So Wickman developed her own charts to accommodate the matrilineal clans that organize Seminole society. But do not expect to see her work posted on the Internet or at a university library. The charts are available only to tribal members, and Wickman will not show them to anyone outside the tribe or even talk about the elders she has interviewed. Tribal identity To understand her secrecy, and the tribe s, is to travel into the history of the Seminoles. Native Americans today are locked in yet another war, the ability to protect this information without the assumption that they should be sharing it.
Sovereignty is the big issue.
They keep the past as who they are. One side effect of her work is a slew of letters and e-mail from people who think they have Seminole blood and are clamoring to join the tribe. They send pictures of their families and point to high cheekbones or straight black hair as proof of their Native American ancestry. The Wannabees and the Outtalucks, Wickman quips, are the biggest tribes in Florida. Several months ago she answered a query from a woman who asked why the tribe doesn t simply accept all those people who have any Indian blood, however distant the relationship.