The Seminole Indians of Florida: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532 — John Shaqi
The Seminole Indians of Florida: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532MacCauley, Clay
History
The Seminole Indians of Florida: Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883-84, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 469-532
MacCauley, Clay
Seminole Indians -- History; Seminole Indians -- Social life and customs
his presence, to put it together again without mistake. He once called
off for me from a newspaper the names of the letters of our alphabet,
and legibly wrote his English name, “John Willis Mik-ko.” Mik-ko has a
restless, inquisitive mind, and deserves the notice and care of those
who are interested in the progress of this people. Seeking him one day
at Orlando, I found him busily studying the locomotive engine of the
little road which had been pushed out into that part of the frontier
of Florida’s civilized population. Next morning he was at the station
to see the train depart, and told me he would like to go with me to
Jacksonville. He is the only Florida Seminole, I believe, who had at
that time seen a railway.
Psychical Characteristics.
I shall now glance at what may more properly be called the psychical
characteristics of the Florida Indians. I have been led to the
conclusion that for Indians they have attained a relatively high degree
of psychical development. They are an uncivilized, I hardly like to call
them a savage, people. They are antagonistic to white men, as a race,
and to the white man’s culture, but they have characteristics of their
own, many of which are commendable. They are decided in their enmity to
any representative of the white man’s government and to everything which
bears upon it the government’s mark. To one, however, who is acquainted
with recent history this enmity is but natural, and a confessed
representative of the government need not be surprised at finding in the
Seminole only forbidding and unlovely qualities. But when suspicion is
disarmed, one whom they have welcomed to their confidence will find them
evincing characteristics which will excite his admiration and esteem.
I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the Seminole, not as a
representative of our National Government, but under conditions which
induced them to welcome me as a friend. In my intercourse with them, I
found them to be not only the brave, self reliant, proud people who have
from time to time withstood our nation’s armies in defense of their
rights, but also a people amiable, affectionate, truthful, and
communicative. Nor are they devoid of a sense of humor. With only few
exceptions, I found them genial. Indeed, the old chief, Tûs-te-nûg-ge,
a man whose warwhoop and deadly hand, during the last half century, have
often been heard and felt among the Florida swamps and prairies, was the
only one disposed to sulk in my presence and to repel friendly advances.
He called me to him when I entered the camp where he was, and, with
great dignity of manner, asked after my business among his people.
After listening, through my interpreter, to my answers to his questions,
he turned from me and honored me no further. I call the Seminole
communicative, because most with whom I spoke were eager to talk, and,
as far as they could with the imperfect means at their disposal, to give
me the information I sought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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