The Seminole Indians of Florida | Page 2

customs, as individuals and
as a society, as much as the material at my command will allow; but
under the disadvantageous circumstances to which allusion has already
been made, I have been able to gain little more than a superficial and
partial knowledge of their social organization, of the elaboration among
them of the system of gentes, of their forms and methods of
government, of their tribal traditions and modes of thinking, of their
religious beliefs and practices, and of many other things manifesting
what is distinctive in the life of a people. For these reasons I submit this
report more as a guide for future investigation than as a completed
result.
At the beginning of my visit I found but one Seminole with whom I
could hold even the semblance of an English conversation. To him I am
indebted for a large part of the material here collected. To him, in
particular, I owe the extensive Seminole vocabulary now in possession

of the Bureau of Ethnology. The knowledge of the Seminole language
which I gradually acquired enabled me, in my intercourse with other
Indians, to verify and increase the information I had received from him.
In conclusion, I hope that, notwithstanding the unfortunate delays
which have occurred in the publication of this report, it will still be
found to add something to our knowledge of this Indian tribe not
without value to those who make man their peculiar study.
Very respectfully,
CLAY MacCAULEY.
Maj. J. W. POWELL,
Director Bureau of Ethnology.
* * * * *
SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA.
By Clay MacCauley.

INTRODUCTION.
[Illustration: 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, (1) The Big Cypress Swamp settlement; (2) Miami River
settlement; (3) Fish Eating Creek settlement; (4) Cow Creek settlement;
and (5) Cat Fish Lake settlement. Their locations are, severally: The
first, in Monroe County, in what is called the "Devil's Garden," on the
northwestern edge of the Big Cypress Swamp, from fifteen to twenty

miles southwest of Lake Okeechobee; the second, in Dade County, on
the Little Miami River, not far from Biscayne Bay, and about ten miles
north of the site of what was, during the great Seminole war, Fort
Dallas; the third, in Manatee County, on a creek which empties from
the west into Lake Okeechobee, probably five miles from its mouth; the
fourth, in Brevard County, on a stream running southward, at a point
about fifteen miles northeast of the entrance of the Kissimmee River
into Lake Okeechobee; and the fifth, on a small lake in Polk County,
lying nearly midway between lakes Pierce and Rosalie, towards the
headwaters of the Kissimmee River. The settlements are from forty to
seventy miles apart, in an otherwise almost uninhabited region, which
is in area about sixty by one hundred and eighty miles. The camps of
which each settlement is composed lie at distances from one another
varying from a half mile to two or more miles. In tabular form the
population of the settlements appears as follows:
--------------+---+------------------------------------------------- | | Population.
| +-------------------------------------+------+---- | | Divided according to
age and sex. | | T | C | | | o | a
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-----+Résumé| t | m |Below| | | | | Over| by
| a Settlements | p | 5 | 5-10|10-15|15-20| 20-60 | 60 | sex. | l | s | yrs.|
yrs.| yrs.| yrs.| yrs. | yrs.| | s
+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+----
|No.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.|F.|M.| F. |M.|F.| M.|F.|Tot.
--------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+----+--+--+---+--+---- 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 |