Seminole Nation Research Paper

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Seminole Nation
Background. Before starting this research, all I knew about the Seminoles was that they were a native tribe from Florida who owned several casinos. From this research, I discovered that the Seminoles were not originally from what would become the state of Florida; instead, they are a merger of people from the Creek and Hitchiti tribes in Georgia who migrated south into Florida. Currently, they have six reservations across the state of Florida with approximately 3,100 members. The reservations, in order of descending size, are located in Hollywood, Big Cypress, Brighton, Immokalee, Tampa, and Fort Pierce.
Second class citizens. It is common knowledge that Native Americans across the country are a marginalized people. When European …show more content…
Currently, there are 1,400 Seminole students who attend charter schools (on the reservation), public schools, or private schools close to their homes. Apart from the traditional courses (such as mathematics, sciences, history, etc.) taught, cultural classes are an integral part of a Seminole child’s day as they are commonly underrepresented in public schools, and their history is often misrepresented. Students who attend reservation schools (or Ahfachkee) learn their native language, sewing, beadwork, and traditional native cooking. The tribal council of the Seminole has established several committees in order to increase the academic success of their children. For example, they have established the Tribal Truancy Committee, committee whose purpose is to decrease the amount of tribal dropouts. They have had great success at, decreasing the dropout rate from 50%-60% to 30% (Bowers, …show more content…
I attended the Seminole Tribal Fair and Pow Wow. The opening ceremony started with leaders from their council (Fig. 1), then came the elders (Appendix A), and last the tribal members. They dressed in colorful native dressings, where they danced different dances to the beat of the drums. To the audience the drumbeats sounded the same, but to the dancers they were extremely different. You could see how they either danced more upbeat or slowed their tempo to the beat (Appendix B). The Seminoles made you feel very welcome at the ceremony, asking everyone there to join them in their dancing. The only condition that they imposed was that we would not disrupt the dancers, the continuity of dancing around the circle, or going in the center (Appendix C). The center was for the leaders who held the flags of the United States, the state of Florida, and the Seminole Nation. Taking up their offer, we danced alongside them and they made us feel welcomed at all times. You could tell that from the children to the elders took pride in preserving their culture, because they all wore some aspect of their tradition. You could also see how pop culture has had an influence on them because I saw teenage girls walk around in their native skirts plastered with the colors and emblems of their favorite sports teams. As the dancing continued, the clans began to hold a drum competition. Even though I did not understand their language, it felt moving, because I felt like I was part of them.
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