The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-26
The F.orida s~minoies.

lt VIII soon pc m order Tor some one familiar with the lives and habits of the Florida Indians to write about ""The Last of the seminoies." The rem nants of this once powerful tribe. who are scattered through the Florida ever glades. scarcely exceed two hundred in number. Patrick Murphy, of Jackson vile. one of the attaches of the house of representatives, has just returned to Washington from that state. and last night talked entertalningly about old Chief Tallahassee and his tribe. He was at one time trader among the In- dians In the everglades and had many good friends among them.
 T saw a man in Jacksonville just be- fore I left" said he. "who had been down with the Indians for several weeks and told me that their ranks are rapidly becoming decimated. They are poorer than ever. The game in their section, on which they largely subsist- ed, is nearly all shot away. and the few remaining able-bodied men will soon have to get down to good old hard work unless the government comes to their relief. They have very little property of their own, and what they have is not of much value. They do not take kind ly to the trades or farming, and for that reason are insufficiently clad and are leading kind of hand-to-mouth existence.
 "There are not over two hundred re- maining who populate the three or four struggling villages. One of these is at Cow Creek, in Brevard county, another at Lake Rosalie, in the same county, another at Miami, in Dade county, and still another at what Is known as the Big Cypress. on Lake Okeechobee, right in the heart of the everglades. Talla- hassee, the chief is a fine-looking, me- dium-sized Indian, aged about seventy years, and talks English quite fluently. young bucks left In the tribe by leading a clean, sober life, but he cannot induce them to go to work and earn their own food and clothing. Their neglect of their persons and irregular habits and eating are making physical wrecks of them, and 1t will only be g. few years before their villages will be broken up and the handful of those still living scattered in all directions. When Tal- lahassee dies he will be succeeded by his son, a strapping big Indian, whom the whites call Billy Buster.' His only ambition is to kill lots of game, and he is an expert hunter and fisher. He con- siders himself insulted when the sub ject of work is preached 10 him.
 "The Seminoles keep up their annual feast, which is called the green-corn dance. It takes place during the first quarter of the moon in June, All the living members of the tribe gather at the neighborhood of Chief Tallahas- sees abode at this period. Then all their laws are made and they pow-wow for days and days until all have been heard who, have anything 4tos suggest for the good of the tribe or for their en- tertainment. This, Is also the popular time; for weddings, and often dozen marriages are celebrated while the green-corn dance continues, The dance feature of the gathering is something on the order of all Indian dances. They paint their faces and bodies with glaring colors, circle round and round a big campfire, stamp their feet, and give the short, sharp yells so characteristic of all Indians. They keep, up this so-called dancing until they fall exhausted. Many whites visit their gathering place at this season and are invariably well treated."- w O chi n crtop po1ts Sf. .f.