Documents

Dublin Core

Title

Documents

Description

Collection of documents used in exhibit

Source

Documents from multiple institutions, including the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, the State Archives of Florida, the University of Florida, and the National Archives

Collection Items

Letter from Special Indian Agent Cyrus Beede to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Hiram Price in Washington, DC, February 2, 1885
Beede, who was commissioned by the federal government to investigate the condition of the Florida Indians, explains his difficulties in interacting with the widely spread indigenous camps in Florida. He notes that the Florida Indians seem well…

Letter from Criminal Court of Records Clerk George F. McCall to Florida Governor Doyle E. Carlton, October 1, 1930
Some Florida Indians expressed concern about state game wardens impeding their right to hunt and fish on what they perceived to be their traditional homelands. Such restrictions were in conflict with the Indians’ traditional uses of land and…

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Achievement Record, Glades County Reservation (Brighton Reservation), 1939
During the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the CCC employed Native workers to improve reservations and surrounding lands through public works projects listed on the Achievement Record. Tribal members were more accepting of economic…

1953 Map from Report of Proposed Legislation to Terminate Federal Supervision Over the Property of the Seminole Tribe of Indians of Florida, 1953
This map was created as part of an official report deciding whether to end federal supervision of the land held in trust for the Florida Indians by the United States. It clearly shows the placement of the three Seminole reservations, as well as the…

"Indians Back on 'Warpath'" by Rose Mallory, The Miami News, November 14, 1953
This 1953 newspaper article from The Miami News focuses on how two Florida Indian factions debated the best way to negotiate with the United States about maintaining sovereign land rights. The author reported that the off-reservation Miccosukee…

"Seminole Elders Rebuff Governor" by Jane Wood, The Miami News, July 15, 1957
During Governor LeRoy Collins’ 1957 trip to the Everglades, he encouraged the Miccosukee Trail Indians and the Seminole Reservation Indians to form one political unit. While the Seminole Tribe made an offer to include the off-reservation Indians in…

Declaration of the "General Council of the Everglades Miccosukee Seminole Nation," April 21, 1957
This statement followed Miccosukee medicine man Ingraham Billie’s opposition to the creation of a tribal constitution and designated reservation. The Miccosukee spokesman Buffalo Tiger and the off-reservation Indians who wished to continue…

Letter from Robert D. Mitchell to Senator George A. Smathers, June 10, 1957
Robert D. Mitchell, a representative of the social advocacy group, the Seminole Indian Association of Florida, explained that the Seminoles on the Big Cypress Reservation were unhappy about the proposed expenditure of tribal trust funds for…

Letter from Attorney Morton H. Silver to Senator George A. Smathers, February 26, 1957
Both Miccosukee Spokesman Buffalo Tiger and the Tribe’s persistent attorney, Morton Silver, continually expressed dissatisfaction with the federal government's wavering position on recognition of the Miccosukee Tribe.

Letter from Commissioner Glenn Emmons to Howard Osceola of the Everglades Miccosukee Tribe, October 17, 1958
In this letter, Commissioner Glenn Emmons rebuked the Miccosukee Council's letter that made a demand for land from the U.S. government and also presumed to advise federal officials on their obligations. He rebutted the suggestion that the Miccosukee…
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