Map Titled "Approximate Location of Permanent Indian Camps" by Roy Nash, 1930

Map Titled "Approximate Location of Permanent Indian Camps" by Roy Nash, 1930

This map was drawn by anthropologist/ethnologist Roy Nash, who was commissioned by the federal government to do field work among the Florida Indians in the late 1920s and early 1930s. When compared to Clay MacCauley’s 1880s map––which showed the Natives living in five widely spaced camp sites–– Nash’s map indicates that the various camp sites inhabited by Florida Indian families remained in the same general regions of South Florida. The most significant difference between the two maps is the presence of more dispersed camps and the addition of the Tamiami Trail in the 1930 version. This road attracted some Indian families to the area, which is indicated on the map. Governance remained primarily local among several different communities around Lake Okeechobee and the Big Cypress Swamp, which resulted in different responses to federal and state initiatives to relocate the various Indian camps onto smaller tracts of land during Florida’s land boom in the 1930s.

Roy Nash

Survey of the Seminole Indians of Florida By Roy Nash (United States Department of the Interior: 1932)

1930

Public Domain

Map