moist land into pool or marsh.
+Generally, however, the swamps were filled with a growth of cypress
+trees. These cypress groups were well defined in the pine woods by the
+closeness of their growth and the sharpness of the boundary of the
+clusters. Usually, too, the cypress swamps were surrounded by rims of
+water grasses. Six miles from Myers we crossed a cypress swamp, in which
+the water at its greatest depth was from one foot to two feet deep.
+A wagon road had been cut through the dense growth of trees, and the
+trees were covered with hanging mosses and air plants.
+
+The ponds differed from the swamps only in being treeless. They are open
+sheets of water surrounded by bands of greater or less width of tall
+grasses. The third day, between 30 and 40 miles from Myers, we left the
+pine tree lands and started across what are called in Southern Florida
+the "prairies." These are wide stretches covered with grass and with
+scrub palmetto and dotted at near intervals with what are called pine
+"islands" or "hammocks" and cypress swamps. The pine island or hammock
+is a slight elevation of the soil, rising a few inches above the dead
+level. The cypress swamp, on the contrary, seems to have its origin only
+in a slight depression in the plain. Where there is a ring of slight
+depression, inclosing a slight elevation, there is generally a
+combination of cypress and pine and oak growth. For perhaps 15 miles we
+traveled that third day over this expanse of grass; most of the way we
+were in water, among pine islands, skirting cypress swamps and saw-grass
+marshes, and being jolted through thick clumps of scrub palmetto. Before
+nightfall we reached the district occupied by the Indians, passing there
+into what is called the "Bad Country," an immense expanse of submerged
+land, with here and there islands rising from it, as from the drier
+prairies. We had a weird ride that afternoon and night: Now we passed
+through saw-grass 5 or 6 feet high and were in water 6 to 20 inches in
+depth; then we encircled some impenetrable jungle of vines and trees,
+and again we took our way out upon a vast expanse of water and grass. At
+but one place in a distance of several miles was it dry enough for one
+to step upon the ground without wetting the feet. We reached that place
+at nightfall, but found no wood there for making a fire. We were 4 miles
+then from any good camping ground. Captain Hendry asked our Indian
+companion whether he could take us through the darkness to a place
+called the "Buck Pens." Ko-nip-ha-tco said he could. Under his guidance
+we started in the twilight, the sky covered with clouds. The night which
+followed was starless, and soon we were splashing through a country
+which, to my eyes, was trackless. There were visible to me no landmarks.
+But our Indian, following a trail made by his own people, about nine
+o'clock brought us to the object of our search. A black mass suddenly
+appeared in the darkness. It was the pine island we were seeking, the
+"Buck Pens."
+
+On our journey that day we had crossed a stream, so called, the
+Ak-ho-lo-wa-koo-tci. So level is the country, however, and so sluggish
+the flow of water there that this river, where we crossed it, was more
+like a swamp than a stream. Indeed, in Southern Florida the streams,
+for a long distance from what would be called their sources, are more a
+succession of swamps than well defined currents confined to channels by
+banks. They have no real shores until they are well on their way towards
+the ocean.
+
+Beyond the point I reached, on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp, lie
+the Everglades proper, a wide district with, only deeper water and
+better defined islands than those which mark the "Bad Country" and the
+"Devil's Garden" I had entered.
+
+The description I have given refers to that part of the State of Florida
+lying south of the Caloosahatchee River. It is in this watery prairie
+and Everglade region that we find the immediate environment of most of
+the Seminole Indians. Of the surroundings of the Seminole north of the
+Caloosahatchee there is but little to say in modification of what has
+already been said. Near the Fish Eating Creek settlement there is a
+somewhat drier prairie land than that which I have just described. The
+range of barren sand hills which extends from the north along the middle
+of Florida to the headwaters of the Kissimmee River ends at Cat Fish
+Lake. Excepting these modifications, the topography of the whole Indian
+country of Florida is substantially the same as that which we traversed
+on the way from Myers into the Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades.
+
+Over this wide and seeming level of land and water, as I have said,
+there is a subtropical climate. I visited the Seminole in midwinter;
+yet, for all that my northern senses could discover, we were in the
+midst of summer. The few deciduous trees there were having a midyear
+pause, but trees with dense foliage, flowers, fruit, and growing grass
+were to be seen everywhere. The temperature was that of a northern June.
+By night we made our beds on the ground without discomfort from cold,
+and by day we were under the heat of a summer sun. There was certainly
+nothing in the climate to make one feel the need of more clothing or
+shelter than would protect from excessive heat or rain.
+
+Then the abundance of food, both animal and vegetable, obtainable in
+that region seemed to me to do away with the necessity, on the part of
+the people living there, for a struggle for existence. As I have already
+stated, the soil is quite barren over a large part of the district; but,
+on the other hand, there is also in many places a fertility of soil that
+cannot be surpassed. Plantings are followed by superabundant harvests,
+and the hunter is richly rewarded. But I need not repeat what has
+already been said; it suffices to note that the natural environment
+of the Seminole is such that ordinary effort serves to supply them,
+physically, with more than they need.
+
+
+Man.
+
+When we consider, in connection with these facts, what I have also
+before said, that these Indians are in no exceptional danger from wild
+animals or poisonous reptiles, that they need not specially guard
+against epidemic disease, and when we remember that they are native to
+whatever influences might affect injuriously persons from other parts of
+the country, we can easily see how much more favorably situated for
+physical prosperity they are than others of their kind. In fact, nature
+has made physical life so easy to them that their great danger lies in
+the possible want or decadence of the moral, strength needed to maintain
+them in a vigorous use of their powers. This moral strength to some
+degree they have, but in large measure it had its origin in and has been
+preserved by their struggles with man rather than with nature. The wars
+of their ancestors, extending over nearly two centuries, did the most to
+make them the brave and proud people they are. It is through the effects
+of these chiefly that they have been kept from becoming indolent and
+effeminate. They are now strong, fearless, haughty, and independent.
+But the near future is to initiate a new epoch in their history, an era
+in which their career may be the reverse of what it has been. Man is
+becoming a factor of new importance in their environment. The moving
+lines of the white population are closing in upon the land of the
+Seminole. There is no farther retreat to which they can go. It is their
+impulse to resist the intruders, but some of them are at last becoming
+wise enough to know that they cannot contend successfully with the white
+man. It is possible that even their few warriors may make an effort to
+stay the oncoming hosts, but ultimately they will either perish in the
+futile attempt or they will have to submit to a civilization which,
+until now, they have been able to repel and whose injurious
+accompaniments may degrade and destroy them. Hitherto the white man's
+influence has been comparatively of no effect except in arousing in the
+Indian his more violent passions, and in exciting him to open hostility.
+For more than three centuries the European has been face to face with
+the Florida Indian and the two have never really been friends. Through
+the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the peninsula was the scene of
+frequently renewed warfare. Spaniard, Frenchman, Englishman, and
+Spaniard, in turn, kept the country in an unsettled state, and when the
+American Union received the province from Spain, sixty years ago, it
+received with it, in the tribe of the Seminole, an embittered and
+determined race of hostile subjects. This people our Government has
+never been able to conciliate or to conquer. A different Indian policy,
+or a different administration of it, might have prevented the disastrous
+wars of the last half century; but, as all know, the Seminole have
+always lived within our borders as aliens. It is only of late years, and
+through natural necessities, that any friendly intercourse of white man
+and Indian has been secured. The Indian has become too weak to contend
+successfully against his neighbor and the white man has learned enough
+to refrain from arousing the vindictiveness of the savage. The few white
+men now on the border line in Florida are, with only some exceptions,
+cattle dealers or traders seeking barter with the red men. The cattlemen
+sometimes meet the Indians on the prairies and are friendly with them
+for the sake of their stock, which often strays into the Seminole
+country. The other places of contact of the whites and Seminole are
+the settlements of Myers, Miami, Bartow, Fort Meade, and Tampa, all,
+however, centers of comparatively small population. To these places,
+at infrequent intervals., the Indians go for purposes of trade.
+
+The Indians have appropriated for their service some of the products of
+European civilization, such as weapons, implements, domestic utensils,
+fabrics for clothing, &c. Mentally, excepting a few religious ideas
+which they received long ago from the teaching of Spanish missionaries
+and, in the southern settlements, excepting some few Spanish words, the
+Seminole have accepted and appropriated practically nothing from, the
+white man. The two peoples remain, as they always have been, separate
+and independent. Up to the present, therefore, the human environment
+has had no effect upon the Indians aside from that which has just been
+noticed, except to arouse them to war and to produce among them war's
+consequences.
+
+But soon a great and rapid change must take place. The large immigration
+of a white population into Florida, and especially the attempts at
+present being made to drain Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, make it
+certain, as I have said, that the Seminole is about to enter a future
+unlike any past he has known. But now that new factors are beginning to
+direct his career, now that he can no longer retreat, now that he can
+no longer successfully contend, now that he is to be forced into close,
+unavoidable contact with men he has known only as enemies, what will he
+become? If we anger him, he still can do much harm before we can conquer
+him; but if we seek, by a proper policy, to do him justice, he yet may
+be made our friend and ally. Already, to the dislike of the old men of
+the tribe, some young braves show a willingness to break down the
+ancient barriers between them and our people, and I believe it possible
+that with encouragement, at a time not far distant, all these Indians
+may become our friends, forgetting their tragic past in a peaceful and
+prosperous future.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Big Cypress Swamp Seminole settlement      477, 478, 499, 507, 529
+Billy, brother of Key West Billy                 492-494, 499, 528
+Brown, Lieutenant, aid of, among Seminole                      489
+Catfish Lake Seminole settlement                     477, 478, 509
+Cow Creek Seminole settlement                             477, 478
+Cypress swamps, Florida                                    527-529
+Devil's Garden, Florida                                        478
+Hendry, F. A., aid in Florida                        492, 511, 528
+Key West Billy                                            484, 485
+Koonti, preparation of                                     513-516
+  Seminole tradition of origin of                              519
+Me-le the Seminole                                        489, 490
+Miami River Seminole settlement                           477, 478
+
+
+
+Errata
+
+(Table of Contents)
+Use of Medicines...
+  _missing from printed text_
+(Green Corn Dance diagram)
+"TEOK-KO-CLACO"
+  _may be error for -�LAC-O_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>The Seminole Indians of Florida</title>
+<meta http-equiv = "Content-Type" content = "text/html; charset=UTF-8">
+
+<!--BAE annual report 5 / pp. 469-532-->
+
+
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Seminole Indians of Florida
+       Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the
+              Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84,
+              Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532
+
+Author: Clay MacCauley
+
+Release Date: September 1, 2006 [EBook #19155]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Carlo Traverso, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at
+http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">469</span>
+<a name = "page469" id = "page469"> </a>
+<!--png 551-->
+
+<hr>
+
+<h5>SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION&mdash;BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.</h5>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<h3>THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.</h3>
+
+<h6>BY</h6>
+
+<h5 class = "smallcaps">CLAY MacCAULEY.</h5>
+
+<hr>
+
+<a name = "page470" id = "page470"> </a>
+<!--png 552-->
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">471</span>
+<a name = "page471" id = "page471"> </a>
+<!--png 553-->
+
+<h4>CONTENTS.</h4>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<table class = "index">
+<tr>
+<td></td><td class = "number">Page.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#letter">Letter of transmittal</a></td>
+<td class = "number">475</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#intro">Introduction</a></td>
+<td class = "number">477</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "header" colspan = "2">CHAPTER I.</td>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset1"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI">
+Personal characteristics</a></td>
+<td class = "number">481</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_1">
+Physical characteristics</a></td>
+<td class = "number">481</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_1_1">
+Physique of the men</a></td>
+<td class = "number">481</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_1_2">
+Physique of the women</a></td>
+<td class = "number">482</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_2">
+Clothing</a></td>
+<td class = "number">482</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_2_1">
+Costume of the men</a></td>
+<td class = "number">483</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_2_2">
+Costume of the women</a></td>
+<td class = "number">485</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3">
+Personal adornment</a></td>
+<td class = "number">486</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_1">
+Hairdressing</a></td>
+<td class = "number">466</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_2">
+Ornamentation of clothing</a></td>
+<td class = "number">487</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_3">
+Use of beads</a></td>
+<td class = "number">487</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_4">
+Silver disks</a></td>
+<td class = "number">488</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_5">
+Ear rings</a></td>
+<td class = "number">488</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_6">
+Finger rings</a></td>
+<td class = "number">489</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_7">
+Silver vs. gold</a></td>
+<td class = "number">489</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_3_8">
+Crescents</a></td>
+<td class = "number">489</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_4">
+Me-le</a></td>
+<td class = "number">489</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_5">
+Psychical characteristics</a></td>
+<td class = "number">490</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_5_1">
+Ko-nip-ha-tco</a></td>
+<td class = "number">492</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapI_5_2">
+Intellectual ability</a></td>
+<td class = "number">493</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "header" colspan = "2">CHAPTER II.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset1"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII">Seminole
+society</a></td>
+<td class = "number">495</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1">
+The Seminole family</a></td>
+<td class = "number">495</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_1">
+Courtship</a></td>
+<td class = "number">496</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_2">
+Marriage</a></td>
+<td class = "number">496</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_3">
+Divorce</a></td>
+<td class = "number">498</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_4">
+Childbirth</a></td>
+<td class = "number">497</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_5">
+Infancy</a></td>
+<td class = "number">497</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_6">
+Childhood</a></td>
+<td class = "number">498</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_7">
+Seminole dwellings&mdash;I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s house</a></td>
+<td class = "number">499</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_8">
+Home life</a></td>
+<td class = "number">503</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_9">
+Food</a></td>
+<td class = "number">504</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_10">
+Camp fire</a></td>
+<td class = "number">505</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_11">
+Manner of eating</a></td>
+<td class = "number">505</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_1_12">
+Amusements</a></td>
+<td class = "number">506</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_2">
+The Seminole gens</a></td>
+<td class = "number">507</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_2_1">
+Fellowhood</a></td>
+<td class = "number">508</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2">
+<span class = "pagenum">472</span>
+<a name = "page472" id = "page472"> </a>
+<!--png 554-->
+<a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_3">
+The Seminole tribe</a></td>
+<td class = "number">508</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_3_1">
+Tribal organization</a></td>
+<td class = "number">508</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_3_2">
+Seat of government</a></td>
+<td class = "number">508</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_3_3">
+Tribal officers</a></td>
+<td class = "number">509</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapII_3_4">
+Name of tribe</a></td>
+<td class = "number">509</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "header" colspan = "2">CHAPTER III.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset1"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII">
+Seminole tribal life</a></td>
+<td class = "number">510</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1">
+Industries</a></td>
+<td class = "number">510</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_1">
+Agriculture</a></td>
+<td class = "number">510</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_1_1">
+Soil</a></td>
+<td class = "number">510</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_1_2">
+Corn</a></td>
+<td class = "number">510</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_1_3">
+Sugar cane</a></td>
+<td class = "number">511</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_2">
+Hunting</a></td>
+<td class = "number">512</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_3">
+Fishing</a></td>
+<td class = "number">513</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_4">
+Stock raising</a></td>
+<td class = "number">513</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_5">
+Koonti</a></td>
+<td class = "number">513</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_1_6">
+Industrial statistics</a></td>
+<td class = "number">516</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2">
+Arts</a></td>
+<td class = "number">516</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1">
+Industrial arts</a></td>
+<td class = "number">516</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_1">
+Utensils and implements</a></td>
+<td class = "number">516</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_2">
+Weapons</a></td>
+<td class = "number">516</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_3">
+Weaving and basket making</a></td>
+<td class = "number">517</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_4">
+Uses of the palmetto</a></td>
+<td class = "number">517</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_5">
+Mortar and pestle</a></td>
+<td class = "number">517</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_6">
+Canoe making</a></td>
+<td class = "number">517</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_7">
+Fire making</a></td>
+<td class = "number">518</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_1_8">
+Preparation of skins</a></td>
+<td class = "number">518</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_2">
+Ornamental arts</a></td>
+<td class = "number">518</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset4"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_2_2_1">
+Music</a></td>
+<td class = "number">519</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_3">
+Religion</a></td>
+<td class = "number">519</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_3_1">
+Mortuary customs</a></td>
+<td class = "number">520</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_3_2">
+Green Corn Dance</a></td>
+<td class = "number">522</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_3_3">
+<ins class = "correction" title = "missing from printed text">Use of
+Medicines</ins></a></td>
+<td class = "number">523</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4">
+General observations</a></td>
+<td class = "number">523</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4_1">
+Standard of value</a></td>
+<td class = "number">523</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4_2">
+Divisions of time</a></td>
+<td class = "number">524</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4_3">
+Numeration</a></td>
+<td class = "number">525</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4_4">
+Sense of color</a></td>
+<td class = "number">525</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4_5">
+Education</a></td>
+<td class = "number">526</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4_6">
+Slavery</a></td>
+<td class = "number">526</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset3"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIII_4_7">
+Health</a></td>
+<td class = "number">526</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "header" colspan = "2">CHAPTER IV.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset1"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIV">
+Environment of the Seminole</a></td>
+<td class = "number">527</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIV_1">
+Nature</a></td>
+<td class = "number">527</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset2"><a class = "toc" href = "#chapIV_2">
+Man</a></td>
+<td class = "number">529</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">473</span>
+<a name = "page473" id = "page473"> </a>
+<!--png 555-->
+
+<h4>ILLUSTRATIONS</h4>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<table class = "index">
+<tr>
+<td class = "number"><span class = "smallcaps">Plate XIX.</span></td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#plateXIX">Seminole dwelling</a></td>
+<td class = "number">500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number"><span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 60.</span></td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig60">Map of Florida</a></td>
+<td class = "number">477</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">61.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig61">Seminole costume</a></td>
+<td class = "number">483</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">62.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig62">Key West Billy</a></td>
+<td class = "number">484</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">63.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig63">Seminole costume</a></td>
+<td class = "number">485</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">64.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig64">Manner of wearing the hair</a></td>
+<td class = "number">486</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">65.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig65">Manner of piercing the ear</a></td>
+<td class = "number">488</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">66.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig66">Baby cradle or hammock</a></td>
+<td class = "number">497</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">67.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig67">Temporary dwelling</a></td>
+<td class = "number">502</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">68.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig68">Sugar cane crusher</a></td>
+<td class = "number">511</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">69.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig69">Koonti log</a></td>
+<td class = "number">514</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">70.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig70">Koonti pestles</a></td>
+<td class = "number">514</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">71.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig71">Koonti mash vessel</a></td>
+<td class = "number">514</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">72.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig72">Koonti strainer</a></td>
+<td class = "number">515</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">73.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig73">Mortar and pestle</a></td>
+<td class = "number">517</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">74.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig74">Hide stretcher</a></td>
+<td class = "number">518</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">75.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig75">Seminole bier</a></td>
+<td class = "number">510</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">76.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig76">Seminole grave</a></td>
+<td class = "number">521</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">77.</td>
+<td><a class = "toc" href = "#fig77">Green Corn Dance</a></td>
+<td class = "number">523</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<a name = "page474" id = "page474"> </a>
+<!--png 556-->
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">475</span>
+<a name = "page475" id = "page475"> </a>
+<!--png 557-->
+<h4><a name = "letter" id = "letter">
+LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL</a></h4>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<p align = "right"><span class = "smallcaps">Minneapolis, Minn.</span>,
+<i>June</i> 24,1884.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "smallcaps">Sir</span>: During the winter of 1880-’81 I
+visited Florida, commissioned by you to inquire into the condition and
+to ascertain the number of the Indians commonly known as the Seminole
+then in that State. I spent part of the months of January, February, and
+March in an endeavor to accomplish this purpose. I have the honor to
+embody the result of my work in the following report.</p>
+
+<p>On account of causes beyond my control the paper does not treat of
+these Indians as fully as I had intended it should. Owing to the
+ignorance prevailing even in Florida of the locations of the homes of
+the Seminole and also to the absence of routes of travel in Southern
+Florida, much of my time at first was consumed in reaching the Indian
+country. On arriving there, I found myself obliged to go among the
+Indians ignorant of their language and without an interpreter able to
+secure me intelligible interviews with them except in respect to the
+commonest things. I was compelled, therefore, to rely upon observation
+and upon very simple, perhaps sometimes misunderstood, speech for what I
+have here placed on record. But while the report is only a sketch of a
+subject that would well reward thorough study, it may be found to
+possess value as a record of facts concerning this little-known remnant
+of a once powerful people.</p>
+
+<p>I have secured, I think, a correct census of the Florida Seminole by
+name, sex, age, gens, and place of living. I have endeavored to present
+a faithful portraiture of their appearance and personal characteristics,
+and have enlarged upon their manners and customs, as individuals and as
+a society, as much as the material at my command will allow; but under
+the disadvantageous circumstances to which allusion has already been
+made, I have been able to gain little more than a superficial and
+partial knowledge of their social organization, of the elaboration among
+them of the system of gentes, of their forms and methods of government,
+of their tribal traditions and modes of thinking, of their religious
+beliefs and practices, and of many other things manifesting what is
+distinctive in the life of a people. For these reasons I submit this
+report more as a guide for future investigation than as a completed
+result.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">476</span>
+<a name = "page476" id = "page476"> </a>
+<!--png 558-->
+At the beginning of my visit I found but one Seminole with whom I could
+hold even the semblance of an English conversation. To him I am indebted
+for a large part of the material here collected. To him, in particular,
+I owe the extensive Seminole vocabulary now in possession of the Bureau
+of Ethnology. The knowledge of the Seminole language which I gradually
+acquired enabled me, in my intercourse with other Indians, to verify and
+increase the information I had received from him.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, I hope that, notwithstanding the unfortunate delays
+which have occurred in the publication of this report, it will still be
+found to add something to our knowledge of this Indian tribe not without
+value to those who make man their peculiar study.</p>
+
+<p class = "inset2">Very respectfully,</p>
+
+<p align = "right"><span class = "smallcaps">CLAY MacCAULEY.</span></p>
+
+<p class = "inset1">Maj. <span class = "smallcaps">J. W.
+Powell</span>,</p>
+
+<p class = "inset2"><i>Director Bureau of Ethnology.</i></p>
+
+<hr class = "mid">
+
+<span class = "pagenum">477</span>
+<a name = "page477" id = "page477"> </a>
+<!--png 559-->
+<h3>SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.</h3>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<h4>By <span class = "smallcaps">Clay MacCauley</span>.</h4>
+
+<hr class = "tiny">
+
+<h4><a name = "intro" id = "intro">INTRODUCTION.</a></h4>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig60" id = "fig60"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig60.png" width = "417" height = "425"
+alt = "Map of Florida.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 60.</span> Map of Florida.</p>
+
+<p>There were in Florida, October 1, 1880, of the Indians commonly known
+as Seminole, two hundred and eight. They constituted thirty-seven
+families, living in twenty-two camps, which were gathered into five
+widely separated groups or settlements. These settlements, from the most
+prominent natural features connected with them, I have named,
+<span class = "pagenum">478</span>
+<a name = "page478" id = "page478"> </a>
+<!--png 560-->
+(1) The Big Cypress Swamp settlement; (2) Miami River settlement; (3)
+Fish Eating Creek settlement; (4) Cow Creek settlement; and (5) Cat Fish
+Lake settlement. Their locations are, severally: The first, in Monroe
+County, in what is called the “Devil’s Garden,” on the northwestern edge
+of the Big Cypress Swamp, from fifteen to twenty miles southwest of Lake
+Okeechobee; the second, in Dade County, on the Little Miami River, not
+far from Biscayne Bay, and about ten miles north of the site of what
+was, during the great Seminole war, Fort Dallas; the third, in Manatee
+County, on a creek which empties from the west into Lake Okeechobee,
+probably five miles from its mouth; the fourth, in Brevard County, on a
+stream running southward, at a point about fifteen miles northeast of
+the entrance of the Kissimmee River into Lake Okeechobee; and the fifth,
+on a small lake in Polk County, lying nearly midway between lakes Pierce
+and Rosalie, towards the headwaters of the Kissimmee River. The
+settlements are from forty to seventy miles apart, in an otherwise
+almost uninhabited region, which is in area about sixty by one hundred
+and eighty miles. The camps of which each settlement is composed lie at
+distances from one another varying from a half mile to two or more
+miles. In tabular form the population of the settlements appears as
+follows:</p>
+
+<table class = "lines smaller">
+
+<tr class = "topline bottomline">
+<td class = "middle" rowspan = "4">Settlements</td>
+<td class = "middle outline" rowspan = "3">C<br>a<br>m<br>p<br>s.</td>
+<td class = "middle" colspan = "15">Population.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td class = "middle outline" colspan = "12">
+Divided according to age and sex.</td>
+<td class = "middle outline" colspan = "2" rowspan = "2">
+Résumé by sex.</td>
+<td class = "middle" rowspan = "3">T<br>o<br>t<br>a<br>l<br>s.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "middle outline">
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td colspan = "2">Below 5 years.</td>
+<td colspan = "2">5 to 10 years.</td>
+<td colspan = "2">10 to 15 years.</td>
+<td colspan = "2">15 to 20 years.</td>
+<td colspan = "2">20 to 60 years.</td>
+<td colspan = "2">Over 60 years.</td>
+<!--<td colspan = "2"></td>-->
+<!--<td></td>-->
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "middle outline">
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td>No.</td>
+<td>M.</td>
+<td>F.</td>
+<td>M.</td>
+<td>F.</td>
+<td>M.</td>
+<td>F.</td>
+<td>M.</td>
+<td>F.</td>
+<td>M.</td>
+<td>F.</td>
+<td>M.</td>
+<td>F.</td>
+<td>M.</td>
+<td>F.</td>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+</tr>
+
+<tr class = "topline leftline">
+<td><p>1. Big Cypress</p></td>
+<td class = "number">10</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">5</td>
+<td class = "number">a2</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">10</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">9</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">15</td>
+<td class = "number">b15</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">3</td>
+<td class = "number">42</td>
+<td class = "number">31</td>
+<td class = "number">73</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "leftline">
+<td><p>2.&nbsp;Miami&nbsp;River</p></td>
+<td class = "number">5</td>
+<td class = "number">5</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">5</td>
+<td class = "number">3</td>
+<td class = "number">7</td>
+<td class = "number">5</td>
+<td class = "number">10</td>
+<td class = "number">13</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">32</td>
+<td class = "number">31</td>
+<td class = "number">63</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "leftline">
+<td><p>3. Fish Eating Creek</p></td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">a1</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">a2</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">3</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">a5</td>
+<td class = "number">ab10</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">3</td>
+<td class = "number">15</td>
+<td class = "number">17</td>
+<td class = "number">32</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "leftline">
+<td><p>4. Cow Creek</p></td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">3</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">7</td>
+<td class = "number">5</td>
+<td class = "number">12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "leftline">
+<td><p>5. Cat Fish Lake</p></td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">3</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">a4</td>
+<td class = "number">ab5</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">16</td>
+<td class = "number">12</td>
+<td class = "number">28</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "topline leftline">
+<td class = "middle" rowspan = "2">Totals {</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">12</td>
+<td class = "number">13</td>
+<td class = "number">9</td>
+<td class = "number">10</td>
+<td class = "number">22</td>
+<td class = "number">8</td>
+<td class = "number">23</td>
+<td class = "number">10</td>
+<td class = "number">38</td>
+<td class = "number">46</td>
+<td class = "number">8</td>
+<td class = "number">9</td>
+<td class = "number">112</td>
+<td class = "number">96</td>
+<td class = "number" rowspan = "2">208</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "middle">
+<!--<td></td>-->
+<td class = "sidelines">22</td>
+<td class = "sidelines" colspan = "2">25</td>
+<td class = "sidelines" colspan = "2">19</td>
+<td class = "sidelines" colspan = "2">30</td>
+<td class = "sidelines" colspan = "2">33</td>
+<td class = "sidelines" colspan = "2">84</td>
+<td class = "sidelines" colspan = "2">17</td>
+<td class = "sidelines" colspan = "2">208</td>
+<!--<td></td>-->
+</tr>
+<tr class = "topline">
+<td class = "middle" colspan = "9">
+<i>a</i> One mixed blood.</td>
+<td class = "middle" colspan = "8">
+<i>b</i> One black.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Or, for the whole tribe&mdash;</p>
+
+<table class = "text inline">
+<tr>
+<td>Males under 10 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">21</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Males between 10 and 20 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">45</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Males between 20 and 60 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">38</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Males over 60 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">8</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td>&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">112</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Females under 10 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">23</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Females between 10 and 20 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">18</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Females between 20 and 60 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">46</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Females over 60 years of age</td>
+<td class = "number">9</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td>&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+<td class = "number">96</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td></td>
+<td>&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+<td class = "number">208</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">479</span>
+<a name = "page479" id = "page479"> </a>
+<!--png 561-->
+In this table it will be noticed that the total population consists of
+112 males and 96 females, an excess of males over females of 16. This
+excess appears in each of the settlements, excepting that of Fish Eating
+Creek, a fact the more noteworthy, from its relation to the future of
+the tribe, since polygamous, or certainly duogamous, marriage generally
+prevails as a tribal custom, at least at the Miami River and the Cat
+Fish Lake settlements. It will also be observed that between twenty and
+sixty years of age, or the ordinary range of married life, there are 38
+men and 46 women; or, if the women above fifteen years of age are
+included as wives for the men over twenty years of age, there are 38 men
+and 56 women. Now, almost all these 56 women are the wives of the 38
+men. Notice, however, the manner in which the children of these people
+are separated in sex. At present there are, under twenty years of age,
+66 boys, and, under fifteen years of age, but 31 girls; or, setting
+aside the 12 boys who are under five years of age, there are, as future
+possible husbands and wives, 54 boys between five and twenty years of
+age and 31 girls under fifteen years of age&mdash;an excess of 23 boys.
+For a polygamous society, this excess in the number of the male sex
+certainly presents a puzzling problem. The statement I had from some
+cattlemen in mid-Florida I have thus found true, namely, that the
+Seminole are producing more men than women. What bearing this
+peculiarity will have upon the future of these Indians can only be
+guessed at. It is beyond question, however, that the tribe is increasing
+in numbers, and increasing in the manner above described.</p>
+
+<p>There is no reason why the tribe should not increase, and increase
+rapidly, if the growth in numbers be not checked by the non-birth of
+females. The Seminole have not been at war for more than twenty years.
+Their numbers are not affected by the attacks of wild animals or noxious
+reptiles. They are not subject to devastating diseases. But once during
+the last twenty years, as far as I could learn, has anything like an
+epidemic afflicted them. Besides, at all the settlements except the
+northernmost, the one at Cat Fish Lake, there is an abundance of food,
+both animal and vegetable, easily obtained and easily prepared for
+eating. The climate in which these Indians live is warm and equable
+throughout the year. They consequently do not need much clothing or
+shelter. They are not what would be called intemperate, nor are they
+licentious. The “sprees” in which they indulge when they make their
+visits to the white man’s settlements are too infrequent to warrant us
+in classing them as intemperate. Their sexual morality is a matter of
+common notoriety. The white half-breed does not exist among the Florida
+Seminole, and nowhere could I learn that the Seminole woman is other
+than virtuous and modest. The birth of a white half-breed would be
+followed by the death of the Indian mother at the hands of her own
+people. The only persons of mixed breed among them are children of
+Indian fathers by negresses who have been adopted into the tribe. Thus
+health, climate, food, and personal
+<span class = "pagenum">480</span>
+<a name = "page480" id = "page480"> </a>
+<!--png 562-->
+habits apparently conduce to an increase in numbers. The only
+explanation I can suggest of the fact that there are at present but 208
+Seminole in Florida is that at the close of the last war which the
+United States Government waged on these Indians there were by no means
+so many of them left in the State as is popularly supposed. As it is,
+there are now but 17 persons of the tribe over sixty years of age, and
+no unusual mortality has occurred, certainly among the adults, during
+the last twenty years. Of the 84 persons between twenty and sixty years
+of age, the larger number are less than forty years old; and under
+twenty years of age there are 107 persons, or more than half the whole
+population. The population tables of the Florida Indians present,
+therefore, some facts upon which it may be interesting to speculate.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">481</span>
+<a name = "page481" id = "page481"> </a>
+<!--png 563-->
+
+<h4 class = "chapter"><a name = "chapI" id = "chapI">CHAPTER I.</a></h4>
+
+<h5>PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS.</h5>
+
+<p>It will be convenient for me to describe the Florida Seminole as they
+present themselves, first as individuals, and next as members of a
+society. I know it is impossible to separate, really, the individual as
+such from the individual as a member of society; nevertheless, there is
+the man as we see him, having certain characteristics which, we call
+personal, or his own, whencesoever derived, having a certain physique
+and certain, distinguishing psychical qualities. As such I will first
+attempt to describe the Seminole. Then we shall be able the better to
+look at him as he is in his relations with his fellows: in the family,
+in the community, or in any of the forms of the social life of his
+tribe.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapI_1" id = "chapI_1">
+PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.</a></h5>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_1_1" id = "chapI_1_1">
+PHYSIQUE OF THE MEN.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Physically both men and women are remarkable. The men, as a rule,
+attract attention by their height, fullness and symmetry of development,
+and the regularity and agreeableness of their features. In muscular
+power and constitutional ability to endure they excel. While these
+qualities distinguish, with a few exceptions, the men of the whole
+tribe, they are particularly characteristic of the two most widely
+spread of the families of which the tribe is composed. These are the
+Tiger and Otter clans, which, proud of their lines of descent, have been
+preserved through a long and tragic past with exceptional freedom from
+admixture with degrading blood. Today their men might be taken as types
+of physical excellence. The physique of every Tiger warrior especially I
+met would furnish proof of this statement. The Tigers are dark,
+copper-colored fellows, over six feet in height, with limbs in good
+proportion; their hands and feet well shaped and not very large; their
+stature erect; their bearing a sign of self-confident power; their
+movements deliberate, persistent, strong. Their heads are large, and
+their foreheads full and marked. An almost universal characteristic of
+the Tiger’s face is its squareness, a widened and protruding
+under-jawbone giving this effect to it. Of other features, I noticed
+that under a large forehead are deep set, bright, black eyes, small, but
+expressive of inquiry and vigilance; the nose is slightly aquiline and
+sensitively formed about the nostrils; the lips are mobile, sensuous,
+and not very full, disclosing, when they
+<span class = "pagenum">482</span>
+<a name = "page482" id = "page482"> </a>
+<!--png 564-->
+smile, beautiful regular teeth; and the whole face is expressive of the
+man’s sense of having extraordinary ability to endure and to achieve.
+Two of the warriors permitted me to manipulate the muscles of their
+bodies. Under my touch these were more like rubber than flesh.
+Noticeable among all are the large calves of their legs, the size of the
+tendons of their lower limbs, and the strength of their toes. I
+attribute this exceptional development to the fact that they are not
+what we would call “horse Indians” and that they hunt barefoot over
+their wide domain. The same causes, perhaps, account for the only real
+deformity I noticed in the Seminole physique, namely, the diminutive
+toe-nails, and for the heavy, cracked, and seamed skin which covers the
+soles of their feet. The feet being otherwise well formed, the toes have
+only narrow shells for nails, these lying sunken across the middles of
+the tough cushions of flesh, which, protuberant about them, form the
+toe-tips. But, regarded as a whole, in their physique the Seminole
+warriors, especially the men of the Tiger and Otter gentes, are
+admirable. Even among the children this physical superiority is seen. To
+illustrate, one morning Ko-i-ha-tco’s son, Tin-fai-yai-ki, a tall,
+slender boy, not quite twelve years old, shouldered a heavy “Kentucky”
+rifle, left our camp, and followed in his father’s long footsteps for a
+day’s hunt. After tramping all day, at sunset he reappeared in the camp,
+carrying slung across his shoulders, in addition to rifle and
+accouterments, a deer weighing perhaps fifty pounds, a weight he had
+borne for miles. The same boy, in one day, went with some older friends
+to his permanent home, 20 miles away, and returned. There are, as I have
+said, exceptions to this rule of unusual physical size and strength, but
+these are few; so few that, disregarding them, we may pronounce the
+Seminole men handsome and exceptionally powerful.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_1_2" id = "chapI_1_2">
+PHYSIQUE OF THE WOMEN.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The women to a large extent share the qualities of the men. Some are
+proportionally tall and handsome, though, curiously enough, many,
+perhaps a majority, are rather under than over the average height of
+women. As a rule, they exhibit great bodily vigor. Large or small, they
+possess regular and agreeable features, shapely and well developed
+bodies, and they show themselves capable of long continued and severe
+physical exertion. Indeed, the only Indian women I have seen with
+attractive features and forms are among the Seminole. I would even
+venture to select from among these Indians three persons whom I could,
+without much fear of contradiction, present as types respectively of a
+handsome, a pretty, and a comely woman. Among American Indians, I am
+confident that the Seminole women are of the first rank.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapI_2" id = "chapI_2">CLOTHING.</a></h5>
+
+<p>But how is this people clothed? While the clothing of the Seminole is
+simple and scanty, it is ample for his needs and suitable to the life he
+leads. The materials of which the clothing is made are now chiefly
+<span class = "pagenum">483</span>
+<a name = "page483" id = "page483"> </a>
+<!--png 565-->
+fabrics manufactured by the white man: calico, cotton cloth, ginghams,
+and sometimes flannels. They also use some materials prepared by
+themselves, as deer and other skins. Of ready made articles for wear
+found in the white trader’s store, they buy small woolen shawls,
+brilliantly colored cotton handkerchiefs, now and then light woolen
+blankets, and sometimes, lately, though very seldom, shoes.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_2_1" id = "chapI_2_1">
+COSTUME OF THE MEN.</a></h6>
+
+<table class = "figright">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<a name = "fig61" id = "fig61"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig61.png" width = "188" height = "466"
+alt = "Seminole costume."></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption"><span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 61.</span>
+Seminole costume.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The costume of the Seminole warrior at home consists of a shirt, a
+neckerchief, a turban, a breech cloth, and, very rarely, moccasins. On
+but one Indian in camp did I see more than this; on many, less. The
+shirt is made of some figured or striped cotton cloth, generally of
+quiet colors. It hangs from the neck to the knees, the narrow, rolling
+collar being closely buttoned about the neck, the narrow wristbands of
+the roomy sleeves buttoned about the wrists. The garment opens in front
+for a few inches, downward from the collar, and is pocketless. A belt of
+leather or buckskin usually engirdles the man’s waist, and from it are
+suspended one or more pouches, in which powder, bullets, pocket knife, a
+piece of flint, a small quantity of paper, and like things for use in
+hunting are carried. From the belt hang also one or more hunting knives,
+each nearly 10 inches in length. I questioned one of the Indians about
+having no pockets in his shirt, pointing out to him the wealth in this
+respect of the white man’s garments, and tried to show him how, on his
+shirt, as on mine, these convenient receptacles could be placed, and to
+what straits he was put to carry his pipe, money, and trinkets. He
+showed little interest in my proposed improvement on his dress.</p>
+
+<p>Having no pockets, the Seminole is obliged to submit to several
+inconveniences; for instance, he wears his handkerchief about his neck.
+I &nbsp;have seen as many as six, even eight, handkerchiefs tied around
+his throat, their knotted ends pendant over his breast; as a rule, they
+are bright red and yellow things, of whose possession and number he is
+quite proud. Having no pockets, the Seminole, only here and there, one
+excepted, carries whatever money he obtains from time to time in a
+knotted corner of one or more of his handkerchiefs.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">484</span>
+<a name = "page484" id = "page484"> </a>
+<!--png 566-->
+The next article of the man’s ordinary costume is the turban. This is a
+remarkable structure and gives to its wearer much of his unique
+appearance. At present it is made of one or more small shawls. These
+shawls are generally woolen and copied in figure and color from the
+plaid of some Scotch clan. They are so folded that they are about 3
+inches wide and as long as the diagonal of the fabric. They are then,
+one or more of them successively, wrapped tightly around the head, the
+top of the head remaining bare; the last end of the last shawl is tucked
+skillfully and firmly away, without the use of pins, somewhere in the
+many folds of the turban. The structure when finished looks like a
+section of a decorated cylinder crowded down upon the man’s head. I
+examined one of these turbans and found it a rather firm piece of work,
+made of several shawls wound into seven concentric rings. It was over 20
+inches in diameter, the shell of the cylinder being perhaps 7 inches
+thick and 3 in width. This head-dress, at the southern settlements, is
+regularly worn in the camps and sometimes on the hunt. While hunting,
+however, it seems to be the general custom, for the warriors to go
+bareheaded. At the northern camps, a kerchief bound about the head
+frequently takes the place of the turban in everyday life, but on dress
+or festival occasions, at both the northern and the southern
+settlements, this curious turban is the customary covering for the head
+of the Seminole brave. Having no pockets in his dress, he has discovered
+that the folds of his turban may be put to a pocket’s uses. Those who
+use tobacco (I&nbsp;say “those” because the tobacco habit is by no means
+universal among the red men of Florida) frequently carry their pipes and
+other articles in their turbans.</p>
+
+<table class = "figleft">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<a name = "fig62" id = "fig62"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig62.jpg" width = "218" height = "491"
+alt = "Key West Billy."></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption"><span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 62.</span>
+Key West Billy.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>When the Seminole warrior makes his rare visits to the white man’s
+settlements, he frequently adds to his scanty camp dress leggins and
+moccasins.</p>
+
+<p>In the camps I saw but one Indian wearing leggins (<a href =
+"#fig62">Fig.&nbsp;62</a>); he, however, is in every way a peculiar
+character among his people, and is objectionably favorable to the white
+man and the white man’s ways.
+<span class = "pagenum">485</span>
+<a name = "page485" id = "page485"> </a>
+<!--png 567-->
+He is called by the white men “Key West Billy,” having received this
+name because he once made a voyage in a canoe out of the Everglades and
+along the line of keys south of the Florida mainland to Key West, where
+he remained for some time. The act itself was so extraordinary, and it
+was so unusual for a Seminole to enter a white man’s town and remain
+there for any length of time, that a commemorative name was bestowed
+upon him. The materials of which the leggins of the Seminole are usually
+made is buckskin. I saw, however, one pair of leggins made of a bright
+red flannel, and ornamented along the outer seams with a blue and white
+cross striped braid. The moccasins, also, are made of buckskin, of
+either a yellow or dark red color. They are made to lace high about the
+lower part of the leg, the lacing running from below the instep upward.
+As showing what changes are going on among the Seminole, I may mention
+that a few of them possess shoes, and one is even the owner of a pair of
+frontier store boots. The blanket is not often worn by the Florida
+Indians. Occasionally, in their cool weather, a small shawl, of the kind
+made to do service in the turban, is thrown about the shoulders. Oftener
+a piece of calico or white cotton cloth, gathered about the neck,
+becomes the extra protection against mild coolness in their winters.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_2_2" id = "chapI_2_2">
+COSTUME OF THE WOMEN.</a></h6>
+
+<table class = "figright">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<a name = "fig63" id = "fig63"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig63.png" width = "132" height = "454"
+alt = "Seminole costume."></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption"><span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 63.</span>
+Seminole costume.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The costume of the women is hardly more complex than that of the men.
+It consists, apparently, of but two garments, one of which, for lack of
+a better English word, I name a short shirt, the other a long skirt. The
+shirt is cut quite low at the neck and is just long enough to cover the
+breasts. Its sleeves are buttoned close about the wrists. The garment is
+otherwise buttonless, being wide enough at the neck for it to be easily
+put on or taken off over the head. The conservatism of the Seminole
+Indian is shown in nothing more clearly than in the use, by the women,
+of this much abbreviated covering for the upper part of their bodies.
+The women are noticeably modest, yet it does not seem to have occurred
+to them that by making a slight change in their upper garment they might
+free themselves from frequent embarrassment. In going about their work
+they were constantly engaged in what our street boys would call “pulling
+down their vests.” This may have been done because a stranger’s eyes
+were upon them; but I noticed that in rising or in sitting down, or at
+work, it was a perpetually renewed
+<span class = "pagenum">486</span>
+<a name = "page486" id = "page486"> </a>
+<!--png 568-->
+effort on their part to lengthen by a pull the scanty covering hanging
+over their breasts. Gathered about the waist is the other garment, the
+skirt, extending to the feet and often touching the ground. This is
+usually made of some dark colored calico or gingham. The cord by which
+the petticoat is fastened is often drawn so tightly about the waist that
+it gives to that part of the body a rather uncomfortable appearance.
+This is especially noticeable because the shirt is so short that a space
+of two or more inches on the body is left uncovered between it and the
+skirt. I saw no woman wearing moccasins, and I was told that the women
+never wear them. For head wear the women have nothing, unless the cotton
+cloth, or small shawl, used about the shoulders in cool weather, and
+which at times is thrown or drawn over the head, may be called that. (<a
+href = "#fig63">Fig.&nbsp;63</a>.)</p>
+
+<p>Girls from seven to ten years old are clothed with only a petticoat,
+and boys about the same age wear only a shirt. Younger children are, as
+a rule, entirely naked. If clothed at anytime, it is only during
+exceptionally cool weather or when taken by their parents on a journey
+to the homes of the palefaces.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapI_3" id = "chapI_3">PERSONAL ADORNMENT.</a></h5>
+
+<p>The love of personal adornment shows itself among the Seminole as
+among other human beings.</p>
+
+<table class = "figleft">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<a name = "fig64" id = "fig64"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig64.png" width = "195" height = "291"
+alt = "Manner of wearing the hair."></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption"><span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 64.</span>
+Manner of wearing the hair.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_1" id = "chapI_3_1">HAIR DRESSING.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The coarse, brilliant, black hair of which they are possessors is
+taken care of in an odd manner. The men cut all their hair close to the
+head, except a strip about an inch wide, running over the front of the
+scalp from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width,
+perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the nape
+of the neck. At each temple a heavy tuft is allowed to hang to the
+bottom of the lobe of the ear. The long hair of the strip crossing to
+the neck is generally gathered and braided into two ornamental queues. I
+did not learn that these Indians are in the habit of plucking the hair
+from their faces. I noticed, however, that the moustache is commonly
+worn among them and that a few of them are endowed with a rather bold
+looking combination of moustache and imperial. As an exception to the
+uniform style of cutting the hair of the men, I recall the comical
+appearance of a small negro half breed at the Big Cypress Swamp.
+<span class = "pagenum">487</span>
+<a name = "page487" id = "page487"> </a>
+<!--png 569-->
+His brilliant wool was twisted into many little sharp cones, which stuck
+out over his head like so many spikes on an ancient battle club. For
+some reason there seems to be a much greater neglect of the care of the
+hair, and, indeed, of the whole person, in the northern than in the
+southern camps.</p>
+
+<p>The women dress their hair more simply than the men. From a line
+crossing the head from ear to ear the hair is gathered up and bound,
+just above the neck, into a knot somewhat like that often made by the
+civilized woman, the Indian woman’s hair being wrought more into the
+shape of a cone, sometimes quite elongated and sharp at the apex. A
+piece of bright ribbon is commonly used at the end as a finish to the
+structure. The front hair hangs down over the forehead and along the
+cheeks in front of the ears, being what we call “banged.” The only
+exception to this style of hair dressing I saw was the manner in which
+Ci-ha-ne, a negress, had disposed of her long crisp tresses. Hers was a
+veritable Medusa head. A score or more of dangling, snaky plaits,
+hanging down over her black face and shoulders gave her a most repulsive
+appearance. Among the little Indian girls the hair is simply braided
+into a queue and tied with a ribbon, as we often see the hair upon the
+heads of our school children.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_2" id = "chapI_3_2">
+ORNAMENTATION OF CLOTHING.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The clothing of both men and women is ordinarily more or less
+ornamented. Braids and strips of cloth of various colors are used and
+wrought upon the garments into odd and sometimes quite tasteful shapes.
+The upper parts of the shirts of the women are usually embroidered with
+yellow, red, and brown braids. Sometimes as many as five of these braids
+lie side by side, parallel with the upper edge of the garment or
+dropping into a sharp angle between the shoulders. Occasionally a very
+narrow cape, attached, I think, to the shirt, and much ornamented with
+braids or stripes, hangs just over the shoulders and back. The same
+kinds of material used for ornamenting the shirt are also used in
+decorating the skirt above the lower edge of the petticoat. The women
+embroider along this edge, with their braids and the narrow colored
+stripes, a border of diamond and square shaped figures, which is often
+an elaborate decoration to the dress. In like manner many of the shirts
+of the men are made pleasing to the eye. I saw no ornamentation in
+curves: it was always in straight lines and angles.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_3" id = "chapI_3_3">
+USE OF BEADS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>My attention was called to the remarkable use of beads among these
+Indian women, young and old. It seems to be the ambition of the Seminole
+squaws to gather about their necks as many strings of beads as can be
+hung there and as they can carry. They are particular as to the quality
+of the beads they wear. They are satisfied with nothing meaner than a
+cut glass bead, about a quarter of an inch or more in
+<span class = "pagenum">488</span>
+<a name = "page488" id = "page488"> </a>
+<!--png 570-->
+length, generally of some shade of blue, and costing (so I was told by a
+trader at Miami) $1.75 a pound. Sometimes, but not often, one sees beads
+of an inferior quality worn.</p>
+
+<p>These beads must be burdensome to their wearers. In the Big Cypress
+Swamp settlement one day, to gratify my curiosity as to how many strings
+of beads these women can wear, I tried to count those worn by “Young
+Tiger Tail’s” wife, number one, Mo-ki, who had come through the
+Everglades to visit her relatives. She was the proud wearer of certainly
+not fewer than two hundred strings of good sized beads. She had six
+quarts (probably a peck of the beads) gathered about her neck, hanging
+down her back, down upon her breasts, filling the space under her chin,
+and covering her neck up to her ears. It was an effort for her to move
+her head. She, however, was only a little, if any, better off in her
+possessions than most of the others. Others were about equally burdened.
+Even girl babies are favored by their proud mammas with a varying
+quantity of the coveted neck wear. The cumbersome beads are said to be
+worn by night as well as by day.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_4" id = "chapI_3_4">
+SILVER DISKS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Conspicuous among the other ornaments worn by women are silver disks,
+suspended in a curve across the shirt fronts, under and below the beads.
+As many as ten or more are worn by one woman. These disks are made by
+men, who may be called “jewelers to the tribe,” from silver quarters and
+half dollars. The pieces of money are pounded quite thin, made concave,
+pierced with holes, and ornamented by a groove lying just inside the
+circumference. Large disks made from half dollars may be called “breast
+shields.” They are suspended, one over each breast. Among the disks
+other ornaments are often suspended. One young woman I noticed
+gratifying her vanity with not only eight disks made of silver quarters,
+but also with three polished copper rifle shells, one bright brass
+thimble, and a buckle hanging among them. Of course the possession of
+these and like treasures depends upon the ability and desire of one and
+another to secure them.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_5" id = "chapI_3_5">
+EAR RINGS.</a></h6>
+
+<table class = "figleft">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<a name = "fig65" id = "fig65"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig65.png" width = "125" height = "254"
+alt = "Manner of piercing the ear."></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption"><span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 65.</span>
+Manner of<br>
+piercing the ear.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Ear rings are not generally worn by the Seminole. Those worn are
+usually made of silver and are of home manufacture. The ears of most of
+the Indians, however, appear to be pierced, and, as a rule, the ears of
+the women are pierced many times; for what purpose I did not discover.
+Along and in the upper edges of the ears of the women from one to ten or
+more small holes have been made. In most of these holes
+<span class = "pagenum">489</span>
+<a name = "page489" id = "page489"> </a>
+<!--png 571-->
+I noticed bits of palmetto wood, about a fifth of an inch in length and
+in diameter the size of a large pin. Seemingly they were not placed
+there to remain only while the puncture was healing. (<a href =
+"#fig65">Fig.&nbsp;65</a>.)</p>
+
+<p>Piercing the ears excepted, the Florida Indians do not now mutilate
+their bodies for beauty’s sake. They no longer pierce the lips or the
+nose; nor do they use paint upon their persons, I am told, except at
+their great annual festival, the Green Corn Dance, and upon the faces of
+their dead.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_6" id = "chapI_3_6">
+FINGER RINGS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Nor is the wearing of finger rings more common than that of rings for
+the ears. The finger rings I saw were all made of silver and showed good
+workmanship. Most of them were made with large elliptical tablets on
+them, extending from knuckle to knuckle. These also were home-made.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_7" id = "chapI_3_7">
+SILVER VS. GOLD.</a></h6>
+
+<p>I saw no gold ornaments. Gold, even gold money, does not seem to be
+considered of much value by the Seminole. He is a monometalist, and his
+precious metal is silver. I was told by a cattle dealer of an Indian who
+once gave him a twenty dollar gold piece for $17 in silver, although
+assured that the gold piece was worth more than the silver, and in my
+own intercourse with the Seminole I found them to manifest, with few
+exceptions, a decided preference for silver. I was told that the
+Seminole are peculiar in wishing to possess nothing that is not genuine
+of its apparent kind. Traders told me that, so far as the Indians know,
+they will buy of them only what is the best either of food or of
+material for wear or ornament.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_3_8" id = "chapI_3_8">
+CRESCENTS, WRISTLETS, AND BELTS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The ornaments worn by the men which are most worthy of attention are
+crescents, varying in size and value. These are generally about five
+inches long, an inch in width at the widest part, and of the thickness
+of ordinary tin. These articles are also made from silver coins and are
+of home manufacture. They are worn suspended from the neck by cords, in
+the cusps of the crescents, one below another, at distances apart of
+perhaps two and a half inches. Silver wristlets are used by the men for
+their adornment. They are fastened about the wrists by cords or thongs
+passing through holes in the ends of the metal. Belts, and turbans too,
+are often ornamented with fanciful devices wrought out of silver. It is
+not customary for the Indian men to wear these ornaments in everyday
+camp life. They appear with them on a festival occasion or when they
+visit some trading post.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapI_4" id = "chapI_4">ME-LE.</a></h5>
+
+<p>A sketch made by Lieutenant Brown, of Saint Francis Barracks, Saint
+Augustine, Florida, who accompanied me on my trip to the Cat
+<span class = "pagenum">490</span>
+<a name = "page490" id = "page490"> </a>
+<!--png 572-->
+Fish Lake settlement, enables me to show, in gala dress, Me-le, a half
+breed Seminole, the son of an Indian, Ho-laq-to-mik-ko, by a negress
+adopted into the tribe when a child.</p>
+
+<p class = "mynote">
+The picture described does not appear in the printed text, and is not
+included in the List of Illustrations.</p>
+
+<p>Me-le sat for his picture in my room at a hotel in Orlando. He had
+just come seventy miles from his home, at Cat Fish Lake, to see the
+white man and a white man’s town. He was clothed “in his best,” and,
+moreover, had just purchased and was wearing a pair of store boots in
+addition to his home-made finery. He was the owner of the one pair of
+red flannel leggins of which I have spoken. These were not long enough
+to cover the brown skin of his sturdy thighs. His ornaments were silver
+crescents, wristlets, a silver studded belt, and a peculiar
+battlement-like band of silver on the edge of his turban. Notice his
+uncropped head of luxuriant, curly hair, the only exception I observed
+to the singular cut of hair peculiar to the Seminole men. Me-le,
+however, is in many other more important respects an exceptional
+character. He is not at all in favor with the Seminole of pure blood.
+“Me-le ho-lo-wa kis” (Me-le is of no account) was the judgment passed
+upon him to me by some of the Indians. Why? Because he likes the white
+man and would live the white man’s life if he knew how to break away
+safely from his tribe. He has been progressive enough to build for
+himself a frame house, inclosed on all sides and entered by a door. More
+than that, he is not satisfied with the hunting habits and the simple
+agriculture of his people, nor with their ways of doing other things. He
+has started an orange grove, and in a short time will have a hundred
+trees, so he says, bearing fruit. He has bought and uses a sewing
+machine, and he was intelligent enough, so the report goes, when the
+machine had been taken to pieces in his presence, to put it together
+again without mistake. He once called off for me from a newspaper the
+names of the letters of our alphabet, and legibly wrote his English
+name, “John Willis Mik-ko.” Mik-ko has a restless, inquisitive mind, and
+deserves the notice and care of those who are interested in the progress
+of this people. Seeking him one day at Orlando, I found him busily
+studying the locomotive engine of the little road which had been pushed
+out into that part of the frontier of Florida’s civilized population.
+Next morning he was at the station to see the train depart, and told me
+he would like to go with me to Jacksonville. He is the only Florida
+Seminole, I believe, who had at that time seen a railway.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapI_5" id = "chapI_5">
+PSYCHICAL CHARACTERISTICS.</a></h5>
+
+<p>I shall now glance at what may more properly be called the psychical
+characteristics of the Florida Indians. I have been led to the
+conclusion that for Indians they have attained a relatively high degree
+of psychical development. They are an uncivilized, I hardly like to call
+them a savage, people. They are antagonistic to white men, as a race,
+and to the white man’s culture, but they have characteristics of their
+<span class = "pagenum">491</span>
+<a name = "page491" id = "page491"> </a>
+<!--png 573-->
+own, many of which are commendable. They are decided in their enmity to
+any representative of the white man’s government and to everything which
+bears upon it the government’s mark. To one, however, who is acquainted
+with recent history this enmity is but natural, and a confessed
+representative of the government need not be surprised at finding in the
+Seminole only forbidding and unlovely qualities. But when suspicion is
+disarmed, one whom they have welcomed to their confidence will find them
+evincing characteristics which will excite his admiration and esteem. I
+was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Seminole, not as a
+representative of our National Government, but under conditions which
+induced them to welcome me as a friend. In my intercourse with them, I
+found them to be not only the brave, self reliant, proud people who have
+from time to time withstood our nation’s armies in defense of their
+rights, but also a people amiable, affectionate, truthful, and
+communicative. Nor are they devoid of a sense of humor. With only few
+exceptions, I found them genial. Indeed, the old chief, Tûs-te-nûg-ge, a
+man whose warwhoop and deadly hand, during the last half century, have
+often been heard and felt among the Florida swamps and prairies, was the
+only one disposed to sulk in my presence and to repel friendly advances.
+He called me to him when I entered the camp where he was, and, with
+great dignity of manner, asked after my business among his people. After
+listening, through my interpreter, to my answers to his questions, he
+turned from me and honored me no further. I call the Seminole
+communicative, because most with whom I spoke were eager to talk, and,
+as far as they could with the imperfect means at their disposal, to give
+me the information I sought. “Doctor Na-ki-ta” (Doctor What-is-it) I was
+playfully named at the Cat Fish Lake settlement; yet the people there
+were seemingly as ready to try to answer as I was to ask, “What is it?”
+I said they are truthful. That is their reputation with many of the
+white men I met, and I have reason to believe that the reputation is
+under ordinary circumstances well founded. They answered promptly and
+without equivocation “No” or “Yes” or “I don’t know.” And they are
+affectionate to one another, and, so far as I saw, amiable in their
+domestic and social intercourse. Parental affection is characteristic of
+their home life, as several illustrative instances I might mention would
+show. I will mention one. Täl-la-häs-ke is the father of six fine
+looking boys, ranging in age from four to eighteen years. Seven months
+before I met him his wife died, and when I was at his camp this strong
+Indian appeared to have become both mother and father to his children.
+His solicitous affection seemed continually to follow these boys,
+watching their movements and caring for their comfort. Especially did he
+throw a tender care about the little one of his household. I have seen
+this little fellow clambering, just like many a little paleface, over
+his father’s knees and back, persistently demanding attention but in no
+way disturbing the father’s amiability or serenity,
+<span class = "pagenum">492</span>
+<a name = "page492" id = "page492"> </a>
+<!--png 574-->
+even while the latter was trying to oblige me by answering puzzling
+questions upon matters connected with his tribe. One night, as
+Lieutenant Brown and I sat by the campfire at Täl-la-häs-ke’s
+lodge&mdash;the larger boys, two Seminole negresses, three pigs, and
+several dogs, together with Täl-la-häs-ke, forming a picturesque circle
+in the ashes around the bright light&mdash;I heard muffled moans from
+the little palmetto shelter on my right, under which the three smaller
+boys were bundled up in cotton cloth on deer skins for the night’s
+sleep. Upon the moans followed immediately the frightened cry of the
+baby boy, waking out of bad dreams and crying for the mother who could
+not answer; “Its-ki, Its-ki” (mother, mother) begged the little fellow,
+struggling from under his covering. At once the big Indian grasped his
+child, hugged him to his breast, pressed the little head to his cheek,
+consoling him all the while with caressing words, whose meaning I felt,
+though I could not have translated them into English, until the boy,
+wide awake, laughed with his father and us all and was ready to be again
+rolled up beside his sleeping brothers. I have said also that the
+Seminole are frank. Formal or hypocritical courtesy does not
+characterize them. One of my party wished to accompany Ka-tca-la-ni
+(“Yellow Tiger”) on a hunt. He wished to see how the Indian would find,
+approach, and capture his game. “Me go hunt with you, Tom, to-day?”
+asked our man. “No,” answered Tom, and in his own language continued,
+“not to-day; to-morrow.” To-morrow came, and, with it, Tom to our camp.
+“You can go to Horse Creek with me; then I hunt alone and you come
+back,” was the Indian’s remark as both set out. I afterwards learned
+that Ka-tca-la-ni was all kindness on the trail to Horse Creek, three
+miles away, aiding the amateur hunter in his search for game and giving
+him the first shot at what was started. At Horse Creek, however, Tom
+stopped, and, turning to his companion, said, “Now you hi-e-pus (go)!”
+That was frankness indeed, and quite refreshing to us who had not been
+honored by it. But equally outspoken, without intending offense, I found
+them always. You could not mistake their meaning, did you understand
+their words. Diplomacy seems, as yet, to be an unlearned art among
+them.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_5_1" id = "chapI_5_1">KO-NIP-HA-TCO.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Here is another illustration of their frankness. One Indian,
+Ko-nip-ha-tco (“Billy”), a brother of “Key West Billy,” has become so
+desirous of identifying himself with the white people that in 1879 he
+came to Capt. F.&nbsp;A. Hendry, at Myers, and asked permission to live
+with him. Permission was willingly given, and when I went to Florida
+this “Billy” had been studying our language and ways for more than a
+year. At that time he was the only Seminole who had separated himself
+from his people and had cast in his lot with the whites. He had clothed
+himself in our dress and taken to the bed and table, instead of the
+ground and kettle, for sleep and food. “Me all same white man,” he
+boastfully told me one day. But
+<span class = "pagenum">493</span>
+<a name = "page493" id = "page493"> </a>
+<!--png 575-->
+I will not here relate the interesting story of “Billy’s” previous life
+or of his adventures in reaching his present proud position. It is
+sufficient to say that, for the time at least, he had become in the eyes
+of his people a member of a foreign community. As may be easily guessed,
+Ko-nip-ha-tco’s act was not at all looked upon with favor by the
+Indians; it was, on the contrary, seriously opposed. Several tribal
+councils made him the subject of discussion, and once, during the year
+before I met him, five of his relatives came to Myers and compelled him
+to return with them for a time to his home at the Big Cypress Swamp. But
+to my illustration of Seminole frankness: In the autumn of 1880,
+Mat-te-lo, a prominent Seminole, was at Myers and happened to meet
+Captain Hendry. While they stood together “Billy” passed. Hardly had the
+young fellow disappeared when Mat-te-lo said to Captain Hendry, “Bum-by.
+Indian kill Billy.” But an answer came. In this case the answer of the
+white man was equally frank: “Mat-te-lo, when Indian kill Billy, white
+man kill Indian, remember.” And so the talk ended, the Seminole looking
+hard at the captain to try to discover whether he had meant what he
+said.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapI_5_2" id = "chapI_5_2">
+INTELLECTUAL ABILITY.</a></h6>
+
+<p>In range of intellectual power and mental processes the Florida
+Indians, when compared with the intellectual abilities and operations of
+the cultivated American, are quite limited. But if the Seminole are to
+be judged by comparison with other American aborigines, I believe they
+easily enter the first class. They seem to be mentally active. When the
+full expression of any of my questions failed, a substantive or two, an
+adverb, and a little pantomime generally sufficed to convey the meaning
+to my hearers. In their intercourse with one another, they are, as a
+rule, voluble, vivacious, showing the possession of relatively active
+brains and mental fertility. Certainly, most of the Seminole I met
+cannot justly be called either stupid or intellectually sluggish, and I
+observed that, when invited to think of matters with which they are not
+familiar or which are beyond the verge of the domain which their
+intellectual faculties have mastered, they nevertheless bravely
+endeavored to satisfy me before they were willing to acknowledge
+themselves powerless. They would not at once answer a misunderstood or
+unintelligible question, but would return inquiry upon inquiry, before
+the decided “I don’t know” was uttered. Those with whom I particularly
+dealt were exceptionally patient under the strains to which I put their
+minds. Ko-nip-ha-tco, by no means a brilliant member of his tribe, is
+much to be commended for his patient, persistent, intellectual industry.
+I kept the young fellow busy for about a fortnight, from half-past eight
+in the morning until five in the afternoon, with but an hour and a
+half’s intermission at noon. Occupying our time with inquiries not very
+interesting to him, about the language and life of his people, I could
+see how much I wearied him. Often I found by his answers that his brain
+was, to a degree, paralyzed by the long continued tension to which it
+was
+<span class = "pagenum">494</span>
+<a name = "page494" id = "page494"> </a>
+<!--png 576-->
+subjected. But he held on bravely through the severe heat of an attic
+room at Myers. Despite the insects, myriads of which took a great
+interest in us and our surroundings, despite the persistent invitation
+of the near woods to him to leave “Doctor Na-ki-ta” and to tramp off in
+them on a deer hunt (for “Billy” is a lover of the woods and a bold and
+successful hunter), he held on courageously. The only sign of weakening
+he made was on one day, about noon, when, after many, to me, vexatious
+failures to draw from him certain translations into his own language of
+phrases containing verbs illustrating variations of mood, time, number,
+&amp;c., he said to me: “Doctor, how long you want me to tell you Indian
+language?” “Why?” I replied, “are you tired, Billy?” “No,” he answered,
+“a littly. Me think me tell you all. Me don’t know English language.
+Bum-by you come, next winter, me tell you all. Me go school. Me learn.
+Me go hunt deer to-mollow.” I was afraid of losing my hold upon him, for
+time was precious. “Billy,” I said, “you go now. You hunt to-day. I need
+you just three days more and then you can hunt all the time. To-morrow
+come, and I will ask you easier questions.” After only a moment’s
+hesitation, “Me no go, Doctor; me stay,” was his courageous
+decision.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">495</span>
+<a name = "page495" id = "page495"> </a>
+<!--png 577-->
+<h4 class = "chapter"><a name = "chapII" id = "chapII">
+CHAPTER II.</a></h4>
+
+<h5>SEMINOLE SOCIETY.</h5>
+
+
+<p>As I now direct attention to the Florida Seminole in their relations
+with one another, I shall first treat of that relationship which lies at
+the foundation of society, marriage or its equivalent, the result of
+which is a body of people more or less remotely connected with one
+another and designated by the term “kindred.” This is shown either in
+the narrow limits of what may be named the family or in the larger
+bounds of what is called the clan or gens. I attempted to get full
+insight into the system of relationships in which Seminole kinship is
+embodied, and, while my efforts were not followed by an altogether
+satisfactory result, I saw enough to enable me to say that the Seminole
+relationships are essentially those of what we may call their “mother
+tribe,” the Creek. The Florida Seminole are a people containing, to some
+extent, the posterity of tribes diverse from the Creek in language and
+in social and political organization; but so strong has the Creek
+influence been in their development that the Creek language, Creek
+customs, and Creek regulations have been the guiding forces in their
+history, forces by which, in fact, the characteristics of the other
+peoples have yielded, have been practically obliterated.</p>
+
+<p>I have made a careful comparison of the terms of Seminole
+relationship I obtained with those of the Creek Indians, embodied in Dr.
+L.&nbsp;H. Morgan’s Consanguinity and Affinity of the American Indians,
+and I find that, as far as I was able to go, they are the same, allowing
+for the natural differences of pronunciation of the two peoples. The
+only seeming difference of relationships lies in the names applied to
+some of the lineal descendants, descriptive instead of classificatory
+names being used.</p>
+
+<p>I have said, “as far as I was able to go.” I found, for example, that
+beyond the second collateral line among consanguineous kindred my
+interpreter would answer my question only by some such answer as “I
+don’t know” or “No kin,” and that, beyond the first collateral line of
+kindred by marriage, except for a very few relationships, I could obtain
+no answer.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapII_1" id = "chapII_1">
+THE SEMINOLE FAMILY.</a></h5>
+
+<p>The family consists of the husband, one or more wives, and their
+children. I do not know what limit tribal law places to the number of
+wives the Florida Indian may have, but certainly he may possess two.
+There are several Seminole families in which duogamy exists.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">496</span>
+<a name = "page496" id = "page496"> </a>
+<!--png 578-->
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_1" id = "chapII_1_1">
+COURTSHIP.</a></h6>
+
+<p>I learned the following facts concerning the formation of a family: A
+young warrior, at the age of twenty or less, sees an Indian maiden of
+about sixteen years, and by a natural impulse desires to make her his
+wife. What follows? He calls his immediate relatives to a council and
+tells them of his wish. If the damsel is not a member of the lover’s own
+gens and if no other impediment stands in the way of the proposed
+alliance, they select, from their own number, some who, at an
+appropriate time, go to the maiden’s kindred and tell them that they
+desire the maid to receive their kinsman as her husband. The girl’s
+relatives then consider the question. If they decide in favor of the
+union, they interrogate the prospective bride as to her disposition
+towards the young man. If she also is willing, news of the double
+consent is conveyed through the relatives, on both sides, to the
+prospective husband. From that moment there is a gentle excitement in
+both households. The female relatives of the young man take to the house
+of the betrothed’s mother a blanket or a large piece of cotton cloth and
+a bed canopy&mdash;in other words, the furnishing of a new bed.
+Thereupon there is returned thence to the young man a wedding costume,
+consisting of a newly made shirt.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_2" id = "chapII_1_2">
+MARRIAGE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Arrangements for the marriage being thus completed, the marriage
+takes place by the very informal ceremony of the going of the
+bridegroom, at sunset of an appointed day, to the home of his
+mother-in-law, where he is received by his bride. From that time he is
+her husband. The next day, husband and wife appear together in the camp,
+and are thenceforth recognized as a wedded pair. After the marriage,
+through what is the equivalent of the white man’s honeymoon, and often
+for a much longer period, the new couple remain at the home of the
+mother-in-law. It is the man and not the woman among these Indians who
+leaves father and mother and cleaves unto the mate. After a time,
+especially as the family increases, the wedded pair build one or more
+houses for independent housekeeping, either at the camp of the wife’s
+mother or elsewhere, excepting among the husband’s relatives.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_3" id = "chapII_1_3">
+DIVORCE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The home may continue until death breaks it up. Sometimes, however,
+it occurs that most hopeful matrimonial beginnings, among the Florida
+Seminole, as elsewhere, end in disappointment and ruin. How divorce is
+accomplished I could not learn. I pressed the question upon
+Ko-nip-ha-tco, but his answer was, “Me don’t know; Indian no tell me
+much.” All the light I obtained upon the subject comes from Billy’s
+first reply, “He left her.” In fact, desertion seems to be the only
+ceremony accompanying a divorce. The husband, no longer satisfied with
+his wife, leaves her; she returns to her family, and the matter is
+ended.
+<span class = "pagenum">497</span>
+<a name = "page497" id = "page497"> </a>
+<!--png 579-->
+There is no embarrassment growing out of problems respecting the woman’s
+future support, the division of property, or the adjustment of claims
+for the possession of the children. The independent self-support of
+every adult, healthy Indian, female as well as male, and the gentile
+relationship, which is more wide reaching and authoritative than that of
+marriage, have already disposed of these questions, which are usually so
+perplexing for the white man. So far as personal maintenance is
+concerned, a woman is, as a rule, just as well off without a husband as
+with one. What is hers, in the shape of property, remains her own
+whether she is married or not. In fact, marriage among these Indians
+seems to be but the natural mating of the sexes, to cease at the option
+of either of the interested parties. Although I do not know that the
+wife may lawfully desert her husband, as well as the husband his wife,
+from some facts learned I think it probable that she may.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_4" id = "chapII_1_4">
+CHILDBIRTH.</a></h6>
+
+<p>According to information received a prospective mother, as the hour
+of her confinement approaches, selects a place for the birth of her
+child not far from the main house of the family, and there, with some
+friends, builds a small lodge, covering the top and sides of the
+structure generally with the large leaves of the cabbage palmetto. To
+this secluded place the woman, with some elderly female relatives, goes
+at the time the child is to be born, and there, in a sitting posture,
+her hands grasping a strong stick driven into the ground before her, she
+is delivered of her babe, which is received and cared for by her
+companions. Rarely is the Indian mother’s labor difficult or followed by
+a prolonged sickness. Usually she returns to her home with her little
+one within four days after its birth.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig66" id = "fig66"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig66.png" width = "322" height = "109"
+alt = "Baby cradle or hammock.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 66.</span> Baby cradle or hammock.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_5" id = "chapII_1_5">
+INFANCY.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The baby, well into the world, learns very quickly that he is to make
+his own way through it as best he may. His mother is prompt to nourish
+him and solicitous in her care for him if he falls ill, but, as far as
+possible, she goes her own way and leaves the little fellow to go his.
+From the first she gives her child the perfectly free use of his body
+and, within a limited area, of the camp ground. She does not bundle him
+into a motionless thing or bind him helplessly on a board; on the
+contrary, she does not trouble her child even with clothing. The Florida
+Indian baby, when very young, spends his time, naked, in a hammock, or
+on a deer skin, or on the warm earth. (<a href =
+"#fig66">Fig.&nbsp;66</a>.)</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">498</span>
+<a name = "page498" id = "page498"> </a>
+<!--png 580-->
+The Seminole mother, I was informed, is not in the habit of soothing her
+baby with song. Nevertheless, sometimes one may hear her or an old
+grandam crooning a monotonous refrain as she crouches on the ground
+beside the swinging hammock of a baby. I heard one of these refrains,
+and, as nearly as I could catch it, it ran <ins class = "correction"
+title = "printed music has dotted half note for dotted quarter">thus</ins>:</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/lullaby.png" width = "286" height = "63"
+alt = "musical notation: ‘No-wut-tca, No-wut-tca.’"
+title = "musical notation: ‘No-wut-tca, No-wut-tca.’"></p>
+
+<p class = "mynote">
+<a href = "images/lullaby.midi">MIDI file</a> (may require adjustments
+to browser)
+</p>
+
+<p>The hammock was swung in time with the song. The singing was slow in
+movement and nasal in quality. The last note was unmusical and uttered
+quite staccato.</p>
+
+<p>There are times, to be sure, when the Seminole mother carries her
+baby. He is not always left to his pleasure on the ground or in a
+hammock. When there is no little sister or old grandmother to look after
+the helpless creature and the mother is forced to go to any distance
+from her house or lodge, she takes him with her. This she does, usually,
+by setting him astride one of her hips and holding him there. If she
+wishes to have both her arms free, however, she puts the baby into the
+center of a piece of cotton cloth, ties opposite corners of the cloth
+together, and slings her burden over her shoulders and upon her back,
+where, with his brown legs astride his mother’s hips, the infant rides,
+generally with much satisfaction. I remember seeing, one day, one jolly
+little fellow, lolling and rollicking on his mother’s back, kicking her
+and tugging away at the strings of beads which hung temptingly between
+her shoulders, while the mother, hand-free, bore on one shoulder a log,
+which, a moment afterwards, still keeping her baby on her back as she
+did so, she chopped into small wood for the camp fire.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_6" id = "chapII_1_6">
+CHILDHOOD.</a></h6>
+
+<p>But just as soon as the Seminole baby has gained sufficient strength
+to toddle he learns that the more he can do for himself and the more he
+can contribute to the general domestic welfare the better he will get
+along in life. No small amount of the labor in a Seminole household is
+done by children, even as young as four years of age. They can stir the
+soup while it is boiling; they can aid in kneading the dough for bread;
+they can wash the “Koonti” root, and even pound it; they can watch and
+replenish the fire; they contribute in this and many other small ways to
+the necessary work of the home. I am not to be understood, of course, as
+saying that the little Seminole’s life is one of severe labor. He has
+plenty of time for games and play of all kinds, and of these I shall
+hereafter speak. Yet, as soon as he is able to play, he finds that with
+his play he must mix work in considerable measure.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">499</span>
+<a name = "page499" id = "page499"> </a>
+<!--png 581-->
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_7" id = "chapII_1_7">
+SEMINOLE DWELLINGS&mdash;I-FUL-LO-HA-TCO’S HOUSE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Now that we have seen the Seminole family formed, let us look at its
+home. The Florida Indians are not nomads. They have fixed habitations:
+settlements in well defined districts, permanent camps, houses or
+wigwams which, remain from year to year the abiding places of their
+families, and gardens and fields which for indefinite periods are used
+by the same owners. There are times during the year when parties gather
+into temporary camps for a few weeks. Now perhaps they gather upon some
+rich Koonti ground, that they may dig an extra quantity of this root and
+make flour from it; now, that they may have a sirup making festival,
+they go to some fertile sugar cane hammock; or again, that they may have
+a hunt, they camp where a certain kind of game has been discovered in
+abundance. And they all, as a rule, go to a central point, once a year
+and share there their great feast, the Green Corn Dance. Besides, as I
+was told, these Indians are frequent visitors to one another, acting in
+turn as guests and hosts for a few days at a time. But it is the fact,
+nevertheless, that for much the greater part of the year the Seminole
+families are at their homes, occupying houses, surrounded by many
+comforts and living a life of routine industry.</p>
+
+<p>As one Seminole home is, with but few unimportant differences, like
+nearly all the others, we can get a good idea of what it is by
+describing here the first one I visited, that of I-ful-lo-ha-tco, or
+“Charlie Osceola,” in the “Bad Country,” on the edge of the Big Cypress
+Swamp.</p>
+
+<p>When my guide pointed out to me the locality where “Charlie” lives, I
+could see nothing but a wide saw-grass marsh surrounding a small island.
+The island seemed covered with a dense growth of palmetto and other
+trees and tangled shrubbery, with a few banana plants rising among them.
+No sign of human habitation was visible. This invisibility of a
+Seminole’s house from the vicinity may be taken as a marked
+characteristic of his home. If possible, he hides his house, placing it
+on an island and in a jungle. As we neared the hammock we found that
+approach to it was difficult. On horseback there was no trouble in
+getting through the water and the annoying saw-grass, but I found it
+difficult to reach the island with my vehicle, which was loaded with our
+provisions and myself. On the shore of “Charlie’s” island is a piece of
+rich land of probably two acres in extent. At length I landed, and soon,
+to my surprise, entered a small, neat clearing, around which were built
+three houses, excellent of their kind, and one insignificant structure.
+Beyond these, well fenced with palmetto logs, lay a small garden. No one
+of the entire household&mdash;father, mother, and child&mdash;was at
+home. Where they had gone we did not learn until later. We found them
+next day at a sirup making at “Old Tommy’s” field, six miles away.
+Having, in the absence of the owner, a free range of the camp, I busied
+myself in noting what had been left in it and what were its
+peculiarities. Among the first things I picked up was a “cow’s
+horn.”</p>
+
+<p>This, my guide informed me, was used in calling from camp to camp.
+<span class = "pagenum">500</span>
+<a name = "page500" id = "page500"> </a>
+<!--png 582-->
+Mounting a pile of logs, “Billy” tried with it to summon “Charlie,”
+thinking he might be somewhere near. Meanwhile I continued my search. I
+noticed some terrapin shells lying on a platform in one of the houses,
+the breast shell pierced with two holes. “Wear them at Green Corn
+Dance,” said “Billy.” I caught sight of some dressed buckskins lying on
+a rafter of a house, and an old fashioned rifle, with powder horn and
+shot flask. I also saw a hoe; a deep iron pot; a mortar, made from a
+live oak (?) log, probably fifteen inches in diameter and twenty-four in
+height, and beside it a pestle, made from mastic wood, perhaps four feet
+and a half in length.</p>
+
+<p>A bag of corn hung from a rafter, and near it a sack of clothing,
+which I did not examine. A skirt, gayly ornamented, hung there also.
+There were several basketware sieves, evidently home made, and various
+bottles lying around the place. I did not search among the things laid
+away on the rafters under the roof. A sow, with several pigs, lay
+contentedly under the platform of one of the houses. And near by, in the
+saw-grass, was moored a cypress “dug-out,” about fifteen feet long,
+pointed at bow and stern.</p>
+
+<p>Dwellings throughout the Seminole district are practically uniform in
+construction. With but slight variations, the accompanying sketch of
+I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s main dwelling shows what style of architecture
+prevails in the Florida Everglades. (<a href =
+"#plateXIX">Pl.&nbsp;XIX.</a>)</p>
+
+<p>This house is approximately 16 by 9 feet in ground measurement, made
+almost altogether, if not wholly, of materials taken from the palmetto
+tree. It is actually but a platform elevated about three feet from the
+ground and covered with a palmetto thatched roof, the roof being not
+more than 12 feet above the ground at the ridge pole, or 7 at the eaves.
+Eight upright palmetto logs, unsplit and undressed, support the roof.
+Many rafters sustain the palmetto thatching. The platform is composed of
+split palmetto logs lying transversely, flat sides up, upon beams which
+extend the length of the building and are lashed to the uprights by
+palmetto ropes, thongs, or trader’s ropes. This platform is peculiar, in
+that it fills the interior of the building like a floor and serves to
+furnish the family with a dry sitting or lying down place when, as often
+happens, the whole region is under water. The thatching of the roof is
+quite a work of art: inside, the regularity and compactness of the
+laying of the leaves display much skill and taste on the part of the
+builder; outside&mdash;with the outer layers there seems to have been
+less care taken than with those within&mdash;the mass of leaves of which
+the roof is composed is held in place and made firm by heavy logs,
+which, bound together in pairs, are laid upon it astride the ridge. The
+covering is, I was informed, water tight and durable and will resist
+even a violent wind. Only hurricanes can tear it off, and these are so
+infrequent in Southern Florida that no attempt is made to provide
+against them.</p>
+
+<!--png 583-->
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption">
+<a name = "plateXIX" id = "plateXIX">
+BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY</a></td>
+<td class = "caption">FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIX</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan = "2">
+<img src = "images/plate_xix.jpg" width = "500" height = "340"
+alt = "Seminole dwelling">
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan = "2">
+<p class = "caption">
+SEMINOLE DWELLING.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<!--png 584-->
+
+<p>The Seminole’s house is open on all sides and without rooms. It is,
+in fact, only a covered platform. The single equivalent for a room in it
+<span class = "pagenum">501</span>
+<a name = "page501" id = "page501"> </a>
+<!--png 585-->
+is the space above the joists which are extended across the building at
+the lower edges of the roof. In this are placed surplus food and general
+household effects out of use from time to time. Household utensils are
+usually suspended from the uprights of the building and from pronged
+sticks driven into the ground near by at convenient places.</p>
+
+<p>From this description the Seminole’s house may seem a poor kind of
+structure to use as a dwelling; yet if we take into account the climate
+of Southern Florida nothing more would seem to be necessary. A shelter
+from the hot sun and the frequent rains and a dry floor above the damp
+or water covered ground are sufficient for the Florida Indian’s
+needs.</p>
+
+<p>I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s three houses are placed at three corners of an
+oblong clearing, which is perhaps 40 by 30 feet. At the fourth corner is
+the entrance into the garden, which is in shape an ellipse, the longer
+diameter being about 25 feet. The three houses are alike, with the
+exception that in one of them the elevated platform is only half the
+size of those of the others. This difference seems to have been made on
+account of the camp fire. The fire usually burns in the space around
+which the buildings stand. During the wet season, however, it is moved
+into the sheltered floor in the building having the half platform. At
+Tus-ko-na’s camp, where several families are gathered, I noticed one
+building without the interior platform. This was probably the wet
+weather kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>To all appearance there is no privacy in these open houses. The only
+means by which it seems to be secured is by suspending, over where one
+sleeps, a canopy of thin cotton cloth or calico, made square or oblong
+in shape, and nearly three feet in height. This serves a double use, as
+a private room and as a protection against gnats and mosquitoes.</p>
+
+<p>But while I-ful-lo-ha-tco’s house is a fair example of the kind of
+dwelling in use throughout the tribe, I may not pass unnoticed some
+innovations which have lately been made upon the general style. There
+are, I understand, five inclosed houses, which were built and are owned
+by Florida Indians. Four of these are covered with split cypress planks
+or slabs; one is constructed of logs.</p>
+
+<p>Progressive “Key West Billy” has gone further than any other one,
+excepting perhaps Me-le, in the white man’s ways of house building. He
+has erected for his family, which consists of one wife and three
+children, a cypress board house, and furnished it with doors and
+windows, partitions, floors, and ceiling. In the house are one upper and
+one or two lower rooms. Outside, he has a stairway to the upper floor,
+and from the upper floor a balcony. He possesses also an elevated bed, a
+trunk for his clothing, and a straw hat.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the permanent home for the Seminole family, there is also the
+lodge which it occupies when for any cause it temporarily leaves the
+house. The lodges, or the temporary structures which the Seminole make
+when “camping out,” are, of course, much simpler and less comfortable
+than their houses. I had the privilege of visiting two
+<span class = "pagenum">502</span>
+<a name = "page502" id = "page502"> </a>
+<!--png 586-->
+“camping” parties&mdash;one of forty-eight Indians, at Tak-o-si-mac-la’s
+cane field, on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp; the other of
+twenty-two persons, at a Koonti ground, on Horse Creek, not far from the
+site of what was, long ago, Fort Davenport.</p>
+
+<p>I found great difficulty in reaching the “camp” at the sugar cane
+field. I was obliged to leave my conveyance some distance from the
+island on which the cane field was located. When we arrived at the shore
+of the saw-grass marsh no outward sign indicated the presence of fifty
+Indians so close at hand; but suddenly three turbaned Seminole emerged
+from the marsh, as we stood there. Learning from our guide our business,
+they cordially offered to conduct us through the water and saw-grass to
+the camp. The wading was annoying and, to me, difficult; but at length
+we secured dry footing in the jungle on the island, and after a tortuous
+way through the tangled vegetation, which walled in the camp from the
+prairie, we entered the large clearing and the collection of lodges
+where the Indians were. These lodges, placed very close together and
+seemingly without order, were almost all made of white cotton cloths,
+which were each stretched over ridge poles and tied to four corner
+posts. The lodges were in shape like the fly of a wall tent, simply a
+sheet stretched for a cover.</p>
+
+<p>At a Koonti ground on Horse Creek I met the Cat Fish Lake Indians.
+They had been forced to leave their homes to secure an extra supply of
+Koonti flour, because, as I understood the woman who told me, some
+animals had eaten all their sweet potatoes. The lodges of this party
+differed from those of the southern Indians in being covered above and
+around with palmetto leaves and in being shaped some like wall tents and
+others like single-roofed sheds. The accompanying sketch shows what kind
+of a shelter Täl-la-häs-ke had made for himself fit Horse Creek. (<a
+href = "#fig67">Fig.&nbsp;67</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig67" id = "fig67"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig67.png" width = "463" height = "297"
+alt = "Temporary dwelling.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 67.</span> Temporary dwelling.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">503</span>
+<a name = "page503" id = "page503"> </a>
+<!--png 587-->
+Adjoining each of these lodges was a platform, breast high. These were
+made of small poles or sticks covered with, the leaves of the palmetto.
+Upon and under these, food, clothing, and household utensils, generally,
+were kept; and between the rafters of the lodges and the roofs, also,
+many articles, especially those for personal use and adornment, were
+stored.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_8" id = "chapII_1_8">
+HOME LIFE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Having now seen the formation of the Seminole family and taken a
+glance at the dwellings, permanent and temporary, which it occupies, we
+are prepared to look at its household life. I was surprised by the
+industry and comparative prosperity and, further, by the cheerfulness
+and mutual confidence, intimacy, and affection of these Indians in their
+family intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>The Seminole family is industrious. All its members work who are able
+to do so, men as well as women. The former are not only hunters,
+fishermen, and herders, but agriculturists also. The women not only care
+for their children and look after the preparation of food and the
+general welfare of the home, but are, besides, laborers in the fields.
+In the Seminole family, both, husband and wife are land proprietors and
+cultivators. Moreover, as we have seen, all children able to labor
+contribute their little to the household prosperity. From these various
+domestic characteristics, an industrious family life almost necessarily
+follows. The disesteem in which Tûs-ko-na, a notorious loafer at the Big
+Cypress Swamp, is held by the other Indians shows that laziness is not
+countenanced among the Seminole.</p>
+
+<p>But let me not be misunderstood here. By a Seminole’s industry I do
+not mean the persistent and rapid labor of the white man of a northern
+community. The Indian is not capable of this, nor is he compelled to
+imitate it. I mean only that, in describing him, it is but just for me
+to say that he is a worker and not a loafer.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the domestic industry it would be expected that we
+should find comparative prosperity prevailing among all Seminole
+families; and this is the fact. Much of the Indian’s labor is wasted
+through his ignorance of the ways by which it might be economized. He
+has no labor saving or labor multiplying machines. There is but little
+differentiation of function in either family or tribe. Each worker does
+all kinds of work. Men give themselves to the hunt, women to the house,
+and both to the field. But men may be found sometimes at the cooking pot
+or toasting stick and women may be seen taking care of cattle and
+horses. Men bring home deer and turkeys, &amp;c.; women spend days in
+fishing. Both men and women are tailors, shoemakers, flour makers, cane
+crushers and sirup boilers, wood hewers and bearers, and water carriers.
+There are but few domestic functions which may be said to belong
+exclusively, on the one hand, to men, or, on the other, to women.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">504</span>
+<a name = "page504" id = "page504"> </a>
+<!--png 588-->
+Out of the diversified domestic industry, as I have said, comes
+comparative prosperity. The home is all that the Seminole family needs
+or desires for its comfort. There is enough clothing, or the means to
+get it, for every one. Ordinarily more than a sufficient quantity of
+clothes is possessed by each member of a family. No one lacks money or
+the material with which to obtain that which money purchases. Nor need
+any ever hunger, since the fields and nature offer them food in
+abundance. The families of the northern camps are not as well provided
+for by bountiful nature as those south of the Caloosahatchie River. Yet,
+though at my visit to the Cat Fish Lake Indians in midwinter the sweet
+potatoes were all gone, a good hunting ground and fertile fields of
+Koonti were near at hand for Tcup-ko’s people to visit and use to their
+profit.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_9" id = "chapII_1_9">FOOD.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Read the bill of fare from which the Florida Indians may select, and
+compare with that the scanty supplies within reach of the North Carolina
+Cherokee or the Lake Superior Chippewa. Here is a list of their meats:
+Of flesh, at any time venison, often opossum, sometimes rabbit and
+squirrel, occasionally bear, and a land terrapin, called the “gopher,”
+and pork whenever they wish it. Of wild fowl, duck, quail, and turkey in
+abundance. Of home reared fowl, chickens, more than they are willing to
+use. Of fish, they can catch myriads of the many kinds which teem in the
+inland waters of Florida, especially of the large bass, called “trout”
+by the whites of the State, while on the seashore they can get many
+forms of edible marine life, especially turtles and oysters. Equally
+well off are these Indians in respect to grains, vegetables, roots, and
+fruits. They grow maize in considerable quantity, and from it make
+hominy and flour, and all the rice they need they gather from the
+swamps. Their vegetables are chiefly sweet potatoes, large and much
+praised melons and pumpkins, and, if I may classify it with vegetables,
+the tender new growth of the tree called the cabbage palmetto. Among
+roots, there is the great dependence of these Indians, the abounding
+Koonti; also the wild potato, a small tuber found in black swamp land,
+and peanuts in great quantities. Of fruits, the Seminole family may
+supply itself with bananas, oranges (sour and sweet), limes, lemons,
+guavas, pineapples, grapes (black and red), cocoa nuts, cocoa plums, sea
+grapes, and wild plums. And with even this enumeration the bill of fare
+is not exhausted. The Seminole, living in a perennial summer, is never
+at a loss when he seeks something, and something good, to eat. I have
+omitted from the above list honey and the sugar cane juice and sirup,
+nor have I referred to the purchases the Indians now and then make from
+the white man, of salt pork, wheat flour, coffee, and salt, and of the
+various canned delicacies, whose attractive labels catch their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>These Indians are not, of course, particularly provident. I was told,
+<span class = "pagenum">505</span>
+<a name = "page505" id = "page505"> </a>
+<!--png 589-->
+however, that they are beginning to be ambitious to increase their
+little herds of horses and cattle and their numbers of chickens and
+swine.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_10" id = "chapII_1_10">
+CAMP FIRE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Entering the more interior, the intimate home life of the Seminole,
+one observes that the center about which it gathers is the camp fire.
+This is never large except on a cool night, but it is of unceasing
+interest to the household. It is the place where the food is prepared,
+and where, by day, it is always preparing. It is the place where the
+social intercourse of the family, and of the family with their friends,
+is enjoyed. There the story is told; by its side toilets are made and
+household duties are performed, not necessarily on account of the warmth
+the fire gives, for it is often so small that its heat is almost
+imperceptible, but because of its central position in the household
+economy. This fire is somewhat singularly constructed; the logs used for
+it are of considerable length, and are laid, with some regularity,
+around a center, like the radii of a circle. These logs are pushed
+directly inward as the inner ends are consumed. The outer ends of the
+logs make excellent seats; sometimes they serve as pillows, especially
+for old men and women wishing to take afternoon, naps.</p>
+
+<p>Beds and bedding are of far less account to the Seminole family than
+the camp fire. The bed is often only the place where one chooses to lie.
+It is generally, however, chosen under the sheltering roof on the
+elevated platform, or, when made in the lodge, on palmetto leaves. It is
+pillowless, and has covering or not, as the sleeper may wish. If a cover
+is used, it is, as a rule, only a thin blanket or a sheet of cotton
+cloth, besides, during most of the year, the canopy or mosquito bar.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_11" id = "chapII_1_11">
+MANNER OF EATING.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Next in importance to the camp fire in the life of the Seminole
+household naturally comes the eating of what is prepared there. There is
+nothing very formal in that. The Indians do not set a table or lay
+dishes and arrange chairs. A good sized kettle, containing stewed meat
+and vegetables, is the center around which, the family gathers for its
+meal. This, placed in some convenient spot on the ground near the fire,
+is surrounded by more or fewer of the members of the household in a
+sitting posture. If all that they have to eat at that time is contained
+in the kettle, each, extracts, with his fingers or his knife, a piece of
+meat or a bone with meat on it, and, holding it in one hand, eats, while
+with the other hand each, in turn, supplies himself, by means of a great
+wooden spoon, from the porridge in the pot.</p>
+
+<p>The Seminole, however, though observing meal times with some
+regularity, eats just as his appetite invites. If it happens that he has
+a side of venison roasting before the fire, he will cut from it at any
+time during the day and, with the piece of meat in one hand and a bit of
+Koonti or of different bread in the other, satisfy his appetite. Not
+<span class = "pagenum">506</span>
+<a name = "page506" id = "page506"> </a>
+<!--png 590-->
+seldom, too, he rises during the night and breaks his sleep by eating a
+piece of the roasting meat. The kettle and big spoon stand always ready
+for those who at any moment may hunger. There is little to be said about
+eating in a Seminole household, therefore, except that when its members
+eat together they make a kettle the center of their group and that much
+of their eating is done without reference to one another.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_1_12" id = "chapII_1_12">
+AMUSEMENTS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>But one sees the family at home, not only working and sleeping and
+eating, but also engaged in amusing itself. Especially among the
+children, various sports are indulged in. I took some trouble to learn
+what amusements the little Seminole had invented or received. I obtained
+a list of them which might as well be that of the white man’s as of the
+Indian’s child. The Seminole has a doll, i.e., a bundle of rags, a stick
+with a bit of cloth wrapped about it, or something that serves just as
+well as this. The children build little houses for their dolls and name
+them “camps.” Boys take their bows and arrows and go into the bushes and
+kill small birds, and on returning say they have been “turkey-hunting.”
+Children sit around a small piece of land and, sticking blades of grass
+into the ground, name it a “corn field.” They have the game of “hide and
+seek.” They use the dancing rope, manufacture a “see-saw,” play “leap
+frog,” and build a “merry-go-round.” Carrying a small stick, they say
+they carry a rifle. I noticed some children at play one day sitting near
+a dried deer skin, which lay before them stiff and resonant. They had
+taken from the earth small tubers about an inch in diameter found on the
+roots of a kind of grass and called “deer-food.” Through them they had
+thrust sharp sticks of the thickness of a match and twice as long,
+making what we would call “teetotums.” These, by a quick twirl between
+the palms of the hands, were set to spinning on the deer skin. The four
+children were keeping a dozen or more of these things going. The sport
+they called “a dance.”</p>
+
+<p>I need only add that the relations among the various members of the
+Indian family in Florida are, as a rule, so well adjusted and observed
+that home life goes on without discord. The father is beyond question
+master in his home. To the mother belongs a peculiar domestic importance
+from her connection with her gens, but both she and her children seek
+first to know and to do the will of the actual lord of the household.
+The father is the master without being a tyrant; the mother is a subject
+without being a slave; the children have not yet learned self-assertion
+in opposition to their parents: consequently, there is no constraint in
+family intercourse. The Seminole household is cheerful, its members are
+mutually confiding, and, in the Indian’s way, intimate and
+affectionate.</p>
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">507</span>
+<a name = "page507" id = "page507"> </a>
+<!--png 591-->
+<h5><a name = "chapII_2" id = "chapII_2">
+THE SEMINOLE GENS.</a></h5>
+
+<p>Of this larger body of kindred, existing, as I could see, in very
+distinct form among the Seminole, I gained but little definite
+knowledge. What few facts I secured are here placed on record.</p>
+
+<p>After I was enabled to make my inquiry understood, I sought to learn
+from my respondent the name of the gens to which each Indian whose name
+I had received belonged. As the result, I found that the two hundred and
+eight Seminole now in Florida are divided into the following gentes and
+in the following numbers:</p>
+
+<table class = "text inline">
+<tr>
+<td>1.</td>
+<td>Wind gens</td>
+<td class = "number">21</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>2.</td>
+<td>Tiger gens</td>
+<td class = "number">58</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>3.</td>
+<td>Otter gens</td>
+<td class = "number">39</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>4.</td>
+<td>Bird gens</td>
+<td class = "number">41</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>5.</td>
+<td>Deer gens</td>
+<td class = "number">18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>6.</td>
+<td>Snake gens</td>
+<td class = "number">15</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>7.</td>
+<td>Bear gens</td>
+<td class = "number">4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>8.</td>
+<td>Wolf gens</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>9.</td>
+<td>Alligator gens</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td>Unknown gentes</td>
+<td class = "number">10</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<td>Total</td>
+<td class = "number topline">208</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>I endeavored, also, to learn the name the Indians use for gens or
+clan, and was told that it is “Po-ha-po-hûm-ko-sin;” the best
+translation I can give of the name is “Those of one camp or house.”</p>
+
+<p>Examining my table to find whether or not the word as translated
+describes the fact, I notice that, with but one exception, which may
+not, after all, prove to be an exception, each of the twenty-two camps
+into which the thirty-seven Seminole families are divided is a camp in
+which all the persons but the husbands are members of one gens. The camp
+at Miami is an apparent exception. There Little Tiger, a rather
+important personage, lives with a number of unmarried relatives. A Wolf
+has married one of Little Tiger’s sisters and lives in the camp, as
+properly he should. Lately Tiger himself has married an Otter, but,
+instead of leaving his relatives and going to the camp of his wife’s
+kindred, his wife has taken up her home with his people.</p>
+
+<p>At the Big Cypress Swamp I tried to discover the comparative rank or
+dignity of the various clans. In reply, I was told by one of the Wind
+clan that they are graded in the following order. At the northernmost
+camp, however, another order appears to have been established.</p>
+
+<table class = "text">
+<tr>
+<td class = "header" colspan = "2">
+<i>Big Cypress camp.</i></td>
+<td class = "header" colspan = "2">
+<i>Northernmost camp.</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">1.</td>
+<td>The Wind.</td>
+<td class = "number">1.</td>
+<td>The Tiger.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">2.</td>
+<td>The Tiger.</td>
+<td class = "number">2.</td>
+<td>The Wind.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">3.</td>
+<td>The Otter.</td>
+<td class = "number">3.</td>
+<td>The Otter.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">4.</td>
+<td>The Bird.</td>
+<td class = "number">4.</td>
+<td>The Bird.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">5.</td>
+<td>The Deer.</td>
+<td class = "number">5.</td>
+<td>The Bear.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">6.</td>
+<td>The Snake.</td>
+<td class = "number">6.</td>
+<td>The Deer.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">7.</td>
+<td>The Bear.</td>
+<td class = "number">7.</td>
+<td>The Buffalo.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">8.</td>
+<td>The Wolf.</td>
+<td class = "number">8.</td>
+<td>The Snake.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td></td>
+<td class = "number">9.</td>
+<td>The Alligator.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td></td><td></td>
+<td class = "number">10.</td>
+<td>The Horned Owl.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>This second order was given to me by one of the Bird gens and by one
+who calls himself distinctively a “Tallahassee” Indian. The Buffalo
+<span class = "pagenum">508</span>
+<a name = "page508" id = "page508"> </a>
+<!--png 592-->
+and the Horned Owl clans seem now to be extinct in Florida, and I am not
+altogether sure that the Alligator clan also has not disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The gens is “a group of relatives tracing a common lineage to some
+remote ancestor. This lineage is traced by some tribes through the
+mother and by others through the father.” “The gens is the grand unit of
+social organization, and for many purposes is the basis of governmental
+organization.” To the gens belong also certain rights and duties.</p>
+
+<p>Of the characteristics of the gentes of the Florida Seminole, I know
+only that a man may not marry a woman of his own clan, that the children
+belong exclusively to the mother, and that by birth they are members of
+her own gens. So far as duogamy prevails now among the Florida Indians,
+I observed that both the wives, in every case, were members of one gens.
+I understand also that there are certain games in which men selected
+from gentes as such are the contesting participants.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_2_1" id = "chapII_2_1">
+FELLOWHOOD.</a></h6>
+
+<p>In this connection I may say that if I was understood in my inquiries
+the Seminole have also the institution of “Fellowhood” among them. Major
+Powell thus describes this institution: “Two young men agree to be life
+friends, ‘more than brothers,’ confiding without reserve each in the
+other and protecting each the other from all harm.”</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapII_3" id = "chapII_3">
+THE SEMINOLE TRIBE.</a></h5>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_3_1" id = "chapII_3_1">
+TRIBAL ORGANIZATION.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The Florida Seminole, considered as a tribe, have a very imperfect
+organization. The complete tribal society of the past was much broken up
+through wars with the United States. These wars having ended in the
+transfer of nearly the whole of the population to the Indian Territory,
+the few Indians remaining in Florida were consequently left in a
+comparatively disorganized condition. There is, however, among these
+Indians a simple form of government, to which the inhabitants of at
+least the three southern settlements submit. The people of Cat Fish Lake
+and Cow Creek settlements live in a large measure independent of or
+without civil connection with the others. Tcup-ko calls his people
+“Tallahassee Indians.” He says that they are not “the same” as the Fish
+Eating Creek, Big Cypress, and Miami people. I learned, moreover, that
+the ceremony of the Green Corn Dance may take place at the three last
+named settlements and not at those of the north. The “Tallahassee
+Indians” go to Fish Eating Creek if they desire to take part in the
+festival.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_3_2" id = "chapII_3_2">
+SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.</a></h6>
+
+<p>So far as there is a common seat of government, it is located at Fish
+Eating Creek, where reside the head chief and big medicine man of
+<span class = "pagenum">509</span>
+<a name = "page509" id = "page509"> </a>
+<!--png 593-->
+the Seminole, Tûs-ta-nûg-ge, and his brother, Hŏs-pa-ta-ki, also a
+medicine man. These two are called the Tus-ta-nûg-ul-ki, or “great
+heroes” of the tribe. At this settlement, annually, a council, composed
+of minor chiefs from the various settlements, meets and passes upon the
+affairs of the tribe.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_3_3" id = "chapII_3_3">
+TRIBAL OFFICERS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>What the official organization of the tribe is I do not know. My
+respondent could not tell me. I learned, in addition to what I have just
+written, only that there are several Indians with official titles,
+living at each of the settlements, except at the one on Cat Fish Lake.
+These were classified as follows:</p>
+
+<table class = "lines text">
+<tr class = "middle topline">
+<td>Settlements</td>
+<td class = "outline">Chief and<br>
+medicine man.</td>
+<td class = "outline">War chiefs</td>
+<td class = "outline">Little chiefs</td>
+<td>Medicine men.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "topline leftline">
+<td>Big Cypress Swamp</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "leftline">
+<td>Miami River</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "leftline">
+<td>Fish Eating Creek</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "leftline">
+<td>Cow Creek</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class = "number">2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class = "bottomline leftline">
+<td>Total</td>
+<td class = "number topline">1</td>
+<td class = "number topline">3</td>
+<td class = "number topline">2</td>
+<td class = "number topline">5</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapII_3_4" id = "chapII_3_4">
+NAME OF TRIBE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>I made several efforts to discover the tribal name by which these
+Indians now designate themselves. The name Seminole they reject. In
+their own language it means “a wanderer,” and, when used as a term of
+reproach, “a coward.” Ko-nip-ha-tco said, “Me no Sem-ai-no-le; Seminole
+cow, Seminole deer, Seminole rabbit; me no Seminole. Indians gone
+Arkansas Seminole.” He meant that timidity and flight from danger are
+“Seminole” qualities, and that the Indians who had gone west at the
+bidding of the Government were the true renegades. This same Indian
+informed me that the people south of the Caloosahatchie River, at Miami
+and the Big Cypress Swamp call themselves “Kän-yuk-sa Is-ti-tca-ti,”
+i.e., “Kän-yuk-sa red men.” Kän-yuk-sa is their word for what we know as
+Florida. It is composed of I-kan-a, “ground,” and I-yuk-sa, “point” or
+“tip,” i.e., point of ground, or peninsula. At the northern camps the
+name appropriate to the people there, they say, is “Tallahassee
+Indians.”</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">510</span>
+<a name = "page510" id = "page510"> </a>
+<!--png 594-->
+<h4 class = "chapter"><a name = "chapIII" id = "chapIII">
+CHAPTER III.</a></h4>
+
+<h5>SEMINOLE TRIBAL LIFE.</h5>
+
+
+<p>We may now look at the life of the Seminole in its broader relations
+to the tribal organization. Some light has already been thrown on this
+subject by the preceding descriptions of the personal characteristics
+and social relations of these Indians. But there are other matters to be
+considered, as, for example, industries, arts, religion, and the
+like.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapIII_1" id = "chapIII_1">
+INDUSTRIES.</a></h5>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_1_1" id = "chapIII_1_1">
+AGRICULTURE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Prominent among the industries is agriculture. The Florida Indians
+have brought one hundred or more acres of excellent land under a rude
+sort of cultivation. To each family belong, by right of use and
+agreement with other Indians, fields of from one to four acres in
+extent. The only agricultural implement they have is the single bladed
+hoe common on the southern plantation. However, nothing more than this
+is required.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_1_1_1" id = "chapIII_1_1_1"><i>Soil.</i></a>
+&mdash;The ground they select is generally in the interiors of the rich,
+hammocks which abound in the swamps and prairies of Southern Florida.
+There, with a soil unsurpassed in fertility and needing only to be
+cleared of trees, vines, underbrush, &amp;c., one has but to plant corn,
+sweet potatoes, melons, or any thing else suited to the climate, and
+keep weeds from the growing vegetation, that he may gather a manifold
+return. The soil is wholly without gravel, stones, or rocks. It is soft,
+black, and very fertile. To what extent the Indians carry agriculture I
+do not know. I am under the impression, however, that they do not
+attempt to grow enough to provide much against the future. But, as they
+have no season in the year wholly unproductive and for which they must
+make special provision, their improvidence is not followed by serious
+consequences.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_1_1_2" id = "chapIII_1_1_2"><i>Corn.</i></a>
+&mdash;The chief product of their agriculture is corn. This becomes
+edible in the months of May and June and at this time it is eaten in
+great quantities. Then it is that the annual festival called the “Green
+Corn Dance” is celebrated. When the corn ripens, a quantity of it is
+laid aside and gradually used in the form of hominy and of what I heard
+described as an “exceedingly beautiful meal, white as the finest wheat
+flour.” This meal is produced by a slow and tedious process. The corn is
+hulled and the germ cut out, so that there is only a pure white residue.
+This is then reduced by mortar and pestle to an almost impalpable dust.
+From this flour a cake is made, which, is said to be very pleasant to
+the taste.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">511</span>
+<a name = "page511" id = "page511"> </a>
+<!--png 595-->
+<a name = "chapIII_1_1_3" id = "chapIII_1_1_3"><i>Sugar cane.</i></a>
+&mdash;Another product of their agriculture is the sugar cane. In
+growing this they are the producers of perhaps the finest sugar cane
+grown in America; but they are not wise enough to make it a source of
+profit to themselves. It seems to be cultivated more as a passing
+luxury. It was at “Old Tommy’s” sugar field I met the forty-eight of the
+people of the Big Cypress Swamp settlement already mentioned. They had
+left their homes that they might have a pleasuring for a few weeks
+together, “camping out” and making and eating sirup. The cane which had
+been grown there was the largest I or my companion, Capt. F.&nbsp;A.
+Hendry, of Myers, had ever seen. It was two inches or more in diameter,
+and, as we guessed, seventeen feet or more in length. To obtain the
+sirup the Indians had constructed two rude mills, the cylinders of
+which, however, were so loosely adjusted that full half the juice was
+lost in the process of crushing the cane. The juice was caught in
+various kinds of iron and tin vessels, kettles, pails, and cans, and
+after having been, strained was boiled until the proper consistency was
+reached.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig68" id = "fig68"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig68.jpg" width = "454" height = "323"
+alt = "Sugar cane crusher.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 68.</span> Sugar cane crusher.</p>
+
+<p>At the time we were at the camp quite a quantity of the sirup had
+been made. It stood around the boiling place in kettles, large and
+small, and in cans bearing the labels of well known Boston and New York
+packers, which had been purchased at Myers. Of special interest to me
+was a platform near the boiling place, on which lay several deer skins,
+that had been taken as nearly whole as possible from the bodies of the
+animals, and utilized as holders of the sirup. They were filled with the
+sweet stuff, and the ground beneath was well covered by a slow leakage
+from them. “Key West Billy” offered me some of the
+<span class = "pagenum">512</span>
+<a name = "page512" id = "page512"> </a>
+<!--png 596-->
+cane juice to drink. It was clean looking and served in a silver gold
+lined cup of spotless brilliancy. It made a welcome and delicious drink.
+I tasted some of the sirup also, eating it Indian fashion, i.e., I pared
+some of their small boiled wild potatoes and, dipping them into the
+sweet liquid, ate them. The potato itself tastes somewhat like a boiled
+chestnut.</p>
+
+<p>The sugar cane mill was a poor imitation of a machine the Indians had
+seen among the whites. Its cylinders were made of live oak; the driving
+cogs were cut from a much harder wood, the mastic, I was told; and these
+were so loosely set into the cylinders that I could take them out with
+thumb and forefinger. (<a href = "#fig68">Fig.&nbsp;68</a>.)</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary to speak in particular of the culture of sweet
+potatoes, beans, melons, &amp;c. At best it is very primitive. It is,
+however, deserving of mention that the Seminole have around their houses
+at least a thousand banana plants. When it is remembered that a hundred
+bananas are not an overlarge yield for one plant, it is seen how well
+off, so far as this fruit is concerned, these Indians are.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_1_2" id = "chapIII_1_2">
+HUNTING.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Next in importance as an industry of the tribe (if it may be so
+called) is hunting. Southern Florida abounds in game and the Indians
+have only to seek in order to find it. For this purpose they use the
+rifle. The bow and arrow are no longer used for hunting purposes except
+by the smaller children. The rifles are almost all the long, heavy,
+small bore “Kentucky” rifle. This is economical of powder and lead, and
+for this reason is preferred by many to even the modern improved weapons
+which carry fixed ammunition. The Seminole sees the white man so seldom
+and lives so far from trading posts that he is not willing to be
+confined to the use of the prepared cartridge.</p>
+
+<p>A few breech loading rifles are owned in the tribe. The shot gun is
+much disliked by the Seminole. There is only one among them, and that is
+a combination of shot gun with rifle. I made a careful count of their
+fire arms, and found that they own, of “Kentucky” rifles, 63; breech
+loading rifles, 8; shot gun and rifle, 1; revolvers,
+2&nbsp;total,&nbsp;74.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_1_2_1" id = "chapIII_1_2_1">
+<i>Methods of hunting.</i></a>&mdash;The Seminole always hunt their game
+on foot. They can approach a deer to within sixty yards by their method
+of rapidly nearing him while he is feeding, and standing perfectly still
+when he raises his head. They say that they are able to discover by
+certain movements on the part of the deer when the head is about to be
+lifted. They stand side to the animal. They believe that they can thus
+deceive the deer, appearing to them as stumps or trees. They lure
+turkeys within shooting distance by an imitation of the calls of the
+bird. They leave small game, such as birds, to the children. One day,
+while some of our party were walking near Horse Creek with Ka-tca-la-ni,
+a covey of quail whirred out of the grass. By a quick jerk the Indian
+threw
+<span class = "pagenum">513</span>
+<a name = "page513" id = "page513"> </a>
+<!--png 597-->
+his ramrod among the birds and billed one. He appeared to regard this
+feat as neither accidental nor remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>I sought to discover how many deer the Seminole annually kill, but
+could get no number which I can call trustworthy. I venture twenty-five
+hundred as somewhere near a correct estimate.</p>
+
+<p>Otter hunting is another of the Seminole industries. This animal has
+been pursued with the rifle and with the bow and arrow. Lately the
+Indians have heard of the trap. When we left Horse Creek, a request was
+made by one of them to our guide to purchase for him six otter traps for
+use in the Cat Fish Lake camp.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_1_3" id = "chapIII_1_3">
+FISHING.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Fishing is also a profitable industry. For this the hook and line are
+often used; some also use the spoon hook. But it is a common practice
+among them to kill the fish with bow and arrow, and in this they are
+quite skillful. One morning some boys brought me a bass, weighing
+perhaps sis pounds, which one of them had shot with an arrow.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_1_4" id = "chapIII_1_4">
+STOCK RAISING.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Stock raising, in a small way, may be called a Seminole industry. I
+found that at least fifty cattle, and probably more, are owned by
+members of the tribe and that the Seminole probably possess a thousand
+swine and five hundred chickens. The latter are of an excellent breed.
+At Cat Fish Lake an unusual interest in horses seems now to be
+developing. I found there twenty horses. I was told that there are
+twelve horses at Fish Eating Creek, and I judge that between thirty-five
+and forty of these animals are now in possession of the tribe.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_1_5" id = "chapIII_1_5">
+KOONTI.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The unique industry, in the more limited sense of the word, of the
+Seminole is the making of the Koonti flour. Koonti is a root containing
+a large percentage of starch. It is said to yield a starch equal to that
+of the best Bermuda arrowroot. White men call it the “Indian bread
+root,” and lately its worth as an article of commerce has been
+recognized by the whites. There are now at least two factories in
+operation in Southern Florida in which the Koonti is made into a flour
+for the white man’s market. I was at one such factory at Miami and saw
+another near Orlando. I ate of a Koonti pudding at Miami, and can say
+that, as it was there prepared and served with milk and guava jelly, it
+was delicious. As might be supposed, the Koonti industry, as carried on
+by the whites, produces a far finer flour than that which the Indians
+manufacture. The Indian process, as I watched it at Horse Creek, was
+this: The roots were gathered, the earth was washed from them, and they
+were laid in heaps near the “Koonti log.”</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig69" id = "fig69"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig69.png" width = "454" height = "317"
+alt = "Koonti log.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 69.</span> Koonti log.</p>
+
+<p>The Koonti log, so called, was the trunk of a large pine tree, in
+which a number of holes, about nine inches square at the top, their
+sides
+<span class = "pagenum">514</span>
+<a name = "page514" id = "page514"> </a>
+<!--png 598-->
+sloping downward to a point, had been cut side by side. Each of these
+holes was the property of some one of the squaws or of the children of
+the camp. For each of the holes, which were to serve as mortars, a
+pestle made of some hard wood had been furnished. (<a href =
+"#fig69">Fig.&nbsp;69</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig70" id = "fig70"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig70.png" width = "433" height = "50"
+alt = "Koonti pestles.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 70.</span> Koonti pestles.</p>
+
+<p>The first step in the process was to reduce the washed Koonti to a
+kind of pulp. This was done by chopping it into small pieces and filling
+with it one of the mortars and pounding it with a pestle. The contents
+of the mortar were then laid upon a small platform. Each worker had a
+platform. When a sufficient quantity of the root had been pounded the
+whole mass was taken to the creek near by and thoroughly saturated with
+water in a vessel made of bark.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig71" id = "fig71"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig71.png" width = "337" height = "139"
+alt = "Koonti mash vessel.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 71.</span> Koonti mash vessel.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">515</span>
+<a name = "page515" id = "page515"> </a>
+<!--png 599-->
+The pulp was then washed in a straining cloth, the starch of the Koonti
+draining into a deer hide suspended below.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig72" id = "fig72"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig72.jpg" width = "378" height = "500"
+alt = "Koonti strainer.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 72.</span> Koonti strainer.</p>
+
+<p>When the starch had been thoroughly washed from the mass the latter
+was thrown away, and the starchy sediment in the water in the deerskin
+left to ferment. After some days the sediment was taken from the water
+and spread upon palmetto leaves to dry. When dried, it was a yellowish
+white flour, ready for use. In the factory at Miami substantially this
+process is followed, the chief variation from it being that the
+<span class = "pagenum">516</span>
+<a name = "page516" id = "page516"> </a>
+<!--png 600-->
+Koonti is passed through several successive fermentations, thereby
+making it purer and whiter than the Indian product. Improved appliances
+for the manufacture are used by the white man.</p>
+
+<p>The Koonti bread, as I saw it among the Indians, was of a bright
+orange color, and rather insipid, though not unpleasant to the taste. It
+was saltless. Its yellow color was owing to the fact that the flour had
+had but one fermentation.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_1_6" id = "chapIII_1_6">
+INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The following is a summary of the results of the industries now
+engaged in by the Florida Indians. It shows what is approximately true
+of these at the present time:</p>
+
+<table class = "text">
+<tr>
+<td width = "60%">Acres under cultivation</td>
+<td></td>
+<td class = "number">100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Corn raised</td>
+<td class = "middle">bushels</td>
+<td class = "number">500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sugarcane</td>
+<td class = "middle">gallons</td>
+<td class = "number">1,500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Cattle</td>
+<td class = "middle">number owned</td>
+<td class = "number">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Swine</td>
+<td class = "middle">do.</td>
+<td class = "number">1,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Chickens</td>
+<td class = "middle">do.</td>
+<td class = "number">500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Horses</td>
+<td class = "middle">do.</td>
+<td class = "number">35</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Koonti</td>
+<td class = "middle">bushels</td>
+<td class = "number">5,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Sweet potatoes</td>
+<td class = "middle">do.</td>
+<td class = "number">...</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Melons</td>
+<td class = "middle">number</td>
+<td class = "number">3,000</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h5><a name = "chapIII_2" id = "chapIII_2">
+ARTS.</a></h5>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_2_1" id = "chapIII_2_1">
+INDUSTRIAL ARTS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>In reference to the way in which, the Seminole Indians have met
+necessities for invention and have expressed the artistic impulse, I
+found little to add to what I have already placed on record.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_1" id = "chapIII_2_1_1">
+<i>Utensils and implements.</i></a>&mdash;The proximity of this people
+to the Europeans for the last three centuries, while it has not led them
+to adopt the white man’s civilization in matters of government,
+religion, language, manners, and customs, has, nevertheless, induced
+them to appropriate for their own use some of the utensils, implements,
+weapons, &amp;c., of the strangers. For example, it was easy for the
+ancestors of these Indians to see that the iron kettle of the white man
+was better in every way than their own earthenware pots. Gradually,
+therefore, the art of making pottery died out among them, and now, as I
+believe, there is no pottery whatever in use among the Florida Indians.
+They neither make nor purchase it. They no longer buy even small
+articles of earthenware, preferring tin instead, Iron implements
+likewise have supplanted those made of stone. Even their word for stone,
+“Tcat-to,” has been applied to iron. They purchase hoes, hunting knives,
+hatchets, axes, and, for special use in their homes, knives nearly two
+feet in length. With these long knives they dress timber, chop meat,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_2" id = "chapIII_2_1_2">
+<i>Weapons.</i></a>&mdash;They continue the use of the bow and arrow,
+but no longer for the purposes of war, or, by the adults, for the
+purposes of hunting.
+<span class = "pagenum">517</span>
+<a name = "page517" id = "page517"> </a>
+<!--png 601-->
+The rifle serves them much better. It seems to be customary for every
+male in the tribe over twelve years of age to provide himself with a
+rifle. The bow, as now made, is a single piece of mulberry or other
+elastic wood and is from four to six feet in length; the bowstring is
+made of twisted deer rawhide; the arrows are of cane and of hard wood
+and vary in length from two to four feet; they are, as a rule, tipped
+with a sharp conical roll of sheet iron. The skill of the young men in
+the use of the bow and arrow is remarkable.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_3" id = "chapIII_2_1_3">
+<i>Weaving and basket making.</i></a>&mdash;The Seminole are not now
+weavers. Their few wants for clothing and bedding are supplied by
+fabrics manufactured by white men. They are in a small way, however,
+basket makers. From the swamp cane, and sometimes from the covering of
+the stalk of the fan palmetto, they manufacture flat baskets and sieves
+for domestic service.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_4" id = "chapIII_2_1_4">
+<i>Uses of the palmetto.</i></a>&mdash;In this connection I call
+attention to the inestimable value of the palmetto tree to the Florida
+Indians. From the trunk of the tree the frames and platforms of their
+houses are made; of its leaves durable water tight roofs are made for
+the houses; with the leaves their lodges are covered and beds protecting
+the body from the dampness of the ground are made; the tough fiber which
+lies between the stems of the leaves and the bark furnishes them with
+material from which they make twine and rope of great strength and from
+which they could, were it necessary, weave cloth for clothing; the
+tender new growth at the top of the tree is a very nutritious and
+palatable article of food, to be eaten either raw or baked; its taste is
+somewhat like that of the chestnut; its texture is crisp like that of
+our celery stalk.</p>
+
+<table class = "figright">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<a name = "fig73" id = "fig73"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig73.jpg" width = "183" height = "323"
+alt = "Mortar and pestle."></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "caption"><span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 73.</span>
+Mortar and pestle.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_5" id = "chapIII_2_1_5">
+<i>Mortar and pestle.</i></a>&mdash;The home made mortar and pestle has
+not yet been supplanted by any utensil furnished by the trader. This is
+still the best mill they have in which to grind their corn. The mortar
+is made from a log of live oak (?) wood, ordinarily about two feet in
+length and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. One end of the log
+is hollowed out to quite a depth, and in this, by the hammering of a
+pestle made of mastic wood, the corn is reduced to hominy or to the
+impalpable flour of which I have spoken. (<a href =
+"#fig73">Fig.&nbsp;73</a>.)</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_6" id = "chapIII_2_1_6">
+<i>Canoe making.</i></a>&mdash;Canoe making is still one of their
+industrial arts, the canoe being their chief means of transportation.
+The Indian settlements are all so situated that the inhabitants
+<span class = "pagenum">518</span>
+<a name = "page518" id = "page518"> </a>
+<!--png 602-->
+of one can reach those of the others by water. The canoe is what is
+known as a “dugout,” made from the cypress log.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_7" id = "chapIII_2_1_7">
+<i>Fire making.</i></a>&mdash;The art of fire making by simple friction
+is now, I believe, neglected among the Seminole, unless at the starting
+of the sacred fire for the Green Corn Dance. A fire is now kindled
+either by the common Ma-tci (matches) of the civilized man or by steel
+and flint, powder and paper. “Tom Tiger” showed me how he builds a fire
+when away from home. He held, crumpled between the thumb and forefinger
+of the left hand, a bit of paper. In the folds of the paper he poured
+from his powder horn a small quantity of gunpowder. Close beside the
+paper he held also a piece of flint. Striking this flint with a bit of
+steel and at the same time giving to the left hand a quick upward
+movement, he ignited the powder and paper. From this he soon made a fire
+among the pitch pine chippings he had previously prepared.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig74" id = "fig74"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig74.png" width = "480" height = "322"
+alt = "Hide stretcher.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 74.</span> Hide stretcher.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_1_8" id = "chapIII_2_1_8">
+<i>Preparation of skins.</i></a>&mdash;I did not learn just how the
+Indians dress deer skins, but I observed that they had in use and for
+sale the dried skin, with the hair of the animal left on it; the bright
+yellow buckskin, very soft and strong; and also the dark red buckskin,
+which evidently had passed, in part of its preparation, through smoke. I
+was told that the brains of the animal serve an important use in the
+skin dressing process. The accompanying sketch shows a simple frame in
+use for stretching and drying the skin. (<a href =
+"#fig74">Fig.&nbsp;74</a>)</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_2_2" id = "chapIII_2_2">
+ORNAMENTAL ARTS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>In my search for evidence of the working of the art instinct proper,
+i.e., in ornamental or fine art, I found but little to add to what has
+been
+<span class = "pagenum">519</span>
+<a name = "page519" id = "page519"> </a>
+<!--png 603-->
+already said. I saw but few attempts at ornamentation beyond those made
+on the person and on clothing. Houses, canoes, utensils, implements,
+weapons, were almost all without carving or painting. In fact, the only
+carving I noticed in the Indian country was on a pine tree near Myers.
+It was a rude outline of the head of a bull. The local report is that
+when the white men began to send their cattle south of the
+Caloosahatchie River the Indians marked this tree with this sign. The
+only painting I saw was the rude representation of a man, upon the shaft
+of one of the pestles used at the Koonti log at Horse Creek. It was made
+by one of the girls for her own amusement.</p>
+
+<p>I have already spoken of the art of making silver ornaments.</p>
+
+<p><a name = "chapIII_2_2_1" id = "chapIII_2_2_1">
+<i>Music.</i></a>&mdash;Music, as far as I could discover, is but little
+in use among the Seminole. Their festivals are few; so few that the
+songs of the fathers have mostly been forgotten. They have songs for the
+Green Corn Dance; they have lullabys; and there is a doleful song they
+sing in praise of drink, which is occasionally heard when the white man
+has sold Indians whisky on coming to town. Knowing the motive of the
+song, I thought the tune stupid and maudlin. Without pretending to
+reproduce it exactly, I remember it as something like this:</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<img src = "images/drink.png" width = "519" height = "47"
+alt = "musical notation: ‘My precious drink, I fondly love thee.
+Standing I take thee. And walk until morning. Yo-wan-ha-de.’"
+title = "musical notation: ‘My precious drink, I fondly love thee.
+Standing I take thee. And walk until morning. Yo-wan-ha-de.’"></p>
+
+<p class = "mynote">
+<a href = "images/drink.midi">MIDI file</a> (may require adjustments to
+browser)</p>
+
+<p>I give a free translation of the Indian words and an approximation to
+the tune. The last note in this, as in the lullaby I noted above, is
+unmusical and staccato.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapIII_3" id = "chapIII_3">
+RELIGION.</a></h5>
+
+<p>I could learn but little of the religious faiths and practices
+existing among the Florida Indians. I was struck, however, in making my
+investigations, by the evident influence Christian teaching has had upon
+the native faith. How far it has penetrated the inherited thought of the
+Indian I do not know. But, in talking with Ko-nip-ha-tco, he told me
+that his people believe that the Koonti root was a gift from God; that
+long ago the “Great Spirit” sent Jesus Christ to the earth with the
+precious plant, and that Jesus had descended upon the world at Cape
+Florida and there given the Koonti to “the red men.” In reference to
+this tradition, it is to be remembered that during the seventeenth
+century the Spaniards had vigorous missions among the Florida Indians.
+Doubtless it was from these that certain Christian names and beliefs now
+traceable among the Seminole found way into the savage creed and
+ritual.</p>
+
+<p>I attempted several times to obtain from my interpreter a statement
+of the religious beliefs he had received from his people. I cannot
+affirm with confidence that success followed my efforts.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">520</span>
+<a name = "page520" id = "page520"> </a>
+<!--png 604-->
+He told me that his people believe in a “Great Spirit,” whose name is
+His-a-kit-a-mis-i. This word, I have good reason to believe, means “the
+master of breath.” The Seminole for breath is His-a-kit-a.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot be sure that Ko-nip-ha-tco knew anything of what I meant by
+the word “spirit.” I tried to convey my meaning to him, but I think I
+failed. He told me that the place to which Indians go after death is
+called “Po-ya-fi-tsa” and that the Indians who have died are the
+Pi-ya-fits-ul-ki, or “the people of Po-ya-fi-tsa.” That was our nearest
+understanding of the word “spirit” or “soul.”</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_3_1" id = "chapIII_3_1">
+MORTUARY CUSTOMS.</a></h6>
+
+<p>As the Seminole mortuary customs are closely connected with their
+religious beliefs, it will be in place to record here what I learned of
+them. The description refers particularly to the death and burial of a
+child.</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig75" id = "fig75"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig75.png" width = "425" height = "268"
+alt = "Seminole bier.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 75.</span> Seminole bier.</p>
+
+<p>The preparation for burial began as soon as death had taken place.
+The body was clad in a new shirt, a new handkerchief being tied about
+the neck and another around the head. A spot of red paint was placed on
+the right cheek and one of black upon the left. The body was laid face
+upwards. In the left hand, together with a bit of burnt wood, a small
+bow about twelve inches in length was placed, the hand lying naturally
+over the middle of the body. Across the bow, held by the right hand, was
+laid an arrow, slightly drawn. During these preparations, the women
+loudly lamented, with hair disheveled. At the same time some men had
+selected a place for the burial and made the grave in this manner: Two
+palmetto logs of proper size were split. The four pieces were then
+firmly placed on edge, in the shape of an oblong box, lengthwise east
+and west. In this box a floor was laid, and over this a blanket was
+spread. Two men, at next sunrise, carried the body from
+<span class = "pagenum">521</span>
+<a name = "page521" id = "page521"> </a>
+<!--png 605-->
+the camp to the place of burial, the body being suspended at feet
+thighs, back, and neck from a long pole (<a href =
+"#fig75">Fig.&nbsp;75</a>). The relatives followed. In the grave, which
+is called “To-hŏp-ki”&mdash;a word used by the Seminole for “stockade,”
+or “fort,” also, the body was then laid the feet to the east. A blanket
+was then carefully wrapped around the body. Over this palmetto leaves
+were placed and the grave was tightly closed by a covering of logs.
+Above the box a roof was then built. Sticks, in the form of an <b>X</b>,
+were driven into the earth across the overlying logs; these were
+connected by a pole, and this structure was covered thickly with
+palmetto leaves. (<a href = "#fig76">Fig.&nbsp;76</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig76" id = "fig76"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig76.png" width = "500" height = "312"
+alt = "Seminole grave.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 76.</span> Seminole grave.</p>
+
+<p>The bearers of the body then made a large fire at each end of the
+“To-hŏp-ki.” With this the ceremony at the grave ended and all returned
+to the camp. During that day and for three days thereafter the relatives
+remained at home and refrained from work. The fires at the grave were
+renewed at sunset by those who had made them, and after nightfall
+torches were there waved in the air, that “the bad birds of the night”
+might not get at the Indian lying in his grave. The renewal of the fires
+and waving of the torches were repeated three days. The fourth day the
+fires were allowed to die out. Throughout the camp “medicine” had been
+sprinkled at sunset for three days. On the fourth day it was said that
+the Indian “had gone.” From that time the mourning ceased and the
+members of the family returned to their usual occupations.</p>
+
+<p>The interpretation of the ceremonies just mentioned, as given me, is
+this: The Indian was laid in his grave to remain there, it was believed,
+only until the fourth day. The fires at head and feet, as well as the
+waving of the torches, were to guard him from the approach of “evil
+birds” who would harm him. His feet were placed toward the east, that
+when he arose to go to the skies he might go straight to the sky
+<span class = "pagenum">522</span>
+<a name = "page522" id = "page522"> </a>
+<!--png 606-->
+path, which commenced at the place of the sun’s rising; that were he
+laid with the feet in any other direction he would not know when he rose
+what path to take and he would be lost in the darkness. He had with him
+his bow and arrow, that he might procure food on his way. The piece of
+burnt wood in his hand was to protect him from the “bad birds” while he
+was on his skyward journey. These “evil birds” are called
+Ta-lak-i-çlak-o. The last rite paid to the Seminole dead is at the end
+of four moons. At that time the relatives go to the To-hŏp-ki and cut
+from around it the overgrowing grass. A widow lives with disheveled hair
+for the first twelve moons of her widowhood.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_3_2" id = "chapIII_3_2">
+GREEN CORN DANCE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The one institution at present in which the religious beliefs of the
+Seminole find special expression is what is called the “Green Corn
+Dance.” It is the occasion for an annual purification and rejoicing. I
+could get no satisfactory description of the festival. No white man, so
+I was told, has seen it, and the only Indian I met who could in any
+manner speak English, made but an imperfect attempt to describe it. In
+fact, he seemed unwilling to talk about it. He told me, however, that as
+the season for holding the festival approaches the medicine men assemble
+and, through their ceremonies, decide when it shall take place, and, if
+I caught his meaning, determine also how long the dance shall continue.
+Others, on the contrary, told me that the dance is always continued for
+four days.</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen days previous to the festival heralds are sent from the lodge
+of the medicine men to give notice to all the camps of the day when the
+dance will commence. Small sticks are thereupon hung up in each camp,
+representing the number of days between that date and the day of the
+beginning of the dance. With the passing of each day one of these sticks
+is thrown away. The day the last one is cast aside the families go to
+the appointed place. At the dancing ground they find the selected space
+arranged as in the accompanying diagram (<a href =
+"#fig77">Fig.&nbsp;77</a>).</p>
+
+<p>The evening of the first day the ceremony of taking the “Black
+Drink,” Pa-sa-is-kit-a, is endured. This drink was described to me as
+having both a nauseating smell and taste. It is probably a mixture
+similar to that used by the Creek in the last century at a like
+ceremony. It acts as both an emetic and a cathartic, and it is believed
+among the Indians that unless one drinks of it he will be sick at some
+time in the year, and besides that he cannot safely eat of the green
+corn of the feast. During the drinking the dance begins and proceeds; in
+it the medicine men join.</p>
+
+<p>At that time the Medicine Song is sung. My Indian would not repeat
+this song for me. He declared that any one who sings the Medicine Song,
+except at the Green Corn Dance or as a medicine man, will certainly meet
+with some harm. That night, after the “Black Drink” has had its effect,
+the Indians sleep. The next morning they
+<span class = "pagenum">523</span>
+<a name = "page523" id = "page523"> </a>
+<!--png 607-->
+eat of the green corn. The day following is one of fasting, but the next
+day is one of great feasting, “Hom-pi-ta-çlak-o,” in which “Indian eat
+all time,” “Hom-pis-yak-i-ta.”</p>
+
+<p class = "illustration">
+<a name = "fig77" id = "fig77"> </a>
+<img src = "images/fig77.png" width = "449" height = "432"
+alt = "Green Corn Dance.">
+</p>
+<p class = "caption">
+<span class = "smallcaps">Fig. 77.</span> Green Corn Dance.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_3_3" id = "chapIII_3_3">
+USE OF MEDICINES.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Concerning the use by the Indians of medicine against sickness, I
+learned only that they are in the habit of taking various herbs for
+their ailments. What part incantation or sorcery plays in the healing of
+disease I do not know. Nor did I learn what the Indians think of the
+origin and effects of dreams. Me-le told me that he knows of a plant the
+leaves of which, eaten, will cure the bite of a rattlesnake, and that he
+knows also of a plant which is an antidote to the noxious effects of the
+poison ivy or so-called poison oak.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapIII_4" id = "chapIII_4">
+GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.</a></h5>
+
+<p>I close this chapter by putting upon record a few general
+observations, as an aid to future investigation into Seminole life.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_4_1" id = "chapIII_4_1">
+STANDARD OF VALUE.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The standard of value among the Florida Indians is now taken from the
+currency of the United States. The unit they seem to have adopted,
+<span class = "pagenum">524</span>
+<a name = "page524" id = "page524"> </a>
+<!--png 608-->
+at least at the Big Cypress Swamp settlement, is twenty-five cents,
+which they call “Kan-cat-ka-hum-kin” (literally, “one mark on the
+ground”). At Miami a trader keeps his accounts with the Indians in
+single marks or pencil strokes. For example, an Indian brings to him
+buck skins, for which the trader allows twelve “chalks.” The Indian, not
+wishing then to purchase anything, receives a piece of paper marked in
+this way:</p>
+
+<p class = "inset2">“IIII&mdash;IIII&mdash;IIII.<br>
+J. W. E. owes Little Tiger $3.”</p>
+
+<p>At his next visit the Indian may buy five “marks” worth of goods. The
+trader then takes the paper and returns it to Little Tiger changed as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p class = "inset2">“IIII&mdash;III.<br>
+J. W. E. owes Little Tiger<br>
+<span class = "inset4">$1.75.”</span></p>
+
+<p>Thus the account is kept until all the “marks” are crossed off, when
+the trader takes the paper into his own possession. The value of the
+purchases made at Miami by the Indians, I was informed, is annually
+about $2,000. This is, however, an amount larger than would be the
+average for the rest of the tribe, for the Miami Indians do a
+considerable business in the barter and sale of ornamental plumage.</p>
+
+<p>What the primitive standard of value among the Seminole was is
+suggested to me by their word for money, “Tcat-to Ko-na-wa.” “Ko-na-wa”
+means beads, and “Tcat-to,” while it is the name for iron and metal, is
+also the name for stone. “Tcat-to” probably originally meant stone.
+Tcat-to Ko-na-wa (i.e., stone beads) was, then, the primitive money.
+With “Hat-ki,” or white, added, the word means silver; with “La-ni,” or
+yellow, added, it means gold. For greenbacks they use the words
+“Nak-ho-tsi Tcat-to Ko-na-wa,” which is, literally, “paper stone
+beads.”</p>
+
+<p>Their methods of measuring are now, probably, those of the white man.
+I questioned my respondent closely, but could gain no light upon the
+terms he used as equivalents for our measurements.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_4_2" id = "chapIII_4_2">
+DIVISIONS OF TIME.</a></h6>
+
+<p>I also gained but little knowledge of their divisions of time. They
+have the year, the name for which is the same as that used for summer,
+and in their year are twelve months, designated, respectively:</p>
+
+<table class = "text inline">
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">1.</td>
+<td>Çla-fŭts-u-tsi, Little Winter.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">2.</td>
+<td>Ho-ta-li-ha-si, Wind Moon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">3.</td>
+<td>Ho-ta-li-ha-si-çlak-o, Big Wind Moon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">4.</td>
+<td>Ki-ha-su-tsi, Little Mulberry Moon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">5.</td>
+<td>Ki-ha-si-çlat-o, Big Mulberry Moon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">6.</td>
+<td>Ka-too-ha-si.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">7.</td>
+<td>Hai-yu-tsi.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">8.</td>
+<td>Hai-yu-tsi-çlak-o.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">9.</td>
+<td>O-ta-wŭs-ku-tsi.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">10.</td>
+<td>O-ta-wŭs-ka-çlak-o.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">11.</td>
+<td>I-ho-li.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">12.</td>
+<td>Çla-fo-çlak-o, Big Winter.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">525</span>
+<a name = "page525" id = "page525"> </a>
+<!--png 609-->
+I suppose that the spelling of these words could be improved, but I
+reproduce them phonetically as nearly as I can, not making what to me
+would be desirable corrections. The months appear to be divided simply
+into days, and these are, in part at least, numbered by reference to
+successive positions of the moon at sunset. When I asked Täl-la-häs-ke
+how long he would stay at his present camp, he made reply by pointing,
+to the new moon in the west and sweeping his hand from west to east to
+where the moon would be when he should go home. He meant to answer,
+about ten days thence. The day is divided by terms descriptive of the
+positions of the sun in the sky from dawn to sunset.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_4_3" id = "chapIII_4_3">
+NUMERATION.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The Florida Indians can count, by their system, indefinitely. Their
+system of numeration is quinary, as will appear from the following
+list:</p>
+
+<table class = "text inline">
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">1.</td>
+<td>Hûm-kin.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">2.</td>
+<td>Ho-<i>ko-lin</i>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">3.</td>
+<td>To-<i>tei-nin</i>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">4.</td>
+<td><i>Os-tin</i>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">5.</td>
+<td>Tsaq-ke-pin.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">6.</td>
+<td>I-pa-kin.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">7.</td>
+<td><i>Ko-lo</i>-pa-kin.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">8.</td>
+<td><i>Tci-na</i>-pa-kin</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">9.</td>
+<td><i>Os-ta</i>-pa-kin.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">10.</td>
+<td>Pa-lin.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">11.</td>
+<td>Pa-lin-hûm-kin, <i>i.e.</i>, ten one, &amp;c.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "number">20.</td>
+<td>Pa-li-ho-ko-lin, <i>i.e.</i>, two tens.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>As a guide towards a knowledge of the primitive manner of counting
+the method used by an old man in his intercourse with me will serve. He
+wished to count eight. He first placed the thumb of the right hand upon
+the little finger of the left, then the right forefinger upon the next
+left hand finger, then the thumb on the next finger, and the forefinger
+on the next, and then the thumb upon the thumb; leaving now the thumb of
+the right hand resting upon the thumb of the left, he counted the
+remaining numbers on the right hand, using for this purpose the fore and
+middle fingers of the left; finally he shut the fourth and little
+fingers of the right hand down upon its palm, and raising his hands,
+thumbs touching, the counted fingers outspread, he showed me eight as
+the number of horses of which I had made inquiry.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_4_4" id = "chapIII_4_4">
+SENSE OF COLOR.</a></h6>
+
+<p>Concerning the sense of color among these Indians, I found that my
+informant at least possessed it to only a very limited degree. Black and
+white were clear to his sight, and for these he had appropriate names
+Also for brown, which was to him a “yellow black,” and for gray, which
+was a “white black.” For some other colors his perception was distinct
+and the names he used proper. But a name for blue he applied to many
+other colors, shading from violet to green. A name for red followed a
+succession of colors all the way from scarlet to pink. A name for yellow
+he applied to dark orange and thence to a list of colors through to
+yellow’s lightest and most delicate tint. I thought that at one time I
+had found him making a clear distinction between green and blue, but as
+I examined further I was never certain that he would not exchange the
+names when asked about one or the other color.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">526</span>
+<a name = "page526" id = "page526"> </a>
+<!--png 610-->
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_4_5" id = "chapIII_4_5">
+EDUCATION.</a></h6>
+
+<p>The feeling of the tribe is antagonistic to even such primary
+education as reading, writing, and calculation. About ten years ago an
+attempt, the only attempt in modern times, to establish schools among
+them was made by Rev. Mr. Frost, now at Myers, Fla. He did not
+succeed.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_4_6" id = "chapIII_4_6">
+SLAVERY.</a></h6>
+
+<p>By reference to the population table, it will be noticed that there
+are three negroes and seven persons of mixed breed among the Seminole.
+It has been said that these negroes were slaves and are still held as
+slaves by the Indians. I saw nothing and could not hear of anything to
+justify this statement. One Indian is, I know, married to a negress, and
+the two negresses in the tribe live apparently on terms of perfect
+equality with the other women. Me-le goes and comes as he sees fit. No
+one attempts to control his movements. It may be that long ago the
+Florida Indians held negroes as slaves, but my impression is to the
+contrary. The Florida Indians, I think, rather offered a place of refuge
+for fugitive bondmen and gradually made them members of their tribe.</p>
+
+<h6><a name = "chapIII_4_7" id = "chapIII_4_7">
+HEALTH.</a></h6>
+
+<p>In the introduction to this report I said that the health of the
+Seminole is good. As confirming this statement, I found that the deaths
+during the past year had been very few. I had trustworthy information
+concerning the deaths of only four persons. One of these deaths was of
+an old woman, O-pa-ka, at the Fish Eating Creek settlement; another was
+of Täl-la-häs-ke’s wife, at Cat Fish Lake settlement; another was of a
+sister of Täl-la-häs-ke; and the last was of a child, at Cow Creek
+settlement. At the Big Cypress Swamp settlement I was assured that no
+deaths had occurred either there or at Miami during the year. On the
+contrary, however, I was told by some white people at Miami that several
+children had died at the Indian camp near there in the year past.
+Täl-la-häs-ke said to me, “Twenty moons ago, heap pickaninnies die!” And
+I was informed by others that about two years before there had been
+considerable fatality among children, as the consequence of a sort of
+epidemic at one of the northern camps. Admitting the correctness of
+these reports, I have no reason to modify my general statement that the
+health of the Seminole is good and that they are certainly increasing
+their number. Their appearance indicates excellent health and their
+environment is in their favor.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class = "pagenum">527</span>
+<a name = "page527" id = "page527"> </a>
+<!--png 611-->
+<h4 class = "chapter"><a name = "chapIV" id = "chapIV">
+CHAPTER IV.</a></h4>
+
+<h5>ENVIRONMENT OF THE SEMINOLE.</h5>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapIV_1" id = "chapIV_1">NATURE.</a></h5>
+
+<p>Southern Florida, the region to which most of the Seminole have been
+driven by the advances of civilization, is, taken all in all, unlike any
+other part of our country. In climate it is subtropical; in character of
+soil it shows a contrast of comparative barrenness and abounding
+fertility; and in topography it is a plain, with hardly any perceptible
+natural elevations or depressions. The following description, based upon
+the notes of my journey to the Big Cypress Swamp, indicates the
+character of the country generally. I left Myers, on the Caloosahatchie
+River, a small settlement composed principally of cattlemen, one morning
+in the month of February. Even in February the sun was so hot that
+clothing was a burden. As we started upon our journey, which was to be
+for a distance of sixty miles or more, my attention was called to the
+fact that the harness of the horse attached to my buggy was without the
+breeching. I was told that this part of the harness would not be needed,
+so level should we find the country. Our way, soon after leaving the
+main street of Myers, entered pine woods. The soil across which we
+traveled at first was a dry, dazzling white sand, over which, was
+scattered a growth of dwarf palmetto. The pine trees were not near
+enough together to shade us from the fierce, sun. This sparseness of
+growth, and comparative absence of shade, is one marked characteristic
+of Florida’s pine woods. Through this thin forest we drove all the day.
+The monotonous scenery was unchanged except that at a short distance
+from Myers it was broken by swamps and ponds. So far as the appearance
+of the country around as indicated, we could not tell whether we were
+two miles or twenty from our starting point. Nearly half our way during
+the first day lay through water, and yet we were in the midst of what is
+called the winter “dry season.” The water took the shape here of a swamp
+and there of a pond, but where the swamp or the pond began or ended it
+was scarcely possible to tell, one passed by almost imperceptible
+degrees from dry land to moist and from moist land into pool or marsh.
+Generally, however, the swamps were filled with a growth of cypress
+trees. These cypress groups were well defined in the pine woods by the
+closeness of their growth and the sharpness of the boundary of the
+clusters. Usually, too, the cypress swamps were surrounded by rims of
+water grasses. Six miles from Myers we crossed a cypress swamp, in which
+the water at its greatest depth was from one foot to two feet deep. A
+wagon road had
+<span class = "pagenum">528</span>
+<a name = "page528" id = "page528"> </a>
+<!--png 612-->
+been cut through the dense growth of trees, and the trees were covered
+with hanging mosses and air plants.</p>
+
+<p>The ponds differed from the swamps only in being treeless. They are
+open sheets of water surrounded by bands of greater or less width of
+tall grasses. The third day, between 30 and 40 miles from Myers, we left
+the pine tree lands and started across what are called in Southern
+Florida the “prairies.” These are wide stretches covered with grass and
+with scrub palmetto and dotted at near intervals with what are called
+pine “islands” or “hammocks” and cypress swamps. The pine island or
+hammock is a slight elevation of the soil, rising a few inches above the
+dead level. The cypress swamp, on the contrary, seems to have its origin
+only in a slight depression in the plain. Where there is a ring of
+slight depression, inclosing a slight elevation, there is generally a
+combination of cypress and pine and oak growth. For perhaps 15 miles we
+traveled that third day over this expanse of grass; most of the way we
+were in water, among pine islands, skirting cypress swamps and saw-grass
+marshes, and being jolted through thick clumps of scrub palmetto. Before
+nightfall we reached the district occupied by the Indians, passing there
+into what is called the “Bad Country,” an immense expanse of submerged
+land, with here and there islands rising from it, as from the drier
+prairies. We had a weird ride that afternoon and night: Now we passed
+through saw-grass 5 or 6 feet high and were in water 6 to 20 inches in
+depth; then we encircled some impenetrable jungle of vines and trees,
+and again we took our way out upon a vast expanse of water and grass. At
+but one place in a distance of several miles was it dry enough for one
+to step upon the ground without wetting the feet. We reached that place
+at nightfall, but found no wood there for making a fire. We were 4 miles
+then from any good camping ground. Captain Hendry asked our Indian
+companion whether he could take us through the darkness to a place
+called the “Buck Pens.” Ko-nip-ha-tco said he could. Under his guidance
+we started in the twilight, the sky covered with clouds. The night which
+followed was starless, and soon we were splashing through a country
+which, to my eyes, was trackless. There were visible to me no landmarks.
+But our Indian, following a trail made by his own people, about nine
+o’clock brought us to the object of our search. A black mass suddenly
+appeared in the darkness. It was the pine island we were seeking, the
+“Buck Pens.”</p>
+
+<p>On our journey that day we had crossed a stream, so called, the
+Ak-ho-lo-wa-koo-tci. So level is the country, however, and so sluggish
+the flow of water there that this river, where we crossed it, was more
+like a swamp than a stream. Indeed, in Southern Florida the streams, for
+a long distance from what would be called their sources, are more a
+succession of swamps than well defined currents confined to channels by
+banks. They have no real shores until they are well on their way towards
+the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the point I reached, on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp,
+<span class = "pagenum">529</span>
+<a name = "page529" id = "page529"> </a>
+<!--png 613-->
+lie the Everglades proper, a wide district with, only deeper water and
+better defined islands than those which mark the “Bad Country” and the
+“Devil’s Garden” I had entered.</p>
+
+<p>The description I have given refers to that part of the State of
+Florida lying south of the Caloosahatchee River. It is in this watery
+prairie and Everglade region that we find the immediate environment of
+most of the Seminole Indians. Of the surroundings of the Seminole north
+of the Caloosahatchee there is but little to say in modification of what
+has already been said. Near the Fish Eating Creek settlement there is a
+somewhat drier prairie land than that which I have just described. The
+range of barren sand hills which extends from the north along the middle
+of Florida to the headwaters of the Kissimmee River ends at Cat Fish
+Lake. Excepting these modifications, the topography of the whole Indian
+country of Florida is substantially the same as that which we traversed
+on the way from Myers into the Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades.</p>
+
+<p>Over this wide and seeming level of land and water, as I have said,
+there is a subtropical climate. I visited the Seminole in midwinter;
+yet, for all that my northern senses could discover, we were in the
+midst of summer. The few deciduous trees there were having a midyear
+pause, but trees with dense foliage, flowers, fruit, and growing grass
+were to be seen everywhere. The temperature was that of a northern June.
+By night we made our beds on the ground without discomfort from cold,
+and by day we were under the heat of a summer sun. There was certainly
+nothing in the climate to make one feel the need of more clothing or
+shelter than would protect from excessive heat or rain.</p>
+
+<p>Then the abundance of food, both animal and vegetable, obtainable in
+that region seemed to me to do away with the necessity, on the part of
+the people living there, for a struggle for existence. As I have already
+stated, the soil is quite barren over a large part of the district; but,
+on the other hand, there is also in many places a fertility of soil that
+cannot be surpassed. Plantings are followed by superabundant harvests,
+and the hunter is richly rewarded. But I need not repeat what has
+already been said; it suffices to note that the natural environment of
+the Seminole is such that ordinary effort serves to supply them,
+physically, with more than they need.</p>
+
+
+<h5><a name = "chapIV_2" id = "chapIV_2">MAN.</a></h5>
+
+<p>When we consider, in connection with these facts, what I have also
+before said, that these Indians are in no exceptional danger from wild
+animals or poisonous reptiles, that they need not specially guard
+against epidemic disease, and when we remember that they are native to
+whatever influences might affect injuriously persons from other parts of
+the country, we can easily see how much more favorably situated for
+physical prosperity they are than others of their kind. In fact, nature
+has made physical life so easy to them that their great danger lies in
+the
+<span class = "pagenum">530</span>
+<a name = "page530" id = "page530"> </a>
+<!--png 614-->
+possible want or decadence of the moral, strength needed to maintain
+them in a vigorous use of their powers. This moral strength to some
+degree they have, but in large measure it had its origin in and has been
+preserved by their struggles with man rather than with nature. The wars
+of their ancestors, extending over nearly two centuries, did the most to
+make them the brave and proud people they are. It is through the effects
+of these chiefly that they have been kept from becoming indolent and
+effeminate. They are now strong, fearless, haughty, and independent. But
+the near future is to initiate a new epoch in their history, an era in
+which their career may be the reverse of what it has been. Man is
+becoming a factor of new importance in their environment. The moving
+lines of the white population are closing in upon the land of the
+Seminole. There is no farther retreat to which they can go. It is their
+impulse to resist the intruders, but some of them are at last becoming
+wise enough to know that they cannot contend successfully with the white
+man. It is possible that even their few warriors may make an effort to
+stay the oncoming hosts, but ultimately they will either perish in the
+futile attempt or they will have to submit to a civilization which,
+until now, they have been able to repel and whose injurious
+accompaniments may degrade and destroy them. Hitherto the white man’s
+influence has been comparatively of no effect except in arousing in the
+Indian his more violent passions, and in exciting him to open hostility.
+For more than three centuries the European has been face to face with
+the Florida Indian and the two have never really been friends. Through
+the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the peninsula was the scene of
+frequently renewed warfare. Spaniard, Frenchman, Englishman, and
+Spaniard, in turn, kept the country in an unsettled state, and when the
+American Union received the province from Spain, sixty years ago, it
+received with it, in the tribe of the Seminole, an embittered and
+determined race of hostile subjects. This people our Government has
+never been able to conciliate or to conquer. A different Indian policy,
+or a different administration of it, might have prevented the disastrous
+wars of the last half century; but, as all know, the Seminole have
+always lived within our borders as aliens. It is only of late years, and
+through natural necessities, that any friendly intercourse of white man
+and Indian has been secured. The Indian has become too weak to contend
+successfully against his neighbor and the white man has learned enough
+to refrain from arousing the vindictiveness of the savage. The few white
+men now on the border line in Florida are, with only some exceptions,
+cattle dealers or traders seeking barter with the red men. The cattlemen
+sometimes meet the Indians on the prairies and are friendly with them
+for the sake of their stock, which often strays into the Seminole
+country. The other places of contact of the whites and Seminole are the
+settlements of Myers, Miami, Bartow, Fort Meade, and Tampa, all,
+however, centers of comparatively small population. To these places, at
+infrequent intervals., the Indians go for purposes of trade.</p>
+
+<p><span class = "pagenum">531</span>
+<a name = "page531" id = "page531"> </a>
+<!--png 615-->
+The Indians have appropriated for their service some of the products of
+European civilization, such as weapons, implements, domestic utensils,
+fabrics for clothing, &amp;c. Mentally, excepting a few religious ideas
+which they received long ago from the teaching of Spanish missionaries
+and, in the southern settlements, excepting some few Spanish words, the
+Seminole have accepted and appropriated practically nothing from, the
+white man. The two peoples remain, as they always have been, separate
+and independent. Up to the present, therefore, the human environment has
+had no effect upon the Indians aside from that which has just been
+noticed, except to arouse them to war and to produce among them war’s
+consequences.</p>
+
+<p>But soon a great and rapid change must take place. The large
+immigration of a white population into Florida, and especially the
+attempts at present being made to drain Lake Okeechobee and the
+Everglades, make it certain, as I have said, that the Seminole is about
+to enter a future unlike any past he has known. But now that new factors
+are beginning to direct his career, now that he can no longer retreat,
+now that he can no longer successfully contend, now that he is to be
+forced into close, unavoidable contact with men he has known only as
+enemies, what will he become? If we anger him, he still can do much harm
+before we can conquer him; but if we seek, by a proper policy, to do him
+justice, he yet may be made our friend and ally. Already, to the dislike
+of the old men of the tribe, some young braves show a willingness to
+break down the ancient barriers between them and our people, and I
+believe it possible that with encouragement, at a time not far distant,
+all these Indians may become our friends, forgetting their tragic past
+in a peaceful and prosperous future.</p>
+
+<span class = "pagenum">532</span>
+<a name = "page532" id = "page532"> </a>
+<!--png 616-->
+
+<h4 class = "chapter">INDEX</h4>
+
+<table class = "index">
+<tr>
+<td><p>Big Cypress Swamp Seminole settlement</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page477">477</a>,
+<a href = "#page478">478</a>, <a href = "#page499">499</a>,
+<a href = "#page507">507</a>, <a href = "#page529">529</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Billy, brother of Key West Billy</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page492">492</a>-<a href =
+"#page494">494</a>, <a href = "#page499">499</a>,
+<a href = "#page528">528</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Brown, Lieutenant, aid of, among Seminole</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page489">489</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Catfish Lake Seminole settlement</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page477">477</a>,
+<a href = "#page478">478</a>, <a href = "#page509">509</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Cow Creek Seminole settlement</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page477">477</a>,
+<a href = "#page478">478</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Cypress swamps, Florida</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page527">527</a>-<a href =
+"#page529">529</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Devil’s Garden, Florida</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page478">478</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hendry, F.&nbsp;A., aid in Florida</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page492">492</a>,
+<a href = "#page511">511</a>, <a href = "#page528">528</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Key West Billy</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page484">484</a>,
+<a href = "#page485">485</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Koonti, preparation of</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page513">513</a>-<a href =
+"#page516">516</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class = "inset1"><p>Seminole tradition of origin of</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page519">519</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Me-le the Seminole</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page489">489</a>,
+<a href = "#page490">490</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Miami River Seminole settlement</p></td>
+<td class = "number"><a href = "#page477">477</a>,
+<a href = "#page478">478</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class = "mynote">
+The word “TEOK-KO-CLACO” in the Green Corn Dance diagram may be an error
+for “TEOK-KO-ÇLACO”.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Seminole Indians of Florida
+       Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the
+       Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84,
+       Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532
+
+Author: Clay MacCauley
+
+Release Date: September 1, 2006 [EBook #19155]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Louise Hope, Carlo Traverso, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at
+http://gallica.bnf.fr
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ Smithsonian Institution--Bureau of Ethnology.
+
+        THE SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
+
+                       by
+
+                CLAY MacCAULEY.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                  Page.
+
+  Letter of transmittal                            475
+  Introduction                                     477
+
+CHAPTER I.
+  Personal characteristics                         481
+    Physical characteristics                       481
+      Physique of the men                          481
+      Physique of the women                        482
+    Clothing                                       482
+      Costume of the men                           483
+      Costume of the women                         485
+    Personal adornment                             486
+      Hairdressing                                 466
+      Ornamentation of clothing                    487
+      Use of beads                                 487
+      Silver disks                                 488
+      Ear rings                                    488
+      Finger rings                                 489
+      Silver vs. gold                              489
+      Crescents                                    489
+    Me-le                                          489
+    Psychical characteristics                      490
+      Ko-nip-ha-tco                                492
+      Intellectual ability                         493
+
+CHAPTER II.
+  Seminole society                                 495
+    The Seminole family                            495
+      Courtship                                    496
+      Marriage                                     496
+      Divorce                                      498
+      Childbirth                                   497
+      Infancy                                      497
+      Childhood                                    498
+      Seminole dwellings--
+          I-ful-lo-ha-tco's house                  499
+      Home life                                    503
+      Food                                         504
+      Camp fire                                    505
+      Manner of eating                             505
+      Amusements                                   506
+    The Seminole gens                              507
+      Fellowhood                                   508
+    The Seminole tribe                             508
+      Tribal organization                          508
+      Seat of government                           508
+      Tribal officers                              509
+      Name of tribe                                509
+
+CHAPTER III.
+  Seminole tribal life                             510
+    Industries                                     510
+      Agriculture                                  510
+        Soil                                       510
+        Corn                                       510
+        Sugar cane                                 511
+      Hunting                                      512
+      Fishing                                      513
+      Stock raising                                513
+      Koonti                                       513
+      Industrial statistics                        516
+    Arts                                           516
+      Industrial arts                              516
+        Utensils and implements                    516
+        Weapons                                    516
+        Weaving and basket making                  517
+        Uses of the palmetto                       517
+        Mortar and pestle                          517
+        Canoe making                               517
+        Fire making                                518
+        Preparation of skins                       518
+      Ornamental arts                              518
+        Music                                      519
+    Religion                                       519
+      Mortuary customs                             520
+      Green Corn Dance                             522
+      Use of Medicines                             523
+    General observations                           523
+      Standard of value                            523
+      Divisions of time                            524
+      Numeration                                   525
+      Sense of color                               525
+      Education                                    526
+      Slavery                                      526
+      Health                                       526
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+  Environment of the Seminole                      527
+    Nature                                         527
+    Man                                            529
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  Plate XIX. Seminole dwelling                     500
+    Fig. 60. Map of Florida                        477
+         61. Seminole costume                      483
+         62. Key West Billy                        484
+         63. Seminole costume                      485
+         64. Manner of wearing the hair            486
+         65. Manner of piercing the ear            488
+         66. Baby cradle or hammock                497
+         67. Temporary dwelling                    502
+         68. Sugar cane crusher                    511
+         69. Koonti log                            514
+         70. Koonti pestles                        514
+         71. Koonti mash vessel                    514
+         72. Koonti strainer                       515
+         73. Mortar and pestle                     517
+         74. Hide stretcher                        518
+         75. Seminole bier                         510
+         76. Seminole grave                        521
+         77. Green Corn Dance                      523
+
+
+
+
+LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
+
+
+    Minneapolis, Minn., _June_ 24,1884.
+
+SIR: During the winter of 1880-'81 I visited Florida, commissioned by
+you to inquire into the condition and to ascertain the number of the
+Indians commonly known as the Seminole then in that State. I spent part
+of the months of January, February, and March in an endeavor to
+accomplish this purpose. I have the honor to embody the result of my
+work in the following report.
+
+On account of causes beyond my control the paper does not treat of these
+Indians as fully as I had intended it should. Owing to the ignorance
+prevailing even in Florida of the locations of the homes of the Seminole
+and also to the absence of routes of travel in Southern Florida, much
+of my time at first was consumed in reaching the Indian country. On
+arriving there, I found myself obliged to go among the Indians ignorant
+of their language and without an interpreter able to secure me
+intelligible interviews with them except in respect to the commonest
+things. I was compelled, therefore, to rely upon observation and upon
+very simple, perhaps sometimes misunderstood, speech for what I have
+here placed on record. But while the report is only a sketch of a
+subject that would well reward thorough study, it may be found to
+possess value as a record of facts concerning this little-known remnant
+of a once powerful people.
+
+I have secured, I think, a correct census of the Florida Seminole by
+name, sex, age, gens, and place of living. I have endeavored to present
+a faithful portraiture of their appearance and personal characteristics,
+and have enlarged upon their manners and customs, as individuals and as
+a society, as much as the material at my command will allow; but under
+the disadvantageous circumstances to which allusion has already been
+made, I have been able to gain little more than a superficial and
+partial knowledge of their social organization, of the elaboration among
+them of the system of gentes, of their forms and methods of government,
+of their tribal traditions and modes of thinking, of their religious
+beliefs and practices, and of many other things manifesting what is
+distinctive in the life of a people. For these reasons I submit this
+report more as a guide for future investigation than as a completed
+result.
+
+At the beginning of my visit I found but one Seminole with whom I could
+hold even the semblance of an English conversation. To him I am indebted
+for a large part of the material here collected. To him, in particular,
+I owe the extensive Seminole vocabulary now in possession of the Bureau
+of Ethnology. The knowledge of the Seminole language which I gradually
+acquired enabled me, in my intercourse with other Indians, to verify and
+increase the information I had received from him.
+
+In conclusion, I hope that, notwithstanding the unfortunate delays which
+have occurred in the publication of this report, it will still be found
+to add something to our knowledge of this Indian tribe not without value
+to those who make man their peculiar study.
+
+    Very respectfully,
+
+        CLAY MacCAULEY.
+
+  Maj. J. W. POWELL,
+
+    _Director Bureau of Ethnology._
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
+
+By Clay MacCauley.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 60. Map of Florida.]
+
+There were in Florida, October 1, 1880, of the Indians commonly known as
+Seminole, two hundred and eight. They constituted thirty-seven families,
+living in twenty-two camps, which were gathered into five widely
+separated groups or settlements. These settlements, from the most
+prominent natural features connected with them, I have named, (1) The
+Big Cypress Swamp settlement; (2) Miami River settlement; (3) Fish
+Eating Creek settlement; (4) Cow Creek settlement; and (5) Cat Fish Lake
+settlement. Their locations are, severally: The first, in Monroe County,
+in what is called the "Devil's Garden," on the northwestern edge of the
+Big Cypress Swamp, from fifteen to twenty miles southwest of Lake
+Okeechobee; the second, in Dade County, on the Little Miami River, not
+far from Biscayne Bay, and about ten miles north of the site of what
+was, during the great Seminole war, Fort Dallas; the third, in Manatee
+County, on a creek which empties from the west into Lake Okeechobee,
+probably five miles from its mouth; the fourth, in Brevard County, on a
+stream running southward, at a point about fifteen miles northeast of
+the entrance of the Kissimmee River into Lake Okeechobee; and the fifth,
+on a small lake in Polk County, lying nearly midway between lakes Pierce
+and Rosalie, towards the headwaters of the Kissimmee River. The
+settlements are from forty to seventy miles apart, in an otherwise
+almost uninhabited region, which is in area about sixty by one hundred
+and eighty miles. The camps of which each settlement is composed lie at
+distances from one another varying from a half mile to two or more
+miles. In tabular form the population of the settlements appears as
+follows:
+
+  --------------+---+-------------------------------------------------
+                |   |                Population.
+                |   +-------------------------------------+------+----
+                |   |  Divided according to age and sex.  |      | T
+                | C |                                     |      | o
+                | a +-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-----+Resume| t
+                | m |Below|     |     |     |       | Over|  by  | a
+   Settlements  | p |  5  | 5-10|10-15|15-20| 20-60 | 60  | sex. | l
+                | s | yrs.| yrs.| yrs.| yrs.|  yrs. | yrs.|      | s
+                +---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+                |No.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.| F. |M.|F.| M.|F.|Tot.
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+  1. Big Cypress|10 | 4| 5|a2| 2|10| 4| 9| 2|15|b15 | 2| 3| 42|31|73
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  2. Miami River| 5 | 5| 4| 4| 4| 5| 3| 7| 5|10| 13 | 1| 2| 32|31|63
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  3. Fish Eating|   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+     Creek      | 4 |a1| 1|--| 2|a2|--| 3| 1|a5|ab10| 4| 3| 15|17|32
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  4. Cow Creek  | 1 | 2| 1|--|--| 1|--|--| 1| 4|  3 |--|--|  7| 5|12
+                |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+  5. Cat Fish   |   |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |    |  |  |   |  |
+     Lake       | 2 |--| 2| 3| 2| 4| 1| 4| 1|a4|ab5 | 1| 1| 16|12|28
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+  Totals       {|   |12|13| 9|10|22| 8|23|10|38| 46 | 8| 9|112|96|208
+               {|   +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+               {|22 |  25 |  19 |  30 |  33 |   84  |  17 |  208 |
+  --------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
+
+  _a_ One mixed blood.
+  _b_ One black.
+
+Or, for the whole tribe--
+
+  Males under 10 years of age               21
+  Males between 10 and 20 years of age      45
+  Males between 20 and 60 years of age      38
+  Males over 60 years of age                 8
+                                            -- 112
+  Females under 10 years of age             23
+  Females between 10 and 20 years of age    18
+  Females between 20 and 60 years of age    46
+  Females over 60 years of age               9
+                                            --  96
+                                               ---
+                                               208
+
+In this table it will be noticed that the total population consists of
+112 males and 96 females, an excess of males over females of 16. This
+excess appears in each of the settlements, excepting that of Fish Eating
+Creek, a fact the more noteworthy, from its relation to the future of
+the tribe, since polygamous, or certainly duogamous, marriage generally
+prevails as a tribal custom, at least at the Miami River and the Cat
+Fish Lake settlements. It will also be observed that between twenty and
+sixty years of age, or the ordinary range of married life, there are 38
+men and 46 women; or, if the women above fifteen years of age are
+included as wives for the men over twenty years of age, there are 38 men
+and 56 women. Now, almost all these 56 women are the wives of the 38
+men. Notice, however, the manner in which the children of these people
+are separated in sex. At present there are, under twenty years of age,
+66 boys, and, under fifteen years of age, but 31 girls; or, setting
+aside the 12 boys who are under five years of age, there are, as future
+possible husbands and wives, 54 boys between five and twenty years of
+age and 31 girls under fifteen years of age--an excess of 23 boys. For a
+polygamous society, this excess in the number of the male sex certainly
+presents a puzzling problem. The statement I had from some cattlemen in
+mid-Florida I have thus found true, namely, that the Seminole are
+producing more men than women. What bearing this peculiarity will have
+upon the future of these Indians can only be guessed at. It is beyond
+question, however, that the tribe is increasing in numbers, and
+increasing in the manner above described.
+
+There is no reason why the tribe should not increase, and increase
+rapidly, if the growth in numbers be not checked by the non-birth of
+females. The Seminole have not been at war for more than twenty years.
+Their numbers are not affected by the attacks of wild animals or noxious
+reptiles. They are not subject to devastating diseases. But once during
+the last twenty years, as far as I could learn, has anything like an
+epidemic afflicted them. Besides, at all the settlements except the
+northernmost, the one at Cat Fish Lake, there is an abundance of food,
+both animal and vegetable, easily obtained and easily prepared for
+eating. The climate in which these Indians live is warm and equable
+throughout the year. They consequently do not need much clothing or
+shelter. They are not what would be called intemperate, nor are they
+licentious. The "sprees" in which they indulge when they make their
+visits to the white man's settlements are too infrequent to warrant us
+in classing them as intemperate. Their sexual morality is a matter of
+common notoriety. The white half-breed does not exist among the Florida
+Seminole, and nowhere could I learn that the Seminole woman is other
+than virtuous and modest. The birth of a white half-breed would be
+followed by the death of the Indian mother at the hands of her own
+people. The only persons of mixed breed among them are children of
+Indian fathers by negresses who have been adopted into the tribe. Thus
+health, climate, food, and personal habits apparently conduce to an
+increase in numbers. The only explanation I can suggest of the fact that
+there are at present but 208 Seminole in Florida is that at the close of
+the last war which the United States Government waged on these Indians
+there were by no means so many of them left in the State as is popularly
+supposed. As it is, there are now but 17 persons of the tribe over sixty
+years of age, and no unusual mortality has occurred, certainly among the
+adults, during the last twenty years. Of the 84 persons between twenty
+and sixty years of age, the larger number are less than forty years old;
+and under twenty years of age there are 107 persons, or more than half
+the whole population. The population tables of the Florida Indians
+present, therefore, some facts upon which it may be interesting to
+speculate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Personal Characteristics.
+
+
+It will be convenient for me to describe the Florida Seminole as they
+present themselves, first as individuals, and next as members of a
+society. I know it is impossible to separate, really, the individual as
+such from the individual as a member of society; nevertheless, there is
+the man as we see him, having certain characteristics which, we call
+personal, or his own, whencesoever derived, having a certain physique
+and certain, distinguishing psychical qualities. As such I will first
+attempt to describe the Seminole. Then we shall be able the better to
+look at him as he is in his relations with his fellows: in the family,
+in the community, or in any of the forms of the social life of his
+tribe.
+
+
+Physical Characteristics.
+
+Physique of the Men.
+
+Physically both men and women are remarkable. The men, as a rule,
+attract attention by their height, fullness and symmetry of development,
+and the regularity and agreeableness of their features. In muscular
+power and constitutional ability to endure they excel. While these
+qualities distinguish, with a few exceptions, the men of the whole
+tribe, they are particularly characteristic of the two most widely
+spread of the families of which the tribe is composed. These are the
+Tiger and Otter clans, which, proud of their lines of descent, have been
+preserved through a long and tragic past with exceptional freedom from
+admixture with degrading blood. Today their men might be taken as types
+of physical excellence. The physique of every Tiger warrior especially I
+met would furnish proof of this statement. The Tigers are dark,
+copper-colored fellows, over six feet in height, with limbs in good
+proportion; their hands and feet well shaped and not very large; their
+stature erect; their bearing a sign of self-confident power; their
+movements deliberate, persistent, strong. Their heads are large, and
+their foreheads full and marked. An almost universal characteristic of
+the Tiger's face is its squareness, a widened and protruding
+under-jawbone giving this effect to it. Of other features, I noticed
+that under a large forehead are deep set, bright, black eyes, small, but
+expressive of inquiry and vigilance; the nose is slightly aquiline and
+sensitively formed about the nostrils; the lips are mobile, sensuous,
+and not very full, disclosing, when they smile, beautiful regular teeth;
+and the whole face is expressive of the man's sense of having
+extraordinary ability to endure and to achieve. Two of the warriors
+permitted me to manipulate the muscles of their bodies. Under my touch
+these were more like rubber than flesh. Noticeable among all are the
+large calves of their legs, the size of the tendons of their lower
+limbs, and the strength of their toes. I attribute this exceptional
+development to the fact that they are not what we would call "horse
+Indians" and that they hunt barefoot over their wide domain. The same
+causes, perhaps, account for the only real deformity I noticed in the
+Seminole physique, namely, the diminutive toe-nails, and for the heavy,
+cracked, and seamed skin which covers the soles of their feet. The feet
+being otherwise well formed, the toes have only narrow shells for nails,
+these lying sunken across the middles of the tough cushions of flesh,
+which, protuberant about them, form the toe-tips. But, regarded as a
+whole, in their physique the Seminole warriors, especially the men of
+the Tiger and Otter gentes, are admirable. Even among the children this
+physical superiority is seen. To illustrate, one morning Ko-i-ha-tco's
+son, Tin-fai-yai-ki, a tall, slender boy, not quite twelve years old,
+shouldered a heavy "Kentucky" rifle, left our camp, and followed in his
+father's long footsteps for a day's hunt. After tramping all day, at
+sunset he reappeared in the camp, carrying slung across his shoulders,
+in addition to rifle and accouterments, a deer weighing perhaps fifty
+pounds, a weight he had borne for miles. The same boy, in one day, went
+with some older friends to his permanent home, 20 miles away, and
+returned. There are, as I have said, exceptions to this rule of unusual
+physical size and strength, but these are few; so few that, disregarding
+them, we may pronounce the Seminole men handsome and exceptionally
+powerful.
+
+Physique of the Women.
+
+The women to a large extent share the qualities of the men. Some are
+proportionally tall and handsome, though, curiously enough, many,
+perhaps a majority, are rather under than over the average height of
+women. As a rule, they exhibit great bodily vigor. Large or small, they
+possess regular and agreeable features, shapely and well developed
+bodies, and they show themselves capable of long continued and severe
+physical exertion. Indeed, the only Indian women I have seen with
+attractive features and forms are among the Seminole. I would even
+venture to select from among these Indians three persons whom I could,
+without much fear of contradiction, present as types respectively of a
+handsome, a pretty, and a comely woman. Among American Indians, I am
+confident that the Seminole women are of the first rank.
+
+
+Clothing.
+
+But how is this people clothed? While the clothing of the Seminole is
+simple and scanty, it is ample for his needs and suitable to the life he
+leads. The materials of which the clothing is made are now chiefly
+fabrics manufactured by the white man: calico, cotton cloth, ginghams,
+and sometimes flannels. They also use some materials prepared by
+themselves, as deer and other skins. Of ready made articles for wear
+found in the white trader's store, they buy small woolen shawls,
+brilliantly colored cotton handkerchiefs, now and then light woolen
+blankets, and sometimes, lately, though very seldom, shoes.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 61. Seminole costume.]
+
+Costume of the Men.
+
+The costume of the Seminole warrior at home consists of a shirt, a
+neckerchief, a turban, a breech cloth, and, very rarely, moccasins.
+On but one Indian in camp did I see more than this; on many, less. The
+shirt is made of some figured or striped cotton cloth, generally of
+quiet colors. It hangs from the neck to the knees, the narrow, rolling
+collar being closely buttoned about the neck, the narrow wristbands of
+the roomy sleeves buttoned about the wrists. The garment opens in front
+for a few inches, downward from the collar, and is pocketless. A belt of
+leather or buckskin usually engirdles the man's waist, and from it are
+suspended one or more pouches, in which powder, bullets, pocket knife,
+a piece of flint, a small quantity of paper, and like things for use in
+hunting are carried. From the belt hang also one or more hunting knives,
+each nearly 10 inches in length. I questioned one of the Indians about
+having no pockets in his shirt, pointing out to him the wealth in this
+respect of the white man's garments, and tried to show him how, on his
+shirt, as on mine, these convenient receptacles could be placed, and to
+what straits he was put to carry his pipe, money, and trinkets. He
+showed little interest in my proposed improvement on his dress.
+
+Having no pockets, the Seminole is obliged to submit to several
+inconveniences; for instance, he wears his handkerchief about his neck.
+I have seen as many as six, even eight, handkerchiefs tied around his
+throat, their knotted ends pendant over his breast; as a rule, they are
+bright red and yellow things, of whose possession and number he is quite
+proud. Having no pockets, the Seminole, only here and there, one
+excepted, carries whatever money he obtains from time to time in a
+knotted corner of one or more of his handkerchiefs.
+
+The next article of the man's ordinary costume is the turban. This
+is a remarkable structure and gives to its wearer much of his unique
+appearance. At present it is made of one or more small shawls. These
+shawls are generally woolen and copied in figure and color from the
+plaid of some Scotch clan. They are so folded that they are about 3
+inches wide and as long as the diagonal of the fabric. They are then,
+one or more of them successively, wrapped tightly around the head, the
+top of the head remaining bare; the last end of the last shawl is tucked
+skillfully and firmly away, without the use of pins, somewhere in the
+many folds of the turban. The structure when finished looks like a
+section of a decorated cylinder crowded down upon the man's head. I
+examined one of these turbans and found it a rather firm piece of work,
+made of several shawls wound into seven concentric rings. It was over 20
+inches in diameter, the shell of the cylinder being perhaps 7 inches
+thick and 3 in width. This head-dress, at the southern settlements, is
+regularly worn in the camps and sometimes on the hunt. While hunting,
+however, it seems to be the general custom, for the warriors to go
+bareheaded. At the northern camps, a kerchief bound about the head
+frequently takes the place of the turban in everyday life, but on
+dress or festival occasions, at both the northern and the southern
+settlements, this curious turban is the customary covering for the head
+of the Seminole brave. Having no pockets in his dress, he has discovered
+that the folds of his turban may be put to a pocket's uses. Those who
+use tobacco (I say "those" because the tobacco habit is by no means
+universal among the red men of Florida) frequently carry their pipes and
+other articles in their turbans.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 62. Key West Billy.]
+
+When the Seminole warrior makes his rare visits to the white man's
+settlements, he frequently adds to his scanty camp dress leggins and
+moccasins.
+
+In the camps I saw but one Indian wearing leggins (Fig. 62); he,
+however, is in every way a peculiar character among his people, and is
+objectionably favorable to the white man and the white man's ways. He
+is called by the white men "Key West Billy," having received this name
+because he once made a voyage in a canoe out of the Everglades and along
+the line of keys south of the Florida mainland to Key West, where he
+remained for some time. The act itself was so extraordinary, and it was
+so unusual for a Seminole to enter a white man's town and remain there
+for any length of time, that a commemorative name was bestowed upon him.
+The materials of which the leggins of the Seminole are usually made is
+buckskin. I saw, however, one pair of leggins made of a bright red
+flannel, and ornamented along the outer seams with a blue and white
+cross striped braid. The moccasins, also, are made of buckskin, of
+either a yellow or dark red color. They are made to lace high about the
+lower part of the leg, the lacing running from below the instep upward.
+As showing what changes are going on among the Seminole, I may mention
+that a few of them possess shoes, and one is even the owner of a pair
+of frontier store boots. The blanket is not often worn by the Florida
+Indians. Occasionally, in their cool weather, a small shawl, of the kind
+made to do service in the turban, is thrown about the shoulders. Oftener
+a piece of calico or white cotton cloth, gathered about the neck,
+becomes the extra protection against mild coolness in their winters.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 63. Seminole costume.]
+
+Costume of the Women.
+
+The costume of the women is hardly more complex than that of the men. It
+consists, apparently, of but two garments, one of which, for lack of a
+better English word, I name a short shirt, the other a long skirt. The
+shirt is cut quite low at the neck and is just long enough to cover the
+breasts. Its sleeves are buttoned close about the wrists. The garment is
+otherwise buttonless, being wide enough at the neck for it to be easily
+put on or taken off over the head. The conservatism of the Seminole
+Indian is shown in nothing more clearly than in the use, by the women,
+of this much abbreviated covering for the upper part of their bodies.
+The women are noticeably modest, yet it does not seem to have occurred
+to them that by making a slight change in their upper garment they might
+free themselves from frequent embarrassment. In going about their work
+they were constantly engaged in what our street boys would call "pulling
+down their vests." This may have been done because a stranger's eyes
+were upon them; but I noticed that in rising or in sitting down, or at
+work, it was a perpetually renewed effort on their part to lengthen by a
+pull the scanty covering hanging over their breasts. Gathered about the
+waist is the other garment, the skirt, extending to the feet and often
+touching the ground. This is usually made of some dark colored calico or
+gingham. The cord by which the petticoat is fastened is often drawn so
+tightly about the waist that it gives to that part of the body a rather
+uncomfortable appearance. This is especially noticeable because the
+shirt is so short that a space of two or more inches on the body is left
+uncovered between it and the skirt. I saw no woman wearing moccasins,
+and I was told that the women never wear them. For head wear the women
+have nothing, unless the cotton cloth, or small shawl, used about the
+shoulders in cool weather, and which at times is thrown or drawn over
+the head, may be called that. (Fig. 63.)
+
+Girls from seven to ten years old are clothed with only a petticoat
+and boys about the same age wear only a shirt. Younger children are,
+as a rule, entirely naked. If clothed at anytime, it is only during
+exceptionally cool weather or when taken by their parents on a journey
+to the homes of the palefaces.
+
+
+Personal Adornment.
+
+The love of personal adornment shows itself among the Seminole as among
+other human beings.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 64. Manner of wearing the hair.]
+
+Hair Dressing.
+
+The coarse, brilliant, black hair of which they are possessors is taken
+care of in an odd manner. The men cut all their hair close to the head,
+except a strip about an inch wide, running over the front of the scalp
+from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width,
+perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the nape
+of the neck. At each temple a heavy tuft is allowed to hang to the
+bottom of the lobe of the ear. The long hair of the strip crossing to
+the neck is generally gathered and braided into two ornamental queues.
+I did not learn that these Indians are in the habit of plucking the hair
+from their faces. I noticed, however, that the moustache is commonly
+worn among them and that a few of them are endowed with a rather bold
+looking combination of moustache and imperial. As an exception to the
+uniform style of cutting the hair of the men, I recall the comical
+appearance of a small negro half breed at the Big Cypress Swamp. His
+brilliant wool was twisted into many little sharp cones, which stuck out
+over his head like so many spikes on an ancient battle club. For some
+reason there seems to be a much greater neglect of the care of the hair,
+and, indeed, of the whole person, in the northern than in the southern
+camps.
+
+The women dress their hair more simply than the men. From a line
+crossing the head from ear to ear the hair is gathered up and bound,
+just above the neck, into a knot somewhat like that often made by the
+civilized woman, the Indian woman's hair being wrought more into the
+shape of a cone, sometimes quite elongated and sharp at the apex. A
+piece of bright ribbon is commonly used at the end as a finish to the
+structure. The front hair hangs down over the forehead and along the
+cheeks in front of the ears, being what we call "banged." The only
+exception to this style of hair dressing I saw was the manner in which
+Ci-ha-ne, a negress, had disposed of her long crisp tresses. Hers was
+a veritable Medusa head. A score or more of dangling, snaky plaits,
+hanging down over her black face and shoulders gave her a most repulsive
+appearance. Among the little Indian girls the hair is simply braided
+into a queue and tied with a ribbon, as we often see the hair upon the
+heads of our school children.
+
+Ornamentation Of Clothing.
+
+The clothing of both men and women is ordinarily more or less
+ornamented. Braids and strips of cloth of various colors are used and
+wrought upon the garments into odd and sometimes quite tasteful shapes.
+The upper parts of the shirts of the women are usually embroidered with
+yellow, red, and brown braids. Sometimes as many as five of these braids
+lie side by side, parallel with the upper edge of the garment or
+dropping into a sharp angle between the shoulders. Occasionally a very
+narrow cape, attached, I think, to the shirt, and much ornamented with
+braids or stripes, hangs just over the shoulders and back. The same
+kinds of material used for ornamenting the shirt are also used in
+decorating the skirt above the lower edge of the petticoat. The women
+embroider along this edge, with their braids and the narrow colored
+stripes, a border of diamond and square shaped figures, which is often
+an elaborate decoration to the dress. In like manner many of the shirts
+of the men are made pleasing to the eye. I saw no ornamentation in
+curves: it was always in straight lines and angles.
+
+Use Of Beads.
+
+My attention was called to the remarkable use of beads among these
+Indian women, young and old. It seems to be the ambition of the Seminole
+squaws to gather about their necks as many strings of beads as can be
+hung there and as they can carry. They are particular as to the quality
+of the beads they wear. They are satisfied with nothing meaner than a
+cut glass bead, about a quarter of an inch or more in length, generally
+of some shade of blue, and costing (so I was told by a trader at Miami)
+$1.75 a pound. Sometimes, but not often, one sees beads of an inferior
+quality worn.
+
+These beads must be burdensome to their wearers. In the Big Cypress
+Swamp settlement one day, to gratify my curiosity as to how many strings
+of beads these women can wear, I tried to count those worn by "Young
+Tiger Tail's" wife, number one, Mo-ki, who had come through the
+Everglades to visit her relatives. She was the proud wearer of certainly
+not fewer than two hundred strings of good sized beads. She had six
+quarts (probably a peck of the beads) gathered about her neck, hanging
+down her back, down upon her breasts, filling the space under her chin,
+and covering her neck up to her ears. It was an effort for her to move
+her head. She, however, was only a little, if any, better off in her
+possessions than most of the others. Others were about equally burdened.
+Even girl babies are favored by their proud mammas with a varying
+quantity of the coveted neck wear. The cumbersome beads are said to be
+worn by night as well as by day.
+
+Silver Disks.
+
+Conspicuous among the other ornaments worn by women are silver disks,
+suspended in a curve across the shirt fronts, under and below the beads.
+As many as ten or more are worn by one woman. These disks are made by
+men, who may be called "jewelers to the tribe," from silver quarters and
+half dollars. The pieces of money are pounded quite thin, made concave,
+pierced with holes, and ornamented by a groove lying just inside the
+circumference. Large disks made from half dollars may be called "breast
+shields." They are suspended, one over each breast. Among the disks
+other ornaments are often suspended. One young woman I noticed
+gratifying her vanity with not only eight disks made of silver quarters,
+but also with three polished copper rifle shells, one bright brass
+thimble, and a buckle hanging among them. Of course the possession of
+these and like treasures depends upon the ability and desire of one and
+another to secure them.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 65. Manner of piercing the ear.]
+
+Ear Rings.
+
+Ear rings are not generally worn by the Seminole. Those worn are usually
+made of silver and are of home manufacture. The ears of most of the
+Indians, however, appear to be pierced, and, as a rule, the ears of the
+women are pierced many times; for what purpose I did not discover. Along
+and in the upper edges of the ears of the women from one to ten or more
+small holes have been made. In most of these holes I noticed bits of
+palmetto wood, about a fifth of an inch in length and in diameter the
+size of a large pin. Seemingly they were not placed there to remain only
+while the puncture was healing. (Fig. 65.)
+
+Piercing the ears excepted, the Florida Indians do not now mutilate
+their bodies for beauty's sake. They no longer pierce the lips or the
+nose; nor do they use paint upon their persons, I am told, except at
+their great annual festival, the Green Corn Dance, and upon the faces of
+their dead.
+
+Finger Rings.
+
+Nor is the wearing of finger rings more common than that of rings for
+the ears. The finger rings I saw were all made of silver and showed good
+workmanship. Most of them were made with large elliptical tablets on
+them, extending from knuckle to knuckle. These also were home-made.
+
+Silver vs. Gold.
+
+I saw no gold ornaments. Gold, even gold money, does not seem to be
+considered of much value by the Seminole. He is a monometalist, and his
+precious metal is silver. I was told by a cattle dealer of an Indian who
+once gave him a twenty dollar gold piece for $17 in silver, although
+assured that the gold piece was worth more than the silver, and in my
+own intercourse with the Seminole I found them to manifest, with few
+exceptions, a decided preference for silver. I was told that the
+Seminole are peculiar in wishing to possess nothing that is not genuine
+of its apparent kind. Traders told me that, so far as the Indians know,
+they will buy of them only what is the best either of food or of
+material for wear or ornament.
+
+Crescents, Wristlets, and Belts.
+
+The ornaments worn by the men which are most worthy of attention are
+crescents, varying in size and value. These are generally about five
+inches long, an inch in width at the widest part, and of the thickness
+of ordinary tin. These articles are also made from silver coins and are
+of home manufacture. They are worn suspended from the neck by cords,
+in the cusps of the crescents, one below another, at distances apart of
+perhaps two and a half inches. Silver wristlets are used by the men for
+their adornment. They are fastened about the wrists by cords or thongs
+passing through holes in the ends of the metal. Belts, and turbans too,
+are often ornamented with fanciful devices wrought out of silver. It is
+not customary for the Indian men to wear these ornaments in everyday
+camp life. They appear with them on a festival occasion or when they
+visit some trading post.
+
+
+Me-Le.
+
+A sketch made by Lieutenant Brown, of Saint Francis Barracks, Saint
+Augustine, Florida, who accompanied me on my trip to the Cat Fish Lake
+settlement, enables me to show, in gala dress, Me-le, a half breed
+Seminole, the son of an Indian, Ho-laq-to-mik-ko, by a negress adopted
+into the tribe when a child.
+
+  [Transcriber's Note:
+  The picture described does not appear in the printed text, and is not
+  included in the List of Illustrations.]
+
+Me-le sat for his picture in my room at a hotel in Orlando. He had just
+come seventy miles from his home, at Cat Fish Lake, to see the white man
+and a white man's town. He was clothed "in his best," and, moreover, had
+just purchased and was wearing a pair of store boots in addition to his
+home-made finery. He was the owner of the one pair of red flannel
+leggins of which I have spoken. These were not long enough to cover the
+brown skin of his sturdy thighs. His ornaments were silver crescents,
+wristlets, a silver studded belt, and a peculiar battlement-like band of
+silver on the edge of his turban. Notice his uncropped head of
+luxuriant, curly hair, the only exception I observed to the singular cut
+of hair peculiar to the Seminole men. Me-le, however, is in many other
+more important respects an exceptional character. He is not at all in
+favor with the Seminole of pure blood. "Me-le ho-lo-wa kis" (Me-le is
+of no account) was the judgment passed upon him to me by some of the
+Indians. Why? Because he likes the white man and would live the white
+man's life if he knew how to break away safely from his tribe. He has
+been progressive enough to build for himself a frame house, inclosed on
+all sides and entered by a door. More than that, he is not satisfied
+with the hunting habits and the simple agriculture of his people, nor
+with their ways of doing other things. He has started an orange grove,
+and in a short time will have a hundred trees, so he says, bearing
+fruit. He has bought and uses a sewing machine, and he was intelligent
+enough, so the report goes, when the machine had been taken to pieces in
+his presence, to put it together again without mistake. He once called
+off for me from a newspaper the names of the letters of our alphabet,
+and legibly wrote his English name, "John Willis Mik-ko." Mik-ko has a
+restless, inquisitive mind, and deserves the notice and care of those
+who are interested in the progress of this people. Seeking him one day
+at Orlando, I found him busily studying the locomotive engine of the
+little road which had been pushed out into that part of the frontier
+of Florida's civilized population. Next morning he was at the station
+to see the train depart, and told me he would like to go with me to
+Jacksonville. He is the only Florida Seminole, I believe, who had at
+that time seen a railway.
+
+
+Psychical Characteristics.
+
+I shall now glance at what may more properly be called the psychical
+characteristics of the Florida Indians. I have been led to the
+conclusion that for Indians they have attained a relatively high degree
+of psychical development. They are an uncivilized, I hardly like to call
+them a savage, people. They are antagonistic to white men, as a race,
+and to the white man's culture, but they have characteristics of their
+own, many of which are commendable. They are decided in their enmity to
+any representative of the white man's government and to everything which
+bears upon it the government's mark. To one, however, who is acquainted
+with recent history this enmity is but natural, and a confessed
+representative of the government need not be surprised at finding in the
+Seminole only forbidding and unlovely qualities. But when suspicion is
+disarmed, one whom they have welcomed to their confidence will find them
+evincing characteristics which will excite his admiration and esteem.
+I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Seminole, not as a
+representative of our National Government, but under conditions which
+induced them to welcome me as a friend. In my intercourse with them, I
+found them to be not only the brave, self reliant, proud people who have
+from time to time withstood our nation's armies in defense of their
+rights, but also a people amiable, affectionate, truthful, and
+communicative. Nor are they devoid of a sense of humor. With only few
+exceptions, I found them genial. Indeed, the old chief, Tus-te-nug-ge,
+a man whose warwhoop and deadly hand, during the last half century, have
+often been heard and felt among the Florida swamps and prairies, was the
+only one disposed to sulk in my presence and to repel friendly advances.
+He called me to him when I entered the camp where he was, and, with
+great dignity of manner, asked after my business among his people.
+After listening, through my interpreter, to my answers to his questions,
+he turned from me and honored me no further. I call the Seminole
+communicative, because most with whom I spoke were eager to talk, and,
+as far as they could with the imperfect means at their disposal, to give
+me the information I sought. "Doctor Na-ki-ta" (Doctor What-is-it) I was
+playfully named at the Cat Fish Lake settlement; yet the people there
+were seemingly as ready to try to answer as I was to ask, "What is it?"
+I said they are truthful. That is their reputation with many of the
+white men I met, and I have reason to believe that the reputation is
+under ordinary circumstances well founded. They answered promptly and
+without equivocation "No" or "Yes" or "I don't know." And they are
+affectionate to one another, and, so far as I saw, amiable in their
+domestic and social intercourse. Parental affection is characteristic of
+their home life, as several illustrative instances I might mention would
+show. I will mention one. Tael-la-haes-ke is the father of six fine
+looking boys, ranging in age from four to eighteen years. Seven months
+before I met him his wife died, and when I was at his camp this strong
+Indian appeared to have become both mother and father to his children.
+His solicitous affection seemed continually to follow these boys,
+watching their movements and caring for their comfort. Especially did he
+throw a tender care about the little one of his household. I have seen
+this little fellow clambering, just like many a little paleface, over
+his father's knees and back, persistently demanding attention but in
+no way disturbing the father's amiability or serenity, even while the
+latter was trying to oblige me by answering puzzling questions upon
+matters connected with his tribe. One night, as Lieutenant Brown and
+I sat by the campfire at Tael-la-haes-ke's lodge--the larger boys, two
+Seminole negresses, three pigs, and several dogs, together with
+Tael-la-haes-ke, forming a picturesque circle in the ashes around the
+bright light--I heard muffled moans from the little palmetto shelter on
+my right, under which the three smaller boys were bundled up in cotton
+cloth on deer skins for the night's sleep. Upon the moans followed
+immediately the frightened cry of the baby boy, waking out of bad dreams
+and crying for the mother who could not answer; "Its-ki, Its-ki"
+(mother, mother) begged the little fellow, struggling from under his
+covering. At once the big Indian grasped his child, hugged him to his
+breast, pressed the little head to his cheek, consoling him all the
+while with caressing words, whose meaning I felt, though I could not
+have translated them into English, until the boy, wide awake, laughed
+with his father and us all and was ready to be again rolled up beside
+his sleeping brothers. I have said also that the Seminole are frank.
+Formal or hypocritical courtesy does not characterize them. One of my
+party wished to accompany Ka-tca-la-ni ("Yellow Tiger") on a hunt. He
+wished to see how the Indian would find, approach, and capture his game.
+"Me go hunt with you, Tom, to-day?" asked our man. "No," answered Tom,
+and in his own language continued, "not to-day; to-morrow." To-morrow
+came, and, with it, Tom to our camp. "You can go to Horse Creek with me;
+then I hunt alone and you come back," was the Indian's remark as both
+set out. I afterwards learned that Ka-tca-la-ni was all kindness on the
+trail to Horse Creek, three miles away, aiding the amateur hunter in his
+search for game and giving him the first shot at what was started. At
+Horse Creek, however, Tom stopped, and, turning to his companion,
+said, "Now you hi-e-pus (go)!" That was frankness indeed, and quite
+refreshing to us who had not been honored by it. But equally outspoken,
+without intending offense, I found them always. You could not mistake
+their meaning, did you understand their words. Diplomacy seems, as yet,
+to be an unlearned art among them.
+
+Ko-Nip-Ha-Tco.
+
+Here is another illustration of their frankness. One Indian,
+Ko-nip-ha-tco ("Billy"), a brother of "Key West Billy," has become so
+desirous of identifying himself with the white people that in 1879 he
+came to Capt. F. A. Hendry, at Myers, and asked permission to live with
+him. Permission was willingly given, and when I went to Florida this
+"Billy" had been studying our language and ways for more than a year.
+At that time he was the only Seminole who had separated himself from his
+people and had cast in his lot with the whites. He had clothed himself
+in our dress and taken to the bed and table, instead of the ground and
+kettle, for sleep and food. "Me all same white man," he boastfully told
+me one day. But I will not here relate the interesting story of
+"Billy's" previous life or of his adventures in reaching his present
+proud position. It is sufficient to say that, for the time at least,
+he had become in the eyes of his people a member of a foreign community.
+As may be easily guessed, Ko-nip-ha-tco's act was not at all looked upon
+with favor by the Indians; it was, on the contrary, seriously opposed.
+Several tribal councils made him the subject of discussion, and once,
+during the year before I met him, five of his relatives came to Myers
+and compelled him to return with them for a time to his home at the Big
+Cypress Swamp. But to my illustration of Seminole frankness: In the
+autumn of 1880, Mat-te-lo, a prominent Seminole, was at Myers and
+happened to meet Captain Hendry. While they stood together "Billy"
+passed. Hardly had the young fellow disappeared when Mat-te-lo said to
+Captain Hendry, "Bum-by. Indian kill Billy." But an answer came. In this
+case the answer of the white man was equally frank: "Mat-te-lo, when
+Indian kill Billy, white man kill Indian, remember." And so the talk
+ended, the Seminole looking hard at the captain to try to discover
+whether he had meant what he said.
+
+
+Intellectual Ability.
+
+In range of intellectual power and mental processes the Florida Indians,
+when compared with the intellectual abilities and operations of the
+cultivated American, are quite limited. But if the Seminole are to be
+judged by comparison with other American aborigines, I believe they
+easily enter the first class. They seem to be mentally active. When the
+full expression of any of my questions failed, a substantive or two, an
+adverb, and a little pantomime generally sufficed to convey the meaning
+to my hearers. In their intercourse with one another, they are, as a
+rule, voluble, vivacious, showing the possession of relatively active
+brains and mental fertility. Certainly, most of the Seminole I met
+cannot justly be called either stupid or intellectually sluggish,
+and I observed that, when invited to think of matters with which they
+are not familiar or which are beyond the verge of the domain which
+their intellectual faculties have mastered, they nevertheless bravely
+endeavored to satisfy me before they were willing to acknowledge
+themselves powerless. They would not at once answer a misunderstood or
+unintelligible question, but would return inquiry upon inquiry, before
+the decided "I don't know" was uttered. Those with whom I particularly
+dealt were exceptionally patient under the strains to which I put their
+minds. Ko-nip-ha-tco, by no means a brilliant member of his tribe, is
+much to be commended for his patient, persistent, intellectual industry.
+I kept the young fellow busy for about a fortnight, from half-past eight
+in the morning until five in the afternoon, with but an hour and a
+half's intermission at noon. Occupying our time with inquiries not very
+interesting to him, about the language and life of his people, I could
+see how much I wearied him. Often I found by his answers that his brain
+was, to a degree, paralyzed by the long continued tension to which it
+was subjected. But he held on bravely through the severe heat of an
+attic room at Myers. Despite the insects, myriads of which took a great
+interest in us and our surroundings, despite the persistent invitation
+of the near woods to him to leave "Doctor Na-ki-ta" and to tramp off in
+them on a deer hunt (for "Billy" is a lover of the woods and a bold and
+successful hunter), he held on courageously. The only sign of weakening
+he made was on one day, about noon, when, after many, to me, vexatious
+failures to draw from him certain translations into his own language of
+phrases containing verbs illustrating variations of mood, time, number,
+&c., he said to me: "Doctor, how long you want me to tell you Indian
+language?" "Why?" I replied, "are you tired, Billy?" "No," he answered,
+"a littly. Me think me tell you all. Me don't know English language.
+Bum-by you come, next winter, me tell you all. Me go school. Me learn.
+Me go hunt deer to-mollow." I was afraid of losing my hold upon him, for
+time was precious. "Billy," I said, "you go now. You hunt to-day. I need
+you just three days more and then you can hunt all the time. To-morrow
+come, and I will ask you easier questions." After only a moment's
+hesitation, "Me no go, Doctor; me stay," was his courageous decision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Seminole Society.
+
+
+As I now direct attention to the Florida Seminole in their relations
+with one another, I shall first treat of that relationship which lies
+at the foundation of society, marriage or its equivalent, the result
+of which is a body of people more or less remotely connected with one
+another and designated by the term "kindred." This is shown either in
+the narrow limits of what may be named the family or in the larger
+bounds of what is called the clan or gens. I attempted to get full
+insight into the system of relationships in which Seminole kinship is
+embodied, and, while my efforts were not followed by an altogether
+satisfactory result, I saw enough to enable me to say that the Seminole
+relationships are essentially those of what we may call their "mother
+tribe," the Creek. The Florida Seminole are a people containing, to some
+extent, the posterity of tribes diverse from the Creek in language and
+in social and political organization; but so strong has the Creek
+influence been in their development that the Creek language, Creek
+customs, and Creek regulations have been the guiding forces in their
+history, forces by which, in fact, the characteristics of the other
+peoples have yielded, have been practically obliterated.
+
+I have made a careful comparison of the terms of Seminole relationship I
+obtained with those of the Creek Indians, embodied in Dr. L. H. Morgan's
+Consanguinity and Affinity of the American Indians, and I find that, as
+far as I was able to go, they are the same, allowing for the natural
+differences of pronunciation of the two peoples. The only seeming
+difference of relationships lies in the names applied to some of the
+lineal descendants, descriptive instead of classificatory names being
+used.
+
+I have said, "as far as I was able to go." I found, for example, that
+beyond the second collateral line among consanguineous kindred my
+interpreter would answer my question only by some such answer as "I
+don't know" or "No kin," and that, beyond the first collateral line of
+kindred by marriage, except for a very few relationships, I could obtain
+no answer.
+
+
+The Seminole Family.
+
+The family consists of the husband, one or more wives, and their
+children. I do not know what limit tribal law places to the number of
+wives the Florida Indian may have, but certainly he may possess two.
+There are several Seminole families in which duogamy exists.
+
+Courtship.
+
+I learned the following facts concerning the formation of a family:
+A young warrior, at the age of twenty or less, sees an Indian maiden of
+about sixteen years, and by a natural impulse desires to make her his
+wife. What follows? He calls his immediate relatives to a council and
+tells them of his wish. If the damsel is not a member of the lover's
+own gens and if no other impediment stands in the way of the proposed
+alliance, they select, from their own number, some who, at an
+appropriate time, go to the maiden's kindred and tell them that they
+desire the maid to receive their kinsman as her husband. The girl's
+relatives then consider the question. If they decide in favor of the
+union, they interrogate the prospective bride as to her disposition
+towards the young man. If she also is willing, news of the double
+consent is conveyed through the relatives, on both sides, to the
+prospective husband. From that moment there is a gentle excitement in
+both households. The female relatives of the young man take to the house
+of the betrothed's mother a blanket or a large piece of cotton cloth and
+a bed canopy--in other words, the furnishing of a new bed. Thereupon
+there is returned thence to the young man a wedding costume, consisting
+of a newly made shirt.
+
+Marriage.
+
+Arrangements for the marriage being thus completed, the marriage takes
+place by the very informal ceremony of the going of the bridegroom, at
+sunset of an appointed day, to the home of his mother-in-law, where he
+is received by his bride. From that time he is her husband. The next
+day, husband and wife appear together in the camp, and are thenceforth
+recognized as a wedded pair. After the marriage, through what is the
+equivalent of the white man's honeymoon, and often for a much longer
+period, the new couple remain at the home of the mother-in-law. It is
+the man and not the woman among these Indians who leaves father and
+mother and cleaves unto the mate. After a time, especially as the family
+increases, the wedded pair build one or more houses for independent
+housekeeping, either at the camp of the wife's mother or elsewhere,
+excepting among the husband's relatives.
+
+Divorce.
+
+The home may continue until death breaks it up. Sometimes, however,
+it occurs that most hopeful matrimonial beginnings, among the Florida
+Seminole, as elsewhere, end in disappointment and ruin. How divorce
+is accomplished I could not learn. I pressed the question upon
+Ko-nip-ha-tco, but his answer was, "Me don't know; Indian no tell me
+much." All the light I obtained upon the subject comes from Billy's
+first reply, "He left her." In fact, desertion seems to be the only
+ceremony accompanying a divorce. The husband, no longer satisfied with
+his wife, leaves her; she returns to her family, and the matter is
+ended. There is no embarrassment growing out of problems respecting the
+woman's future support, the division of property, or the adjustment of
+claims for the possession of the children. The independent self-support
+of every adult, healthy Indian, female as well as male, and the gentile
+relationship, which is more wide reaching and authoritative than that
+of marriage, have already disposed of these questions, which are usually
+so perplexing for the white man. So far as personal maintenance is
+concerned, a woman is, as a rule, just as well off without a husband
+as with one. What is hers, in the shape of property, remains her own
+whether she is married or not. In fact, marriage among these Indians
+seems to be but the natural mating of the sexes, to cease at the option
+of either of the interested parties. Although I do not know that the
+wife may lawfully desert her husband, as well as the husband his wife,
+from some facts learned I think it probable that she may.
+
+Childbirth.
+
+According to information received a prospective mother, as the hour of
+her confinement approaches, selects a place for the birth of her child
+not far from the main house of the family, and there, with some friends,
+builds a small lodge, covering the top and sides of the structure
+generally with the large leaves of the cabbage palmetto. To this
+secluded place the woman, with some elderly female relatives, goes at
+the time the child is to be born, and there, in a sitting posture, her
+hands grasping a strong stick driven into the ground before her, she
+is delivered of her babe, which is received and cared for by her
+companions. Rarely is the Indian mother's labor difficult or followed by
+a prolonged sickness. Usually she returns to her home with her little
+one within four days after its birth.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 66. Baby cradle or hammock.]
+
+Infancy.
+
+The baby, well into the world, learns very quickly that he is to make
+his own way through it as best he may. His mother is prompt to nourish
+him and solicitous in her care for him if he falls ill, but, as far as
+possible, she goes her own way and leaves the little fellow to go his.
+From the first she gives her child the perfectly free use of his body
+and, within a limited area, of the camp ground. She does not bundle him
+into a motionless thing or bind him helplessly on a board; on the
+contrary, she does not trouble her child even with clothing. The Florida
+Indian baby, when very young, spends his time, naked, in a hammock, or
+on a deer skin, or on the warm earth. (Fig. 66.)
+
+The Seminole mother, I was informed, is not in the habit of soothing
+her baby with song. Nevertheless, sometimes one may hear her or an old
+grandam crooning a monotonous refrain as she crouches on the ground
+beside the swinging hammock of a baby. I heard one of these refrains,
+and, as nearly as I could catch it, it ran thus:
+
+  [Illustration: Music]
+
+  No-wut-tca, No-wut-tca.
+
+The hammock was swung in time with the song. The singing was slow in
+movement and nasal in quality. The last note was unmusical and uttered
+quite staccato.
+
+There are times, to be sure, when the Seminole mother carries her baby.
+He is not always left to his pleasure on the ground or in a hammock.
+When there is no little sister or old grandmother to look after the
+helpless creature and the mother is forced to go to any distance from
+her house or lodge, she takes him with her. This she does, usually, by
+setting him astride one of her hips and holding him there. If she wishes
+to have both her arms free, however, she puts the baby into the center
+of a piece of cotton cloth, ties opposite corners of the cloth together,
+and slings her burden over her shoulders and upon her back, where, with
+his brown legs astride his mother's hips, the infant rides, generally
+with much satisfaction. I remember seeing, one day, one jolly little
+fellow, lolling and rollicking on his mother's back, kicking her and
+tugging away at the strings of beads which hung temptingly between her
+shoulders, while the mother, hand-free, bore on one shoulder a log,
+which, a moment afterwards, still keeping her baby on her back as she
+did so, she chopped into small wood for the camp fire.
+
+Childhood.
+
+But just as soon as the Seminole baby has gained sufficient strength to
+toddle he learns that the more he can do for himself and the more he can
+contribute to the general domestic welfare the better he will get along
+in life. No small amount of the labor in a Seminole household is done by
+children, even as young as four years of age. They can stir the soup
+while it is boiling; they can aid in kneading the dough for bread;
+they can wash the "Koonti" root, and even pound it; they can watch and
+replenish the fire; they contribute in this and many other small ways to
+the necessary work of the home. I am not to be understood, of course, as
+saying that the little Seminole's life is one of severe labor. He has
+plenty of time for games and play of all kinds, and of these I shall
+hereafter speak. Yet, as soon as he is able to play, he finds that with
+his play he must mix work in considerable measure.
+
+Seminole Dwellings--I-Ful-Lo-Ha-Tco's House.
+
+Now that we have seen the Seminole family formed, let us look at its
+home. The Florida Indians are not nomads. They have fixed habitations:
+settlements in well defined districts, permanent camps, houses or
+wigwams which, remain from year to year the abiding places of their
+families, and gardens and fields which for indefinite periods are used
+by the same owners. There are times during the year when parties gather
+into temporary camps for a few weeks. Now perhaps they gather upon some
+rich Koonti ground, that they may dig an extra quantity of this root and
+make flour from it; now, that they may have a sirup making festival,
+they go to some fertile sugar cane hammock; or again, that they may have
+a hunt, they camp where a certain kind of game has been discovered in
+abundance. And they all, as a rule, go to a central point, once a year
+and share there their great feast, the Green Corn Dance. Besides, as I
+was told, these Indians are frequent visitors to one another, acting in
+turn as guests and hosts for a few days at a time. But it is the fact,
+nevertheless, that for much the greater part of the year the Seminole
+families are at their homes, occupying houses, surrounded by many
+comforts and living a life of routine industry.
+
+As one Seminole home is, with but few unimportant differences, like
+nearly all the others, we can get a good idea of what it is by
+describing here the first one I visited, that of I-ful-lo-ha-tco, or
+"Charlie Osceola," in the "Bad Country," on the edge of the Big Cypress
+Swamp.
+
+When my guide pointed out to me the locality where "Charlie" lives, I
+could see nothing but a wide saw-grass marsh surrounding a small island.
+The island seemed covered with a dense growth of palmetto and other
+trees and tangled shrubbery, with a few banana plants rising among
+them. No sign of human habitation was visible. This invisibility
+of a Seminole's house from the vicinity may be taken as a marked
+characteristic of his home. If possible, he hides his house, placing
+it on an island and in a jungle. As we neared the hammock we found that
+approach to it was difficult. On horseback there was no trouble in
+getting through the water and the annoying saw-grass, but I found it
+difficult to reach the island with my vehicle, which was loaded with our
+provisions and myself. On the shore of "Charlie's" island is a piece of
+rich land of probably two acres in extent. At length I landed, and soon,
+to my surprise, entered a small, neat clearing, around which were built
+three houses, excellent of their kind, and one insignificant structure.
+Beyond these, well fenced with palmetto logs, lay a small garden. No one
+of the entire household--father, mother, and child--was at home. Where
+they had gone we did not learn until later. We found them next day at a
+sirup making at "Old Tommy's" field, six miles away. Having, in the
+absence of the owner, a free range of the camp, I busied myself in
+noting what had been left in it and what were its peculiarities. Among
+the first things I picked up was a "cow's horn."
+
+This, my guide informed me, was used in calling from camp to camp.
+Mounting a pile of logs, "Billy" tried with it to summon "Charlie,"
+thinking he might be somewhere near. Meanwhile I continued my search.
+I noticed some terrapin shells lying on a platform in one of the houses,
+the breast shell pierced with two holes. "Wear them at Green Corn
+Dance," said "Billy." I caught sight of some dressed buckskins lying on
+a rafter of a house, and an old fashioned rifle, with powder horn and
+shot flask. I also saw a hoe; a deep iron pot; a mortar, made from a
+live oak (?) log, probably fifteen inches in diameter and twenty-four in
+height, and beside it a pestle, made from mastic wood, perhaps four feet
+and a half in length.
+
+A bag of corn hung from a rafter, and near it a sack of clothing, which
+I did not examine. A skirt, gayly ornamented, hung there also. There
+were several basketware sieves, evidently home made, and various bottles
+lying around the place. I did not search among the things laid away on
+the rafters under the roof. A sow, with several pigs, lay contentedly
+under the platform of one of the houses. And near by, in the saw-grass,
+was moored a cypress "dug-out," about fifteen feet long, pointed at bow
+and stern.
+
+Dwellings throughout the Seminole district are practically uniform in
+construction. With but slight variations, the accompanying sketch of
+I-ful-lo-ha-tco's main dwelling shows what style of architecture
+prevails in the Florida Everglades. (Pl. XIX.)
+
+This house is approximately 16 by 9 feet in ground measurement, made
+almost altogether, if not wholly, of materials taken from the palmetto
+tree. It is actually but a platform elevated about three feet from the
+ground and covered with a palmetto thatched roof, the roof being not
+more than 12 feet above the ground at the ridge pole, or 7 at the eaves.
+Eight upright palmetto logs, unsplit and undressed, support the roof.
+Many rafters sustain the palmetto thatching. The platform is composed of
+split palmetto logs lying transversely, flat sides up, upon beams which
+extend the length of the building and are lashed to the uprights by
+palmetto ropes, thongs, or trader's ropes. This platform is peculiar,
+in that it fills the interior of the building like a floor and serves to
+furnish the family with a dry sitting or lying down place when, as often
+happens, the whole region is under water. The thatching of the roof is
+quite a work of art: inside, the regularity and compactness of the
+laying of the leaves display much skill and taste on the part of the
+builder; outside--with the outer layers there seems to have been less
+care taken than with those within--the mass of leaves of which the roof
+is composed is held in place and made firm by heavy logs, which, bound
+together in pairs, are laid upon it astride the ridge. The covering is,
+I was informed, water tight and durable and will resist even a violent
+wind. Only hurricanes can tear it off, and these are so infrequent in
+Southern Florida that no attempt is made to provide against them.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  Bureau of Ethnology
+  Fifth Annual Report Pl. XIX
+  Seminole Dwelling.]
+
+The Seminole's house is open on all sides and without rooms. It is, in
+fact, only a covered platform. The single equivalent for a room in it is
+the space above the joists which are extended across the building at the
+lower edges of the roof. In this are placed surplus food and general
+household effects out of use from time to time. Household utensils are
+usually suspended from the uprights of the building and from pronged
+sticks driven into the ground near by at convenient places.
+
+From this description the Seminole's house may seem a poor kind of
+structure to use as a dwelling; yet if we take into account the climate
+of Southern Florida nothing more would seem to be necessary. A shelter
+from the hot sun and the frequent rains and a dry floor above the damp
+or water covered ground are sufficient for the Florida Indian's needs.
+
+I-ful-lo-ha-tco's three houses are placed at three corners of an oblong
+clearing, which is perhaps 40 by 30 feet. At the fourth corner is the
+entrance into the garden, which is in shape an ellipse, the longer
+diameter being about 25 feet. The three houses are alike, with the
+exception that in one of them the elevated platform is only half the
+size of those of the others. This difference seems to have been made on
+account of the camp fire. The fire usually burns in the space around
+which the buildings stand. During the wet season, however, it is moved
+into the sheltered floor in the building having the half platform. At
+Tus-ko-na's camp, where several families are gathered, I noticed one
+building without the interior platform. This was probably the wet
+weather kitchen.
+
+To all appearance there is no privacy in these open houses. The only
+means by which it seems to be secured is by suspending, over where one
+sleeps, a canopy of thin cotton cloth or calico, made square or oblong
+in shape, and nearly three feet in height. This serves a double use,
+as a private room and as a protection against gnats and mosquitoes.
+
+But while I-ful-lo-ha-tco's house is a fair example of the kind of
+dwelling in use throughout the tribe, I may not pass unnoticed some
+innovations which have lately been made upon the general style. There
+are, I understand, five inclosed houses, which were built and are owned
+by Florida Indians. Four of these are covered with split cypress planks
+or slabs; one is constructed of logs.
+
+Progressive "Key West Billy" has gone further than any other one,
+excepting perhaps Me-le, in the white man's ways of house building.
+He has erected for his family, which consists of one wife and three
+children, a cypress board house, and furnished it with doors and
+windows, partitions, floors, and ceiling. In the house are one upper and
+one or two lower rooms. Outside, he has a stairway to the upper floor,
+and from the upper floor a balcony. He possesses also an elevated bed,
+a trunk for his clothing, and a straw hat.
+
+Besides the permanent home for the Seminole family, there is also the
+lodge which it occupies when for any cause it temporarily leaves the
+house. The lodges, or the temporary structures which the Seminole make
+when "camping out," are, of course, much simpler and less comfortable
+than their houses. I had the privilege of visiting two "camping"
+parties--one of forty-eight Indians, at Tak-o-si-mac-la's cane field, on
+the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp; the other of twenty-two persons, at a
+Koonti ground, on Horse Creek, not far from the site of what was, long
+ago, Fort Davenport.
+
+I found great difficulty in reaching the "camp" at the sugar cane field.
+I was obliged to leave my conveyance some distance from the island on
+which the cane field was located. When we arrived at the shore of the
+saw-grass marsh no outward sign indicated the presence of fifty Indians
+so close at hand; but suddenly three turbaned Seminole emerged from the
+marsh, as we stood there. Learning from our guide our business, they
+cordially offered to conduct us through the water and saw-grass to the
+camp. The wading was annoying and, to me, difficult; but at length we
+secured dry footing in the jungle on the island, and after a tortuous
+way through the tangled vegetation, which walled in the camp from the
+prairie, we entered the large clearing and the collection of lodges
+where the Indians were. These lodges, placed very close together and
+seemingly without order, were almost all made of white cotton cloths,
+which were each stretched over ridge poles and tied to four corner
+posts. The lodges were in shape like the fly of a wall tent, simply a
+sheet stretched for a cover.
+
+At a Koonti ground on Horse Creek I met the Cat Fish Lake Indians. They
+had been forced to leave their homes to secure an extra supply of Koonti
+flour, because, as I understood the woman who told me, some animals had
+eaten all their sweet potatoes. The lodges of this party differed from
+those of the southern Indians in being covered above and around with
+palmetto leaves and in being shaped some like wall tents and others like
+single-roofed sheds. The accompanying sketch shows what kind of a
+shelter Tael-la-haes-ke had made for himself fit Horse Creek. (Fig. 67.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 67. Temporary dwelling.]
+
+Adjoining each of these lodges was a platform, breast high. These were
+made of small poles or sticks covered with, the leaves of the palmetto.
+Upon and under these, food, clothing, and household utensils, generally,
+were kept; and between the rafters of the lodges and the roofs, also,
+many articles, especially those for personal use and adornment, were
+stored.
+
+Home Life.
+
+Having now seen the formation of the Seminole family and taken a glance
+at the dwellings, permanent and temporary, which it occupies, we are
+prepared to look at its household life. I was surprised by the industry
+and comparative prosperity and, further, by the cheerfulness and mutual
+confidence, intimacy, and affection of these Indians in their family
+intercourse.
+
+The Seminole family is industrious. All its members work who are able to
+do so, men as well as women. The former are not only hunters, fishermen,
+and herders, but agriculturists also. The women not only care for their
+children and look after the preparation of food and the general welfare
+of the home, but are, besides, laborers in the fields. In the Seminole
+family, both, husband and wife are land proprietors and cultivators.
+Moreover, as we have seen, all children able to labor contribute their
+little to the household prosperity. From these various domestic
+characteristics, an industrious family life almost necessarily follows.
+The disesteem in which Tus-ko-na, a notorious loafer at the Big Cypress
+Swamp, is held by the other Indians shows that laziness is not
+countenanced among the Seminole.
+
+But let me not be misunderstood here. By a Seminole's industry I do
+not mean the persistent and rapid labor of the white man of a northern
+community. The Indian is not capable of this, nor is he compelled to
+imitate it. I mean only that, in describing him, it is but just for me
+to say that he is a worker and not a loafer.
+
+As a result of the domestic industry it would be expected that we should
+find comparative prosperity prevailing among all Seminole families; and
+this is the fact. Much of the Indian's labor is wasted through his
+ignorance of the ways by which it might be economized. He has no
+labor saving or labor multiplying machines. There is but little
+differentiation of function in either family or tribe. Each worker does
+all kinds of work. Men give themselves to the hunt, women to the house,
+and both to the field. But men may be found sometimes at the cooking
+pot or toasting stick and women may be seen taking care of cattle and
+horses. Men bring home deer and turkeys, &c.; women spend days in
+fishing. Both men and women are tailors, shoemakers, flour makers, cane
+crushers and sirup boilers, wood hewers and bearers, and water carriers.
+There are but few domestic functions which may be said to belong
+exclusively, on the one hand, to men, or, on the other, to women.
+
+Out of the diversified domestic industry, as I have said, comes
+comparative prosperity. The home is all that the Seminole family needs
+or desires for its comfort. There is enough clothing, or the means to
+get it, for every one. Ordinarily more than a sufficient quantity of
+clothes is possessed by each member of a family. No one lacks money or
+the material with which to obtain that which money purchases. Nor
+need any ever hunger, since the fields and nature offer them food in
+abundance. The families of the northern camps are not as well provided
+for by bountiful nature as those south of the Caloosahatchie River. Yet,
+though at my visit to the Cat Fish Lake Indians in midwinter the sweet
+potatoes were all gone, a good hunting ground and fertile fields of
+Koonti were near at hand for Tcup-ko's people to visit and use to their
+profit.
+
+Food.
+
+Read the bill of fare from which the Florida Indians may select, and
+compare with that the scanty supplies within reach of the North Carolina
+Cherokee or the Lake Superior Chippewa. Here is a list of their meats:
+Of flesh, at any time venison, often opossum, sometimes rabbit and
+squirrel, occasionally bear, and a land terrapin, called the "gopher,"
+and pork whenever they wish it. Of wild fowl, duck, quail, and turkey in
+abundance. Of home reared fowl, chickens, more than they are willing to
+use. Of fish, they can catch myriads of the many kinds which teem in the
+inland waters of Florida, especially of the large bass, called "trout"
+by the whites of the State, while on the seashore they can get many
+forms of edible marine life, especially turtles and oysters. Equally
+well off are these Indians in respect to grains, vegetables, roots,
+and fruits. They grow maize in considerable quantity, and from it make
+hominy and flour, and all the rice they need they gather from the
+swamps. Their vegetables are chiefly sweet potatoes, large and much
+praised melons and pumpkins, and, if I may classify it with vegetables,
+the tender new growth of the tree called the cabbage palmetto. Among
+roots, there is the great dependence of these Indians, the abounding
+Koonti; also the wild potato, a small tuber found in black swamp land,
+and peanuts in great quantities. Of fruits, the Seminole family may
+supply itself with bananas, oranges (sour and sweet), limes, lemons,
+guavas, pineapples, grapes (black and red), cocoa nuts, cocoa plums, sea
+grapes, and wild plums. And with even this enumeration the bill of fare
+is not exhausted. The Seminole, living in a perennial summer, is never
+at a loss when he seeks something, and something good, to eat. I have
+omitted from the above list honey and the sugar cane juice and sirup,
+nor have I referred to the purchases the Indians now and then make from
+the white man, of salt pork, wheat flour, coffee, and salt, and of the
+various canned delicacies, whose attractive labels catch their eyes.
+
+These Indians are not, of course, particularly provident. I was told,
+however, that they are beginning to be ambitious to increase their
+little herds of horses and cattle and their numbers of chickens and
+swine.
+
+Camp Fire.
+
+Entering the more interior, the intimate home life of the Seminole, one
+observes that the center about which it gathers is the camp fire. This
+is never large except on a cool night, but it is of unceasing interest
+to the household. It is the place where the food is prepared, and where,
+by day, it is always preparing. It is the place where the social
+intercourse of the family, and of the family with their friends, is
+enjoyed. There the story is told; by its side toilets are made and
+household duties are performed, not necessarily on account of the warmth
+the fire gives, for it is often so small that its heat is almost
+imperceptible, but because of its central position in the household
+economy. This fire is somewhat singularly constructed; the logs used
+for it are of considerable length, and are laid, with some regularity,
+around a center, like the radii of a circle. These logs are pushed
+directly inward as the inner ends are consumed. The outer ends of the
+logs make excellent seats; sometimes they serve as pillows, especially
+for old men and women wishing to take afternoon, naps.
+
+Beds and bedding are of far less account to the Seminole family than the
+camp fire. The bed is often only the place where one chooses to lie. It
+is generally, however, chosen under the sheltering roof on the elevated
+platform, or, when made in the lodge, on palmetto leaves. It is
+pillowless, and has covering or not, as the sleeper may wish. If a cover
+is used, it is, as a rule, only a thin blanket or a sheet of cotton
+cloth, besides, during most of the year, the canopy or mosquito bar.
+
+Manner Of Eating.
+
+Next in importance to the camp fire in the life of the Seminole
+household naturally comes the eating of what is prepared there. There
+is nothing very formal in that. The Indians do not set a table or lay
+dishes and arrange chairs. A good sized kettle, containing stewed meat
+and vegetables, is the center around which, the family gathers for its
+meal. This, placed in some convenient spot on the ground near the fire,
+is surrounded by more or fewer of the members of the household in a
+sitting posture. If all that they have to eat at that time is contained
+in the kettle, each, extracts, with his fingers or his knife, a piece of
+meat or a bone with meat on it, and, holding it in one hand, eats, while
+with the other hand each, in turn, supplies himself, by means of a great
+wooden spoon, from the porridge in the pot.
+
+The Seminole, however, though observing meal times with some regularity,
+eats just as his appetite invites. If it happens that he has a side of
+venison roasting before the fire, he will cut from it at any time during
+the day and, with the piece of meat in one hand and a bit of Koonti or
+of different bread in the other, satisfy his appetite. Not seldom, too,
+he rises during the night and breaks his sleep by eating a piece of the
+roasting meat. The kettle and big spoon stand always ready for those who
+at any moment may hunger. There is little to be said about eating in a
+Seminole household, therefore, except that when its members eat together
+they make a kettle the center of their group and that much of their
+eating is done without reference to one another.
+
+Amusements.
+
+But one sees the family at home, not only working and sleeping and
+eating, but also engaged in amusing itself. Especially among the
+children, various sports are indulged in. I took some trouble to learn
+what amusements the little Seminole had invented or received. I obtained
+a list of them which might as well be that of the white man's as of the
+Indian's child. The Seminole has a doll, i.e., a bundle of rags, a stick
+with a bit of cloth wrapped about it, or something that serves just as
+well as this. The children build little houses for their dolls and name
+them "camps." Boys take their bows and arrows and go into the bushes and
+kill small birds, and on returning say they have been "turkey-hunting."
+Children sit around a small piece of land and, sticking blades of grass
+into the ground, name it a "corn field." They have the game of "hide and
+seek." They use the dancing rope, manufacture a "see-saw," play "leap
+frog," and build a "merry-go-round." Carrying a small stick, they say
+they carry a rifle. I noticed some children at play one day sitting near
+a dried deer skin, which lay before them stiff and resonant. They had
+taken from the earth small tubers about an inch in diameter found on the
+roots of a kind of grass and called "deer-food." Through them they had
+thrust sharp sticks of the thickness of a match and twice as long,
+making what we would call "teetotums." These, by a quick twirl between
+the palms of the hands, were set to spinning on the deer skin. The four
+children were keeping a dozen or more of these things going. The sport
+they called "a dance."
+
+I need only add that the relations among the various members of the
+Indian family in Florida are, as a rule, so well adjusted and observed
+that home life goes on without discord. The father is beyond question
+master in his home. To the mother belongs a peculiar domestic importance
+from her connection with her gens, but both she and her children seek
+first to know and to do the will of the actual lord of the household.
+The father is the master without being a tyrant; the mother is a subject
+without being a slave; the children have not yet learned self-assertion
+in opposition to their parents: consequently, there is no constraint in
+family intercourse. The Seminole household is cheerful, its members are
+mutually confiding, and, in the Indian's way, intimate and affectionate.
+
+
+The Seminole Gens.
+
+Of this larger body of kindred, existing, as I could see, in very
+distinct form among the Seminole, I gained but little definite
+knowledge. What few facts I secured are here placed on record.
+
+After I was enabled to make my inquiry understood, I sought to learn
+from my respondent the name of the gens to which each Indian whose name
+I had received belonged. As the result, I found that the two hundred and
+eight Seminole now in Florida are divided into the following gentes and
+in the following numbers:
+
+  1. Wind gens                    21
+  2. Tiger gens                   58
+  3. Otter gens                   39
+  4. Bird gens                    41
+  5. Deer gens                    18
+  6. Snake gens                   15
+  7. Bear gens                     4
+  8. Wolf gens                     1
+  9. Alligator gens                1
+     Unknown gentes               10
+                                 ---
+     Total                       208
+
+I endeavored, also, to learn the name the Indians use for gens or clan,
+and was told that it is "Po-ha-po-hum-ko-sin;" the best translation I
+can give of the name is "Those of one camp or house."
+
+Examining my table to find whether or not the word as translated
+describes the fact, I notice that, with but one exception, which may
+not, after all, prove to be an exception, each of the twenty-two camps
+into which the thirty-seven Seminole families are divided is a camp in
+which all the persons but the husbands are members of one gens. The
+camp at Miami is an apparent exception. There Little Tiger, a rather
+important personage, lives with a number of unmarried relatives. A Wolf
+has married one of Little Tiger's sisters and lives in the camp, as
+properly he should. Lately Tiger himself has married an Otter, but,
+instead of leaving his relatives and going to the camp of his wife's
+kindred, his wife has taken up her home with his people.
+
+At the Big Cypress Swamp I tried to discover the comparative rank or
+dignity of the various clans. In reply, I was told by one of the Wind
+clan that they are graded in the following order. At the northernmost
+camp, however, another order appears to have been established.
+
+  _Big Cypress camp._
+
+  1. The Wind.
+  2. The Tiger.
+  3. The Otter.
+  4. The Bird.
+  5. The Deer.
+  6. The Snake.
+  7. The Bear.
+  8. The Wolf.
+
+  _Northernmost camp._
+
+  1. The Tiger.
+  2. The Wind.
+  3. The Otter.
+  4. The Bird.
+  5. The Bear.
+  6. The Deer.
+  7. The Buffalo.
+  8. The Snake.
+  9. The Alligator.
+  10. The Horned Owl.
+
+This second order was given to me by one of the Bird gens and by one who
+calls himself distinctively a "Tallahassee" Indian. The Buffalo and the
+Horned Owl clans seem now to be extinct in Florida, and I am not
+altogether sure that the Alligator clan also has not disappeared.
+
+The gens is "a group of relatives tracing a common lineage to some
+remote ancestor. This lineage is traced by some tribes through the
+mother and by others through the father." "The gens is the grand unit of
+social organization, and for many purposes is the basis of governmental
+organization." To the gens belong also certain rights and duties.
+
+Of the characteristics of the gentes of the Florida Seminole, I know
+only that a man may not marry a woman of his own clan, that the children
+belong exclusively to the mother, and that by birth they are members of
+her own gens. So far as duogamy prevails now among the Florida Indians,
+I observed that both the wives, in every case, were members of one gens.
+I understand also that there are certain games in which men selected
+from gentes as such are the contesting participants.
+
+Fellowhood.
+
+In this connection I may say that if I was understood in my inquiries
+the Seminole have also the institution of "Fellowhood" among them. Major
+Powell thus describes this institution: "Two young men agree to be life
+friends, 'more than brothers,' confiding without reserve each in the
+other and protecting each the other from all harm."
+
+
+The Seminole Tribe.
+
+Tribal Organization.
+
+The Florida Seminole, considered as a tribe, have a very imperfect
+organization. The complete tribal society of the past was much broken
+up through wars with the United States. These wars having ended in the
+transfer of nearly the whole of the population to the Indian Territory,
+the few Indians remaining in Florida were consequently left in a
+comparatively disorganized condition. There is, however, among these
+Indians a simple form of government, to which the inhabitants of at
+least the three southern settlements submit. The people of Cat Fish Lake
+and Cow Creek settlements live in a large measure independent of or
+without civil connection with the others. Tcup-ko calls his people
+"Tallahassee Indians." He says that they are not "the same" as the Fish
+Eating Creek, Big Cypress, and Miami people. I learned, moreover, that
+the ceremony of the Green Corn Dance may take place at the three last
+named settlements and not at those of the north. The "Tallahassee
+Indians" go to Fish Eating Creek if they desire to take part in the
+festival.
+
+Seat Of Government.
+
+So far as there is a common seat of government, it is located at Fish
+Eating Creek, where reside the head chief and big medicine man of the
+Seminole, Tus-ta-nug-ge, and his brother, Hos-pa-ta-ki, also a medicine
+man. These two are called the Tus-ta-nug-ul-ki, or "great heroes" of the
+tribe. At this settlement, annually, a council, composed of minor chiefs
+from the various settlements, meets and passes upon the affairs of the
+tribe.
+
+Tribal Officers.
+
+What the official organization of the tribe is I do not know. My
+respondent could not tell me. I learned, in addition to what I have
+just written, only that there are several Indians with official titles,
+living at each of the settlements, except at the one on Cat Fish Lake.
+These were classified as follows:
+
+  Settlements        | Chief and     | War    | Little | Medicine men.
+                     | medicine man. | chiefs | chiefs |
+  -------------------+---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+  Big Cypress Swamp  |               |    2   |    2   |     1
+  Miami River        |               |    1   |        |     1
+  Fish Eating Creek  |       1       |        |        |     1
+  Cow Creek          |               |        |        |     2
+                     +---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+  Total              |       1       |    3   |    2   |     5
+  -------------------+---------------+--------+--------+--------------
+
+Name Of Tribe.
+
+I made several efforts to discover the tribal name by which these
+Indians now designate themselves. The name Seminole they reject. In
+their own language it means "a wanderer," and, when used as a term of
+reproach, "a coward." Ko-nip-ha-tco said, "Me no Sem-ai-no-le; Seminole
+cow, Seminole deer, Seminole rabbit; me no Seminole. Indians gone
+Arkansas Seminole." He meant that timidity and flight from danger are
+"Seminole" qualities, and that the Indians who had gone west at the
+bidding of the Government were the true renegades. This same Indian
+informed me that the people south of the Caloosahatchie River, at Miami
+and the Big Cypress Swamp call themselves "Kaen-yuk-sa Is-ti-tca-ti,"
+i.e., "Kaen-yuk-sa red men." Kaen-yuk-sa is their word for what we know as
+Florida. It is composed of I-kan-a, "ground," and I-yuk-sa, "point" or
+"tip," i.e., point of ground, or peninsula. At the northern camps the
+name appropriate to the people there, they say, is "Tallahassee
+Indians."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Seminole Tribal Life.
+
+
+We may now look at the life of the Seminole in its broader relations
+to the tribal organization. Some light has already been thrown on this
+subject by the preceding descriptions of the personal characteristics
+and social relations of these Indians. But there are other matters to be
+considered, as, for example, industries, arts, religion, and the like.
+
+
+Industries.
+
+Agriculture.
+
+Prominent among the industries is agriculture. The Florida Indians have
+brought one hundred or more acres of excellent land under a rude sort of
+cultivation. To each family belong, by right of use and agreement with
+other Indians, fields of from one to four acres in extent. The only
+agricultural implement they have is the single bladed hoe common on the
+southern plantation. However, nothing more than this is required.
+
+_Soil._-- The ground they select is generally in the interiors of the
+rich, hammocks which abound in the swamps and prairies of Southern
+Florida. There, with a soil unsurpassed in fertility and needing only to
+be cleared of trees, vines, underbrush, &c., one has but to plant corn,
+sweet potatoes, melons, or any thing else suited to the climate, and
+keep weeds from the growing vegetation, that he may gather a manifold
+return. The soil is wholly without gravel, stones, or rocks. It is soft,
+black, and very fertile. To what extent the Indians carry agriculture
+I do not know. I am under the impression, however, that they do not
+attempt to grow enough to provide much against the future. But, as they
+have no season in the year wholly unproductive and for which they must
+make special provision, their improvidence is not followed by serious
+consequences.
+
+_Corn._--The chief product of their agriculture is corn. This becomes
+edible in the months of May and June and at this time it is eaten in
+great quantities. Then it is that the annual festival called the "Green
+Corn Dance" is celebrated. When the corn ripens, a quantity of it is
+laid aside and gradually used in the form of hominy and of what I heard
+described as an "exceedingly beautiful meal, white as the finest wheat
+flour." This meal is produced by a slow and tedious process. The corn is
+hulled and the germ cut out, so that there is only a pure white residue.
+This is then reduced by mortar and pestle to an almost impalpable dust.
+From this flour a cake is made, which, is said to be very pleasant to
+the taste.
+
+_Sugar cane._--Another product of their agriculture is the sugar cane.
+In growing this they are the producers of perhaps the finest sugar cane
+grown in America; but they are not wise enough to make it a source of
+profit to themselves. It seems to be cultivated more as a passing
+luxury. It was at "Old Tommy's" sugar field I met the forty-eight of the
+people of the Big Cypress Swamp settlement already mentioned. They had
+left their homes that they might have a pleasuring for a few weeks
+together, "camping out" and making and eating sirup. The cane which had
+been grown there was the largest I or my companion, Capt. F. A. Hendry,
+of Myers, had ever seen. It was two inches or more in diameter, and, as
+we guessed, seventeen feet or more in length. To obtain the sirup the
+Indians had constructed two rude mills, the cylinders of which, however,
+were so loosely adjusted that full half the juice was lost in the
+process of crushing the cane. The juice was caught in various kinds of
+iron and tin vessels, kettles, pails, and cans, and after having been,
+strained was boiled until the proper consistency was reached.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 68. Sugar cane crusher.]
+
+At the time we were at the camp quite a quantity of the sirup had been
+made. It stood around the boiling place in kettles, large and small, and
+in cans bearing the labels of well known Boston and New York packers,
+which had been purchased at Myers. Of special interest to me was a
+platform near the boiling place, on which lay several deer skins, that
+had been taken as nearly whole as possible from the bodies of the
+animals, and utilized as holders of the sirup. They were filled with the
+sweet stuff, and the ground beneath was well covered by a slow leakage
+from them. "Key West Billy" offered me some of the cane juice to drink.
+It was clean looking and served in a silver gold lined cup of spotless
+brilliancy. It made a welcome and delicious drink. I tasted some of the
+sirup also, eating it Indian fashion, i.e., I pared some of their small
+boiled wild potatoes and, dipping them into the sweet liquid, ate them.
+The potato itself tastes somewhat like a boiled chestnut.
+
+The sugar cane mill was a poor imitation of a machine the Indians had
+seen among the whites. Its cylinders were made of live oak; the driving
+cogs were cut from a much harder wood, the mastic, I was told; and these
+were so loosely set into the cylinders that I could take them out with
+thumb and forefinger. (Fig. 68.)
+
+It is not necessary to speak in particular of the culture of sweet
+potatoes, beans, melons, &c. At best it is very primitive. It is,
+however, deserving of mention that the Seminole have around their houses
+at least a thousand banana plants. When it is remembered that a hundred
+bananas are not an overlarge yield for one plant, it is seen how well
+off, so far as this fruit is concerned, these Indians are.
+
+Hunting.
+
+Next in importance as an industry of the tribe (if it may be so called)
+is hunting. Southern Florida abounds in game and the Indians have only
+to seek in order to find it. For this purpose they use the rifle. The
+bow and arrow are no longer used for hunting purposes except by the
+smaller children. The rifles are almost all the long, heavy, small bore
+"Kentucky" rifle. This is economical of powder and lead, and for this
+reason is preferred by many to even the modern improved weapons which
+carry fixed ammunition. The Seminole sees the white man so seldom and
+lives so far from trading posts that he is not willing to be confined to
+the use of the prepared cartridge.
+
+A few breech loading rifles are owned in the tribe. The shot gun is much
+disliked by the Seminole. There is only one among them, and that is a
+combination of shot gun with rifle. I made a careful count of their fire
+arms, and found that they own, of "Kentucky" rifles, 63; breech loading
+rifles, 8; shot gun and rifle, 1; revolvers, 2--total, 74.
+
+_Methods of hunting._--The Seminole always hunt their game on foot. They
+can approach a deer to within sixty yards by their method of rapidly
+nearing him while he is feeding, and standing perfectly still when he
+raises his head. They say that they are able to discover by certain
+movements on the part of the deer when the head is about to be lifted.
+They stand side to the animal. They believe that they can thus deceive
+the deer, appearing to them as stumps or trees. They lure turkeys within
+shooting distance by an imitation of the calls of the bird. They leave
+small game, such as birds, to the children. One day, while some of our
+party were walking near Horse Creek with Ka-tca-la-ni, a covey of quail
+whirred out of the grass. By a quick jerk the Indian threw his ramrod
+among the birds and billed one. He appeared to regard this feat as
+neither accidental nor remarkable.
+
+I sought to discover how many deer the Seminole annually kill, but
+could get no number which I can call trustworthy. I venture twenty-five
+hundred as somewhere near a correct estimate.
+
+Otter hunting is another of the Seminole industries. This animal has
+been pursued with the rifle and with the bow and arrow. Lately the
+Indians have heard of the trap. When we left Horse Creek, a request was
+made by one of them to our guide to purchase for him six otter traps for
+use in the Cat Fish Lake camp.
+
+Fishing.
+
+Fishing is also a profitable industry. For this the hook and line are
+often used; some also use the spoon hook. But it is a common practice
+among them to kill the fish with bow and arrow, and in this they are
+quite skillful. One morning some boys brought me a bass, weighing
+perhaps sis pounds, which one of them had shot with an arrow.
+
+Stock Raising.
+
+Stock raising, in a small way, may be called a Seminole industry.
+I found that at least fifty cattle, and probably more, are owned by
+members of the tribe and that the Seminole probably possess a thousand
+swine and five hundred chickens. The latter are of an excellent breed.
+At Cat Fish Lake an unusual interest in horses seems now to be
+developing. I found there twenty horses. I was told that there are
+twelve horses at Fish Eating Creek, and I judge that between thirty-five
+and forty of these animals are now in possession of the tribe.
+
+Koonti.
+
+The unique industry, in the more limited sense of the word, of the
+Seminole is the making of the Koonti flour. Koonti is a root containing
+a large percentage of starch. It is said to yield a starch equal to
+that of the best Bermuda arrowroot. White men call it the "Indian
+bread root," and lately its worth as an article of commerce has been
+recognized by the whites. There are now at least two factories in
+operation in Southern Florida in which the Koonti is made into a flour
+for the white man's market. I was at one such factory at Miami and saw
+another near Orlando. I ate of a Koonti pudding at Miami, and can say
+that, as it was there prepared and served with milk and guava jelly, it
+was delicious. As might be supposed, the Koonti industry, as carried on
+by the whites, produces a far finer flour than that which the Indians
+manufacture. The Indian process, as I watched it at Horse Creek, was
+this: The roots were gathered, the earth was washed from them, and they
+were laid in heaps near the "Koonti log."
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 69. Koonti log.]
+
+The Koonti log, so called, was the trunk of a large pine tree, in which
+a number of holes, about nine inches square at the top, their sides
+sloping downward to a point, had been cut side by side. Each of these
+holes was the property of some one of the squaws or of the children of
+the camp. For each of the holes, which were to serve as mortars, a
+pestle made of some hard wood had been furnished. (Fig. 69.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 70. Koonti pestles.]
+
+The first step in the process was to reduce the washed Koonti to a kind
+of pulp. This was done by chopping it into small pieces and filling with
+it one of the mortars and pounding it with a pestle. The contents of the
+mortar were then laid upon a small platform. Each worker had a platform.
+When a sufficient quantity of the root had been pounded the whole mass
+was taken to the creek near by and thoroughly saturated with water in a
+vessel made of bark.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 71. Koonti mash vessel.]
+
+The pulp was then washed in a straining cloth, the starch of the Koonti
+draining into a deer hide suspended below.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 72. Koonti strainer.]
+
+When the starch had been thoroughly washed from the mass the latter was
+thrown away, and the starchy sediment in the water in the deerskin left
+to ferment. After some days the sediment was taken from the water and
+spread upon palmetto leaves to dry. When dried, it was a yellowish white
+flour, ready for use. In the factory at Miami substantially this process
+is followed, the chief variation from it being that the Koonti is passed
+through several successive fermentations, thereby making it purer and
+whiter than the Indian product. Improved appliances for the manufacture
+are used by the white man.
+
+The Koonti bread, as I saw it among the Indians, was of a bright orange
+color, and rather insipid, though not unpleasant to the taste. It was
+saltless. Its yellow color was owing to the fact that the flour had had
+but one fermentation.
+
+Industrial Statistics.
+
+The following is a summary of the results of the industries now engaged
+in by the Florida Indians. It shows what is approximately true of these
+at the present time:
+
+  Acres under cultivation                    100
+  Corn raised                     bushels    500
+  Sugarcane                       gallons  1,500
+  Cattle                     number owned     50
+  Swine                            do.     1,000
+  Chickens                         do.       500
+  Horses                           do.        35
+  Koonti                          bushels  5,000
+  Sweet potatoes                   do.       ...
+  Melons                           number  3,000
+
+
+Arts.
+
+Industrial Arts.
+
+In reference to the way in which, the Seminole Indians have met
+necessities for invention and have expressed the artistic impulse,
+I found little to add to what I have already placed on record.
+
+_Utensils and implements._--The proximity of this people to the
+Europeans for the last three centuries, while it has not led them to
+adopt the white man's civilization in matters of government, religion,
+language, manners, and customs, has, nevertheless, induced them to
+appropriate for their own use some of the utensils, implements, weapons,
+&c., of the strangers. For example, it was easy for the ancestors of
+these Indians to see that the iron kettle of the white man was better in
+every way than their own earthenware pots. Gradually, therefore, the art
+of making pottery died out among them, and now, as I believe, there is
+no pottery whatever in use among the Florida Indians. They neither make
+nor purchase it. They no longer buy even small articles of earthenware,
+preferring tin instead, Iron implements likewise have supplanted those
+made of stone. Even their word for stone, "Tcat-to," has been applied
+to iron. They purchase hoes, hunting knives, hatchets, axes, and, for
+special use in their homes, knives nearly two feet in length. With these
+long knives they dress timber, chop meat, etc.
+
+_Weapons._--They continue the use of the bow and arrow, but no longer
+for the purposes of war, or, by the adults, for the purposes of hunting.
+The rifle serves them much better. It seems to be customary for every
+male in the tribe over twelve years of age to provide himself with a
+rifle. The bow, as now made, is a single piece of mulberry or other
+elastic wood and is from four to six feet in length; the bowstring is
+made of twisted deer rawhide; the arrows are of cane and of hard wood
+and vary in length from two to four feet; they are, as a rule, tipped
+with a sharp conical roll of sheet iron. The skill of the young men in
+the use of the bow and arrow is remarkable.
+
+_Weaving and basket making._--The Seminole are not now weavers. Their
+few wants for clothing and bedding are supplied by fabrics manufactured
+by white men. They are in a small way, however, basket makers. From the
+swamp cane, and sometimes from the covering of the stalk of the fan
+palmetto, they manufacture flat baskets and sieves for domestic service.
+
+_Uses of the palmetto._--In this connection I call attention to the
+inestimable value of the palmetto tree to the Florida Indians. From the
+trunk of the tree the frames and platforms of their houses are made; of
+its leaves durable water tight roofs are made for the houses; with the
+leaves their lodges are covered and beds protecting the body from the
+dampness of the ground are made; the tough fiber which lies between the
+stems of the leaves and the bark furnishes them with material from which
+they make twine and rope of great strength and from which they could,
+were it necessary, weave cloth for clothing; the tender new growth at
+the top of the tree is a very nutritious and palatable article of food,
+to be eaten either raw or baked; its taste is somewhat like that of the
+chestnut; its texture is crisp like that of our celery stalk.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 73. Mortar and pestle.]
+
+_Mortar and pestle._--The home made mortar and pestle has not yet been
+supplanted by any utensil furnished by the trader. This is still the
+best mill they have in which to grind their corn. The mortar is made
+from a log of live oak (?) wood, ordinarily about two feet in length
+and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. One end of the log is
+hollowed out to quite a depth, and in this, by the hammering of a pestle
+made of mastic wood, the corn is reduced to hominy or to the impalpable
+flour of which I have spoken. (Fig. 73.)
+
+_Canoe making._--Canoe making is still one of their industrial arts, the
+canoe being their chief means of transportation. The Indian settlements
+are all so situated that the inhabitants of one can reach those of the
+others by water. The canoe is what is known as a "dugout," made from the
+cypress log.
+
+_Fire making._--The art of fire making by simple friction is now, I
+believe, neglected among the Seminole, unless at the starting of the
+sacred fire for the Green Corn Dance. A fire is now kindled either by
+the common Ma-tci (matches) of the civilized man or by steel and flint,
+powder and paper. "Tom Tiger" showed me how he builds a fire when away
+from home. He held, crumpled between the thumb and forefinger of the
+left hand, a bit of paper. In the folds of the paper he poured from his
+powder horn a small quantity of gunpowder. Close beside the paper he
+held also a piece of flint. Striking this flint with a bit of steel and
+at the same time giving to the left hand a quick upward movement, he
+ignited the powder and paper. From this he soon made a fire among the
+pitch pine chippings he had previously prepared.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 74. Hide stretcher.]
+
+_Preparation of skins._--I did not learn just how the Indians dress deer
+skins, but I observed that they had in use and for sale the dried skin,
+with the hair of the animal left on it; the bright yellow buckskin, very
+soft and strong; and also the dark red buckskin, which evidently had
+passed, in part of its preparation, through smoke. I was told that the
+brains of the animal serve an important use in the skin dressing
+process. The accompanying sketch shows a simple frame in use for
+stretching and drying the skin. (Fig. 74)
+
+Ornamental Arts.
+
+In my search for evidence of the working of the art instinct proper,
+i.e., in ornamental or fine art, I found but little to add to what
+has been already said. I saw but few attempts at ornamentation beyond
+those made on the person and on clothing. Houses, canoes, utensils,
+implements, weapons, were almost all without carving or painting. In
+fact, the only carving I noticed in the Indian country was on a pine
+tree near Myers. It was a rude outline of the head of a bull. The local
+report is that when the white men began to send their cattle south of
+the Caloosahatchie River the Indians marked this tree with this sign.
+The only painting I saw was the rude representation of a man, upon the
+shaft of one of the pestles used at the Koonti log at Horse Creek. It
+was made by one of the girls for her own amusement.
+
+I have already spoken of the art of making silver ornaments.
+
+_Music._--Music, as far as I could discover, is but little in use among
+the Seminole. Their festivals are few; so few that the songs of the
+fathers have mostly been forgotten. They have songs for the Green Corn
+Dance; they have lullabys; and there is a doleful song they sing in
+praise of drink, which is occasionally heard when the white man has sold
+Indians whisky on coming to town. Knowing the motive of the song, I
+thought the tune stupid and maudlin. Without pretending to reproduce it
+exactly, I remember it as something like this:
+
+  [Illustration: Music]
+  My precious drink, I fondly love thee.
+  Standing I take thee. And walk until morning. Yo-wan-ha-de.
+
+I give a free translation of the Indian words and an approximation to
+the tune. The last note in this, as in the lullaby I noted above, is
+unmusical and staccato.
+
+
+Religion.
+
+I could learn but little of the religious faiths and practices existing
+among the Florida Indians. I was struck, however, in making my
+investigations, by the evident influence Christian teaching has had upon
+the native faith. How far it has penetrated the inherited thought of the
+Indian I do not know. But, in talking with Ko-nip-ha-tco, he told me
+that his people believe that the Koonti root was a gift from God; that
+long ago the "Great Spirit" sent Jesus Christ to the earth with the
+precious plant, and that Jesus had descended upon the world at Cape
+Florida and there given the Koonti to "the red men." In reference to
+this tradition, it is to be remembered that during the seventeenth
+century the Spaniards had vigorous missions among the Florida Indians.
+Doubtless it was from these that certain Christian names and beliefs now
+traceable among the Seminole found way into the savage creed and ritual.
+
+I attempted several times to obtain from my interpreter a statement of
+the religious beliefs he had received from his people. I cannot affirm
+with confidence that success followed my efforts.
+
+He told me that his people believe in a "Great Spirit," whose name is
+His-a-kit-a-mis-i. This word, I have good reason to believe, means "the
+master of breath." The Seminole for breath is His-a-kit-a.
+
+I cannot be sure that Ko-nip-ha-tco knew anything of what I meant by
+the word "spirit." I tried to convey my meaning to him, but I think I
+failed. He told me that the place to which Indians go after death is
+called "Po-ya-fi-tsa" and that the Indians who have died are the
+Pi-ya-fits-ul-ki, or "the people of Po-ya-fi-tsa." That was our nearest
+understanding of the word "spirit" or "soul."
+
+Mortuary Customs.
+
+As the Seminole mortuary customs are closely connected with their
+religious beliefs, it will be in place to record here what I learned of
+them. The description refers particularly to the death and burial of a
+child.
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 75. Seminole bier.]
+
+The preparation for burial began as soon as death had taken place. The
+body was clad in a new shirt, a new handkerchief being tied about the
+neck and another around the head. A spot of red paint was placed on the
+right cheek and one of black upon the left. The body was laid face
+upwards. In the left hand, together with a bit of burnt wood, a small
+bow about twelve inches in length was placed, the hand lying naturally
+over the middle of the body. Across the bow, held by the right hand,
+was laid an arrow, slightly drawn. During these preparations, the women
+loudly lamented, with hair disheveled. At the same time some men had
+selected a place for the burial and made the grave in this manner:
+Two palmetto logs of proper size were split. The four pieces were then
+firmly placed on edge, in the shape of an oblong box, lengthwise east
+and west. In this box a floor was laid, and over this a blanket was
+spread. Two men, at next sunrise, carried the body from the camp to the
+place of burial, the body being suspended at feet thighs, back, and neck
+from a long pole (Fig. 75). The relatives followed. In the grave, which
+is called "To-hop-ki"--a word used by the Seminole for "stockade," or
+"fort," also, the body was then laid the feet to the east. A blanket was
+then carefully wrapped around the body. Over this palmetto leaves were
+placed and the grave was tightly closed by a covering of logs. Above the
+box a roof was then built. Sticks, in the form of an _X_, were driven
+into the earth across the overlying logs; these were connected by a
+pole, and this structure was covered thickly with palmetto leaves.
+(Fig. 76.)
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 76. Seminole grave.]
+
+The bearers of the body then made a large fire at each end of the
+"To-hop-ki." With this the ceremony at the grave ended and all returned
+to the camp. During that day and for three days thereafter the relatives
+remained at home and refrained from work. The fires at the grave were
+renewed at sunset by those who had made them, and after nightfall
+torches were there waved in the air, that "the bad birds of the night"
+might not get at the Indian lying in his grave. The renewal of the fires
+and waving of the torches were repeated three days. The fourth day the
+fires were allowed to die out. Throughout the camp "medicine" had been
+sprinkled at sunset for three days. On the fourth day it was said that
+the Indian "had gone." From that time the mourning ceased and the
+members of the family returned to their usual occupations.
+
+The interpretation of the ceremonies just mentioned, as given me, is
+this: The Indian was laid in his grave to remain there, it was believed,
+only until the fourth day. The fires at head and feet, as well as the
+waving of the torches, were to guard him from the approach of "evil
+birds" who would harm him. His feet were placed toward the east, that
+when he arose to go to the skies he might go straight to the sky path,
+which commenced at the place of the sun's rising; that were he laid with
+the feet in any other direction he would not know when he rose what path
+to take and he would be lost in the darkness. He had with him his bow
+and arrow, that he might procure food on his way. The piece of burnt
+wood in his hand was to protect him from the "bad birds" while he was on
+his skyward journey. These "evil birds" are called Ta-lak-i-clak-o. The
+last rite paid to the Seminole dead is at the end of four moons. At that
+time the relatives go to the To-hop-ki and cut from around it the
+overgrowing grass. A widow lives with disheveled hair for the first
+twelve moons of her widowhood.
+
+Green Corn Dance.
+
+The one institution at present in which the religious beliefs of the
+Seminole find special expression is what is called the "Green Corn
+Dance." It is the occasion for an annual purification and rejoicing.
+I could get no satisfactory description of the festival. No white man,
+so I was told, has seen it, and the only Indian I met who could in any
+manner speak English, made but an imperfect attempt to describe it. In
+fact, he seemed unwilling to talk about it. He told me, however, that as
+the season for holding the festival approaches the medicine men assemble
+and, through their ceremonies, decide when it shall take place, and, if
+I caught his meaning, determine also how long the dance shall continue.
+Others, on the contrary, told me that the dance is always continued for
+four days.
+
+Fifteen days previous to the festival heralds are sent from the lodge
+of the medicine men to give notice to all the camps of the day when the
+dance will commence. Small sticks are thereupon hung up in each camp,
+representing the number of days between that date and the day of the
+beginning of the dance. With the passing of each day one of these sticks
+is thrown away. The day the last one is cast aside the families go to
+the appointed place. At the dancing ground they find the selected space
+arranged as in the accompanying diagram (Fig. 77).
+
+The evening of the first day the ceremony of taking the "Black Drink,"
+Pa-sa-is-kit-a, is endured. This drink was described to me as having
+both a nauseating smell and taste. It is probably a mixture similar to
+that used by the Creek in the last century at a like ceremony. It acts
+as both an emetic and a cathartic, and it is believed among the Indians
+that unless one drinks of it he will be sick at some time in the year,
+and besides that he cannot safely eat of the green corn of the feast.
+During the drinking the dance begins and proceeds; in it the medicine
+men join.
+
+At that time the Medicine Song is sung. My Indian would not repeat
+this song for me. He declared that any one who sings the Medicine Song,
+except at the Green Corn Dance or as a medicine man, will certainly meet
+with some harm. That night, after the "Black Drink" has had its effect,
+the Indians sleep. The next morning they eat of the green corn. The day
+following is one of fasting, but the next day is one of great feasting,
+"Hom-pi-ta-clak-o," in which "Indian eat all time," "Hom-pis-yak-i-ta."
+
+  [Illustration: Fig. 77. Green Corn Dance.]
+
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------
+                            ++++++
+    N.                      Squaws
+    |
+   -+-E         "O-PUN-KA-TO-LO-KA-TI"
+    |             or the Dance Circle
+    S.                                   "HIL-LIS-WA-MA-TOE-UL-KI"
+                                          Men who watch the
+  +--+                      \ | /          medicine fire
+  |  |                     -- O --          ++
+  |  |                      / | \              X           +++
+  |  |                                      Medicine      Medicine
+  +--+                    The Fire or        Fire          Men
+  "TEOK-KO-CLACO"    "O-PUN-KA-TOT-KIT-A"
+  House where the
+  warriors sit.
+                            Squaws
+                            ++++++
+  ----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Use Of Medicines.
+
+Concerning the use by the Indians of medicine against sickness, I
+learned only that they are in the habit of taking various herbs for
+their ailments. What part incantation or sorcery plays in the healing
+of disease I do not know. Nor did I learn what the Indians think of the
+origin and effects of dreams. Me-le told me that he knows of a plant the
+leaves of which, eaten, will cure the bite of a rattlesnake, and that he
+knows also of a plant which is an antidote to the noxious effects of the
+poison ivy or so-called poison oak.
+
+
+General Observations.
+
+I close this chapter by putting upon record a few general observations,
+as an aid to future investigation into Seminole life.
+
+Standard of Value.
+
+The standard of value among the Florida Indians is now taken from the
+currency of the United States. The unit they seem to have adopted, at
+least at the Big Cypress Swamp settlement, is twenty-five cents, which
+they call "Kan-cat-ka-hum-kin" (literally, "one mark on the ground"). At
+Miami a trader keeps his accounts with the Indians in single marks or
+pencil strokes. For example, an Indian brings to him buck skins, for
+which the trader allows twelve "chalks." The Indian, not wishing then to
+purchase anything, receives a piece of paper marked in this way:
+
+   "IIII--IIII--IIII.
+    J. W. E. owes Little Tiger $3."
+
+At his next visit the Indian may buy five "marks" worth of goods. The
+trader then takes the paper and returns it to Little Tiger changed as
+follows:
+
+   "IIII--III.
+    J. W. E. owes Little Tiger
+      $1.75."
+
+Thus the account is kept until all the "marks" are crossed off, when
+the trader takes the paper into his own possession. The value of the
+purchases made at Miami by the Indians, I was informed, is annually
+about $2,000. This is, however, an amount larger than would be the
+average for the rest of the tribe, for the Miami Indians do a
+considerable business in the barter and sale of ornamental plumage.
+
+What the primitive standard of value among the Seminole was is suggested
+to me by their word for money, "Tcat-to Ko-na-wa." "Ko-na-wa" means
+beads, and "Tcat-to," while it is the name for iron and metal, is also
+the name for stone. "Tcat-to" probably originally meant stone. Tcat-to
+Ko-na-wa (i.e., stone beads) was, then, the primitive money. With
+"Hat-ki," or white, added, the word means silver; with "La-ni," or
+yellow, added, it means gold. For greenbacks they use the words
+"Nak-ho-tsi Tcat-to Ko-na-wa," which is, literally, "paper stone beads."
+
+Their methods of measuring are now, probably, those of the white man. I
+questioned my respondent closely, but could gain no light upon the terms
+he used as equivalents for our measurements.
+
+Divisions Of Time.
+
+I also gained but little knowledge of their divisions of time. They have
+the year, the name for which is the same as that used for summer, and in
+their year are twelve months, designated, respectively:
+
+   1. Cla-futs-u-tsi, Little Winter.
+   2. Ho-ta-li-ha-si, Wind Moon.
+   3. Ho-ta-li-ha-si-clak-o, Big Wind Moon.
+   4. Ki-ha-su-tsi, Little Mulberry Moon.
+   5. Ki-ha-si-clat-o, Big Mulberry Moon.
+   6. Ka-too-ha-si.
+   7. Hai-yu-tsi.
+   8. Hai-yu-tsi-clak-o.
+   9. O-ta-wus-ku-tsi.
+  10. O-ta-wus-ka-clak-o.
+  11. I-ho-li.
+  12. Cla-fo-clak-o, Big Winter.
+
+I suppose that the spelling of these words could be improved, but I
+reproduce them phonetically as nearly as I can, not making what to me
+would be desirable corrections. The months appear to be divided simply
+into days, and these are, in part at least, numbered by reference to
+successive positions of the moon at sunset. When I asked Tael-la-haes-ke
+how long he would stay at his present camp, he made reply by pointing,
+to the new moon in the west and sweeping his hand from west to east to
+where the moon would be when he should go home. He meant to answer,
+about ten days thence. The day is divided by terms descriptive of the
+positions of the sun in the sky from dawn to sunset.
+
+Numeration.
+
+The Florida Indians can count, by their system, indefinitely. Their
+system of numeration is quinary, as will appear from the following list:
+
+   1. Hum-kin.
+   2. Ho-_ko-lin_.
+   3. To-_tei-nin_.
+   4. _Os-tin_.
+   5. Tsaq-ke-pin.
+   6. I-pa-kin.
+   7. _Ko-lo_-pa-kin.
+   8. _Tci-na_-pa-kin
+   9. _Os-ta_-pa-kin.
+  10. Pa-lin.
+  11. Pa-lin-hum-kin, _i.e._, ten one, &c.
+  20. Pa-li-ho-ko-lin, _i.e._, two tens.
+
+As a guide towards a knowledge of the primitive manner of counting the
+method used by an old man in his intercourse with me will serve. He
+wished to count eight. He first placed the thumb of the right hand upon
+the little finger of the left, then the right forefinger upon the next
+left hand finger, then the thumb on the next finger, and the forefinger
+on the next, and then the thumb upon the thumb; leaving now the thumb
+of the right hand resting upon the thumb of the left, he counted the
+remaining numbers on the right hand, using for this purpose the fore
+and middle fingers of the left; finally he shut the fourth and little
+fingers of the right hand down upon its palm, and raising his hands,
+thumbs touching, the counted fingers outspread, he showed me eight as
+the number of horses of which I had made inquiry.
+
+Sense Of Color.
+
+Concerning the sense of color among these Indians, I found that my
+informant at least possessed it to only a very limited degree. Black and
+white were clear to his sight, and for these he had appropriate names
+Also for brown, which was to him a "yellow black," and for gray, which
+was a "white black." For some other colors his perception was distinct
+and the names he used proper. But a name for blue he applied to many
+other colors, shading from violet to green. A name for red followed a
+succession of colors all the way from scarlet to pink. A name for yellow
+he applied to dark orange and thence to a list of colors through to
+yellow's lightest and most delicate tint. I thought that at one time I
+had found him making a clear distinction between green and blue, but as
+I examined further I was never certain that he would not exchange the
+names when asked about one or the other color.
+
+Education.
+
+The feeling of the tribe is antagonistic to even such primary education
+as reading, writing, and calculation. About ten years ago an attempt,
+the only attempt in modern times, to establish schools among them was
+made by Rev. Mr. Frost, now at Myers, Fla. He did not succeed.
+
+Slavery.
+
+By reference to the population table, it will be noticed that there are
+three negroes and seven persons of mixed breed among the Seminole. It
+has been said that these negroes were slaves and are still held as
+slaves by the Indians. I saw nothing and could not hear of anything
+to justify this statement. One Indian is, I know, married to a negress,
+and the two negresses in the tribe live apparently on terms of perfect
+equality with the other women. Me-le goes and comes as he sees fit.
+No one attempts to control his movements. It may be that long ago the
+Florida Indians held negroes as slaves, but my impression is to the
+contrary. The Florida Indians, I think, rather offered a place of refuge
+for fugitive bondmen and gradually made them members of their tribe.
+
+Health.
+
+In the introduction to this report I said that the health of the
+Seminole is good. As confirming this statement, I found that the deaths
+during the past year had been very few. I had trustworthy information
+concerning the deaths of only four persons. One of these deaths was of
+an old woman, O-pa-ka, at the Fish Eating Creek settlement; another was
+of Tael-la-haes-ke's wife, at Cat Fish Lake settlement; another was of a
+sister of Tael-la-haes-ke; and the last was of a child, at Cow Creek
+settlement. At the Big Cypress Swamp settlement I was assured that no
+deaths had occurred either there or at Miami during the year. On the
+contrary, however, I was told by some white people at Miami that several
+children had died at the Indian camp near there in the year past.
+Tael-la-haes-ke said to me, "Twenty moons ago, heap pickaninnies die!" And
+I was informed by others that about two years before there had been
+considerable fatality among children, as the consequence of a sort of
+epidemic at one of the northern camps. Admitting the correctness of
+these reports, I have no reason to modify my general statement that the
+health of the Seminole is good and that they are certainly increasing
+their number. Their appearance indicates excellent health and their
+environment is in their favor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Environment Of The Seminole.
+
+
+Nature.
+
+Southern Florida, the region to which most of the Seminole have been
+driven by the advances of civilization, is, taken all in all, unlike any
+other part of our country. In climate it is subtropical; in character
+of soil it shows a contrast of comparative barrenness and abounding
+fertility; and in topography it is a plain, with hardly any perceptible
+natural elevations or depressions. The following description, based upon
+the notes of my journey to the Big Cypress Swamp, indicates the
+character of the country generally. I left Myers, on the Caloosahatchie
+River, a small settlement composed principally of cattlemen, one morning
+in the month of February. Even in February the sun was so hot that
+clothing was a burden. As we started upon our journey, which was to be
+for a distance of sixty miles or more, my attention was called to the
+fact that the harness of the horse attached to my buggy was without the
+breeching. I was told that this part of the harness would not be needed,
+so level should we find the country. Our way, soon after leaving the
+main street of Myers, entered pine woods. The soil across which we
+traveled at first was a dry, dazzling white sand, over which, was
+scattered a growth of dwarf palmetto. The pine trees were not near
+enough together to shade us from the fierce, sun. This sparseness of
+growth, and comparative absence of shade, is one marked characteristic
+of Florida's pine woods. Through this thin forest we drove all the day.
+The monotonous scenery was unchanged except that at a short distance
+from Myers it was broken by swamps and ponds. So far as the appearance
+of the country around as indicated, we could not tell whether we were
+two miles or twenty from our starting point. Nearly half our way during
+the first day lay through water, and yet we were in the midst of what is
+called the winter "dry season." The water took the shape here of a swamp
+and there of a pond, but where the swamp or the pond began or ended it
+was scarcely possible to tell, one passed by almost imperceptible
+degrees from dry land to moist and from moist land into pool or marsh.
+Generally, however, the swamps were filled with a growth of cypress
+trees. These cypress groups were well defined in the pine woods by the
+closeness of their growth and the sharpness of the boundary of the
+clusters. Usually, too, the cypress swamps were surrounded by rims of
+water grasses. Six miles from Myers we crossed a cypress swamp, in which
+the water at its greatest depth was from one foot to two feet deep.
+A wagon road had been cut through the dense growth of trees, and the
+trees were covered with hanging mosses and air plants.
+
+The ponds differed from the swamps only in being treeless. They are open
+sheets of water surrounded by bands of greater or less width of tall
+grasses. The third day, between 30 and 40 miles from Myers, we left the
+pine tree lands and started across what are called in Southern Florida
+the "prairies." These are wide stretches covered with grass and with
+scrub palmetto and dotted at near intervals with what are called pine
+"islands" or "hammocks" and cypress swamps. The pine island or hammock
+is a slight elevation of the soil, rising a few inches above the dead
+level. The cypress swamp, on the contrary, seems to have its origin only
+in a slight depression in the plain. Where there is a ring of slight
+depression, inclosing a slight elevation, there is generally a
+combination of cypress and pine and oak growth. For perhaps 15 miles we
+traveled that third day over this expanse of grass; most of the way we
+were in water, among pine islands, skirting cypress swamps and saw-grass
+marshes, and being jolted through thick clumps of scrub palmetto. Before
+nightfall we reached the district occupied by the Indians, passing there
+into what is called the "Bad Country," an immense expanse of submerged
+land, with here and there islands rising from it, as from the drier
+prairies. We had a weird ride that afternoon and night: Now we passed
+through saw-grass 5 or 6 feet high and were in water 6 to 20 inches in
+depth; then we encircled some impenetrable jungle of vines and trees,
+and again we took our way out upon a vast expanse of water and grass. At
+but one place in a distance of several miles was it dry enough for one
+to step upon the ground without wetting the feet. We reached that place
+at nightfall, but found no wood there for making a fire. We were 4 miles
+then from any good camping ground. Captain Hendry asked our Indian
+companion whether he could take us through the darkness to a place
+called the "Buck Pens." Ko-nip-ha-tco said he could. Under his guidance
+we started in the twilight, the sky covered with clouds. The night which
+followed was starless, and soon we were splashing through a country
+which, to my eyes, was trackless. There were visible to me no landmarks.
+But our Indian, following a trail made by his own people, about nine
+o'clock brought us to the object of our search. A black mass suddenly
+appeared in the darkness. It was the pine island we were seeking, the
+"Buck Pens."
+
+On our journey that day we had crossed a stream, so called, the
+Ak-ho-lo-wa-koo-tci. So level is the country, however, and so sluggish
+the flow of water there that this river, where we crossed it, was more
+like a swamp than a stream. Indeed, in Southern Florida the streams,
+for a long distance from what would be called their sources, are more a
+succession of swamps than well defined currents confined to channels by
+banks. They have no real shores until they are well on their way towards
+the ocean.
+
+Beyond the point I reached, on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp, lie
+the Everglades proper, a wide district with, only deeper water and
+better defined islands than those which mark the "Bad Country" and the
+"Devil's Garden" I had entered.
+
+The description I have given refers to that part of the State of Florida
+lying south of the Caloosahatchee River. It is in this watery prairie
+and Everglade region that we find the immediate environment of most of
+the Seminole Indians. Of the surroundings of the Seminole north of the
+Caloosahatchee there is but little to say in modification of what has
+already been said. Near the Fish Eating Creek settlement there is a
+somewhat drier prairie land than that which I have just described. The
+range of barren sand hills which extends from the north along the middle
+of Florida to the headwaters of the Kissimmee River ends at Cat Fish
+Lake. Excepting these modifications, the topography of the whole Indian
+country of Florida is substantially the same as that which we traversed
+on the way from Myers into the Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades.
+
+Over this wide and seeming level of land and water, as I have said,
+there is a subtropical climate. I visited the Seminole in midwinter;
+yet, for all that my northern senses could discover, we were in the
+midst of summer. The few deciduous trees there were having a midyear
+pause, but trees with dense foliage, flowers, fruit, and growing grass
+were to be seen everywhere. The temperature was that of a northern June.
+By night we made our beds on the ground without discomfort from cold,
+and by day we were under the heat of a summer sun. There was certainly
+nothing in the climate to make one feel the need of more clothing or
+shelter than would protect from excessive heat or rain.
+
+Then the abundance of food, both animal and vegetable, obtainable in
+that region seemed to me to do away with the necessity, on the part of
+the people living there, for a struggle for existence. As I have already
+stated, the soil is quite barren over a large part of the district; but,
+on the other hand, there is also in many places a fertility of soil that
+cannot be surpassed. Plantings are followed by superabundant harvests,
+and the hunter is richly rewarded. But I need not repeat what has
+already been said; it suffices to note that the natural environment
+of the Seminole is such that ordinary effort serves to supply them,
+physically, with more than they need.
+
+
+Man.
+
+When we consider, in connection with these facts, what I have also
+before said, that these Indians are in no exceptional danger from wild
+animals or poisonous reptiles, that they need not specially guard
+against epidemic disease, and when we remember that they are native to
+whatever influences might affect injuriously persons from other parts of
+the country, we can easily see how much more favorably situated for
+physical prosperity they are than others of their kind. In fact, nature
+has made physical life so easy to them that their great danger lies in
+the possible want or decadence of the moral, strength needed to maintain
+them in a vigorous use of their powers. This moral strength to some
+degree they have, but in large measure it had its origin in and has been
+preserved by their struggles with man rather than with nature. The wars
+of their ancestors, extending over nearly two centuries, did the most to
+make them the brave and proud people they are. It is through the effects
+of these chiefly that they have been kept from becoming indolent and
+effeminate. They are now strong, fearless, haughty, and independent.
+But the near future is to initiate a new epoch in their history, an era
+in which their career may be the reverse of what it has been. Man is
+becoming a factor of new importance in their environment. The moving
+lines of the white population are closing in upon the land of the
+Seminole. There is no farther retreat to which they can go. It is their
+impulse to resist the intruders, but some of them are at last becoming
+wise enough to know that they cannot contend successfully with the white
+man. It is possible that even their few warriors may make an effort to
+stay the oncoming hosts, but ultimately they will either perish in the
+futile attempt or they will have to submit to a civilization which,
+until now, they have been able to repel and whose injurious
+accompaniments may degrade and destroy them. Hitherto the white man's
+influence has been comparatively of no effect except in arousing in the
+Indian his more violent passions, and in exciting him to open hostility.
+For more than three centuries the European has been face to face with
+the Florida Indian and the two have never really been friends. Through
+the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the peninsula was the scene of
+frequently renewed warfare. Spaniard, Frenchman, Englishman, and
+Spaniard, in turn, kept the country in an unsettled state, and when the
+American Union received the province from Spain, sixty years ago, it
+received with it, in the tribe of the Seminole, an embittered and
+determined race of hostile subjects. This people our Government has
+never been able to conciliate or to conquer. A different Indian policy,
+or a different administration of it, might have prevented the disastrous
+wars of the last half century; but, as all know, the Seminole have
+always lived within our borders as aliens. It is only of late years, and
+through natural necessities, that any friendly intercourse of white man
+and Indian has been secured. The Indian has become too weak to contend
+successfully against his neighbor and the white man has learned enough
+to refrain from arousing the vindictiveness of the savage. The few white
+men now on the border line in Florida are, with only some exceptions,
+cattle dealers or traders seeking barter with the red men. The cattlemen
+sometimes meet the Indians on the prairies and are friendly with them
+for the sake of their stock, which often strays into the Seminole
+country. The other places of contact of the whites and Seminole are
+the settlements of Myers, Miami, Bartow, Fort Meade, and Tampa, all,
+however, centers of comparatively small population. To these places,
+at infrequent intervals., the Indians go for purposes of trade.
+
+The Indians have appropriated for their service some of the products of
+European civilization, such as weapons, implements, domestic utensils,
+fabrics for clothing, &c. Mentally, excepting a few religious ideas
+which they received long ago from the teaching of Spanish missionaries
+and, in the southern settlements, excepting some few Spanish words, the
+Seminole have accepted and appropriated practically nothing from, the
+white man. The two peoples remain, as they always have been, separate
+and independent. Up to the present, therefore, the human environment
+has had no effect upon the Indians aside from that which has just been
+noticed, except to arouse them to war and to produce among them war's
+consequences.
+
+But soon a great and rapid change must take place. The large immigration
+of a white population into Florida, and especially the attempts at
+present being made to drain Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, make it
+certain, as I have said, that the Seminole is about to enter a future
+unlike any past he has known. But now that new factors are beginning to
+direct his career, now that he can no longer retreat, now that he can
+no longer successfully contend, now that he is to be forced into close,
+unavoidable contact with men he has known only as enemies, what will he
+become? If we anger him, he still can do much harm before we can conquer
+him; but if we seek, by a proper policy, to do him justice, he yet may
+be made our friend and ally. Already, to the dislike of the old men of
+the tribe, some young braves show a willingness to break down the
+ancient barriers between them and our people, and I believe it possible
+that with encouragement, at a time not far distant, all these Indians
+may become our friends, forgetting their tragic past in a peaceful and
+prosperous future.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Big Cypress Swamp Seminole settlement      477, 478, 499, 507, 529
+Billy, brother of Key West Billy                 492-494, 499, 528
+Brown, Lieutenant, aid of, among Seminole                      489
+Catfish Lake Seminole settlement                     477, 478, 509
+Cow Creek Seminole settlement                             477, 478
+Cypress swamps, Florida                                    527-529
+Devil's Garden, Florida                                        478
+Hendry, F. A., aid in Florida                        492, 511, 528
+Key West Billy                                            484, 485
+Koonti, preparation of                                     513-516
+  Seminole tradition of origin of                              519
+Me-le the Seminole                                        489, 490
+Miami River Seminole settlement                           477, 478
+
+
+
+Errata
+
+(Table of Contents)
+Use of Medicines...
+  _missing from printed text_
+(Green Corn Dance diagram)
+"TEOK-KO-CLACO"
+  _may be error for -CLAC-O_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #19155 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19155)