Native Americans for 4th

1. Native Americans for 4th Arctic – Inuit Northwest – Kwakiutl Plateau – Nez Perce Southwest – Hopi Plains – Pawnee Southeastern - Seminole "SIM-uh-nol"

4. Florida Everglades

6. Note: Lower Creeks Apalachee Seminoles The Seminole were a heterogeneous tribe made up of mostly Lower Creeks from Georgia, Muskogees, and escaped African-American slaves.

7. The name "Seminole" is from a Creek Indian word, "Sem-a-nol-ee" meaning “runaway“ or "people who separate themselves." The majority of Seminoles were from Lower Creeks who migrated into Florida from Georgia and Alabama in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

8. The “Seminoles” came to Florida because it was controlled by the Spanish, who had no interest in returning slaves to the British. They were mostly Lower Creeks who spoke the Mikasuki language and other Native American groups. By this time, many of the tribes in FL, including the Tequestas, Calusas, Apalachees, Timucans and others, had been decimated by the Spanish presence, either in battles or by diseases such as smallpox. Out of an estimated 100,000 native Americans that occupied Florida during the 1500s, less than 50 survived.

9. -originally in Alachua, Tampa, and Lake Okeechobee areas

10. At the time European explorers arrived in the 1500s, Indian cultures were well established, and people lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods. Villages around Lake Okeechobee may have grown corn, at least for a time. Most of the Indian population was in villages near estuaries and on the coastal ridge. People traveled from these villages back and forth to camps in the Everglades to hunt and fish.

11. Families lived in homes called chickees. The chickees had no outside or inside walls. The house was made by driving big logs into the ground between posts. The floor was made of long poles covered with cypress bark and palm leaves. The roof was made of poles covered with bark and leaves. The roof sloped down on each side from the center. A ladder was used for climbing up to the floor. Fires were built outside the house.

12. People hung canvas curtains (walls) to keep out the rain and cold weather. When walls were not needed, they rolled them up and hung them from the rafters to keep them safe and dry. They hung many things from the rafters of their homes - cooking utensils, a baby swing - to keep things off the wet ground. Families slept in their chickee at night. Their beds of hides or blankets were called "comfortables". Comfortables were rolled up and hung from the rafters during the day. They had very little other furniture, perhaps a chair, a table, and a few colorful baskets.

14. Seminole villages were very small. The entire village might be two chickees, one eating house, and one storage house. A large village might have 10-12 chickees. Their homes were built in a circle around a central open area used as a protected play area for their children and their central campfire. Campfires were always built in the same way. Logs were arranged like the spokes of a wheel.

15. Seminoles did not stay in their village year around. They were often on the move, camping near harvest areas or hunting. The Seminole might not return to a specific village for some time, but wherever they went, they either built a new camp, or stayed at an old one that they had built in the past. Each family had many homes.

16. The Seminoles lived in virtual isolation in and around the Everglades for many years. They survived by hunting, gathering wild foods, and growing crops like corn, pumpkins, and potatoes. As white settlers began moving to south Florida, they established trading posts. The Seminoles sold animal hides and pelts to the traders and in turn bought cloth, guns, tools, and food staples.

17. Seminole hunters used bows and arrows. Fishermen usually used fishing spears

18. Florida Everglades -9 million acres -wet, swampy, tall saw grass -slow moving streams -quicksand

21. The soil in the Everglades is good for growing crops and the climate is hot in the summer and mild in the winter. Natives grew corn and tobacco.

22. Originally, the Seminoles were hunters who used muskets to hunt deer, turkey and other game and who fished. They gathered fruits, nuts and berries. Later, they became excellent farmers. They grew corn, sugarcane, guava and bananas. They also were successful in raising stock, including horses and cattle. guava tree and fruit

24. Early Seminole men wore breechcloths. Seminole women wore wraparound skirts, usually woven from palmetto. Men and women wore poncho-style mantles in cool weather. The Seminoles wore moccasins.

25. In colonial times, the Seminoles adapted European costume into their own characteristic styles, including turbans and long colorful tunics for men and full patchwork skirts for women. The Seminoles didn't wear long headdresses. Seminole men usually shaved their heads except for a single scalplock, and sometimes they would also wear a porcupine roach.

26. This is a typical costume of an early to mid-nineteenth century Native American in Florida. There is a blending of European style clothing, trade ornaments and Native American craft. The firearm is a Kentucky style Flintlock. Members of many other Southeastern tribes wore similar costumes, but the Seminoles were the most colorful.

27. Osceolaborn 1804 ?died 1837

28. The tribes which were to become the Seminoles had already replaced most of their native clothing for clothing they made from European trade goods, often borrowing European patterns.

29. The Seminole man wore a simple full cut shirt. A decorative area usually adorned the front. On his head, he wore a turban made from plaid wool shawls. A colorful coat called a "long shirt“ in the Seminole language, was embellished with ruffles.

30. The woman's garment consisted of a very full, floor-length skirt, gathered at the waist with an adorned area and ruffle at knee length. Her long sleeved blouse has an attached cape.

31. bride and groom

32. Seminole women invented patchwork around 1917. To make patchwork clothing, different colored strips of cloth are sewn together, then cut and reassembled to make rows of designs. The rows are sewn together horizontally to form the garment.

33. The Seminoles made flat dugout canoes from hollowed-out cypress logs. They steered these boats with poles rather than paddles, and sometimes used sails made from palmetto fiber. Over land, the Seminoles used dogs as pack animals.