The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1909-10-08
SEMINOLE
OF FLORIDA
Writer in Golfers Weekly Thr0wS
New Light on Their Character
FAST VANISHING RACE
The Florida SeminOles in Wilderness OF
Everglades Exc Out Simple fxistance
in Their Own Peculiar Way.

in Their Own Peculiar Way.
The Florida Seminole is the incarna-
ton of Hale's curious creation. 1.-The
man without country
Once members of the great Creek
family, the SeminOles of Florida have
lost their tribe, their traditions, and
their homes. Their own people have
forgotten them. The United States
has ignored them since the Seminole
war, when their roster was lost. Pay
menC of the government debt to their
tribe made plutOcrrts of their brothers
of the west, but never a dime reached
the members of the little band who re-
fuse to be driven from their ancestral
home, But their Spartan courage has
departed, the Juggernaut of Civillza-
ton has crushed their spirit, and in the
cowed and cringing remnant there is no
spark of the fire that flashed in 1.-The
Seminoles' Reply"
The government has no agent among
the SeminOles, and the last guess at
their number, made by the United
States seven years ago, was 1858. That
fragment of the tribe has now shrunk
|
to 275.
The habitat of the Seminole has been
the UNEMPLOYED wilderness which Is
passing away. The title of the white
sauatter to wild land in the Big Cy.
press Everglade country is respected
by everybody. That of the Indian
never reached the substance of dream.
Engineers of Civilization are invading
| A. fcnv,, thu aaSts Ilmhar
bark and fruit growing companies
crowd them on the west; hunters swarm
on their ancieni preserves; surveying
parties, pioneers of other enterprises,
are locating the land of the Big Cypress,
the State of Florida is draining away
the water of the Everglades; the Ang-
lo-Saxon aggressiveness is humping the
native American off the map.
Even missionaries, who rarely allow
a savage to escape them, seldom camp
along on the trail of the Seminole OF
Florida. One of them did settle near
an encampment at Immokalee (HOme),
whereupon the Indians rose like flock
of quail and moved to the Big Cypress
swamp.
"If come Big Cypress me 'hiepus'
(go) stay two years.
Aliens in their ancient heritage, the
Seminoles lack the ordinary means OF
subsistence. They might exist With
out clothing-they don't wear much
J nOw-but their food supply grows scan
tier and more precarous year by wear;
Snowy herOus are nearly extinct, and
the Indian must soon stop selling It's
plumes to the women of Vanity Far.
The white traders of the west coast
now refuse to buy these plumes, but
the half-civilized Indian who trades III
them finds congenial partner in the
unlawful traffic among the white mer-
chants in Miami. Offers have become
scarce, and alligators, the dependence
of the SeminOles, are fast following
the trail of the dodo.
| once interviewed a Seminole VINO
hal Just poled his dugout forty miles to
the store of trader to exchange Il
, score of alligator hides for fifteen dol
lars worth of bacon, grits and tobacco,
to feed his family of twelve.
We talked in the hodge podge of bad
,, English and broken Seminole, with
! which the white man holds converse
!, with the Indian, but when suggested
that deer, otter and alligator "Dlmeby
hiepus," and asked: 'Think so, Indian
, plant corn, potato, tomato, ana sell!
= the reply come like bullet, "No!'
= Sometimes Seminoles will work for
, farmers in the fields, but as laborers
y they are not to be depended upon An
4 Indian who had refused to do some
= light work for a dollar day, yet of
! fered to give me live otter, without
trap marks or other injury, for mod
!, crate sum. He spent some weeks Sc
= curing the creature, which he said nc
ran down on the prairie, Although the
> otter had bitten his thumb half off, the
- Seminole seemed satisfied with hls
! compensation, which was far less thar
!. he could have earned by much lighter
o work.
Even in his own country of the Ever
plades, the Seminole is an unsatisfactory
n guide, and | much perfer, as an explor
;. ing companion, white man, wh'
:. doesn't know the country to an Indian
!. who does. The latter lacks stamin
g and resourcefulness, is easily discour
Il aged, quite regardless of all contract
of service, and has to be coddled like
~ spoiled child. OF course some ar
% better than others, or, rather some ar
- worse than Others. If the trails DIR
70 and the canoe must be hauled thrOug
# mud and sawgrass, the Indian is labl
ID to lie down and say: "Me sick oju'
at want whyme," and If he doesn't get
q to throw up his job instanter. Yet tn
a. Seminole Is reliable il spots, with h
Il. own sense of honor, which, howeve
no NAV not ALWAYS run parallel with tn