refusing any aid from our Government. Twenty years ago the Government
appropriated $6,000, “to enable the Seminoles of Florida to obtain
homesteads upon the public lands, and to establish themselves
thereon.” A few of the Indians consented to accept; but the agent,
on investigation, found that the lands which the Indians desired
had passed into State or Improvement Companies. Today the Seminole
is embittered; and, having been driven from one reservation to
another, he refuses to exchange “Indian’s good lands for white man’s
bad lands,” and in the bitterness of his conquered spirit, takes
his dusky tribe to the dark shadows of the cypress swamps, where no
pale-faced Government officer dare disturb him. Again Congress tacked
an item to the appropriation act, giving $7,000 “for the support
of the Seminoles of Florida, for the erection and furnishing of a
school for teachers and the furnishing of seeds and implements for
agricultural purposes.” In the winter of 1889, an agent inspired with
confidence in himself, and with the hope of manipulating a $12,000
appropriation, came to Florida by appointment from Washington to
renew the effort “to find suitable lands upon which to settle the
Indians, and to furnish the seat of an educational establishment.”
Securing an interpreter the agent visited the Indian camp. A council
of chiefs listened quietly to his overtures, but with the same proud
spirit of Osceola’s day, they refused firmly to accept any aid from
a Government which they regard as having stolen from them the lands
of their fathers. As the agent dwelt on the presents the red men of
Florida should receive from the big white chief, Tiger Tail, a worthy
descendant of the invulnerable Tustenuggee, replied, “You came from
Great Chief? You say that Great Chief give Indian plow, wagon, hoe?”
Then pointing in the direction of a small settlement of shiftless
whites, he added, “He poor man, give ’em him. Indian no want ’em.”
Delivering his speech with the spirit of an old Norse King, the chief
strode majestically away, leaving the agent no nearer the fulfillment
of his trust.
An Indian Agency was established, however, in Florida in 1892,
located east of Fort Myers, and about thirty-five miles from the
nearest Seminole camp. It was supported by a yearly appropriation of
$6,000, the appropriation act reading, “For the support, civilization
and instruction of the Seminole Indians in Florida $6,000, one-half
of which sum may be expended at the discretion of the Secretary of
Interior in procuring permanent homes for said Indians.”
The Government built a saw mill, and attempted a school, but the
Indians, according to the statement of Col. C. C. Duncan, U. S.
Indian Inspector at that time, refused to send their children to
the school or to work at the saw mill. Many white traders who
purchase hides, plumes and furs from the Indians, tell them that the
establishment of an agency is for the purpose of rounding them up
and sending them west. These Indians have been cheated and baffled
so often by knaves, who go among them for that purpose, that they
imagine all whites to be of the same character, and cannot tell
whether a “talk” comes from their great white father at Washington,
or whether some imposter be imposing upon them for his own gains;
hence, the Seminole never removed his cloak of suspicion. Little
progress was made and the work of the agency as a government
institution was abandoned.
Once or twice it has been tried to locate the Seminoles, but when the
chiefs examined the land, they found it “ho-lo-wa-gus” (no good) and
they refused the offer.
NATIONAL INDIAN ASSOCIATION
ITS WORK AND ITS RESULTS
When the National Indian Association first organized, like many
innovations in humanitarian work, it met with rebuffs and criticisms,
and not until after five years of petitioning to Congress, newspaper
recognition and the circulation of leaflets, did the splendid body
receive legal recognition and protection for the United States
Indians. With this much accomplished, the work became easier and
plans to evangelize the Indians of the United States were instituted.
It became the duty of the Association to gather money for the work,
establish stations, one by one, finance the expense of building
mission cottages and chapels, and then when established, give the
station, with all its property, to whichever of the denominational
boards should ask for it.
The work has been one of the noblest of pioneer mission labor, for
its activities are directed to America’s original owners, whose
God-given inheritance should never be questioned by any patriot,
whether he be Christian or moralist.
In 1891, this organization entered Florida and the Seminole Indians
received recognition and the first ray of Christian light pierced the
dark camps of the Everglade Indians.
While the missionary in charge found the work difficult and results
were not flattering, still, the seeds were sown that have brought
later and better results, and in 1893 the Mission was transferred to
the Episcopal Church of the South Florida Diocese.
During the period of the National Organization’s stay in Florida,
Congressional agitation of the subject of Seminole lands was aired by
deeply interested friends and pauseless workers, and resulted in the
voting of 800,000 acres of land by the Florida Legislature as a home
for the Seminoles, a gift needing action on the part of Congress to
make it a sure and permanent home for this long-neglected people. But
this action alas! was never taken.[3]
In giving the Florida Station over to the Episcopal Church, the
National Indian Association made no mistake, for through the untiring
efforts of the Rt. Rev. William Crane Gray of the South Florida
diocese, the mission has each year been getting better results. The
Station has been named Im-mo-ka-lee (home), and is situated about
thirty-five miles from Fort Myers. Forty miles farther is a hospital,
called Glade Cross; here an immense white cross has been erected at
the entrance to the glades.
The present arrangement, under the charge of the estimable Rev. Dr.
Godden, seems to be solving the mission question better than any
former plan. The mission owns a store where the Indians may buy or
sell; the missionary in charge may meet and converse personally with
the Indians; he wins their friendship and is able by degrees to
instill religious thoughts into them. The Rev. Dr. Godden is working
along industrial lines, and says, “We must fit these Seminoles by
education and Christianity to meet the coming conditions, and teach
them to become self-supporting by industrial pursuits and _now is the
time to do it_.”
The work proposed is to erect suitable houses for the residence of
the missionary and his family with sufficient room to entertain
visiting Indians when in over night and a barrack or rest room for
laborers employed in clearing land and working crops.
Writing in 1909 of the work and Mission, Dr. Gray says:
To Bishops, Clergy and Laity of
The American Church, Greeting:
I desire to commend most heartily my well-beloved in the Lord,
Rev. Irenæus Trout, Missionary to the Seminole Indians in Southern
Florida. I believe that God has in a marvelous way designated him
as the very man to go forward with the work in which he has already
been signally blessed, viz: that of leading the Seminoles into the
Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are now at the very crisis of
opportunity.
Hear him and help him. Here is a cry, not from Europe, Asia or
Africa, but from the Everglades, in your own Florida: “Come and
help us!” A thousand prayers accompany him from this Missionary
District.
God gives you the privilege of helping this poor Seminole remnant
into the kingdom.
Faithfully,
For Christ and the Church,
(Seal) WM. CRANE GRAY,
Bishop of Southern Fla.
The Cathedral Church
Of St. Luke,
Orlando, Fla., Jan. 15, 1909.
THE FRIENDS OF THE FLORIDA SEMINOLES.
A few years ago great interest was manifested in these Florida
wards, when a Society called “The Friends of the Florida Seminoles”
was organized at Kissimmee, Fla., with the Rev. William Crane Gray,
Bishop of the South Florida Episcopal Church, President; Rev. D. A.
Dodge, Vice-president; Mr. James M. Willson, Jr., Secretary, and
State Senator C. A. Carson, Treasurer. Other officers (trustees)
were the late George W. Wilson, Editor-in-chief of the Florida
Times-Union; Hon. J. R. Parrott, President of the Florida East Coast
Railroad Co., and Capt. F. M. Hendry, Fort Myers, Fla.
This body, assisted by the active interest and sympathy of Gov. W. D.
Bloxam, Mr. P. A. Van Agnew, and Mr. Kirk Munroe, made it possible
for the Society to accomplish its State-wide results, numbering among
its members philanthropic people from Maine to California.
The object of this society was to enlist the sympathy of the American
people for these homeless people and to strenuously oppose the
removal of the Seminoles from the State against their consent. No
really true American, whether he be an Indian sympathizer or not, can
feel any but sympathy for the Florida Seminole if he understand the
true status of his condition, and when the Society of the Friends
of the Florida Seminoles was established, a great wave of sympathy
was felt all over the country and requests for membership came in
from all ranks, the highest circles of finance, from social leaders,
educational centers and government officials. It was recognized an
honor to belong to the organization.
The membership list is still open and the Society earnestly appeals
to the people of America to take a friendly interest in the future
fate of this forlorn remnant, who are one of Florida’s most native
possessions, and to aid in securing for them permanent homes in the
unsettled portions of the State before it is too late.
The interest and work of the Society was greatly aided through the
editorial columns of Harper’s Weekly, when Edward S. Martin made an
appeal in behalf of that band of Seminoles known as the Cow Creeks.
The object was to purchase a tract of land on which was located
about seventy-five Indians. They had lived here for thirty years,
cultivating part of the land and using the rest as a range for their
hogs, but as they had no legal title to the land, they were at the
mercy of squatters who coveted them. About four hundred dollars
were raised, but when the attempt was made to locate these Indians,
cowboys and land-grabbers had alarmed them, by telling them that the
Government was getting ready to round them up and take them West, and
like frightened deer they left their homes and retired again to the
swamp fastnesses.
The Society purchased some fields upon which the Indians were camping
with Harper’s fund--the remainder of the funds being held in trust
for its original purpose. The Society secured great public sentiment
in their favor, and hoped to obtain lands through legislation.
Centuries of wrong from hands too powerful to be resisted have taught
these red Americans the patience of despair.
Amid the blessings of Christianity, the Seminole is an outcast from
sympathy and an alien to hope, yet he has never ceased to be manly.
While we protect the deer and the alligator, the quail and the fish,
shall we leave our brother in bronze a prey to the lawless and a
helpless victim of every loafer?
The only way to protect these wards of Florida is to buy a
reservation, and hold it in trust for them--forever.
Even at this writing, that trackless waste of saw-grass and water
with its scattering islands and lagoons, constitutes the great
political question among Florida people--the drainage of the
Everglades.
[Illustration: A SEMINOLE CAMP-FIRE
The Indian mode of making a fire.]
We cannot but admire the proud and independent spirit of the Seminole
as he refuses, in firm but Indian-like measures, the proffered
liberality of a Government which he believes has wronged him.
And, from his high pinnacle of pride, he certainly bears the
distinction of being the only _American_ who has been found unwilling
to share the spoils of the nation. So he says, “We have listened to
the great father at Washington. The Great Spirit wishes no change
in his red children. If you teach our children the knowledge of the
white people, they will cease to be Indians. To know how to read and
write is very good for white men, but very bad for red men. Long
time ago, some of our fathers wrote upon a little piece of paper
without the nation knowing anything about it. When the agent called
the Indians together he told them the little paper was a treaty
which their brethren had made with the great father at Washington,
and lo! they found that their brethren by knowing how to write,
had sold their lands and the graves of their fathers to the white
race. Tell our great father at Washington that we want no schools,
neither books, for reading and writing makes very bad Indians. We are
satisfied. Let us alone.” After this speech delivered in the native
tongue, the council breaks up, and the proud Seminole betakes himself
to the Everglades. The Seminole is disposed to make a child’s bargain
with the big white chief: “You let me alone, and I will let you
alone.”
Photographs of the Carlisle Indian boys have been used to illustrate
the improvement which follows education; but the Seminole youth
turns away with disdain, as he notes the closely shaven head and
the American dress, and says, “Indian no want books, make ’em white
man, white man mean heap lie too much.” With a gesture faithful to
the Indian, he refers to the “long time ago, Seminoles had lands,
cattle, slaves; white man steal ’em.” This statement of the Indians
is corroborated by the old white settlers of to-day, who fought the
Indians. They tell that General Jessup’s army, on coming to the great
cattle country of South Florida, began a systematic slaughter of all
the cattle found. A body of soldiers, too large to fear an attack,
would round up a herd of the Indian’s cattle and sitting on their
horses, shoot them all down. Up to this time the Indians were regular
stock dealers, their customers being the Cubans and Minorcans.
General Jessup’s report of his march into the “Indian country,” says,
“On the 28th (January, 1837), the army moved forward and occupied a
strong position on ‘Ta-hop-ka-li-ga’ Lake, where several hundred head
of cattle were obtained.”
The tribe to-day are taught by the chiefs to regard the whites, in
general, as lacking in honor and courage, weak and insignificant, or
in Seminole dialect, “white man--_ho-lo-wa-gus_” (no good). This is
easily understood when we consider the strong attachment an Indian
bears to his native hunting grounds; and when the memory runs back
to the time when our Government banished their friends and relatives
to the unknown wilds of the West, and they went silent and weeping
toward the setting sun. Their bitterness is consistent with their
ideas of injustices practiced upon them.
History, romance and poetry have held up the characteristics of the
red man to our gaze from childhood. And while treachery may be a
distinguishing feature of the Indian nature, yet the lowest one of
them has some conception of honor when fairly approached. History
shows that all through the Seminole war, misrepresentations and
dishonorable schemes were practiced against them by the whites.
Almost universal sympathy goes out to this remnant of people who
fought so bravely and so persistently for the land of their birth,
for their homes, for the burial place of their kindred. As their
traditions tell them of the oppression their people suffered as
they wandered in the wilderness thrice forty years, who can tell
the secret of their hearts? To do this, it would be necessary to
become, for the time, an Indian, to put ourselves in his place--and
what white man has ever done this? Ask the waters of Tohopeliga, or
the winds that waft across Okeechobee. To the elements are whispered
the heart throbs of these red fawns of the forest. The present
Florida Indians are descendants of that invincible tribe who were
never conquered by the force of arms. Refusing in 1842 to accompany
their people to the mysterious West, they ceased to exist save for
themselves. Finding refuge in the almost inaccessible Everglades,
they were for a time almost lost to the historian. They have no
legal existence, and hence no rights that a white man is bound, by
law, to respect. There are no Indian troubles in Florida at present,
but every few months a cry comes from hungry land-grabbers, or from
trappers and hunters, that the Seminoles are killing off the deer and
plume birds. The changing conditions in the lower peninsular country
will eventually lead up to difficulties; and “Where shall we locate
the Indians?” becomes a serious problem.
The Florida _Times-Union_ editorially says:
All the murderous, cut-throat, unkempt and squalid Indians in
the United States whom the Government fears are provided with
reservations and such luxuries as they never before had in their
lives, but the Seminoles of Florida, the finest specimens of Indian
manhood in this country, clean in body, pure in morals, and as
brave as the lion that roams the desert, with whom so many treaties
have been wantonly broken, are being driven farther and farther
into the Everglades and their hunting grounds confiscated to the
land grabbers. Is this justice?
Should the whites drive off the Seminoles, and thus approve their
greed for land by taking the possessions the Indians now occupy,
what good would it do them? Internal improvement companies, by their
franchises, would sooner or later take the blood-stained acres from
them. Let settlers in Florida, or in any part of the country, turn
over their accounts and see how many acres have been credited to
them, either from the State or from the general Government, without
the equivalent of homesteading or for cash. The “Western” style of
disposing of the Indian’s inheritance must not be followed in fair
Florida. It seems hard that these natives who ask no aid of our
nation, should be forced to the wall by the march of civilization.
To the Western Indians, under the protection of the Government, and
supplied in a large measure by the taxes which civilization pays,
pages are devoted by philanthropists for the betterment of their
condition. The rights of the Seminoles of Florida should be defended.
The day is not far distant when they must be made to go to the
reservation in Arkansas or to lands set apart for them in Florida. To
remove them from their tropical homes to the chilling blasts of the
Indian Territory would be an act of cruelty and wholly unnecessary.
Those of us who have enjoyed life in this land of the palm, this land
of the balmy air and life-giving sunshine, reveling in the eternal
bloom of the flowers and the ceaseless song of the birds, can well
picture the struggle it would cost the patient Seminole to be forced
to a cold western land. No, fair Florida, the ancestors of these
proud people were forced to the country of the setting sun silent
and dejected. But, with the spirit of Osceola, if they must perish,
it will be here--here upon the land of their birth, upon the graves
of their kindred. The lands they now occupy are of little value to
the white race and might be made a safe reserve for them--forever.
Cowboys who hunt upon the Okeechobee plains, say the Indians are
peaceably disposed and friendly, and have never yet disturbed or
threatened. They are certainly not foot-sore for the warpath and are
fearful of doing anything to arouse the whites. “Indian no fight,” is
the answer to the questioner. They have sense enough to know that if
war should come again it would mean extermination for them; and their
love for the “Flower Land” is so deep that the thought of exile would
cost a struggle they dare not attempt. Yet, feeble remnant that they
are, with the same heroic blood coursing their veins that inspired
their ancestors and made them almost invulnerable, the present
Seminole would choose to die rather than submit to removal. And in
their swampy fastnesses, they could maintain a contest that would
cost us thousands of dollars and many precious lives.
OUR DUTY TO THESE WARDS OF THE NATION.
Under the present status the Seminoles are prosperous, happy and
contented. But the vanguard of civilization is marching on, and
thinking, friendly minds must solve the question of the protection
for this remnant of a tribe we have dispossessed of their natural
rights. Dwellers of every land, from Scandinavia to the Congo have
a Christian welcome to our shores. The slums of Europe pour in upon
us to fill our almshouses and to be supported by our taxes. We have
during the past quarter century contributed more than $50,000,000 to
the education of the freedmen, yet except in individual cases, the
improvement is scarcely noticeable.
Men and women are sacrificing their lives for the heathen of other
lands. Is not the Seminole, this remnant of a long-persecuted people,
as worthy of consideration as the oppressed Cuban or the half-naked
Filipino?
Christianity is donating millions of money to this end, while our own
“wards,” too many of them, are yet living in the dark superstitions
of their fathers.
[Illustration:
_Photograph by E. W. Histed._
CHIEFTAIN TALLAHASSEE, WITH HIS WHITE FRIEND, THE LATE L. A. WILLSON
“The very history of the tribe is carved in poor Tallahassee’s face.
He is the incarnation of ‘The Man without a Country.’”]
It is possible it will take time and patience before any shining
results are apparent. Not until confidence is restored will the
embittered Seminole yield to the overtures of our Government. In an
educational sense the older Indians will not be benefited, except
through the influence of their children. The logic of events demands
absorption of this people into our National life, not as Indians,
but as American citizens; and the sooner they can be induced to
accept lands from the Government, and education for the youth, the
sooner will the civilization of the Seminole cease to be a theory.
The permanent duty of the hour is to prepare the rising generation
for the new order of events that must come. Because these bands of
the Seminoles are prouder, more invincible than the old Saxons,
because they are savages, yet heroes many of them, all the good of
life should not be withheld from them. It has taken years of labor
to obtain the shining of even the few rays of light that relieve
the gloom of the heathen countries of the Orient. It would be
unreasonable to expect the offspring of savages to attain in a short
time to anything like the thrift of a Nation like ours. Yet, with a
few years of humane treatment, unviolated pledges, with Christian
and patriotic examples set before them, this little band of Florida
Indians would become worthy representatives of this fair land.
Were any future danger to threaten the United States, the Seminoles
would be found to be brave allies. The pledge to General Worth by
this remnant of hostiles, who, in 1842, refused to emigrate with
the rest of their tribe, temporarily agreeing “to confine themselves
to certain limits and abstain from all aggressions upon their white
neighbors,” seems to be held sacred by their descendants. The
question was put to Billy Bowlegs, one of the most intelligent of
the present Indians, as to what his people would do were the whites
to encroach, and take the clearings of his tribe are now occupying,
“Would Indian fight?” The young brave replied with downcast face,
“Indian no fight, Indian no kill, Indian go.” Pursuing the subject
further, “but, Billy, by and by, may be one year, five years, may
be, white man go, take all your land, take Okeechobee, then where
will Indians go?” With the same bowed head, the answer came low and
soft, “Me don’t know--Indian go.” Then to test his idea of an ally,
the question was asked, “What would Seminole Indians do, Billy, if
the Spaniards from across the big salt water would come to fight the
white people of Florida?” Quickly and with spirit came the answer,
“Indians help white man to fight.” Unless action be taken, there will
come a time, when, leaving no trace behind them, the Seminole shall
pass out of the world. He shall go, like the mist.