262 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Glimpses of Seminole Life. 
The Seminoles of Florida occupy a unique position 
with respect to the United States Government, as being 
unconquered and unsubdued, having no legal existence nor 
allegiance to our nation — in short, so far as the United 
States are concerned officially, there are no Indians in 
Florida. The tribe to-day numbers over 600 souls, living 
at peace with all mankind, independent but suspicious of 
Washington officials and only asking to be let alone, re- 
fusing all Government assistance — a homeless people in a 
free land, ever pushing on as the white man approaches. 
Many of the tribe have never be»n outside the confines 
of the Florida swamps; they hold to the belief that this 
land is theirs — theirs by right of the pledge made to the 
"gallant Worth," who was the first of the eight generals 
who had not disastrously failed in fighting the daring 
and wily Seminole. 
Two years ago Tom Tiger, chieftain, reached Kissim- 
mee after a ride of 160 miles. Dressed in the regalia of 
a chief and mounted on a rawboned horse, he might have 
been mistaken for a sheik of the Arabian desert. He 
had come on a friendly visit, incidentally, but to tell the 
white friend his trouble over a horse which had been 
stolen by a white rascal. The story is a long one, but 
suffice it to say proceedings were instituted, and with 
the result that Tom Tiger, Seminole chief, was the first 
Indian who had ever stood up in a white man's court, ma- 
king, as spectators remarked, the most imposing picture 
they had ever witnessed. The tall, magnificent looking 
savage, with uplifted hand, took the oath on the holy 
Book of God, and with a perfect understanding of the 
act. It was told that the State attorney made the most 
thrilling speech of his life as he pleaded for the barbarian 
of the swamp. 
The case was lost to the Indian on a simple technicality 
aiid the white man escaped penitentiar3^ 
On this wonderful visit of Tom's, which was lived 
over and over again around the camp-fires, traditions and 
heart thoughts were revealed, as the chief sat evening after 
evening, putting forth his best efforts to entertain. 
Tom had a love for wyomee (whisky) and was not 
averse to taking it, and in speaking of a friend whom he 
admired much, he would say, "Captain good man; 
five Indians go in saloon, five drinks give 'em. No money 
take. Five white men go in, money take." But when 
Tom was asked to not take whisky in Kissiramee, he 
promised ungah, "all right." 
A day or two after, when the white friend stepped out 
of his office, and looking back saw the tall form just pass- 
ing into the saloon, headed by three cowboys, his spirits 
•fell. Tom returned to the office, and his friend chided him 
for going to the saloon. Whisky, me no take 'em ; lemon- 
ade me take; cowboys, whisky." The white man's trust 
had not been betrayed. 
In this Indian's visit many chapters were revealed of 
the character and home life of this tribe. Savages, 'tis 
true, but honor, justice and religion shine forth in their 
tribal life. During his absence, his squaw and piccaninnies 
were attending to the corn patch and caring for the hogs. 
Tom came as an ambassador to the white friend's home. 
"Martha Tiger tell me old too much. Kissimmee city too 
far; want to see white squaw; want white squaw to 
come to Seminole camp." 
A few months after the long promised and anticipated 
visit was made. Preparations in the Seminole village 
were going on for the green corn dance ; the hunters 
were out for game ; the corn was ripening and an air of 
festivity was all around. Dogs barked as the white 
guests approached, but a commanding Seminole repri- 
mand soon drove them away; piccaninnies came around 
with timid advances and squaws greeted with hand- 
shaking. A wigwam was built at once by hospitable 
hands, and the visitors were assigned to this point in 
the camp. 
What a world of interest, both romantic and tragic, 
hovers around the wigwams of a Seminole family ! Talla- 
hassee is the patriarch of the Cow Creek tribe, and every 
deference is shown him by members of the band. To 
Tallahassee was left much of the entertaining, he direct- 
ing the movements that would add to the pleasure of the 
white guests. Without giving thought to it, we hitched 
to a pole that stood in the open. It proved to be the 
festal pole for the dance, and the spot was sacred for 
that occasion; but the innate courtesy of the old chief 
prevented his showing any offense, and in the morning 
he waved his hand in the direction of the horses and 
asked, "Horses, you want 'em there?" Learning what 
the pole was for, we were the ones to beg pardon and 
feel chagrin. 
Then came the attention to us, in showing around 
the little fields, telling the names and kinship of 
the various members as they came into camp. This de- 
volved upon Tallahassee, and the honor was two-fold. 
As the shadows fell and the camp-fire flickered, it was 
the old chief who regaled the company with history dating 
-back over 150 years. "My grandfather tell me, old, old 
man ; me tell my boys," and so history and tradition is 
kept and handed down from generation to generation. 
The old patriarch rambled in low monotone, living over 
again in dreamy reminiscence his hunting days, and, with 
a record of seventy bears, to say nothing of panthers, 
deer, coons, possums and turkeys, how the mind of the 
nineteenth-century hunter was put on fire. As the old 
chief drew closer his tunic, we asked, "Tallahassee, last 
winter cold much; Kissimmee city ice come; what you 
do?" A young brave spoke up, "Tallahassee old, get 
cold heap ; blankets put on him and big log fire make." 
Then came the jokes, as told by one member on another; 
and how these children of the forest would laugh, as the 
tales were recounted. They are children only in mind, 
yet are full of discernment and strong in character. A 
present of a book conta'ning Tallahassee's picture had 
been sent to the old chief the year before, and this must 
now be brought out to show to the visitors. Spelling and 
copy books were the occasion of much comment and much 
praise from the white friends. The older Indians said, 
"Me no write; old too much. Little Tiger make letters 
ijy tiy? lyrjje good; keep store/' ^hp ghall say 
there is not hope for their civilization and a bright future 
for this picturesque tribe? 
The utensils hanging around the wigwams would do 
credit to many a white family; there were buckets and 
pans of agateware, also a sewing machine or two, and 
well-made wagons, purchased in Jacksonville. 
In the past they have lived a happy, care-free life, tni- 
grating from place to place, taking squaws and piccanin- 
nies with them, the men hunting alligators, deer and coon, 
while the women would gather the koontie (cassava). 
With the depletion of the game their livelihood is being 
taken from them, and they are becoming a helpless people, 
but still proud as the old race. 
A purse of $10 was once made up for one family when 
the husband had died; but the cowboys, ever ready to 
alarm the Indians, had told them thai the money was 
graphed on the plate, and proud was the owner to possess 
so good a likeness of Uncle Sam's one and only unfreed 
slave. ■ Minnie Moore- Willson. 
Kissimmee, Fla. 
HANNAH. 
A slave owned by the Seminole Indians. In TaUahassee's Camp, 
making sof-ka for dinner. 
from the Government, and the older rnembefs hfeld a 
talk, with the result, "Money no take 'exti) sijlxaw no 
want 'em." With mouth-watering glances the little ones 
at the same time refused candy and sweet cakes ; they had 
been forbidden to accept what the old Indians believed 
was from Washington, the home of the "big white chief." 
A character holding a position unparalleled in Uncle 
Sam's domain is Hannah, the negro slave belonging to 
Tallahassee's family. She is a full-blood negress, with 
thick lips, broad, flat nose and kinky hair, which may or 
may not have been combed in the last quarter-centufy. 
Hannah is the last vestige of Seminole slavefy, the one 
CHIEF TALLAHASSEE. 
Indiantown, Fla., June, 1899. 
great subject of warfare seventy-five years ago between 
the Seminoles and the Southern planters, and upon 
which, truly speaking, was based the seven years' war. _ 
Hannah does the work of the family, and though she is 
kindly treated, yet a certain contempt is felt for her, for 
Hannah is an "este lustee" (a negro), and to the haughty 
Seminole a negro is the lowest of human creatures. 
The occasion when Hannah's picture was kodaked is 
fresh in memory. All preparations were being made 
for the feast, but Billy Ham, Tallahassee's son, had not 
been able to get a deer, and so had purchased beef from 
a market thirty miles away. With pots and kettles in 
readiness, Hannah was preparing the beef, when the 
little box-like instrument was gently rested on a rail 
near by, Hannah's eye detected the object and she 
turned away and began busying herself aroimd the boiling 
kettle on the ground. The camera was adjusted, finger 
on button ready to snap and a masked indifYerence affected 
and an animated conversation begun with one of the In- 
dians near by, when Hannah again retured to her work 
about the table. Snap ! went the button, and Hannah's 
^bony face 3Ij4 twisted, string-tied loclfs were photo^ 
The Fort Myers Press of March 21 reports: Mr. and 
Mrs. Austin H. Hart, who have spent the last five or 
six weeks at Fort Myers, have had an experienee that 
falls to few, and, in fact, Mrs. Hart has the unique ex- 
perience of penetrating into the very heart of the Indian 
camps in the Everglades, going further into the glades 
than any lady has hitherto ventured. They started out 
from Thompson about two weeks ago, with Mr. Geo. M, 
Hendry as guide. The Devil's Garden was visited, but 
not content with a visit to this famous spot, they pushed 
on further to the southeast, until they reached the main 
camp of Charlie Osceola and his band of Seminoles. A 
new camp was made every day as they moved about from 
place to place. Mr. Hart shot three catamounts and one 
wildcat, while Mrs. Hart brought down a fine turkey 
weighing 15 pounds. Game was seen in great abun- 
dance on every hand, the turkeys being so tame that Mrs. 
Hart succeeded in photographing one in front of their 
tent. Her description of the peculiarities of the Indians is 
very graphic. She says the Indians were engaged in 
building seven canoes or dugouts out of great cypress 
logs, one of these dugouts being intended to carry eighteen 
persons. The food is all cooked in one large pot, and 
when ready all take turns in eating out of this pot with 
one spoon to go around. Had not their provisions run 
short they would probably have succeeded in going 
through to Miami. As it was, they traveled twenty-five 
miles south of Wilson's store in the Everglades. 
Some Boyhood Memories* 
v.— An Agfil Aitefiiobii. 
This afternoon was more than fiftv yedrs ago. and tM 
man with a gun was four and onfe-half yfeairfe old. tife 
Had been shut up in the hoUSfe all winter, and was so 
tired of It that He Wondered if there would pyer be sum- 
mer again. But as all things come to an end, so did that 
long and dreary winter, and one morning in the first 
week of April he was awakened by the sun shiiiing in his 
tace, and it actually felt Wafm. All oUt doors seemed to 
have been awakened too, foir the blliebirds >Veire twitter- 
ing, and there was actiially a i-obin in tile bid apple tfefe 
that stood at the kitchen dobr tiding liis best to tell the 
whole neighboi-hbod that spring was come. The little 
bby fcoiild hardly wait to get his breakfast, foi- he thought 
surely mother would let him get out of dooi's flow, and 
his disappointment was gfeEitei- when mother said it was 
still too cold fot- boys that had just got over the measles, 
and theh the little fellow's patience was at an end, and 
he took it so to heart that his father promised to take 
him to the sugar camp in the afternoon if the weather still 
got warmer. Afternoon was a long tlttie toihing, but it 
came, and when fathef Game to dinner he said it was 
warm enough for the boy to go, and after the dinner the 
tW'o Set out together, the little fellow holding his father's 
hand, the hand that for many years did its best to guide 
him into all the ways that led to good, but tod often 
they were ways the boy would not wklk in after he grew 
older and became Wise in his own conceit. As the little 
fellow walked with his father he rejoiced exceedingly, 
for he was not weighed down with the cares and re- 
sponsibilities that beset men in later life, and sUpnle linibs 
and robust health made it a Joy just to bfe alive, and at 
every step the world unfolded sohiething new before him. 
Through the sugar camp there ran a clear babbling 
brook, in which were many chubs and suckers. The fish 
in this brook were all the youngster thought of, and so 
soon as the camp was reached he broke for a certain big 
log that lay across the stream with drift piled against 
its upper side and a deep hole under and below it. 
Lying flat on the big log he peered over its side, and in 
the limpid water below saw hundreds of suckers froM 
four to eight inches long. He Watched theltl fof art 
hour, then ran to his father and begged for hook atid 
line, and after much importuning the indulgent father left 
his work and went to the hoUse for the Coveted tackle. 
The hook was big enough for the largest bass that ever 
swallowed a minnow; the line was a carpenter's chalk 
line, and the rod a beech limb. Some worms were dug 
and then the father took the boy up the brook into the 
thick woods, where another log lay across the stream — 
a big old oak log three or four feet through and coa'- 
cred with beautiful bright green moss. In the deep 
water under and just below this log there were scores 
of chubs, mostly small, but there were a few that were 
five to six inches long. In a few minutes tlie happiest 
boy in the world was on the log, eagerly watching the 
rushes of the small fry to get the worm, but there soon 
came disappointment, for the little fellows stripped the 
hook and were not caught, for the hook was too big. 
The big fellows were too shy to come out from under 
the log. For more than an hour he baited and rebaited 
the hook, only to see it stripped and no fish caught. So 
intent was he about the fishing that he gave only a 
glance at a mink that started to cross on the log. The 
only thing he did pay any attention to was the startling 
whimper of a screech owl that came out of its hole with 
the lengthening shadows and quavered its greeting to 
the approaching night. 
Finally patience and <;lose attention to business were 
rewarded, for one of the big fellows made a rush from 
under the log and was caught. _ Then the youngster 
stood on the log and let out a series of childish whoops 
that brought the father in quick haste, for he thought 
the boy had surely fallen into the water. When he arrived 
the boy was still dangling his prize over the water and 
was told to bring it ashore at once for fear it might drop 
off and be lost. Father took it of? the hook, and put in 
a pail of water it was carried alive to the spring, where, 
as it could not get out, it lived for several years, but 
never grew any. At last there came a freshet that over- 
flowed the spring, and when the water subsided the fish 
was gone. It was only a little chub, but it was the boy's 
first fish, and he was one of the proudest boys that ever 
lived. For weeks afterward he watched the road to teU 
passers by that he had caught a fish. It was more than 
fifty years ago. The big logs that lay across the bmok 
