SEMINOLE CULTURE

BY: PAULA CACERES, DIANA ORTIZ, FELIPE VEGA

ART
The expression of Seminole culture has also been manifested on the artist's canvas. Noah Billie, perhaps the most acclaimed of Seminole painters, had a distinctive style and a love of culture which is very evident to anyone who views his works. Wracked by illnesses with origins in Agent Orange-soaked Vietnam, Noah struggled to maintain his strength while producing a significant body of work, much of which is preserved in the Tribe's Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum. He died in the early spring of 2000 at the age of 51, while his first large exhibit was being planned at the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

CHICKEE

"Chickee" is the word Seminoles use for "house." The first Seminoles to live in North Florida are known to have constructed log cabin-type homes, some two stories tall, with sleeping quarters upstairs. The chickee style of architecture - palmetto thatch over a cypress log frame - was born during the early 1800s when Seminole Indians, pursued by U.S. troops, needed fast, disposable shelter while on the run. Though indigenous peoples in other parts of North and South America have developed similar dwellings, it is generally agreed that the Seminole Indian technique and product are far superior.
So popular, efficient and functional is the chickee that such Seminole architecture can be seen all over South Florida. The chickee structure should last about ten years and needs to be re-thatched every five years. Several Seminole Tribal members make a living building custom chickees for both commercial and private interests.

CLANS

Each Seminole Indian born of a Seminole mother is a member of her "Clan" - a traditional extended family unit. Husbands traditionally went to live in the wife's clan camp. Each clan is characterized by a non-human entity with which is shares many traits, such as strenght, courage, or endurance. There are eight Seminole clans - Panther, Bear, Deer, Wind, Bigtown, Bird, Snake, and Otter.

SEMINOLES AND CHRISTIANITY

Chickee Baptist Church
Tribes of Indians in Oklahoma began to be Christianized mainly through the efforts of the Southern Baptist Convention, Home Mission Board as early as 1846. Baptist missionaries came to the Oklahoma Creek and Oklahoma Seminole tribes in the 1870's.
The Episcopal Church established Glade Cross Mission in the Big Cypress in the 1890's. Another mission of that name was established at Everglade, Florida 1933-1960. Both produced negligable conversions.
In 1907, the first the first Indian missionaries came to the Florida Seminoles living near Indiantown east of Lake Okeechobee. The missionaries were Creek Baptist Indian missionaries from Oklahoma. The northern group of Seminoles were targeted, as like the missionaries, they spoke the Creek or Muscogee language.
One family of Florida Seminoles living at Indiantown (which included a prominent medicine man and bundlecarrier) was baptised in 1920. That family moved to the Dania (now Hollywood) Reservation and formed the nucleous of the small group of Christian Seminoles. Missionary activities continued among the Creek-speaking Seminoles around Indiantown.
The First Seminole Indian Baptist Church was dedicated in 1936 on the Dania Reservation. 1945 saw many conversions at Dania and Big Cypress. By 1946, several Seminole men, Mikasuki-speakers from southern Florida settlements, had enrolled as ministerial students at the Florida Baptist Institute. These converts included a prominent and influential medicine man.
In 1948 a Mission was dedicated on the isolated Big Cypress Reservation. In 1949, mission work was being conducted by a Seminole among the non-reservation Indians along the Tamiami Trail. That same year, a second church, the Mekusukey Independent Church was formed on the Dania Reservation and in 1953, a Mission was organized on the Brighton Reservation.

MEDICINE

BY : PAULA CACERES

The Seminoles have many traditions concerning death that use the medicine. Among these are that the widow have to wait four years to remarry, in the traditional burials, leave the body on an platform, surrounded by favorite possessions, also in the mourning process the family mourns for four days, and in the last day used some herbs made by the medicine man. The family members drink these herbs with tea or wash whit them and the widow will wear black and mourn for four moons.

The medicine men and women, have an important role in the Seminole’s live, not because they replace medical doctors, but they use the natural resources and know how to employ them to treat a variety of physical and mental disorders.

In this way Seminoles believe that the medicine influence the human life in some files like the bad luck, good luck, failure, safety among others, so the medicine men and women represent a respectful figure into the tribe