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Rosalie Tommey in Camp Standing in Front of a Sign that Reads "Seminoles Are Not Subject to the White Man's Laws; They Have Their Own Council and Make Their Own Laws"
The sign was most likely posted for dramatic effect for the benefit of tourists. Whether posted by an individual or by the community, the message reflects the ongoing tension between "outsiders'" law and Indian sovereignty.
Francis J. Scott, Superintendent of the Seminole Agency, Dedicating the First School on the Brighton Reservation, 1938
While many Indians resisted BIA based educational programs, the opening of this school on the Brighton Reservation represents a shift in the Florida Indians’ attitude toward relations with the federal government. This was the first school actually…
Florida Governor David Sholtz Meeting with Seminole Indians Living in Camps Near the Florida Everglades, 1936
Concerned about steady encroachment––especially from the National Park Service as the U.S. prepared to create the new Everglades National Park––the Indian delegation living on the Tamiami Trail wanted assurances that they would not be moved from…
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 Men From the Three Reservations at a Business Meeting with Superintendent of the Seminole Agency Kenneth A. Marmon at the Dania (Hollywood) Seminole Indian Reservation, 1953.
This meeting at Dania to discuss tribal business includes two of the twelve tribal members who signed the 1949 Seminole petition for monetary compensation from the Indian Claims Commission: John Henry Gopher and Junior Cypress, along with the…
Representatives of the Trail Indians, with Attorney Morton Silver, Take a Train to Washington with the Buckskin Declaration, 1954
The Miccosukee representatives formally presented their Council’s Buckskin Declaration to President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the 1954 trip to Washington DC for the termination hearings. It proclaimed their separation from the Seminole Tribe and…
Off-Reservation Miccosukee Indians Meet with Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Glenn Emmons, ca. 1956
The Miccosukee Council and their young Native interpreters/representatives approached Commissioner Emmons to seek assurances of political support and land rights from the U.S.
"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…
Woman Voting on the Brighton Reservation, 1958
Image of woman -- Shule Jones -- voting on the Brighton Reservation. While she is exercising a new form of political expression, as did others on the reservation, many Seminoles initially had to be assisted in the electoral process.