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* * * * *
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.