Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1913-11-02
SenlinOIeS Have Not Advanced
Win Their Other Indian Brothers

always characterized the life Of the
Florida Seminoles. and the fact that
all the necessities OF life are so easily
procured, one would expect that com
paratiVe prosperity would prevail
among them-and IN a measure such
Is the case, as far as aboriginal Indian
life permits, However much Of his
labor Is wasted through his ignorance
of the ways by which he might eoonO-
mi2e. He has no labor saving or labor
multiplying methods. His wants are
few and climatic conditions do not
require much saving
The work is not divided along So
cial lines as with his white brother
Both men and women make some #
the scant clothing desired. both are
hunters, flour or koonti makers. wood
heWers. wood bearers, water carriers
cane crushcrs, etc. The Seminole
home presents "A more perfect equality
Of social conditions than any other of
our aborlginees.
Nature offers them an abundance
of food; the streams abound in all
kinds OF fish, the forests are still the
wants, both AS to meat supply and
wood and the need Of medium Of
exchange money is but slight and
that merely for the little amount Of
clothing that he has learned to buy
Of the traders along the coast.
or his food, Koonti root similar
To the arrowroot and often called
Indian bread root is their stapIe
flour and from it bread Is made It
grows wild and with the wild potatoes
and wild peanut con3titutes their
chief starch food. His bin of fare,
during the year consists OF bananas.
sour and sweet oranges, lines. lemons.
guayas plneapples black and red
srapes, cocoa nuts, cocoa plums, sea
grapes. ducks, quails. Wild turkeys,
ycnison, terrapIn. oysters turtles and
over hundred different kinds Of edi-
BILE fish.
During the last decade some Slight
progress has been made In cattle rails
ing and the use of the horse and the
value of poultry has appealed to them.
The wars OF their ancestors, extend !
ing over nearly two centuries. did the
most to make them the brave and
proud people they are. 1t is through
the efforts of these chiefly that they
have been kept from becoming indo- |
lent and more or less effeminate They
are now strong, fearless naughty and
independent. The future may initiate
"A new epoch for them. an era In which |
their career may be the reverse OF
what ii has been. Man is becoming a
factor of new importance In their en-
vlronment There is no further re-
treat to which they can go II is their
impulse to resist the intrudcrs, bur
some OF them are at last becoming |
wise enough to know that they can
not successfully contend with the .
white man. Hitherto the white mans .
influence has been comparatively OF
no effect except in arousing In the In
dian his more violent passions and IN
exciting him to open hostility. For
more than three centuries the Euro
pcan has been face to face with the
Florida Seminoles and the two have
never really been friends. Through
the seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turies the peninsula was the scene OF
frequent renewed warfare. Spaniards, Il
Frenchmcn. Englishmen and Span
iards in turn. kept the country in an
unsettled state, and when the Ameri-
can Union received the province from
Spain. sixty years ago, II received with I
Il. In the tribe OF the Seminole. an
and very determined race
Of hostile subjects. This people otf
government has never been able to II
conciliate or to conquer. II