Seminoles respond to Dania school bells in 1927

 

Seminole lands include areas of cypress
Photo, 1958, Florida State Archives

A story in the Miami News (Jan. 25, 1927) opens a window to Seminole (and Broward County) history while revealing attitudes of the time. 

News accounts that year revealed changing opinions held by Seminoles and the local white residents about education for the tribe. Seminoles were beginning to look at the benefits of schooling more favorably. 

The first school for them opened in 1927.  Soon after,  a growing number of young Seminoles were seen walking to school in response to a bell rung by teacher Lena King, a Creek Indian (a tribe related to the Seminoles) from Oklahoma. It was "a scene never before witnessed" in this area. 

Behind that scene was a Fort Myers resident, Lucien A. Spencer.

Spencer, an agent for Indian Affairs in Florida from 1913-1928, had long advocated for education for the Seminoles. During his years with the state, he collected records and documents in an effort to detail the culture of the these Indians. It helped establish a bridge of understanding between the state and the Seminoles.

Seminoles had not been happy about education sponsored by whites. It was reported they said they had been "antagonized" by a missionary years before. 

But Spencer seems to have gained their respect and confidence. He camped out with Seminoles at the new Dania school site for two weeks and was on hand to arrange its opening. The school taught English and a few "rudimentary" subjects. Few spoke English. 

The school opened and closed near Dania before the U.S. government officially set aside 80,000 acres for the Seminoles in 1938. Acreage was divided among three sites: Big Cypress, Brighton and Hollywood reservations.

Today, the Seminole Tribe spends over $1 million on education.

For more on the early school see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2021/07/seminoles-attend-their-first-school-in.html

Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

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Sources:

Miami News, Jan. 25, 1927

Seminole Tribe of Florida

https://www.semtribe.com/

  

Tags: Florida history, Seminole history, Broward County history, Lucien A Spencer

Seminoles attend their first school in Broward County despite warnings of "learning how to lie"

Seminole children & teacher,Dania
c. 1930 Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Seminoles did not attend school regularly in Florida until the 1920s. There were a few reasons. One, according to L.A. Spencer, agent for Indian affairs in Florida, was resistence of older Seminoles to learning the ways of the white man. 

"They say that when an Indian learns to read and write, he learns to lie," said Spencer. "The tribe has been adverse to attending school and has shown an animosity toward the white man’s learning because, it is said, they were antagonized by a former missionary some years ago."

Also, federal money was not made available to Seminoles as was to Indian tribes in other states. "They [Seminoles] were classified as 'outlaws,' " Spencer added. They did not all leave Florida as they promised the federal government after taking money to relocate (use search box for Chief Billy Bowlegs).

Nevertheless, some funds came through in the 1920s. A school for Seminoles opened in 1927 in Dania, in south Broward County. The school opened and closed there before land was officially set aside for the Seminoles in 1938 (Hollywood Reservation).

Classes were organized by Lena King of the Creek Indians of Wetunka, OK.  King worked with L.A. Spencer, from  Fort Myers, to bring education to the Seminoles of Florida. Though the teaching group were all of the Creek Nation, they were, explained a news account, related to the Seminoles, "... the Florida group being an offshoot called the 'wanderers,' which is the Indian interpretation for Seminole."

Teachers taught English (few Seminoles spoke it). Young students attended an hour in the mornings and an hour during afternoons. Seminoles were also taught farming and "housework." Adult men attended after 7 pm. to learn English and reading. The school provided classes up to the 8th grade. One student covered two to three grades in each of the first few years he attended but wound up staying three years in the 8th grade; there was no other level.

One group of Seminoles did accept the white man's ways: medicine men. They "retired" in favor of white physicians because 80 percent of Seminole babies, according to a news account, died by age three. After a few years of help from physicians, the Seminole mortality rate was the same as that of the white population.

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

Miami News, Jan. 25, 1927

Miami Herald, Nov. 21, 1929

Seminole Tribe

  

Tags: Florida history, Seminole history, Seminole education, Broward County history

Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs: King of Florida, buried treasure, a harem or ... ?

 

Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

A few modern-day Seminoles have taken the name Billy Bowlegs in honor of Chief Billy Bowlegs of the second and third Seminole Wars (from about 1835 to 1842). Over the years, truth and myth serve as canvas and paint brush for today’s portrait of this colorful character.

Holatta-Micco, as he was known to his people, assumed leadership of the Seminoles after other chiefs lost power or died. At the end of the Second Seminole War, the U.S. government informally agreed with Chief Billy Bowlegs that his people stay south of the Peace River (south of Charlotte Harbor in west Florida) and maintain harmony with white settlers.

It was a tough agreement to follow, especially when it seems the government was intent on moving Florida’s Seminoles to Oklahoma and Arkansas. Seminoles were blamed for murders of settlers in the years following the end of the war. Negotiations to remove the Indians continued.

One attempt at persuading the Seminoles included a trip to Washington to carry on discussions. “Mr. William B. Legs,” as the chief was registered in hotels along the way, ordered and was given, a pair of pants, a pair of half-sewed boots, one handkerchief, six bottles of French brandy, six bottles claret and one tumbler. Discussions were for naught; Chief Billy Bowlegs disappeared into the Everglades upon his return.

In 1858, baffled by the “energetic efforts of our army to effect their subjugation and removal,” Secretary of War Jefferson Davis approved payment to the Seminoles. Bowlegs was offered $6,500, four lesser chiefs $1,000, warriors $500 a piece and women and children $100 each. About 160 Seminoles set sail for New Orleans on their way to be resettled in the west. One warrior committed suicide on the trip.

The money Bowlegs and his people received is probably basis for a myth that he left treasure - piles of coin and jewels – near Santa Rosa Sound. Myth also claims Bowlegs set himself up with a harem and declared himself king of Florida in 1810. What is known is that he died not long after resettlement, perhaps 1858, chief of his exiled people.

Bowlegs and his band of 160 were not the last of the Seminoles. About 200 remained, deep in the recesses of the Everglades. The Seminoles, today a Federally Recognized Indian Tribe, never signed a peace treaty, the only tribe never to do so.

Who are the Seminoles' heroes? Among them are Seminoles Sam Jones, who never left Florida, and warrior Osceola, who was captured and sent to South Carolina (d. 1838).
____________
Sources:
Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Everglades: River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books, 1978.
Miami News, Jan. 12, 1923
Palm Beach Post, April 14, 1946
The Seminole Tribe: http://www.semtribe.com

www.wikipedia.com

Tags: Florida history, Jane Feehan film researcher, Seminole history, Seminole Wars

Coontie: Florida's money crop before tomatoes

Seminole making coontie,  1960 
Courtesy of  State Archives of  Florida, Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

One of the earliest industries in South Florida involved “Coontie,”  also known as Florida arrowroot.  Botanists know it as Zamia Floridana, a cycad, one of the oldest forms of plant life.

Seminoles named it coontie.  They gathered the fern-like plant, which grew wild in the area, and pounded its root into a starch to bake their version of bread or biscuits. White settlers to South Florida followed suit, collecting and milling the plant to use as food, or to exchange for provisions in Miami.  

Early Fort Lauderdale resident William Colee (or Cooley) was considered a prosperous coontie farmer near New River before his family was killed by Seminoles in 1836. The tradition of growing and milling Florida arrowroot continued with others - at least into the early 20th-century.

News accounts in 1913 report a land purchase of 2,500 acres by two Coloradans for the purpose of growing the edible starch. Other stories detail the demand, milling and marketing of coontie at the time. Competing crops of vegetables - particularly tomatoes - and fruits would soon dethrone Florida arrowroot.  World War I gave the industry its last shot when it was reported that soldiers who were gassed managed to drink a thin gruel of coontie. The business of milling this edible tropical starch is long gone but its place in South Florida history remains firm; coontie was an integral part of Seminole and settler life.

Courtesy of  State Archives of  Florida, Florida Memory

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Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

• Miami News, June 14, 1913, p. 10.
• Miami News, March 6, 1956, p. 15.
• Miami News, Dec. 6, 1953, p. 29.

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, early South Florida agriculture

A cultural exchange: Seminoles take flight ... over the Everglades

 

Posted by Jane Feehan

The story below, in language we’d consider way off the politically-correct charts, describes a trip Seminoles took by air in 1929. A flight on the  Defender*, Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation's largest non-rigid airship, took the group over their  Everglades "haunts." While amusing and poorly written, the news story also sheds light on Seminole customs. And, it points to something else: This flight was borne of the desire to help bridge the cultural gap between the white man and Seminole. 

Florida Seminole leaders saw their favorite hunting grounds, the Everglades, from the air for the very first time Thursday …

They also had their first ride in a dirigible, when the Goodyear Zeppelin Corp. baby blimp Defender took them over the area. But disappointment lurked in the eyes of Cory Osceola, chief of the east coast Indians. He was banned by tribal law from the trip. By the law of the Florida redmen, he is forbidden to take any chances with his life or do anything out of the ordinary routine of living until his infant son is able to walk. The six-month-old papoose is just getting about on his hands and knees.

The six who made the trip were surrounded by about 125 eager-eyed members of the tribe, with papooses in the majority, just before the big gas bag rose in the air. Cory Osceola, who had listened attentively to the pilot as he explained to him in English the workings of the craft, addressed the crowd telling them in the Seminole tongue what he had learned of it.

...Chestnut Billie, one of the youngest in the party who made the flight was included because of his air-mindedness and his avowed intention of learning to fly.

*About the Defender: It was was 184 feet long, 43 feet in diameter with a gas capacity of 185,000 cubic feet. It had a cruising radius of about 1,000 miles. The Defender, stationed at Opa Locka during winter,was christened by Aviator Amelia Earhart Aug. 20, 1929 at the Cleveland Air Races. 

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Sources: 

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 6, 1929

Miami News, Dec. 26, 1929

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 24, 1930

Tags: Florida history, Seminole history, Everglades, blimp history, aviation

Perrine: A doctor, exotic plants and a link to the Smithsonian

Perrine home, 1840 - Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Henry Edward Perrine (1797-1840) received the first U.S grant for plant introduction and testing in 1838. It was for 24,000 acres in South Florida and made not long after Spain gave up control of the area.

Perrine, a physician born in New Jersey, served as U.S. Consul at Campeche, Yucatan in Mexico for 10 years. While there, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Richard Rush sent letters to all consuls encouraging them to collect plants to send back home for cultivation. The only consul official to take up the proposed project was Perrine. 

His interest in tropical botany motivated his request for a grant in Florida where he thought the climate most suitable for seeds and plants he was to bring back from Mexico. After receiving the grant, he and his family settled on Indian Key, between Cape Florida and Cape Sable. There, he planted Mexican limes, Aguave Sislana (sisal hemp), oranges, limes, avocados and a host of tropical seedlings.

His botanical career was short lived.

Perrine was killed in an Indian attack in 1840. His family escaped and later requested that the Perrine land grant rights be transferred to an area just south of present-day Miami. The doctor’s legacy includes the City of Perrine, sisal hemp growing wild on Indian Key, the possibility that today’s key lime evolved from the Mexican varieties he brought back from the Yucatan … and a Smithsonian connection.

Some say Perrine may have been the one to discover that an Englishman named Smithson had died leaving money to establish a scientific institute in America. He and Richard Rush traveled to England, collected the money and the rest, it could be said, is the Smithsonian Institute.

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

 Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Everglades, River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books, 1978.

 http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu

 www.keyshistory.com

Tags: Perrine history, Miami history, Seminoles, Smithsonian

Seminole factions: Miccosukee Tribe emerges and two nations are recognized

 

Seminoles and Miccosukee in Tallahasse 1976
 State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

A federal initiative to integrate the American Indian population with mainstream America was conducted between the end of Franklin Roosevelt’s era to the beginning of John F. Kennedy’s presidency. Laws were enacted to terminate the government’s trusteeship of Indian lands and to relocate them to cities where it was believed they would have more education and employment opportunities.

The Florida Seminoles, the only Indian tribe never to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. government, were not happy about integration efforts. President Eisenhower granted them their freedom but in a letter to the “great White Father,” the Seminoles rejected the plan. Through their attorneys they stated: “Request action giving us our freedom be reconsidered as we, members of the Seminole tribe, realize our limitations and know that we still need supervision and assistance in our affairs.”

All was not settled among the Indians who numbered about 900 during the 1950s. Two factions emerged in the debate about their independence. 

Buffalo Tiger, leader of the smaller Miccosukee group, wanted gradual withdrawal from federal jurisdiction. He wanted lands to be preserved on the Big Cypress and Brighton reservations where they raised beef herds.

Michael Osceola, leader of the other faction, said the Indians had to face the fact that the government couldn’t be their guardian forever. 

The two groups did agree on a few parts of the new law. One was  allowing Seminole women to have their babies in area hospitals. Neither faction was concerned about lifting the restriction of whiskey sales to Indians. It was never enforced anyway.

The two groups went their separate ways. The Seminole Tribe was recognized by the U.S. government in 1957. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians was recognized as a nation in 1962 ... after leader Buffalo Tiger flew to Havana to meet with Fidel Castro. He asked the Cuba leader to recognize the Miccosukee Tribe as a sovereign nation. 

Both nations live within several reservations in South Florida and each depend on sustainable use of the Everglades for agriculture and the raising of livestock.

The U.S. government abandoned the policy to integrate American Indians when it was recognized that there were distinct differences between Indian and Anglo-European cultures (and nationally, among tribal cultures). Today, in addition to the agricultural endeavors of each tribe, the Miccosukees run a large casino on their lands 30 miles west of Miami; the Seminoles run casinos throughout South Florida. Their separation is political, not cultural. They are self sufficent and self governing.

 

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Aug. 30, 1953

Semtribe.com

miccosukee.com/tribe

Educational Resources Information Center

 Tags: Florida history, Seminole nation, Miccosukee nation

 

Seminole Wars and Maj. William Lauderdale. A future city is named ...

Colee Hammock Park today

Marylander and one time Key West resident William Colee (or Cooley) and his family were among the first settlers along the New River in 1824. 

Prosperous farmers of coontie, a fern-like plant with roots used for edible starch, the Colee family named their small plantation, Colee Hammock. Some say the family may have been responsible for planting coconut trees along New River because an old map marks the site as “Cocoanut Grove.”

Life on the 29-acre farm along the New River changed drastically in 1836.

Seminole Indians, new to the area, resented the U.S. government and its attempts to resettle them. They also bore particular animus for Colee. The Seminoles thought Colee, elected justice of the peace, had treated them unfairly in a criminal case. While he was away on a ship salvage mission off the Hillsboro Inlet in January 1836, a band of Seminoles killed Colee's wife, three children and their tutor. After returning to bury his family, he abandoned the plantation. A year later, the settler was tapped to be the first lighthouse keeper at Key Biscayne but he declined when the federal government cut back its offer on security expenses.

The Second Seminole War had begun in 1835 and continued until 1842. The Colee incident fueled mutual animosities. Major General Thomas Jesup, commander of troops in Florida, asked President Andrew Jackson (served 1829-1837) who he could recommend to lead an effective force in Florida to end the conflict. Jackson knew and had fought with William Lauderdale in the War of 1812 and highly recommended him for the mission.

Lauderdale (born in Virginia in 1782) agreed to take on the assignment in 1837. Then, as U.S. Army major, he raised five battalions of Tennessee Volunteers. After arriving in Florida, his orders were to strike a route from Jupiter Inlet to Fort Dallas (along the Miami River) to search for Seminoles who had escaped after the Battle of Loxahatchee January 24, 1838. Their march along what became known as Military Trail (first called Lauderdale Trail) took them to the New River where they knew it to be near the site of the Colee massacre. General Jesup, impressed with Lauderdale's efficiency in establishing a stronghold there, named it Fort Lauderdale.

Some say Lauderdale fought the Battle of Pine Island Ridge March 22, 1838; that is not confirmed, though he has been honored for it. Accounts reveal most of the Seminoles had left Pine Ridge before troops arrived. Two months after the Pine Island event, Major Lauderdale, ill with a respiratory disease, asked to be relieved of duty. He and his troops headed to Tampa. He died May 10, 1838 in Baton Rouge, enroute to Tennessee. He was 56.

Two other forts by the same name were built in the area (one on the beach) during the war; the Seminoles were never defeated. Today, Fort Lauderdale is a city of about 190,000 and Colee Hammock (1500 Brickell Drive), is one of its most beautiful parks.

Sources:
Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale, Venice of America. Great Britain: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.  
Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Everglades, River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books, 1978.
Snyder, John D. Light in the Wilderness. China: Pharos Books, 2006.
Miami News, May 16, 1965
http://pbchistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-last-campaign-of-major-william.html

Tags: Seminole Wars, Maj. William Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history, New River, who was Lauderdale

Broward County's Female Firsts

By Jane Feehan

Broward County can boast about a few female firsts. Below are several of these "first women" who made significant contributions to our local history. Lifespan dates are included when found. Also, some milestone dates vary in different sources but do not impact the significance of their contributions.

Eva Oliver or Mrs. Frank Oliver (1883-1964) – Eva Bryan and Frank Oliver were married in 1902, making theirs, according to some news accounts, the first wedding in the settlement of Fort Lauderdale. They stood in a rowboat while Capt. William Valentine read vows from the bank of the New River. A number of firsts can be attributed to her: first woman to drive a car in Fort Lauderdale; among the first to be baptized in the New River. A suffragette, Eva was active in town civic activities. She was the first president of the Woman’s Civic Improvement Society, the predecessor to the Woman’s Club of Fort Lauderdale.

Eula Gandy Johnson (1906-2001) - The first woman president of the Fort Lauderdale NAACP (1959-1967), this Georgia native moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1935. She owned a grocery store and two gas stations on Sistrunk Boulevard. Johnson was known for her fight to defeat Jim Crow laws, including those that kept Fort Lauderdale beaches segregated. Johnson, along with Dr. Von D. Mizell, supported the first of 200 swim-ins the summer of 1961 that led to equal access by Blacks to the city's beaches.

Margaret Linardy (1903-1986) – First female mayor in Florida. She was elected mayor of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in 1947 when the town was incorporated for the second time (the first time was in 1933). She served one term.

Easter Lily (or Lilly) Gates  (1889-1985) - The first female school bus driver in Broward County. Her husband died shortly after the 1926 hurricane; Gates took up bus driving to support her family. A hat maker by trade (and later known for appearing in many of her over-the-top-millinery creations), Gates was elected Broward County Supervisor of Voting Registration in 1928 (some say 1929), making her the first woman elected to office in Broward County. She was tapped the first female president of the State Supervisors of Elections in 1938. While serving Broward County, Ms. Gates registered the first Black and Seminole Indian voters. She held office for 40 years.

Katherine Rawls (1917-1982) – First woman to win four national swimming championships at a single meet (1932); winner of 33 national diving and swimming titles. Katy brought home bronze and silver medals from the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. In 1937, the Associated Press named Rawls the “Number One Athlete of the Year” among female competitors. Rawls was the first person, the first woman, to be inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965. (See index for more on Rawls)

Bette Mae Tiger Jumper (1923-2011) also known as "Potackee," was the first and only woman  elected to chair of the Seminole Tribe of Florida (1967). A woman of several firsts, Jumper was the first Seminole to earn a high school diploma. She was also the Tribe's first Health Director. She was one of two women appointed by President Richard Nixon to the National Congress of Indian Opportunity.

Lillian M. Smith – the first woman tax collector in Florida, this Fort Lauderdale resident was tapped as Broward County Tax Collector in 1925. She replaced Mr. W.O. Berryhill who resigned because of his health. It was also said he wanted to work in the real estate business, a booming sector that year.

Alice Guy Blaché (1873- 1968) – Though not from Fort Lauderdale, this French-born filmmaker was one of the first women to write, direct and produce a film. She brought a crew from her New Jersey studio to Fort Lauderdale in 1917 to make Spring of the Year. Blaché chose the city for its tropical, swampy environment. She is also considered by some to be the first in the industry to develop narrative films. For more, use search box.

Louise V. K (full name withheld)– A Hollywood resident, she was the first woman inmate of the newly constructed jail cells for women in Hallandale. She was arrested Feb. 6, 1960 for an alleged traffic violation that escalated to disorderly conduct. Ms. Kirk looked at the bright side of her incarceration, however, and claimed she’d as soon stay in jail than face house cleaning the next day. No doubt she prefigured the women’s movement of the following decade with that attitude … more than she probably realized at the time. 😊

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 16, 1925

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 13, 1928

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 8, 1937

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 30, 1950

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 6, 1960

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 22, 1978

https://flwomenshalloffame.org/

SoFla Times

Roots web genealogy

Broward.org

Copyright © 2019. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Tags: Female firsts of Broward County, Fort Lauderdale history, Broward County history, women's history, African American History, Seminole history

Florida frontier justice: execution by alligator

Two gators in search of a meal, picture courtesy of Steve Kantner

According to a New York Sun Times news story datelined Fort Lauderdale, Jul. 23, 1897, Florida Seminoles* acknowledged two capital crimes in the late 1800s: theft and adultery. The newspaper published an account given by Seminole James Jumper that underscored the negative views held then about one of those crimes.

It was reported that Tiger Cat, a member of an Indian camp near Tamiami Trail, ran off with the chief’s wife, enraging their entire community. A group set out to find the law-breaking couple; two weeks later they were apprehended and brought back home to face justice. For more than two days the governing council debated punishment. They settled on execution … by alligator.

The convicted pair was brought to Little Gator Key (perhaps an Everglades hammock; there is no Florida key by that name). The two were stripped of their clothes and tied to the ground about 50 feet apart. A dog, which was to initially attract feeding gators, was attached between them. The couple waited all day in the blazing heat until sundown, when a gator emerged from the water and quickly devoured the dog. Other gators joined the dinner frenzy and finished off the errant couple, who were by then most remorseful.

*Note: It is not implied that this group was part of today’s Seminole Tribe of Florida, which has its own constitution, police department and modern and humane due process of law.  

 Tags: Florida in the 1800s, Jane Feehan film researcher, Everglades, alligators