Fort Pierce news. (Fort Pierce, Fla.) 190?-1920, 1909-11-19
WHY SEMINOLES WILL REMAIN
viii Not Leave the Everglades for
a Chance in Oklahoma.

Writing in the New York Morning
Telegraph, w A. Phelon has the fol-
lowing to say anent the recent story TO
the effect that the Seminolcs are to de-
sert the Everglades for homes in far
oklahoma
IA report comes from Florida that
the last survivors OF the Seminole
tribe, headed by Chief Tiger Tail, will
soon remove to Oklahoma, going upon
the Seminole reservation Ia that State,
and abandoning the Everglades, where
they were born and where their faith
ers fought so we'll.
while there may be some little
truth in the report it is hard TO figure
out where the Florida Seminoles would
gain anything by making such trans
fer. For one thing, the Seminole Res
ervation In Oklahoma has been allotted
and subdivided the lands not taken
for members Of the tribe have been
bought by white meu, and there would
be no place to put Tiger Tails people
II they went,
Then again, why should the free
and happy followers Of Tiger Tail even
think Of going to crowded State,
among the whites, with no means Of
making livelihood, no chance to do
anything but struggle along amid
strange conditions and strange faceaP
The Florida Semincles would be hugely
foolish TO make the shift, and their bet
ter sense will probably keep them
where they are,
Tiger Tails band Of SemlnoIes lead
the most comfortable, care-free life i'm
ag.nable. Right there in Florida close
TO the winter resorts and the hum Of
civilized existence, they carry on their
hunting and their forest rovings ex-
actly as they did hundred years ago.
They are wild Indians OF the widest
sort and yet are wholly harmless. The
vast swamps of the Everglades house
them well they interfere with nobody.
and should be left alone to adorn the
landscape and add color to the picture.
'.1'o this very day, little is known Of
the Everglades Swamps, hammocks,
iungles and waterways, they lie 10 81
lent splendor, pasture OF greens and
blues, untraveled by the white man,
and apparently impossible Of penetra-
tlon save to the Seminole. Tiger Tails
men 90 aud come in their canoes, GID"
ing up aud down the waterways, find
ing their road and the sawgrass and
the Jungle lanes, never getting lost,
and never doing injury to other people.
Without them many an adventurous
hunter or foolhardy tourist would die
an awful death amid the solitudes. II
often keeps TigerTail's folks busy fish
ing tourists out Of the swamp, and
there has never been case where the
Seminole robbed the lost traveller, mis-
treated him, or failed to bring him to
their camps with royal hospitality.
1.-THE number OF Tiger Tails people
] has never been known. According to
the Federal census Of 1900 there were
356 Indians in Florida, but governments
agents estimate the pumber at $40.
FloridiSns think about 400 Seminoles
live in the swamps, the number increass
| ing but little, certainly not diminish
| ing. They are full-bloods, clad in the
cool and comfortable Indian dress OF
the Southern tribes, well armed. intel
lligent and good looking.
"When Osceola stirred the Seminoles
70 war in 1896 they numbered about
5000. In seven years Of fighting the
government caught and sent vest j..
929 Of the tribe, while the death lists
of soldiers totaled LAOS. Add to tbs
the inofft nsive citizens who we're slain,
and it will be seen that the balance was
much IN favor OF the Red men. In lSAz
it was supposed that only S4S Semtuoles
were left, aud these we're allowed to
stay in the smampy Everglades A few
wears later these went on the warpasn
and some so or so were caught and SEM
10 the Indian Territory. Ever since
the tribe has lived its strange exist
ence in the swamps and has behaves
like set OF gentlemen and GOOD sel-
lows.
"Scme Of the SeminoIes who went
west headed by Coacoochee' wonderF
full warrior, broke away and ned %
Mexico, where q few Of them YET re-
main. The rest stayed on the reserve