88 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 419 



bear tbe curious name of " Melungeons," which, Dr. Burnett 

 suggests, is a corruption of the French melange ("mixed"). 



Figuring prominently as holders of negro slaves, we find 

 the Seminoles of Florida. To cite a single instance : we 

 learn that Mick-e-no-pah, a chief of the Seminoles, who took 

 part in the war of 1835, and whose portrait was painted by 

 Catlin, owned no fewer than one hundred negroes, and 

 raised large crops of corn and cotton. From Cohen ' we 

 gather the following additional information : "The 'top 

 governor ' has two wives, one a very pretty squaw, and the 

 other a half-breed negress. She is the ugliest of all women, 

 and recalls the image of Bombie of the Frizzled Head iu 

 Paulding's Koning's works." 



William Kennedy, in his "History of Texas," ^ says regard- 

 ing the enslavement of negroes by these Indians, "The 

 possession of negroes, by rendering the Indians idle and de- 

 pendent on slave-labor, has confirmed the defects of their 

 character. The Seminole negroes mostly live separate from 

 their masters, and manage their cattle and crops as they 

 please, giving them a share of the produce. Williams, in 

 his account of Florida, mentions the existence of a law 

 among the Seminoles prohibiting individuals from selling 

 their negroes to white people, any attempt to evade which 

 has always raised great commotions amongst them. The 

 State of Georgia claimed $250,000 of the Creek Indians for 

 runaway slaves. Under cover of these claims, says Wil- 

 liams, many negroes have been removed from their Indian 

 owners by force or fraud. The slaves prefer the com- 

 paratively indolent life of the Indian settlements to the sugar 

 and cotton fields of the planter, and the Indian slave-holders 

 are quite satisfied if they are enabled to live without special 

 toil." In the account of Major Long's expedition,^ we read, 

 concerning the Cherokee settlement at Rocky Bayou, " Our 

 host, a Metiii chief known as Tom Graves, and his wife of 

 aboriginal race, were at table with us, and several slaves of 

 African descent were in waiting. The Cherokeesare said to 

 treat their slaves with much lenity." 



Marcy * informs us that "within the past few years the 

 Comanches have, for what reason I could not learn, taken 

 an inveterate dislike to the negroes, and have massacred 

 several small parties of these who attempted to escape from 

 the Seminoles and cross the plains for the purpose of joining 

 Wild Cat upon the Eio Grande." That the ill feeling was 

 not always upon the side of the Indians, we see from Zeis- 

 berger's "Diary" (vol. ii p. 142), where we learn that two 

 negroes who went from Detroit through the bush killed five 

 Wyaudottes whom they came across there. 



A mass of information regarding the Seminoles of Florida 

 is to be found in the excellent report of the Rev. Clay 

 McCauley,° to the Bureau of Ethnology. From this we 

 learn that at that time there were among these Indians three 

 negroes and seven persons of mixed race, distributed as fol- 

 lows: ° at Big Cypress settlement, one male of mixed race be- 

 tween five and ten years of age, and one black female over 

 twenty; at Fish-Eating Creek, one male of mixed race under 

 five years of age, one between ten and fifteen, one over 

 twenty, one female of mixed race over twenty, and one 



* "Notes of Florida ^' (see Report of SmitUsonian Institution, 1885, Part 

 a. p. 315). 



" William Kennedy, Texas, The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Re- 

 pu"blic of Texas (London, l&ll), vol. i. p. 350. 



3 An Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgli to the Rocky Mountains, 

 etc., compiled by Ed. James (1833), vol. ii. p. 267. 



* MAECy and McClellan, Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana (1853), 

 p. 101. 



' "The Seminole Indians of Florida" (Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, 1883-84, Washington, 1887, pp. 459-531). 

 " Loo. cit., p. 478. 



black female over twenty ; at Catfish Lake, one male and 

 one female of mixed race over twenty years of age, and one 

 black female over twenty. At the Cow Creek and Miami 

 River settlements there appear to be neither negroes nor 

 half-breeds. As regards sex, the numbers are, mixed, fe- 

 males two, males five ; black, females three, males none. 

 Tlie only half-breeds are "children of Indian fathers by ne- 

 resses who have been adopted into the tribe; for, according 

 to Mr. McCauley, the birth of a white half-breed would be 

 followed by the death of the Indian mother at the hands of 

 her own people." Mr. McCauley states that he found noth- 

 ing to indicate that slavery exists among the Seminoles, 

 " the negresses living apparently on terms of perfect equal- 

 ity." ' He further expresses the opinion, " The Florida 

 Seminoles, I think, rather offered a place of refuge for fugi- 

 tive bondsmen, and gradually made them members of thel'r 

 tribe."' An interesting account is given of Me-Le, a half- 

 breed Seminole, "son of an Indian, Ho-laq-to mik-ko, by a 

 negress, adopted into the tribe when a child." It is stated 

 that he favors the white man's ways, and is progressive. 

 Particularly noticeable was " his uncropped head of luxuri- 

 ant, curly hair," an exception to the " singular cut of hair 

 peculiar to the Seminole men."^ He notes also at the Big 

 Cypress Swamp a small half-breed whose " brilliant wool 

 was twisted into many little sharp cones, which stuck out 

 over his head like so many spikes on an ancient battle-club." ^ 

 The only exception to the usual hair-dressing of females of 

 the tribe was found in the manner "in which Ci-ha-ne, a 

 negress, had disposed of her long crisp tresses. Hers was a 

 veritable Medusa head. A score or more of dangling snaky 

 plaits, hanging down over her black face and shoulders, 

 gave her a most repulsive appearance." ^ 



Another article dealing with the Seminoles of Florida is 

 that of Mr. Eirk Munroe,* in a recent number of Scribner's 

 Magazine. From it we learn, that, "should a Seminole 

 maiden unwisely bestow her affections upon any man out- 

 side her tribe, her life would be forfeited." Mr. Munroe 

 states that " there are no half-breeds among the Florida 

 Seminoles," '' but notes, however, a case in which a Seminole 

 "took as his wife a comely negro woman, who was captured 

 by the Indians during the Seminole war; but their children 

 are so far from being regarded as equals by other members 

 of the tribe, that no full-blooded Indian will break bread with 

 them. There are two young men in this family ; and, 

 should a young full-blood of their own age visit their camp, 

 he will eat with the father, but the young half-breeds must 

 wait until he is through." ° Mr. Munroe states also that he 

 took particular pains to discover whether the statement that 

 " the Florida Seminoles were more than half of negro blood " 

 were true or not, but failed to obtain any evidence in sup- 

 port of such an assertion. He further adds, " I have never 

 seen a slave, nor yet a free negro, in any of the camps that 

 I visited, and I have passed weeks at a time iu company 

 with these Indians."" 



Mr. Munroe asked a young Seminole about the negroes, 

 with the following result : "he looked at me steadily for a 

 ntoment, without answering, and tlien holding up one 

 finger, then a second, a third, and a fourth, he said, ' iste- 

 hatke ' ('white-man'), ' iste-chatte ' ('red-man'), ' epah ' 



1 " The Seminole Indians of Florida " (Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, 1883-84, Washington, 1887, p. 526). 



2 Loc. cit., p. 490. 



3 Loc. cit., p. 437. 



^ Kirk Munroe, " A Forgotten Remnant " (Scribner's Magazine, vol. vii. 

 1890, pp. 303-317). 

 . s Loc. cit., p. 306 

 6 Loo. cit., p. 307 



