Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-02-06
sEM,NotEs DYING our.
The Natives of the Everglades Threat
ened With Utter Extinction.

The Natives of the Everglades Threat.
ened With Utter Extinction.
It will soon be in order for some
one familiar with the lives and habits
of the Florida Indians to write a book
on 1.-The Last of the Seminoles." The
remnants of this once powerful tribe,
who are scattered through the Florida
everglades, scarcely exceed 200 in
number. Pat Murphy of Jacksonville,
one of the attaches of the house of
representatives, has latey returned to
Washington from that state, and the
other night talked entertainingly to
Washington Post reporter about old
Chief Tallahassee and his tribe. He
Indians in the everglades and had
many good friends among them.
81 saw man in Jacksonville just
before | left, said he, ''who had been
down with the Indians for several
weeks and told me THAI their ranks
are rapidly becoming decimated. They
are poorer than ever. The game in
their section, on which they largely
subsisted, 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 kindly to the trades
of farming, and for that reason are
insufficiently clad and are leading a
kind of hand to mouth existence.
There are not over 200 remaining,
who populate the three or four stray
Cling villages. One of these is at Cow
Creek, in Brevard county, another at
Lake Resale, in the same county, an
other at Miami in Dade county, land still
another at what is known as the Bio
Cypress, on Lake Okeechobee, right
in the heart of the everglades. Talla-
hassee, the chief, is fine-looking,
medium sized Indian, aged about 20
years, and talks English quite fuently
He sets fine example for the few
young bucks left in the tribe by lead
ing 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 it Will only be a
few years before their villages will DO
broken up and the handful of those
still living scattered in all directions
| When Tallahassee dies he will be sue
ceeded 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 considers him
self insulted when the subject of work
| is preached to him.
1.-The Seminoles keep up their an
nual feast, which is called the green
corn dance. 1t takes place during the
first quarter OF the moon in June
All the living members of the tribe
gather in the neighborhood of Chief
Tallahassee's abode at this period.
! Then all their laws are made and they
Pow-wow for days and days until al
have been heard who have ANYTHING
to suggest for the good of the tribe Oh
for their entertainment. This is also
! the popular time for weddings, an6
often dozen marriages are celebrates
while the green corn dance continues
The dance feature of the gathering i
something on the order of all milan
dances They paint their faces an
bodies with glaring colors, circle
round and round a big camp fire
stamp their feet, and give the short
sharp yelps so characteristic of all IN
dams They keep up this so-calleS
dancing until they fall exhausted
Many whites visit their gathering
place at this season and are invaria.
bly, we'll treated"