Dueling Constitutions
The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act encouraged Native Americans to organize under a constitution with an official governing body. Federal and state officials emphasized this again in the mid-1950s as a condition to federal recognition. Both the Reservation Seminoles and the Tamiami Trail Miccosukee wanted this official acknowledgement, along with the protections of land and rights that it would bestow. Each group, however, had its own independent objectives.
Seminole Tribe:
In the mid-1950s the Seminoles began to build upon the economic and political bodies they had established in the 1940s. They subsequently drafted a unifying constitution for all three reservations (Big Cypress, Brighton, and Dania) in 1956, as well as a Corporate Charter. These documents created both a Tribal Council and a Board of Directors to separate the community’s fledgling economic endeavors from its community governance. The Tribal Council, which would govern community affairs, was vested with the authority to interact with the federal and state governments.
Miccosukee Tribe:
While trying to limit U.S. governmental involvement, many of the Miccosukee Trail Indians also understood the importance of creating a constitution. They prepared their own draft for the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida in 1956. In addition to Executive, Judicial, and Legislative Councils, their constitution also established a separate Medicine Council that emphasized the importance of their internal religious doctrine. This document focused more heavily on intra-tribal authority rather than on interactions with outside entities. However, not all off-reservation Miccosukees agreed on the necessity of creating this official document.
Although both constitutions contained elements common to western style governance––such as popular elections to select officials and to decide major initiatives––each tribe also used its respective document to express unique community goals.