The Enduring Seminoles

Florida Historical Society Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award



A history of the cultural tourism activities of the Florida Seminoles



In

the early twentieth century, the Florida Seminoles struggled to survive

in an environment altered by the drainage of the Everglades and a

dwindling demand for animal hides. This revised and expanded edition of

The Enduring Seminoles, now updated with a new preface, discusses the

cultural tourism activities of the Seminoles over the decades that

followed.



By the 1930s almost all of the

Florida Seminole population was engaged in the tourist market. They

participated in fairs and expositions in Chicago, New York, and Canada.

In large commercial Seminole villages in Miami and Ocala, they sewed

brightly colored patchwork, wrestled alligators, and opened their

palm-frond chickees to the public. Their exhibition economy provided

income for families, and today, the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the

Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida promote their tourist activities

to worldwide markets.



Drawing on interviews

with many Seminoles and extending to the Seminole Tribe's purchase of

the Hard Rock Caf? business in 2007, The Enduring Seminoles provides a colorful social and economic history of an unconquered people.