The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-10-04


to the knees, and nothing else. On Or
binary occasions they do not even
wear moccasins The ceremonial garb
consists of the skirt or tunic, which
Is made of calico, with the addition Of
skin leggins and skin moccasins, and
a sort Of coat over the tunic. The In
dams have skins, but they do not wear
| them for the most part, as it is too
| warm down in their swampy Florida.
| ALTHOUGH water mOccasins and the
| diamond back rattlesnake-as deadly
as the cobra-abound, the Seminoles
wade into the water barefooted with
| no fear, for they can see a snake
| much quicker than a white man. New
| ertheless, l have heard that out Of the
| eighteen once bitten only one recover
| ed
Happy Without Laws.
THE Seminoles have no government
and are under no government. They
do not even have a chief. They once
had chiefs, and there seems to exist
sort Of code of morals that is iron
bound. Once one Of the Indians shot
a white man in a row. He was told
| by the other Indians that he must
die. The condemned man said that
he owed some debts and that before
he died he wanted to pay them off.
So he was given a month in which to
work
| The condemned Seminole spent his
month collecting eight plumes and al
| ligator skins and paid his debts. Then
he appeared for the carrying out of
the sentence by his companions. They
sent half-breed negro after him, who
shot him.
| THE Seminoles in the days Of the
old South, were quick to adopt the Gus
tom of owning negro slaves. They
| bought many negroes from the South
erners and there are living ir the Ev-
erglades two slaves. One camp has an
old negro nanny and the other has
| the half-breed, descendant of Semi
mole and one of their slave negresses.
This is the halfbreed who executed
the sentence Of death for the tribe. He
| cannot be called a slave, however. for
| in the luxurious swamps he has grown
| to be so powerful a man physically
| that they cannot treat him as slave.
| The result is that he is a person Of
| some consequence among them.
| On one of the hummocks l was sur
| prised to hear the strains of the
| Sweet Bye and Bye 1t was played
|
| do not have to sew the costumes
for their braves as their ancestors did.
| They have sewing machines which
| their braves have got at the trading
| store.
There has been much talk and
many governmental projects for trans
| planting this remnant of the Semi
| noles to Oklahoma, where those who
were conquered in the war beginning
about 1888 are now very prosperous.
| A delegation of the Western Semi
noles, | was told in the Everglades,
visited them, bearing pictures of their
| western homes and farms. The
| Swamp Seminoles gave them a cold
| welcome, however, and would have
nothing to do with them or their pro-
| jects of emigration.
'Howlawaku, Indian boy no 60,
| they told their western relatives.
| 'Howlawaku is their word for bad.
| Their speech to the white man is a
queer mixture of Indian words, Span
| ish and English.
! These Indians have decided sense
| Of the humorous. When you know
them they will talk and joke with you
frankly. 1t is also popular fallacy
that Indians have no boards. That
is not so. They have boards, but they
either pull cut the hair or shave.
One Camp Real Hostile.
'In our trip through the Everglades
| from the west to the east coast Of
Florida we stopped at number of
camps at which white men had never
appeared At first the Indians were
| cold to us. but when they understood
| that Frank Brown was the son of Bill
| Brown, the white man who never -~-.
a lie they could not do enough for us.
| They attended to our every want and
supplied us with food for our jour
ney.
There was one island camp, how
ever, which was hostile to us. We
| thought it best not to go there our
! selves at first. No white man had
! ever heen there. So one OF the canoes
! with Frank Brown and Joel knight
went on ahead, guided by two Indian
| boys from friendly camp When
| they got within easy polling distance
| of that camp the entire male contin-
gent Of it appeared in canoe. They
let out series of war whoops and
began to fire their rifles. The two
Indian boys in our canoe leaped out
into t.a water and took to the bushes,
leaving Brown and knight alone in
part of the Everglades they did not
! know.
There was nothing for Brown to do
but to talk Of his father. This he
did to such good effect that the In
dams let him land at their camp. He
finally persuaded them that he was
the son of the white man who never
told a lie. Then the chief old man
of the camp turned to him and said:
You stay here as long as you
| want. But you bring no white man
here
Then they directed Brown back to
ne. We decided that we didn't want
to go 70 that camp after all.
The Seminole camps are kept won
derfully clean. They are swept or
raked every day. The men and wo-
men are fine specimens physically l
never heard Of a sick Indian. This
il mite remarkable when you con-