SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.

By Clay MacCauley.

INTRODUCTION.

Fig. 60. Map of Florida.

There were in Florida, October 1, 1880, of the Indians commonly known as Seminole, two hundred and eight. They constituted thirty-seven families, living in twenty-two camps, which were gathered into five widely separated groups or settlements. These settlements, from the most prominent natural features connected with them, I have named,

Settlements C a m p s. Population.

Divided according to age and sex. Résumé by sex. T o t a l s.

Below 5 years. 5 to 10 years. 10 to 15 years. 15 to 20 years. 20 to 60 years. Over 60 years.

No. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F.

1. Big Cypress 10 4 5 a2 2 10 4 9 2 15 b15 2 3 42 31 73

2. Miami River 5 5 4 4 4 5 3 7 5 10 13 1 2 32 31 63

3. Fish Eating Creek 4 a1 1 — 2 a2 — 3 1 a5 ab10 4 3 15 17 32

4. Cow Creek 1 2 1 — — 1 — — 1 4 3 — — 7 5 12

5. Cat Fish Lake 2 — 2 3 2 4 1 4 1 a4 ab5 1 1 16 12 28

Totals { 12 13 9 10 22 8 23 10 38 46 8 9 112 96 208

22 25 19 30 33 84 17 208

a One mixed blood. b One black.

Or, for the whole tribe—

Males under 10 years of age 21

Males between 10 and 20 years of age 45

Males between 20 and 60 years of age 38

Males over 60 years of age 8

—— 112

Females under 10 years of age 23

Females between 10 and 20 years of age 18

Females between 20 and 60 years of age 46

Females over 60 years of age 9

—— 96

——

208

There is no reason why the tribe should not increase, and increase rapidly, if the growth in numbers be not checked by the non-birth of females. The Seminole have not been at war for more than twenty years. Their numbers are not affected by the attacks of wild animals or noxious reptiles. They are not subject to devastating diseases. But once during the last twenty years, as far as I could learn, has anything like an epidemic afflicted them. Besides, at all the settlements except the northernmost, the one at Cat Fish Lake, there is an abundance of food, both animal and vegetable, easily obtained and easily prepared for eating. The climate in which these Indians live is warm and equable throughout the year. They consequently do not need much clothing or shelter. They are not what would be called intemperate, nor are they licentious. The “sprees” in which they indulge when they make their visits to the white man’s settlements are too infrequent to warrant us in classing them as intemperate. Their sexual morality is a matter of common notoriety. The white half-breed does not exist among the Florida Seminole, and nowhere could I learn that the Seminole woman is other than virtuous and modest. The birth of a white half-breed would be followed by the death of the Indian mother at the hands of her own people. The only persons of mixed breed among them are children of Indian fathers by negresses who have been adopted into the tribe. Thus health, climate, food, and personal