THE S1':MINC)L1: INDIANS. 



MANNERS AM) CUSTOMS. 



L\ tlie iiUeriorof Southern Florida, in and about \vhat is known as 

 the Everghides, dwell some three or four hundred Indians — all that 

 are left in the State of the once powerful trilx' of Seminoles. 



These Indians are still " wild Indians/' that is to say, they receive 

 no gifts from the government and are not recognized as citizens. In 

 fact, they are in reality - wild," as a rule, and avoid as much as 

 possible all intercourse with white men. Occasionally they learn to 

 trust and like some white hunter or trader, but the Indian is slow to 

 make friends, and w^il] often refuse to answ^er when spoken to by a 

 stranger. Contrary to the general idea, the I^^lorida Indian is not 

 taciturn, by any means, in his own camp or among old friends. On 

 one occasion when I visited Robert Osceola, ^( V//,sy/-/// r/-/r/-r-/vr 

 (name meaning " last of the Panthers •'), at his camp on upper New 

 River in company wdth several ladies and gentlemen, he received the 

 whole party with much cordiality, and at the request of one of the 

 hidies, he so far forgot his usual dignified reserve as to give an 

 dlustration of how the Indian dances at the celebration of the "Busk," 

 or Green Corn Dance. But it must be borne in mind that I had 

 known Osceola for a long time (who, by the way, is the grandson of 

 the famous war chief of that name), and had passed many days in 

 the wilderness in his company when there were no railroads in 

 Southern Florida, when the town of Palm Beach did not exist: and 

 we built our camp and shot deer on the present site of the town of 

 Linton. 



Many of the Seminoles now speak and understand ICnglish very 

 well : but they often feign ignorance of the language as an excuse to 

 avoid conversation with white men. 



An Indian is a past master in the art of hunting and trailing large 

 game, and, of course, they are the best possible guides when one 

 can be found willing to act in that capacity. Thev will ilnd and kill 



