William Osceola poles a dugout canoe along the Miami River near the Miccosukee Embassy, demonstrating the

technique wearing traditional 1800s clothing.

A SPECI AL REPRI NT OF
The Native American world was upended 500 years ago, when Spanish explorers named and claimed Florida.
Today, many of the 4,400 or so self-described Indians struggle to maintain their cultural identity while incorporat-
ing the modern world. To get a unique glimpse of their world, and to document voices that have been mostly
forgotten for centuries, The News-Press reporter Chad Gillis and photographer Andrew West spent eight months
traveling among them. The News-Press took readers and viewers where few have gone before, in words, photos
and videos, deep into the heart of the Everglades and into the world of the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians.
T
he project started like this: Drive
two hours to the Big Cypress reser-
vation, walk a mile into a swamp
and hope George Billie was tending the
Panther clan fire.
On days he was there Id ask questions
that were insensitive to his culture, like
Whats your fathers name?
The first trip produced nothing but
blank stares. Second trip, the same.
George sat on his cypress bench and
looked at me like I was a flying pixie
speaking French. No response. Not a
word.
The third trip was different. Maybe
braving the summer heat, humidity and
passing showers three straight weeks was
enough to convince George that I was
somewhat trustworthy. Maybe Seminole
council leader Mondo Tiger asked George
to speak to The News-Press for this Ever-
glades project. Either way, the third trip
opened a door, a portal into the lives and
experiences of a relatively isolated, most-
ly forgotten people.
On day three, George was candid. He
spoke openly about language, culture and
his own history. He started teaching me
about Miccosukee language.
Im doing OK back here in the shade,
George said while waving his right hand
in the air as though he were bouncing a
basketball.
George is an elder, known to most res-
ervation Natives, and the grandfather of a
great many. Hes also the keeper of the
Panther Clan village thats part of the
Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Seminole
Tribes Big Cypress Reservation, the larg-
est of the Seminole reservations about
70 miles east of Fort Myers in Hendry
County. Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki means a place to
learn.
From the parking lot, the museums
buildings and grounds seem modern, well-
built and kept. A small cypress log fire
and sitting area are near the main door. A
friendly and professional staff of white,
black and Hispanic people greet visitors
at the main entrance. Theres a small gift
shop to the right.
George tends the fire at a Panther clan
chickee. A weathered ax sits near a pile of
seasoned and split oak. Its not rusty but
rusted, the connection between the head
and shaft loose. But like Georges ailing
bones, it works well enough.
He wears the age 86 pretty well, a bit
stooped over but strong enough to get
around the village on his own, with his
white and lavender store-bought cane.
For the next few months I spent more
and more time at Native events, cele-
brations, water quality studies, even el-
ders meetings. I learned that the Seminole
and Miccosukee tribes formed only after
significant pressure from the federal
government, which, at the time, was con-
sidering removing all reservation agree-
ments and any treaties that hadnt been
shattered decades or centuries ago.
Loss of more lands, reservation status,
any hopes of turning bingo halls into a
gambling and resort empire would be lost,
some Natives felt, if they didnt form their
own corporations and agree to reservation
terms.
Naturally, some families were torn
between keeping their traditions and an-
cient ways which were relatively undis-
turbed until the mid-1900s and moving
toward a more modern life within federal
government guidelines. Some families are
still split by the traditional or reservation
status, although they often still live or
work near each other.
Maybe that is why George wore Micco-
sukee clothing, I thought. Maybe he iden-
tified himself with the Miccosukee ways.
I had tried several times to broach the
issue, pop the question: Would George feel
more at home two hours south, on Micco-
sukee lands? Painful as the thought was
that Georges life was torn between tradi-
tional ways, his clan and extended family
and supporting a reservation that would
provide money to feed his people, build
schools and end poverty its an impor-
tant part of the story.
It was on Miccosukee lands, at the Em-
bassy on the Miami River, that I finally
found the courage and proper setting to
ask. George was relaxing in a chair along
the banks of the river, which looks now
like a manicured canal. He was sitting
with other elders, people I had not met
then and never came across again.
Me: George, you spent a lot of your life
here on the Miccosukee lands.
George: Yes.
Me: You lived here before the reserva-
tions formed, right?
George: Yes, I was here.
Me: Did you move to Big Cypress be-
cause the Seminole and Miccosukee were
divided with the reservations?
For the first time in months, he
clammed up again. A single tear raced
down his right cheek in a brief, unspoken
and painfully clear reply.
Connect with this reporter: ChadGillisNP on twitter.
Speaking through about two-thirds of his
original teeth, Georges broken English is
beautiful: hushed and choppy.
Photographer Andrew West and I
laughed when George would say things
like Oh yeah, Im the Big Wheel. I make
everything go around.
His words are strung together like a
series of paintings in an art gallery. Tran-
sitional phrases and prepositions are miss-
ing, or out of place in formal English. His
voice is part child laughing, part grandfa-
ther telling a bedtime story.
A member of the Seminole reservation
and corporation, George typically wears
Miccosukee clothes and patchwork pat-
terns. This made for me by Miccosukee,
he said while lifting the left lapel of a
colorful Native vest.
Weeks passed. Id see George at vari-
ous Native events and gatherings.
I think about you the other day,
George said during a Seminole celebration
on the reservation. He sat in a small chair
under the main tent, alongside Cherokee
and other tribes who were displaying their
dances, clothes and beliefs with several
hundred visitors.
Me: Were you wondering why this
white guy is stalking you all the time?
No, no, George said with a smile. I
just think about you.
By this point I had learned several
lessons. The most important? Dont ask
Natives about dead people. Perhaps
George was teaching me that lesson dur-
ing those first two fruitless meetings.
Maybe they werent so fruitless after all.
George Billie, left, takes a selfie with
reporter Chad Gillis along the banks of the
Miami River. This image was captured after
George revealed his personal struggles with
self-identification as an Indian. It might have
been the first time Billie held a cellphone.
Door opens, ever so slowly
After several visits with George Billie, talks get productive and a relationship blooms
All stories and photos originally published in The News-Press on March 24, 2014.
2 A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS *
SEMINOLE TRIBE OF FLORIDA
AH-TAH-THI-KI
M U S E U M
A PLACE TO LEARN. A PLACE TO REMEMBER.
34725 WEST BOUNDARY RD., CLEWISTON, FL 33440
BIG CYPRESS SEMINOLE INDIAN RESERVATION
877.902.1113
WWW.AHTAHTHIKI.COM

Smithsonian Institution
Af liations Program
Find us
on Facebook
EXPLORE OUR LANDSCAPE
EXPERIENCE OUR CULTURE
LEARN OUR HISTORY
Chapter 1:
Tribesmen
The price of
prosperity...........3-6
Some modern
Indians struggle
to retain identity
....................................6
Chapter 2:
Tradition
Down the road:
Amoral takeover
................................8-9
Village life offers
glimpse at history
.............................10-11
Man on a mission
..................................12
Chapter 3:
The Future
Business, tradition
a delicate balance
............................13-15
Tribes prepared to
fight over water
quality....................15
CONTENTS
STAFF
Publisher
Mei-Mei Chan
Executive Editor
Terry Eberle
Project editor
Wendy Fullerton
Reporter
Chad Gillis
Photo Editor
Ricardo Rolon
Photographer
Andrew West
Graphics editor
Mike Donlan
Design Editor
Michael Babin
Designer
Phonethip Liu Hobson
* A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS 3
A
irboats scatter across the sawgrass
like a flock of birds, only to gather
again like metal shards to a magnet
at the edge of an Indian village deep
inside the Everglades.
Once at the tribal grounds, the captain parks
near Michael Franks family camp. Outsiders,
mostly white people working for the tribe or U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, take samples, and
measure water depth and clarity during an annu-
al Miccosukee water quality study.
Frank takes a sip of coffee, looks out over the
Everglades and takes a deep breath.
Our way of life is gone, he says while sitting
on the bow of an aluminum airboat, arms folded,
chin tucked. We lived our way in the Ever-
glades, the happy way, the good way. When I was
young, you could drink the water. You could hunt
and fish, and that was your lifetime.
Indian life was uprooted more than 500 years
ago when Spanish explorers claimed and named
Florida. Their world was upended again in the
mid-1900s when state and federal agencies
learned how to efficiently drain South Floridas
massive wetlands and subtropical forests.
Indians were living in remote camps in the
Everglades and at tourism villages in towns such
as Miami and Hollywood when the draining be-
gan. The federal government proposed cutting
ties with all tribes in 1953 as a way to cut spend-
ing in the aftermath of World War II. South Flori-
da Indians responded by forming the Seminole
Tribe of Florida in 1957. A second group that re-
fused to join the Seminole reservation incorpo-
rated in 1962 as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians
of Florida. A third group, about 100 traditionals,
refused to join a tribe and live an isolated life
with no gambling dividends and little govern-
ment support.
Today, Florida Indians number about 4,400,
and most are members of the Seminole and Mic-
cosukee tribes, living on reservation lands in
Tampa, Immokalee, Hollywood, Fort Pierce,
Brighton and Clewiston.
To get a better understanding of their lives in
the Everglades, The News-Press spent the last
eight months traveling through the Indian
world, recording voices that have been mostly
silent over the past 500 years.
Unlike the past, when children were taught to
stay away from Americans and other cultures,
Indians today are increasingly communicating
with the outside world. Its their last resort to
save the Everglades and their way of life, they
say.
Its not going to be the end of the world, just
the end of us, Frank says while walking the Mic-
cosukee museum grounds, a slight grin on his
otherwise stern face. He opens the door to a
building that contains photographs, clothing,
tools and art and crafts, some of these things
built or used by his clan. Once inside, he says,
calmly: The Earth will be just fine.
{ CHAPTER 1 }
T R I B E S M E N
The price of prosperity
Floridas Indians have benefited from gambling operations and
government support, but at the expense of their way of life
A Miccosukee woman demonstrates patchwork sewing techniques as a young girl runs off to play during a cultural eventat the Miccosukee Embassy in Miami. Patchwork is created by
combining various patterns and colors of fabric and is worn by natives during ceremonies and public celebrations.
George Billie, 86, tours a limestone cave network under the Miccosukee Embassy in Miami. He remembers
a time when natives including himself sought refuge from hurricanes and tropical storms in that location.
These are some of the only natural limestone caves in South Florida.
See more photos and videos documenting the way of life
for Seminole and Miccosukee Indians in Florida
at news-press.com/everglades
There are more than 3,800 Seminole Tribe mem-
bers, and about 600 members of the Miccosukee
Tribe. Today, all but about 100 Indians living in
South Florida are members of one of the tribes.
Only tribal members receive gambling and other
business dividends, health care, access to libraries
and tribal schools.
Tradition says all Indians here are Miccosukee,
and that Seminole is a Miccosukee, or Mikasuki
word that means natural, or in its rightful
place.
The two most prominent family names in the
Florida Indian world are Billie and Osceola. Billie
is more widely used and is found in the Seminole
and Miccosukee reservations and among tradi-
tional Indians. The Osceola name is associated
more closely with the Miccosukee Tribe, although
there are Osceolas living on the Seminoles Big
Cypress reservation near Clewiston.
To qualify for tribal membership, a person must be
one-quarter Florida Seminole blood; prove with
written documentation that they are directly
related to a Florida Seminole who was listed in
1957 tribal records; and must be sponsored for
enrollment by someone who is a member.
Members of the Seminole tribe speak one or both
of two languages: Maskk and Mikisk. Maskk,
erroneously called Creek by English speakers, is
the core language. Although Maskk is spoken in
Oklahoma as well as in Florida, Mikisk is spoken
in only one place on Earth: in South Florida, by the
members of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.
It is a common error to believe that every word in
one language translates directly into any other
language. Language embodies the culture that
creates it and so the concepts behind words
change from culture to culture, or they may not
exist at all.
Sources: Seminole and Miccosukee tribal records, interviews with elders
INDIAN CULTURE
Story continued on Page 4
4 A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS *
Everglades National Park opened in 1947 and
brought more change. Park rules made it illegal
for Indians to collect plants and hunt animals for
medicine and food. They could fish under park
restrictions but not hunt deer, ibis, alligators or
even hogs, an invasive species.
By that point the reservation lands were al-
ready polluted, flooded or both, reservation and
traditional Indians claim.
With parklands off-limits, and reservation
lands practically devoid of animals to hunt, Indi-
ans were further encouraged to move toward a
modern life, to get a job and move away from the
villages and their traditional culture.
Their diet changed as well, switching from
natural foods like gar fish, ibis and deer to KFC,
Taco Bell and McDonalds.
Physical changes can be seen in photo collec-
tions from the Florida library system and at dis-
plays in tribal museums. Before the 1900s, Indi-
ans were smallish in build, muscular and lean.
Even elders dressed in little more than loin-
cloths and had the physiques of gymnasts. To-
day, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other
health issues which Indians say werent prob-
lematic before the 20th century are prevalent.
Seminole tribe member Frank Billie Jr. says
the old way of life kept people fit and that many
lived past 100.
When youre carrying 300 or 400 pieces of
wood just to make a house, and about 2,000 or
3,000 fronds that you have to carry on your back,
you become a well-oiled machine. Especially the
diet they had, everything was natural, no chem-
icals, he says. Now were so used to Popeyes,
hamburgers, cheeseburgers, that if you lay it in
front of me, give me a fork. I enjoy it. Im going to
eat it up. But it wasnt that way all my life. I didnt
hardly eat any sweets until I was twenty-some-
thing, because we werent allowed to eat
sweets.
Two tribes
The Seminoles were the first tribe to bring ex-
tensive gambling to reservation lands in the
1970s. Bingo brought the first big influx of mon-
ey in the 1980s; millions of dollars poured in each
year. By 2004, the tribes were operating elec-
tronic slot machines and blackjack tables. The
Seminole Tribe reports annual gambling earn-
ings of nearly $2 billion.
The money has helped build schools, houses,
fire and police stations and recreation centers.
Like trust fund babies in American society,
reservation Indians want for little in the materi-
al world. Over the past 30 years, gambling divi-
dends have grown from a few hundred dollars a
year for reservation members to $100,000 or
more.
A lot of our tribal members have gotten
wealthy and they dont want to do the common
labor, said Mondo Tiger, a Seminole reservation
member and representative for the Big Cypress
reservation near Clewiston. A lot of us have got-
ten used to the finer things in life. I like to talk
tradition, but at the end of the day Ill go home
and turn the AC on.
Culture crash
Indian culture was still isolated from the out-
side world nearly a century ago. The Tamiami
Trail didnt open until 1928, bringing tourists to
roadside Indian villages to watch them sew,
carve dugout canoes and make traditional foods
such as sofkee and fry bread.
Indians took advantage of the road as well,
traveling to Naples, Fort Myers, Miami and Fort
Lauderdale to trade hides, buy food staples and
clothing. Clothing changed from the Seminole
War era, when men wore dresslike smocks, to
pants, neckties, belt buckles and bluejeans.
Michael C. Frank, center, and Cory Osceola, right, both members of the Miccosukee Tribe, take a break while scientists collect samples for an annual water quality study in the River
of Grass. The samples were taken near historic native villages in one of the most remote parts of the Everglades. Once home to countless birds and animals, wildlife was sparse on
that day. Members of both tribes say it is because of poor water quality and management practices by federal and state agencies.
Kay Tiger, a member of the Miccosukee tribe,
listens during a cultural event at the Miccosukee
Embassy in Miami.
Continued from Page 3
James Holt wrestles an alligator during American Indian Day at the Miccosukee Resort and Casino. Alligator
wrestling dates back centuries and started as a way to secure food.
FIVE CENTURIES AND COUNTING
WHATS
IN A NAME
Women are given one name, shortly after
their birth, and they keep it all through
their lives. Their names usually are words
taken from medicine songs (ritual chants)
and do not translate well. After a woman
has her first child, only her mother and
older clan relatives are permitted to use her
name. All others refer to her in reference to
her own childs name, that is, as so-and-
sos mother.
Men traditionally receive one name and
many titles during their lifetimes. Their boy
names are discarded when they pass into
manhood (around age 14 or 15). They re-
ceive ceremonial titles or earned titles in
battle or as community leaders. No one
knows the boyhood name of the famous
warrior called Osceola by English speak-
ers. He was given the ceremonial title of
asn yahola. Asn is an important ceremo-
nial drink. Yaha is the wolf, and yahola is
the cry of the wolf or the ritual song that is
sung when asn is drunk. English speakers,
who could not pronounce his title correctly,
made it Osceola. Today, Seminole men and
women also have English names, in addi-
tion to traditional names.
Sources: Seminole and Miccosukee tribal records,
interviews with elders
Story continued on Page 5
* A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS 5
Natives: Descendants of people who lived in North,
Central and South America before 1500. Some oral
histories say Viking explorers came to North Amer-
ica centuries before Christopher Columbus sailed to
the Caribbean, so there may have been an earlier
European invasion that was not successful in chang-
ing most Native traditions and cultures.
Seminole: A group of about 3,800 Indians living in
Florida who are part of the Seminole Tribe of Flori-
da. The word means in its natural place in the
Miccosukee language, which is spoken by both
tribes.
Miccosukee: A tribe of about 600 Indians who live
on the Miccosukee reservation, about 60 miles
southeast of Fort Myers. Miccosukee refers to the
indigenous people of this continent as well as their
language. Tribal records say Miccosukee were origi-
nally part of the Creek Nation, and then migrated
to Florida before it became part of the U.S., but
traditional Indians say Miccosukee have used Flori-
da lands for thousands of years.
Traditional: Indians who arent members of a
federally recognized reservation. Also called in-
dependents, about 100 remain today, and they do
not receive gambling dividends, health care or
other reservation amenities.
Chickee: Structures made from cypress poles and
woven palm fronds. A chickee functions like a room
in a modern home. In a typical village, chickees are
often built in a massive circular pattern with a
cooking chickee in the center. These structures have
no hallways or walls. Some traditional Seminoles say
the lack of walls allows air to flow. Walled struc-
tures, the story goes, keep air in an isolated area,
exposing everyone in the room to germs, mental
illness and even a bad attitude.
Medicine: Natural materials from plants and ani-
mals used to treat physical and mental illness.
Medicine man, or bundle carrier: An elder, typi-
cally male, who knows how to properly gather the
ingredients in various medicines, concoct those
medicines and administer them to those in need.
Sofkee: A drink made from ground corn meal,
roasted corn, dumplings and other starches. Some
families start every day by drinking sofkee with a
dozen or more family members.
The number 4: Four is a special number in the
Indian world. There are four moon phases, four
colors on the Seminole and Miccosukee flags
(white, red, yellow, black) and the period of mourn-
ing after a clan member dies is four days. Some
modern tribal literature says the number 4 is also
linked to directional headings: north, south, east
and west; but traditional Natives say they kept their
bearings while traveling by keeping track of the
position of the sun during the day and the moon
and stars at night.
Clan: The primary social structure, clans are an
extended family of matriarchal order. Females are
the center of clans because they bear children. Each
clan is tied to an animal, plant or natural phenome-
non. Now there are eight: Wind, Panther, Toad (or
Bigtown), Bird, Snake, Otter, Bear and Deer. When
the last female of a clan dies, the clan is considered
extinct.
Totem pole, or talking tree: A woodcarving used
to convey history and traditions. Totem poles are
like books, physical representations of concepts
such as family, geographic locations and spiritual
beliefs.
Sources: Interviews with reservation and traditional
Natives, tribal records.
NATIVE WORDS
AND PHRASES
Secretive society
Reservation life even divides clans and fam-
ilies. While some Indians are millionaires, others
live in chickee camps, which range in size from a
single hut to modern structures and garages.
Frank Billie Jr.s family is divided among tra-
ditional and reservation Natives. Victor Billie is
Franks brother. While theyre very close in a
family sense and even work together as employ-
ees of the reservation, Frank and Victor are op-
posites.
Frank often wears Miami Heat hats and T-
shirts, jeans and a pair of work shoes or boots.
Victor wears a traditional, hand-sewn Seminole
shirt, several sets of colorful beads, jeans and a
pair of purple cowboy boots that he bought at a
flea market in Clewiston. He likes the color.
I cant tell you what they mean, Victor says
when asked what the red, yellow, black and white
beads draped around his neck mean in a spiritual
sense. I cant go that far.
Some Indians struggle to find their place in
the modern world. The Billie brothers grew up in
a traditional village.
But Frank wanted reservation money and
joined the Seminole Tribe at the age of 17.
Now 42, he recently resigned from the Semi-
nole Tribes cultural education department be-
cause he no longer feels comfortable sharing In-
dian history and culture with outsiders.
There are a lot of things that we keep secret,
and the outside world needs to recognize that,
Frank Billie Jr. says. We can talk about some
things, but then theres a point where we cant.
Were not supposed to go that far. And thats why
were still alive today.
And while many Indians try to keep their
lives, beliefs and traditions secret, both tribes
host extensive public celebrations.
American Indian Day, held last September at
the Miccosukee reservation, is one of the most
important public displays of song, dance, alliga-
tor wrestling and patchwork clothing strips of
colorful fabric that are sewn together in patterns
to make dresses, shirts and coats.
Well let the public come and go ahead and
share our culture and give them an opportunity
to get to know us, says Colley Billie, chairman of
the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. To
Mad Bear Osceola totes a pair of gar fish he caught in a canal along Tamiami Trail near his home in Big
Cypress National Preserve. Gar is a popular native food. He and his family dont fish as often they did years
ago due to the high mercury levels found in South Florida species. Mad Bear and his family, except his
mother, live as independents and dont receive funds from the Miccosukee Tribe.
Tampa area Seminole Bobby Henry leads a group of visitors at the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation during a demonstration of a traditional stomp welcome dance. These
types of dances date back thousands of years and are only shown to the public during native days.
George Billie, 86, grew up in a remote Seminole
traditional village and is one of the
groundskeepers at the Ah-Tha-Thi-Ki Museum
at the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation. He is a
member of the Seminole Tribe. The Billie name
is prominent on the Big Cypress Reservation
because the family helped pave the way for
reservation status.
Our way of life is gone.
We lived our way in the
Everglades, the happy way,
the good way. When I was
young, you could drink the
water. You could hunt and fish,
and that was your lifetime.
MICHAEL FRANK Story continued on Page 6
Continued from Page 4
6 A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS *
1510: Year Spanish explorers
arrived
12,000: Years the Seminole
Tribe says Indians have lived
in South Florida
200,000: Estimated number
of Indians in Florida before 1500
Under 200: Indians living
in Florida after the Seminole
Wars (1818-1858)
4,400: Estimated population
of Seminole and Miccosukee
in Florida
100: Estimated number
of non-reservation Indians
in Florida
2: Tribes in Florida: Seminole
and Miccosukee
1957: Year Seminole Tribe
of Florida formed
1962: Year Miccosukee Tribe
of Indians of Florida formed
6,000: Palm fronds needed
to construct a garage-sized
chickee
8: Clans, or Indian family
units still living, called Panther,
Wind, Bear, Snake, Otter, Toad,
Bird, Deer
Sources: Tribal records, interviews
BY THE NUMBERS
F
rank Billie Jr. takes a drag off a Marlboro
red while sitting in the shade of a cypress
and palmetto chickee on the Big Cypress
Seminole Reservation, about 60 miles southeast
of Fort Myers.
Our way of life is dying with our full
bloods, and some people say thats the way it
has to be, Frank says. Some say that we cant
teach a half-blood two half-breeds cant
make a whole.
Frank Billie Jr. and his brother, Victor Billie,
are part of an estimated 300 full-blooded reser-
vation Indians. The other 3,500 or so are mixed
with white, Hispanic, black and Asian.
The Billie name is prominent in the tribes
and traditional world and has been used among
Seminole and Miccosukee since the early
1800s. Frank, 42, is a conquered Indian, he says,
a member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. His
brother Victor, 53, is unconquered, a traditional
Indian who refuses to sign up with either reser-
vation.
Although they grew up in the same tradi-
tional village, luxuries of the modern world
lured Frank to the reservation, the gambling
dividends and modern life. He took some class-
es in college but mostly partied. Decades later,
Frank Billie is trying to rebuild himself, work-
ing with elders and living a sober life.
The Seminole Tribe and Miccosukee Tribe
are conquered. I signed on when I was 17, so
Im part of the conquered tribe, Frank says.
The traditional Seminoles and traditional
Miccosukees, who havent signed up with res-
ervations, are the real unconquered.
Victor is part of the real unconquered. Al-
though he is an employee of the tribe, which
employs more than 2,000 people according to
tribal records, Victor does not receive gam-
bling dividends and lives a more basic, old
world life. He refuses to join a reservation
because it would be against his spiritual be-
liefs. Money has nothing to do with the divide
between reservation and traditional Indians.
The deal-breaker for Indians is signing their
names on American documents. That act is
seen by traditional Indians as giving up your
culture, family and identity.
Money aint everything, Victor says. In a
sense of culture and a way of life, I like to keep
that intact.
A modern Indian
While his family, almost all of whom are
traditional Indians, wear colorful patchwork
shirts and dresses and exotic-looking jewelry,
Frank dresses more like a security guard at a
nightclub. He typically wears a uniform-like
outfit of white T-shirts, black or blue jeans,
black Miami Heat baseball hats and really dark
sunglasses.
Hes a muscular guy with a deep voice and
intense demeanor. Like many other Indians, he
rarely smiles. History and the present have
given him little to smile about other than his
peoples ability to survive wars, disease and
urban encroachment.
Thanksgiving, those types of things we
dont celebrate, he says while a lunch of deer,
whole fried bass, beef gravy, rice and sofkee
cooks in a nearby chickee hut. We filled you
up and you turned around and slaughtered us.
If you want to celebrate it, by all means, go
ahead and celebrate it, but dont expect me and
some of my people to.
Frank worked for the tribes cultural re-
sources department but resigned recently, he
says, because he felt he was sharing too many
Seminole secrets with outsiders. Keeping his
Indian culture separate from work was too
difficult, a fine line that he felt he could no
longer walk.
Aside from the personal struggles to keep
their heritage and cultural roots intact, the
outside world hasnt helped either define his
life, either.
Before I became a tribal member I got into
some trouble and I went to court and they had
me classified as an illegal alien, Frank says.
They were going to deport me. So I ask the
judge, Where are you going to send me? Im a
native of this land.
Ancient beliefs
Victor wears a traditional, hand-sewn Semi-
nole shirt, several sets of colorful beads, jeans
and a pair of purple cowboy boots that he
bought at a flea market in Clewiston. He likes
the color. Victor also dons sunglasses and a
Florida State baseball cap, although he doesnt
follow the school or its sports teams. While
Indians have varying opinions of whether mas-
cots for college and professional teams are
insensitive or racist, they often wear FSU hats
and shirts.
Victor cant tell outsiders about his beliefs,
only that the Indians were here before the
Europeans and that the Creator made the
plants, animals and Indians.
Victors education came strictly from his
elders, who conveyed Indian history and sto-
ries to both him and Frank as children. And
while Frank went on to public schools, Victor
learned about life and values from his clan. He
knows towns and areas by these stories, such
as the history behind the word Immokalee
which comes from the Indian word muglee.
We existed long before the European got
here. We hunted, we gathered, we looked after
our females and we had kids, Victor says.
The true base of freedom, we had it. We didnt
have to pay taxes. We didnt answer to no gov-
ernment but our own. We were just standing on
our own feet.
Some modern Indians struggle to retain identity
get to know that theres more than just a casino
out here. We are a group of people. Were just like
everybody else. We want to be respected. We
want to be recognized; but, at the same time, we
also want to be left alone.
These events, along with maintaining mu-
seums and libraries on the reservations, are how
they try to balance their traditions while accept-
ing parts of the modern world.
Oral stories are used to convey history and
typically do not focus on a specific person. No in-
dividual is glorified or memorialized for their
achievements. Traditionally, when an Indian
dies, the memory of that person and his or her
name fades with time.
The land is alive
The land is a living history, a reference point
around which the Indian world whirs.
Frank knows the exact spot in the swamp
where he was born, and uses it as a reference to
where other villages and camps are located. He
can point to it on a map of tribal lands, which sit
between Big Cypress National Preserve, Ever-
glades National Park and the sprawling Miami
metropolis. He also knows where his mother and
father were born, and where they first met and
were later married.
His ancestors are buried in the Everglades.
Their remains, he says, supply the nutrients and
foundation on which trees and plants now grow
plants that are harvested for medicine, food,
tools and building supplies. Burying people in a
natural way allows their bodies to decompose.
Indians often planted fruit or oak trees on top of
the actual burial sites, which were typically lo-
cated on cypress tree islands and near camps.
The trees grew on top of the bodies of their an-
cestors, and the trees, in turn, provided food, fire
wood and medicine.
Thats our existence. If we dont have camps
and use our land, we lose our lives, our exis-
tence, says Frank, part of the last generation of
Miccosukees who were born and raised in the
Everglades.
Miccosukee chickee huts on Miccosukee tribal lands used for commercial purposes are lit by a setting sun.
Charlie Osceola, 14, a student at the Miccosukee School, takes part in a water quality test during a trip
on remote Miccosukee tribal lands in the Everglades. The samples were taken next to private camps
owned by members of the Miccosukee tribe.
Continued from Page 5
* A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS 7
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8 A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS * * A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS 9
A
faded Seminole flag flies tattered,
hanging, literally, by threads along
the Tamiami Trail about 60 miles
southeast of Fort Myers.
LeRoy M. Osceola, seventh-
generation son of the famed Seminole Chief
Osceola, rubs his right hand in a counterclock-
wise motion against the surface of a hand-
carved cypress table, summoning the oral his-
tories of his people.
You cant see it, he says of the traditional
Indian ways. Its who you are.
The 56-year-old is one of eight members of
the Council of the Original Miccosukee Sima-
nolee Nation of Aboriginal People, a group of
traditional Indians who are not affiliated with
the Seminole or Miccosukee tribes. Their
struggle is against Americanization. They dont
want to be part of modern society, and they see
the reservations as extensions of a government
that has killed and suppressed their people for
centuries.
When you surrender, youre surrendering
everything the Creator gave you. And by join-
ing the reservation, youre accepting this other
way of life, he says, In our way, there are
certain healings or medicine or counseling that
you can do if people are mischievous, done
crimes or hurt their own people. But when you
surrender, when you sell out, theres no cure
for that.
There are more Florida panthers than tradi-
tional Indians, he says, fewer than 100. And
while panthers and other wild animals enjoy
legal protection, this group of Indians is nearly
extinct.
We want to contact other people and let
themknowwere still here, he says. Other
Natives (aboriginal people in other countries)
knowwere here like South America and
Africa. We have to reach out and talk to them
and see who wants to help us.
To get a better understanding of their lives
in the Everglades, The News-Press spent the
last eight months traveling through the Indian
world, recording voices that have been mostly
silent over the past 500 years.
When you dont say anything, disease goes
over the life, says Bobby C. Billie, 68, also part
of the traditional movement. His English is
choppy but mostly intelligible. So you have to
come up and try to stop that. Whatever has
been done to you, try to heal them. Speak to
themso they can heal themselves, to realize
what theyre doing to the Mother Earth.
Unlike previous generations, LeRoy, Bobby
C. and other traditional Indians share their
lives and the struggle to retain ancient tradi-
tions with outsiders. They must convince non-
Indians, they say, to stop polluting water and
developing wild lands.
The reservation divide
LeRoys family is split between traditional
and reservation Indians. His wife is a member
of the Miccosukee Tribe and gets gambling and
resort dividends fromthe tribal corporation,
reportedly $100,000 or more per year. But be-
cause shes a reservation Indian, LeRoy says,
she will go to the Indian equivalent of hell. The
leader of four generations of traditional Indi-
ans, he hopes to spare his children and future
generations the same fate.
I call it a pawnshop, LeRoy says of reser-
vations. Thats where you go to sell who you
are your kids. Today they sell little kids over
there that have no say.
Another goal of the Council of the Original
Miccosukee Simanole Nation of Aboriginal
People is to steer Indian children away from
the reservations and the federal government
and toward a more ancient, spiritual life. Le-
Roy, Bobby C. and other traditionals speak with
reservation Indians. Some of their siblings are
even tribal members, but they want to keep
future generations fromjoining.
Apparently that idea is not well-received by
the tribes.
I think we represent what theyre trying to
leave behind, LeRoy says. If they acknowl-
edge us, their kids are going to say Why is it
different? And theyll have to explain it. Be-
cause (reservation life) is just a lifestyle its
not a thousand-year-old culture. They say were
living in the past, that we dont have anything.
When they say that theyre talking about mon-
ey. To us, money is not our way. We can make
money to spend and buy things, but its not our
way.
Hes full-blooded Miccosukee and qualifies
for reservation status, land for a home and
gambling dividends, but LeRoy is a holdout. He
cant live completely off the land, he says, be-
cause pollution fromLake Okeechobee has
contaminated the fish and animals. Make no
mistake: LeRoy is not an American, he says.
Hes a Native of this land, part of a people who
have endured a 500-year military occupation,
he says.
With a lineage that includes chiefs, medicine
men and other Indian leaders, LeRoys life
would be different if Europeans hadnt taken
over North America. Had their culture and
traditions stayed intact fully, LeRoy would
likely be what Americans call the chief, though
words like chief, tribe and war are offen-
sive to LeRoy and his culture because they are
American terms that he says are used in derog-
atory ways.
Like countless generations before, tradition-
al Indians do not pledge allegiance to the Unit-
ed States or celebrate the Fourth of July, a
holiday that, fromtheir perspective, pays hom-
age to outsiders who killed their people and
stole their land.
If we go, everything is going to go, too,
LeRoy says.
Indian laws and government structure are
already in place, LeRoy says, and could be used
again. Example: LeRoys uncle, John Osceola,
at the age of 80, shot a Seminole man in 1938
for breaking Indian laws, LeRoy says.
In the old days (before guns) theyd use
clubs to break their skulls, he says of tradi-
tional punishments, which vary according to
the crime. It doesnt have to be death. They
cut off your arms, limbs, your tongue.
Rebuilding an Indian nation
Hand-drawn maps fromthis traditional
Indian group showa future with only Indians
living in Southwest Florida, fromSarasota to
north of Lake Okeechobee and then south to
Florida Bay. This land was taken by Americans
through violence, they say. Traditional Indians
intend to take it back morally, by having Amer-
icans and the outside world realize their mis-
takes, correct those mistakes and then leave
the region.
That plan, if realized, would include remov-
ing cities like Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples,
Immokalee and Clewiston and replacing them
with Indian villages and farms. The goal is to
retake South Florida and use the area as a base
to take back all the Americas, fromthe Arctic
Circle to Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of
South America.
This is a prediction Bobby C. repeats, part of
a vision he and other Indians relay: America
will destroy itself and Indians will regain con-
trol of the entire continent. The downfall will
include natural disasters and infrastructure
failures.
Its going to happen naturally, so were not
concerned because, right now, just like the
power plants, all those things are not going to
work anymore, he says. The Mother Earth is
getting smaller and smaller because of human
population. You can see earthquakes, you can
see floods, you can see heat, all of those things
start happening now. And thats going to keep
happening.
{ CHAPTER 2 }
T R A D I T I O N S
Down the road: A moral takeover
Traditional Indians plan to take back land by persuading others to see the error of their ways
Chickees used by traditional indians for cultural and traditional events are lit by a setting sun. Chickees were designed to be quick and easy to build and are made of cypress and palmetto thatching.
About 10 members of the Osceola family live at the Otter camp off of the Tamiami Trail in Big Cypress National Preserve. The oak tree in the middle is used for medicinal
purposes, according to LeRoy M. Osceola.
Sisters Laurie-Sandra Osceola, right, and Jenna Osceola, prepare
corn for grinding that will be made into sofkee, a traditional
native drink.
I call it a pawnshop. Thats
where you go to sell who you are
your kids. Today they sell little
kids over there that have no say.
LEROY M. OSCEOLA says of reservations
10 A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS *
A
light breeze carries the scent of burnt
oak and cypress while Standing Bear
Osceola scampers by a purple and crim-
son rooster at an Indian village deep inside the
Everglades.
Maybe twice as tall as the talon-rearing
chicken, Standing Bear, 20 months, is the new-
est member of this arm of the Bird clan, one of
eight Indian family units still alive. His family
is raising him in a traditional, non-reservation
setting, which means he likely wont regularly
be exposed to English until kindergarten.
He knows how to give a high five, but he
wont give it to you unless you ask in Miccosu-
kee, Standing Bears uncle, Mad Bear, says
while watching over his nephew, whose name
means to learn and to come home in Miccosu-
kee.
The Osceola village is a living, breathing
history of the area. The camp is home to about
10 people the number varies with clan and
family needs. Massive pots and pans, weath-
ered from generations of use, line the cypress
rafter inside the wall-less cooking chickees.
Beside the chickee is a more modern structure
it functions like a stand-alone kitchen. Un-
like modern homes that encompass all rooms
into one structure, villages are made of individ-
ual rooms. There are no hallways or doors. The
open structures offer a somewhat cool retreat
during hot summers, and the lack of walls al-
lows the Indians to always breathe fresh air.
The clan life
Clans are matriarchal and related to an ani-
mal or natural event. Where once hundreds of
clans existed (the rest killed off or lost their
cultural ties), eight Indian clans exist in Florida
on and off the reservation: Bird, Panther, Otter,
Wind, Toad (or Bigtown), Snake, Bear and Deer.
If the mother is in the Wind clan, all of her
children will be as well. The role of the father
and mother is different than in American cul-
ture, too. The children belong to the clan, who
typically have input on who their daughters
will marry. The clan also determines when a
woman can have a child.
Mad Bear is Standing Bears matriarchal
uncle, a lifelong mentor.
Clan leader LeRoy M. Osceola, a member of
the Otter clan and Mad Bears father, explains
the family structure while sitting in a small
modern building that he has converted into an
art studio.
In our way, if you pass 10 years old you
become an adult, LeRoy says. So you go
through a ceremony and you drop your baby
name, your given name, your birth name and
youre given the Creators name, the names
that he gave us. Over time, when an elder dies,
the names are recycled according to the clans.
The name I have is my grandfathers.
The core family consists of LeRoy; his moth-
er, Peggy Osceola, in her 80s or 90s; wife, Cas-
sandra, 51; sons, Mad Bear and Willie Osceola,
35; and daughters Lea Osceola, 34, Jenna Osce-
ola, 27, and Sandra-Laurie Osceola, 23. They
attended Miccosukee reservation school
through grade 8, then went to high schools in
the Miami area.
They used to ask me if I lived in a teepee.
Some people thought I lived in trees. They
would do this, Sandra-Laurie says while pat-
ting her hand over her mouth, her lips shaped
Mad Bear Osceola totes a pair of gar fish he caught in a canal along Tamiami Trail near his home in Big Cypress National Preserve. Gar is a popular native food and is roasted over a
cypress and oak fire. He and his family don't fish as often they did years ago, due to the high mercury levels found in South Florida species.
Village life offers glimpse
at history
LeRoy M. Osceola and his family spend an afternoon together at their clan camp along the Tamiami Trail. Although there are several modern structures, they use
traditional chickees like this daily. Four generations of traditional Indians in the Otter and Bird clans live on the land.
LeRoy M. Osceola leads a traditional life in a
Miccosukee camp inside Big Cypress National
Preserve. He is part of four generations of
independent Natives.
Story continued on Page 11
* A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS 11
into an O. I cant imagine why anyone would
take something like that and make a joke about
it.
Technology, art, medicine
Traditional Indians dont necessarily shun
modern things or technologies. LeRoy has a
couple of pickups, a cellphone, even an In-
ternet site to sell his art, woodcarvings and
T-shirt prints.
He also carves totem poles, or talking trees.
One shows several Natives at the base layer.
Theyre holding above their heads the universe
which is represented by a ball inside four
posts. The ball is wooden and can be moved by
hand. On top of the universe is a bald eagle,
which represents the Bird clan.
As a young man he built chickee huts in the
Miami area. In 1987, he gave up the working
world and started painting and carving totem
poles for a living. He turned away from the
modern world and turned his focus inward, on
becoming a spiritual leader, raising non-reser-
vation kids and guarding the traditional Osceo-
la lands.
Modest in height and broad of chest, LeRoy
keeps a mohawk. It tapers from front to back
and extends into a ponytail. Like traditional
Seminole and Miccosukee patchwork clothing,
artwork and totem poles, LeRoys body tells a
story his forearms and hands a canvas of
long triangles, his upper arms marked with
native depictions and spiritual codes.
A length of cord wrapped around his neck
attaches to a small pouch that rests on his ster-
num. He wont reveal the contents, but it likely
contains traditional medicine, which can be
made from plant and animal parts and is typi-
cally blended and blessed by a medicine man.
It protects me, LeRoy says, sitting under a
sprawling oak tree, which supports a massive
set of steel wind chimes that only clang during
hurricane-like conditions.
Against what he wont say.
Theres no need for a church building, as all
facets of traditional life and cultural practices
are woven into spiritual beliefs.
People go to church and they have this
picture of a white guy they pray to, but we
dont do that, he says. We go by words, what
he told us. Its thousands and thousands and
thousands of years old, but we still practice it.
We dont have to get together. Nobody has to
tell us every week what to do, what is wrong.
Peggy Osceola, LeRoys mother, only speaks
Miccosukee and related Native languages,
which sometimes share common terms. Peggy
is reclusive, at least when outsiders visit the
camp. LeRoy translates for her.
She remembers a life without white people,
a time when the Everglades was still largely
controlled by Indians.
It was real good because you dont know all
the bad things out there, Peggy says when
asked what life in the Everglades was like 80
years ago. There were no cars or white people
or machinery.
Reservation ties
LeRoys wife, Cassandra, tradition says, will
not be with him and the other traditional Indi-
ans in the Creators afterlife because she is a
reservation Indian which means she is going
to a hellish existence after this life. LeRoy
cant explain exactly what she will face after
death, but he says of her long-term future: Its
bad.
Cassandra is a reservation Miccosukee. Her
family signed her up when she was 2, she says.
Cassandras afterlife was decided the moment
her family put her name on Americanized pa-
perwork. Its not the reservation money, which
can be $100,000 or more per year, that sealed
Cassandras fate. The signature and acceptance
of an outside culture has doomed her to an
eternity of pain and torture, LeRoy and other
traditional Indians say.
Reservation dividends help pay for food,
vehicles, gas and the electric bill. But unlike
some reservation Indians, Cassandra lives in
the Osceola camp. Making money is not against
traditional life. Indians traded goods and cur-
rencies for thousands of years. Its OK for
them to get a job, have health insurance, own a
home, invest in savings plans and buy airboats
and cars.
She finds solace in the present, where she
can still have an impact on the future of her
children and grandchildren.
It doesnt mean its the end of this world,
Cassandra says, explaining how she copes with
the idea of going to a bad place after she dies.
I have children, and I can instill these things
in them. I was never taught this (on the reser-
vation). I learned most of it (the traditional life
and laws) from LeRoy .
Peggy Osceola, who believes she is more than 80 years old, is a traditional Miccosukee Native and the
matriarch of the Osceola family. She prepares sofkee, a common drink that is typically made from corn. This
clan of 10 starts nearly every day with a communal light breakfast.
Continued from Page 10
Mad Bear Osceola plays with his nephew,
Standing Bear Osceola. In their culture, a male
serves as a mentor, teaching lifelong skills like
building a chickee or dugout canoe.
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12 A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS *
B
obby C. Billie watched from the shores of
St. Augustine as a state-sponsored flotilla
of Spanish replica ships paraded along the
coast to commemorate what became the de-
struction of his people and way of life, he says.
That Spanish celebration (Viva Florida 500),
if you want us to celebrate, you let go the (cele-
bration of) Spanish people that came and slaugh-
tered us, Bobby C. Billie says. Get rid of the
fort. Let the Native peoples build and put (a me-
morial) on top. Thats the only way were going to
celebrate. Otherwise, we dont want it.
As a boy in the late 1950s, he grew up in a cy-
press and palmetto chickee village just north of
the Tamiami Trail, about 50 miles southeast of
Naples. Bobby C. never saw outsiders, didnt
know there were people of different skin tones,
cultures and histories. His life consisted of hunt-
ing and fishing, learning Indian language and
traditions such as how to gather, prepare and ad-
minister medicines made from plant and animal
parts. And while he still sees his immediate fam-
ily, Bobby C. has ventured into the outside world
only in hopes of educating Americans on how to
take care of the environment.
Bobby C., as friends and other Indians call
him, is not part of a tribe which means no gam-
bling and resort dividends like the 4,400 or so In-
dians living on the Seminole and Miccosukee
reservations. Hes whats called a traditional, an
independent Indian who shuns money and the
material world as much as possible. There are
about 100 left. They live mostly in remote vil-
lages and small towns between Lake Okeecho-
bee and Ochopee, Collier County.
The recognized tribes choose modern life,
he says. We cant choose it because the Creator
chooses our life for us. That makes us who we
are. Thats why we say independent, because
were kind of separate from them.
Now 68, Bobby C. lives on a remote outpost
just north of Lake Okeechobee and is a member
of the Council of the Original Miccosukee Sima-
nolee Nation of Aboriginal Peoples, a movement
among traditional and some reservation Indians
to retake South Florida. This good-looking man
with chiseled facial features, flowing black
locks peppered with gray, soft brown eyes and a
massive smile cant read English, and doesnt
write, although he has learned to sign his name.
He first learned to speak English about 20
years ago, he says, when he met Shannon Larson,
who moved to the Lake Okeechobee area from
Oregon to help Bobby C. navigate the modern
world.
When you dont say anything, disease goes
over the life, he says while gazing into the dis-
tance. His English is choppy but mostly intelligi-
ble. So you have to come up and try to stop that.
Whatever has been done to you, try to heal them.
Speak to them so they can heal themselves, to
realize what theyre doing to the Mother Earth.
Bobby C. carries his version of history in col-
orful manila folders, which contain hand-drawn
maps, old treaties, and what he calls the four
pages.
Those pages are translations of dreams, in
which ancestors speak to him. Bobby C. then
tells those stories to Larson, who types them into
English. The order of the words, Bobby C. says,
is designed to infiltrate the subconscious of
American people, to plant subliminal seeds. In
turn, he says, those who read his words will have
dreams of their own, and be guided by a higher
power.
Finding his way
As a young man, Bobby C. worked as an alliga-
tor wrestler on the east coast near Hollywood.
After a few weeks on the job, he said he realized
that devoting his life to saving the Everglades
and the traditions and culture of his people was
more important than chasing an Americanized
dream.
The elders have said the dollar, the head
thats on it, its a dead person, he says, describ-
ing the teachings of his clan. And those dead
heads will easily take over the natural mind you
have. So if you received a dollar, spend it right
away. Dont put it in your pocket.
He doesnt chase the American dream, but he
does need money and assistance; he hasnt had a
job in decades and cant hunt and fish like he did
as a child. Friends and family support him finan-
cially, he says, kind of like a church pays a
preacher.
While he appears in good physical shape, he
has no health insurance. He does have a drivers
license (DOT issues licenses to illiterate people
who pass driving tests), even a Social Security
card.
He needs the former to legally drive his green
Toyota pickup across South Florida, which he
does regularly to meet with other traditional In-
dians who are part of his aboriginal movement
and to meet with reservation Indians.
Working with outsiders
Bobby C. describes his relationship with Lar-
son as a bother-sister bond. They made a ceremo-
nial oath to protect each other for the rest of
their lives. Larson handles phone calls and an-
swers email questions for Bobby C. He doesnt
like to use modern technology but knows it has
uses, especially when it comes to his goal of edu-
cating Americans about ecological and spiritual
balance.
Why does he speak to the media and others?
We need you to change the others of your
people, he tells The News-Press. Thats why
we work together, to help each other. Also, youre
part of the creation. They told us, youre a care-
taker of the creation. So we have to make them
understand how important it is to save the future
generations of the food, or the water, or the rain
or the winds, anything.
Bobby C., Larson says, has taken on the re-
sponsibility of fixing the Everglades and regain-
ing Florida for Indians, and that the weight takes
a toll. The odds of traditional Indians retaking
Southwest Florida are slim, but he pushes for-
ward as though the process is underway.
The couple often travel to environmental
gatherings throughout the historic Everglades,
where Bobby C. speaks to Americans and other
traditional and tribal Indians.
People are so drawn to him, Larson says
while sitting near the banks of Fisheating Creek
near Lake Okeechobee during an Earth First en-
vironmental gathering. They want him to
speak. They want to hear the stories from him.
Its tough on him. He gets tired, but he keeps on
going.
This is a prediction he repeats, part of a vision
he and other Indians relay: America will destroy
itself, and Indians will regain control of the en-
tire continent.
Its going to happen naturally, so were not
concerned because, right now, just like the pow-
er plants, all those things are not going to work
anymore, he says.
Seminole Bobby C. Billie, bottom front, oversees a flotilla of airboats during a water quality study. Although
he is a traditional native not affiliated with either tribe, he is widely regarded among South Florida natives.
Driving is Miccosukee Steve Tigertail.
Man on a mission
Spiritual leader Bobby C. Billie predicts America will self-destruct
We need you to change the others of your people. Thats why we
work together, to help each other. Also, youre part of the creation.
They told us, youre a caretaker of the creation. So we have to make
them understand how important it is to save the future generations
of the food, or the water, or the rain or the winds, anything.
BOBBY C. BILLIE
Bobby C. Billie, a traditional Seminole born and raised in a remote village in the Everglades, is a spiritual
leader and medicine man. He is highly regarded by both tribes and traditional natives. He is one of several
dozen independent natives who aren't part of a reservation and don't receive gambling dividends.
Although he is illiterate and jobless he is influential amongst the tribes.
From left, Cecil Osceola, Cory Osceola, Michael
Frank, and Bobby C. Billie take a morning coffee
break while visiting Frank's family camp on
Miccosukee tribal lands in the Everglades. They
were taking part in an annual water quality study
conducted by the tribe.
* A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS 13
C
obalt blues and salmon pinks flash by
like a meteor shower during a new
moon as a group of middle school stu-
dents parade through the main hall of
the Miccosukee Embassy in Miami.
Dressed in colorful patchwork shirts and
dresses, the 18 students are here to say the
pledge of allegiance. The pledge isnt to the
American flag. Its to the Miccosukee flag and a
people who have survived 500 years of oppres-
sion.
All helping one another, as one line says
when translated into English.
These children are tribal members, part own-
ers of the vast gambling and resort corporation.
Theyre also the newest generation of the Micco-
sukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, who number
about 600 and live mostly on reservation lands
about 100 miles southeast of Fort Myers.
Once finished, the children scamper off to the
banks of the Miami River, the aquatic artery that
once connected the Miccosukee to the entire Ev-
erglades. There they eat fry bread and sip sodas,
talk about the Internet, cellphones and school.
Miccosukee chairman Colley Billie takes the
stage, his baritone voice bouncing off the marble
floor.
It was our refuge, it was a place that fed us,
Billie says. And the reason we wound up in the
Everglades is because the United States govern-
ment was unleashed on us to exterminate us. We
went into the Florida Everglades as a place of
refuge. We will always consider it our home.
The Everglades has changed in the last centu-
ry, and Indians have changed with it. From a
mostly ancient life of hunting, gathering and
spiritual ceremonies, modern Indians have mas-
tered the American economic model, building an
international casino and resort empire.
The challenge is maintaining traditions and
protecting the Everglades from further ecologi-
cal damage while integrating technology and
moving even more into the modern world.
Business, tradition
a delicate balance
Tribes aspire to keep old ways while prospering in modern world
Miccosukee children show off traditional clothing during a cultural event at the Miccosukee Embassy in Miami. They were playing in limestone caves under the embassy that were
once used by natives as a place to seek refuge from hurricanes and tropical storms.
{ CHAPTER 3 }
T H E F U T U R E
Story continued on Page 14
Colley Billie, the chairman of the Miccosukee tribe, welcomes visitors during a media day at the
Miccosukee Embassy in Miami. He says the tribe is open to communicating with the outside world, but
that natives want to be left alone. Behind him is a portrait of Buffalo Tiger, who was instrumental in
the formation of the reservation.
We went into the Florida
Everglades as a place of
refuge. We will always
consider it our home.
COLLEY BILLIE
14 A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS *
Like any group, they vary in personal beliefs,
spiritual convictions and financial status, but all
factions The News-Press interviewed over the
past eight months have similar goals: Grow their
power and influence across the region eco-
nomically, environmentally and spiritually.
The tribes
The tribes are taking control through a gam-
bling and resort empire that brings in billions of
dollars of revenue each year (the Seminole Tribe
reported $2 billion in revenue in 2012).
The Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Micco-
sukee Tribe of Indians of Florida own resorts
throughout much of Florida, the United States
and in Europe and Asia.
These businesses started as high-stakes bin-
go in the 1970s, when the federal government
gave exclusive gambling rights to Indian tribes.
Although casinos were already established in
the Miami area, the tribes have since established
gambling in Tampa, Immokalee, Hollywood, Da-
nia, Clewiston and Brighton. The businesses
bring in billions of dollars of revenue each year,
and members reportedly get $100,000 or more in
annual dividends for being part of the tribe.
Business ventures include:
Casinos in Florida, Mississippi, Nevada,
Ohio, Dominican Republic, China and Singapore
Resorts in Florida, California, Mexico,
Thailand and Malaysia
Extensive cattle and farming operations.
Even sponsorships of a NASCAR team from
2002 through 2009 were part of their economic
DNA.
The Seminole Tribe is looking to expand its
empire. After canceling plans to build a $465 mil-
lion casino in Atlantic City, the Seminole Tribe is
reportedly interested in buying the Revel Casino
Hotel, which would also give them an Internet
gambling license another entry into the gam-
bling world.
And there is talk of expanding its Immokalee
casino, including a possible Hard Rock hotel
nearby.
The money means the tribes can hire attor-
neys and water management experts to fight or
support state or federal water policy changes or
any Everglades restoration projects.
Its not that we want to sue them, says Mic-
cosukee Tribe member Michael Frank about wa-
ter management agencies and the National Park
Service. Its just that they break their own
laws.
Traditionals
The traditional Indians relatives of tribe
Indians who shun reservation life and American
politics are fighting a moral and spiritual bat-
tle, citing human rights violations, genocide and
centuries-old treaties.
The future of the traditional Indians seems
grim. As many have said, they are going extinct.
They dont keep count of their people its
against their cultural ways but the estimated
population is around 100.
In the old days we were taught to keep out of
the white mans way, but there are so many that
we have to stand up and fight for ourselves, tra-
ditional Indian LeRoy M. Osceola explains.
They also want access to the national park
lands millions of acres Indians used for centu-
ries. Everglades National Park lands were used
to gather medicine, building materials and food.
Those practices are now illegal because the
lands are within a national park. Losing those
lands makes living a traditional Indian life even
more difficult, some say.
Bobby C. Billie and other Indians say these
laws are used to force traditional Indians to live a
more modern life. Regardless of their desires to
hunt, fish and use medicine in their ancient
ways, the outside world has made that life virtu-
The sun rises over the River of Grass off of the Tamiami Trail. The land was and still is used by both Seminoles and Miccosukees for hunting, medicinal and other uses.
The Miccosukee Resort and Casino, on the outskirts
of Miami. It was built in 1998 and is a key source of
annual dividends for tribal members who
participate in the system.
Miccosukee tribal member Bobby Tigertail and his grandson, Jonovan Tigertail, 7, were taking visitors to
Miccusukee Indian Day on airboat rides at the tribal resort and casino.
Continued from Page 13
Tampa-area Seminole Bobby Henry leads a group of visitors at Big
Cypress Seminole Reservation on a demonstration of a traditional
welcome dance.
BY THE
NUMBERS
500,000: Dollars the
Seminole tribe contributed
to Gov. Rick Scotts re-elec-
tion campaign in 2013
1 Billion: Dollars the
Seminole tribe has given to
the state since 2008 as part
of the gambling compact
50 Million: Dollars to
build the Miccosukee casino
and resort on the Tamiami
Trail about 100 miles south-
east of Fort Myers
23,000: Jobs directly or
indirectly created through
Seminole gaming operations
10 Million: Dollars in
payout money during a
weeklong Seminole poker
tournament
62: Million: Dollars in
winnings and prizes given
away at the Immokalee
casino monthly
9: Number of the Miccosu-
kee NASCAR teams from
2002 through 2009
2013: The year the Semi-
noles released Hard Rock
Energy drink
Sources: Seminole and Miccosukee
tribal records, interviews
Story continued on Page 15
* A SPECIAL REPRINT OF THE NEWS-PRESS 15
ally impossible through laws and regulations.
We have to talk to the government or Big Cy-
press preserve area to try to get into it to cut the
material or go hunt or go fishing like we did
when we was younger, says Bobby C., a tradi-
tional Indian. They say you cant do that. You
have to buy a permit or buy a hunting license.
But we cant (buy a license). Its not our way.
The next generation
Most Indian children are part of the Seminole
or Miccosukee reservations, although a handful
are being raised in traditional villages by non-
reservation clans. Most attend reservation
school through eighth grade and then attend a
public high school.
The modern wealth offers options as children
start drawing reservation dividends shortly af-
ter birth. College, cars, houses, travel, fine
meals, swamp buggies and airboats are finan-
cially feasible for reservation teens. Cellphones
and iPads are common, too.
Some are preparing for college, others to be
future tribal leaders, business owners, clothes
designers, cowboys and environmental engi-
neers.
Sandra-Laurie Osceola is focused on main-
taining her traditional roots and clan ties. Her
son, Standing Bear, 20 months, is one of a dozen
or fewer Florida Indians still being raised in a
traditional Indian village among non-reserva-
tion Indians.
Her future, she says, is with her clan: her
close and extended family. Sandra-Lauries fa-
ther, LeRoy M. Osceola, is one of the most out-
spoken traditional Indians and is the head of four
generations of traditional Indians living on their
own land, not within the reservation borders.
I get asked all the time, why I dont enroll and
get the free money, she says. For me, its out of
respect for my father, what he has taught us. I
cant imagine betraying him like that.
.
A water lilly blooms on Miccosukee tribal lands in the River of Grass. Some tribal members say water levels are too high due to discharges from Lake Okeechobee and that the water
needs to be cleaner before being sent to reservation lands. For thousands of years canoes were used to travel across South Florida. Today, airboats are used.
Airboat trails snake through the River of Grass on Miccosukee tribal lands.
Miccosukee children dressed in traditional regalia
joke amongst themselves while waiting to give a
dance demonstration at the Miccosukee Resort and
Casino on American Indian Day.
T
he Indian world is largely distant from
the Fort Myers-Naples area, in geograph-
ic proximity, historic and spiritual be-
liefs, culture, money and morals. But all of
South Florida from south of Orlando to the
Florida Keys is linked by water.
That was evident last summer as The News-
Press traveled to the Seminole and Miccosukee
reservations and traditional Indian lands. One
of the heaviest rainy seasons in decades
swamped, well, the swamp, and the region
suffered stormwater flooding, sprouted algae
blooms and closed swimming beaches. We
wanted to know what people living in the Ever-
glades were experiencing, and what their plans
were for addressing water quality and quantity
challenges.
Wed like to see water once again flow from
Lake Okeechobee and wash out into Florida
Bay. But the water needs to be cleaned up
first, says Miccosukee Tribe Chairman Colley
Billie. The problem is the water is dirty. Ever-
glades National Park, which is located south of
us, they dont want that water either because
theyre afraid it will change the environment of
Everglades National Park.
The root of many water quality problems is
the management of Lake Okeechobee, where
farmlands and urban development flush heavy
nutrient loads into the heart of the Everglades.
That water is then pumped to Fort Myers on
the west coast and St. Lucie on the east coast
through water control structures that dont
store and treat water like the natural landscape
did decades ago.
Both Seminole and Miccosukee reservation
lands sit between Lake Okeechobee and Ever-
glades National Park.
By law, phosphorus levels must be lower
than 10 parts per billion to be released. Levels
are currently so high in the lake that biologists
have said it may take a century or more for the
loads to drop to that level, and it would only
start to drop when pollution from developed
areas stops flowing to the lake.
Like they have for centuries, the tribes are
prepared to fight. The difference today is
knives and rifles have been replaced with law-
yers, the battleground shifted from the
swamps to the courtrooms.
Billie says the tribe understands the con-
cerns in Fort Myers and St. Lucie, but that the
tribe is obligated to protect its land, people and
commercial properties. They have an arsenal
of attorneys and water quality experts such as
former Army Corps Col. Terry Rice, who over-
saw Lake Okeechobee management when Ever-
glades restoration started in the late 1990s.
Water needs to be released, and people on
the east coast and west coast dont want that
water from Lake Okeechobee because its so
contaminated there will be a fish kill, Billie
says. Well, guess who theyre thinking of send-
ing this dirty water to? Us Miccosukees.
Theyre using our land to store water. And
weve been fighting that.
Sending water south toward Everglades
National Park would relieve some, but certain-
ly not all water pollution concerns on both
coasts. A 1-mile bridge was completed last year
that government agencies say will be used to
divert Lake Okeechobee water.
The bridge has been built and more are
planned but the water is not yet flowing
south, and thats because phosphorus levels are
about 15 times too high to be legally dis-
charged, according to federal and state laws.
You can put in as many bridges as you want
but thats never going to be utilized, Billie
says.
While Miccosukee lands near Miami are
often artificially flooded, Seminole reservation
lands, closer to Fort Myers, are typically too
dry, to the point that reservation representa-
tives have asked state and federal agencies to
send any water to their lands, even polluted
Okeechobee water.
Tribal representatives have asked the state
and federal government to find a way to re-
lease Lake Okeechobee and Caloosahatchee
River water to reservation lands south of Cle-
wiston. They would rather have polluted water,
representatives say, than little to no water at
all.
As long as we continue draining this land
and putting more chemicals on the ground,
pesticides and stuff like that, were going to
continue on killing the vegetation, says Semi-
nole tribe council representative Mondo Tiger.
Once you start removing the vegetation and
grass, you expose the topsoil to nothing but the
sun, air. (And) it will turn into sand dunes.
Tribes prepared to fight
over water quality
Continued from Page14