ABSTRACT
Although we had originally intended to speak with women from two of the most well-known Native American tribes of contemporary South Florida—the Seminoles and the Miccosukees—we were granted access only to the Seminole reservation. Therefore, this chapter focuses on that Native American group. The original indigenous peoples of Florida were the Apalachee, the Timuccua, and the Calusa. According to Garbarino (1972), the Seminole Indians are a post-Columbian group whose name does not appear widely until 1750. They are descendants of the Yamassee of the Carolinas and the Oconee of Apalachicola. Kersey and Bannan (1995) explain that those people, who now make up the Seminole Nation, are actually descendants of the Creek Indians who left Georgia for Spanish-governed Florida in the 1700s.
