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
When the starch had been thoroughly washed from the mass the latter was
thrown away, and the starchy sediment in the water in the deerskin left
to ferment. After some days the sediment was taken from the water and
spread upon palmetto leaves to dry. When dried, it was a yellowish white
flour, ready for use. In the factory at Miami substantially this process
is followed, the chief variation from it being that the Koonti is passed
through several successive fermentations, thereby making it purer and
whiter than the Indian product. Improved appliances for the manufacture
are used by the white man.
The Koonti bread, as I saw it among the Indians, was of a bright orange
color, and rather insipid, though not unpleasant to the taste. It was
saltless. Its yellow color was owing to the fact that the flour had had
but one fermentation.
Industrial Statistics.
The following is a summary of the results of the industries now engaged
in by the Florida Indians. It shows what is approximately true of these
at the present time:
Acres under cultivation 100
Corn raised bushels 500
Sugarcane gallons 1,500
Cattle number owned 50
Swine do. 1,000
Chickens do. 500
Horses do. 35
Koonti bushels 5,000
Sweet potatoes do. ...
Melons number 3,000
Arts.
Industrial Arts.
In reference to the way in which, the Seminole Indians have met
necessities for invention and have expressed the artistic impulse,
I found little to add to what I have already placed on record.
_Utensils and implements._--The proximity of this people to the
Europeans for the last three centuries, while it has not led them to
adopt the white man’s civilization in matters of government, religion,
language, manners, and customs, has, nevertheless, induced them to
appropriate for their own use some of the utensils, implements, weapons,
&c., of the strangers. For example, it was easy for the ancestors of
these Indians to see that the iron kettle of the white man was better in
every way than their own earthenware pots. Gradually, therefore, the art
of making pottery died out among them, and now, as I believe, there is
no pottery whatever in use among the Florida Indians. They neither make
nor purchase it. They no longer buy even small articles of earthenware,
preferring tin instead, Iron implements likewise have supplanted those
made of stone. Even their word for stone, “Tcat-to,” has been applied
to iron. They purchase hoes, hunting knives, hatchets, axes, and, for
special use in their homes, knives nearly two feet in length. With these
long knives they dress timber, chop meat, etc.
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