Four Corners of Earth Transcript
- [Narrator] This project was funded in part, by the Florida Endowment for the Humanities. With support from the National Endowment, for the Humanities.
- I was taught that, you have a four of, a logs go into your fire, means there are four corners of Earth. Each clan has a different meaning of the four logs, or how to take care of the camp, their home, and how to raise the children, and this is, goes back a long ways.
- [Narrator] Seminole women tend the fire. Florida's Seminole Indians, the descendants of Miccosukee and Muscogee Creek Indians, live mainly in the Southern part of Florida, in the region known as the Everglades. This vast area of swamp lands and water, has been home to the Seminoles since the mid 1800s. Ethel Santiago grew up on the Big Cypress Reservation. The family camp was central to her early childhood, and remains a favored refuge from the modern world. Today, she is the director of the Arts and Crafts Project, on the Immokalee Reservation.
- My position is, to teach arts and crafts, which is a basket making, and also a patchwork, and how to do a cloth work and a bead work, which is, I think it was a really big part of our life, and part of our tribe. Some of my students are in their fifties, that wanted to learn which they have never got chance to, to learn how to do arts and crafts or patchwork, or baskets, which they would like to learn, and that was my understanding from our community, which we set up this program, to teach them, which we wanted for them to pass it on, and teach to our young people. Our people always liked a colorful clothing, that we use to create in our own way, or something that we can learn how to do, how to make our own clothes, which, other Indian tribes has their own pattern of the clothing, and I think that was the reason that we started learning. Let's say, we didn't have paintbrushes or whatever, to do artwork that we like to do. That was my experience that I know that, but I did have a sewing machine that I can sew on, and bright colored cloth, that I can put it together, that it was like, that is why it stayed with me because, in my head or in my heart, I just know that, when I was putting it together, thats how I would like it to look. Just about everything is kind of blending together, so, and also you must know how to go out, and pick your material, and how to prepare it. You must be able to do a basket, you must be able to learn how to make dolls, and also a bead work. Most of the stuff you hear, it has been ordered, We have people that comes and buy from us. People had just come and want the real thing where they can stand here and watch as our people, our girls makes them, and it makes them feel that they were getting something that's handmade. We are proud because we can sit here and make, and which they will just stand here and watch us make, then they want to know who made this, and they know this, Agnes or Louise made it, and I think that was the main reaction we get from people, is that we made them ourself, and it's not a, not commercialized. When I learned how to make clothes, and started wearing clothes, they were, I didn't know, no other clothes to wear. And they told us not to wear another kind of clothes, unless we make our clothes, and also they told us that the patchwork was a symbol of a woman's work, like a part of us cooking and gardening, and keeping home, and doing a patch work, and doing baskets, and it was a woman's part of education, which we should have be proud, and the more you make clothes or the more patchwork you do, what you make, it's like, the proud you have in you, that is showing out, and that was, that's what I was taught. So, making clothes was a big thing part of my life, and learning how to do a patchwork, which I didn't go to school, and so did my mother didn't go to school, it was part of our education, that we sat by our mother, or our aunt, or our grandmother, to learn how to do those things. I grew up around Miami and, mostly over in Miccosukee, that's where my father's from anyway, so, but we came to Hollywood. I spent about a good seven years there, then he took us to Big Cypress Reservation where I grew up, and that's where most of my life was spent, there before I come here. So I say actually, Big Cypress and Immokalee, are two places where, I have spent most of my life. That's where my family camp is, and my father still lives there, which was my home. This is a reservation, it's located on Immokalee, which is a migrant town, so, some families will come from the other reservation, to live here, to work on farms, during the winter time, then they go back to the reservation. And that's how it was started, we used to come here and work in a winter, and go back on the reservation. Then finally, we just stayed permanent, and some of our parents, and some of the people, decided to live here, instead of living on the Big Cypress Reservation, which is about 40 miles from here. And this land was donated to us and we had it in trust. When I was a little girl, we used to stay in this part of the area, because my mother was born in Collier County, which is this reservation is located in, and her uncles and her aunts lived here, and her grandmother died here, and so, her mother died on this Collier County, so actually, my family has been part of this for generations. We have two representatives here, from reservations, which I am one of them, I'm on a board of directors for Seminole tribe, and we have another lady named Nancy McIntyre, she's on the council. We have one smoke shop here, is established after it become a reservation, and we have arts and crafts where we do the arts and crafts, and also, anything that we can get for this reservation, her and I have spent a lot of hours, about helping our people, which we, in a way, we dedicated ourselves to it.
- [Narrator] Similar to other native American groups, the clan is the basic unit in Seminole society. The mother is considered the head of the household, with inheritance passed through the matriarchal line. Therefore, all children belong to their mother's clan.
- [Narrator] With marriage outside the tribe, clan affiliations have weakened.
- There's four clans here, lives in this reservation, and the clans are Otter, and Wind, and a Bird and Panther. My father is Wind, and my mother is Panther, and she's, it's supposed to be, you're supposed to marry a different clan, not your own clan, but when you do have children, and if my husband was a Bird, and if I'm a Panther, my children is Panther. Our younger generation, like very young generation, and so, if the parents didn't taught them, then they don't taught their children, and it's getting kinda, coming out where, they're losing it, or, you know, they don't know what clan they are. I have five children, and they're partly non-Indian, but I taught them my way, what I was taught, as long as every one of my children know what clan they are.
- [Narrator] Some clans that used to be an existence, have disappeared, while others have been created.
- There was one clan, one time in our history that, what Indians tell us, that old Indians tell us, that there were a tribe name, Big City, but they couldn't survive, they all was dying out. So they changed it to Tote, then that's how they survive. Tote are still small, so is the Bear, and so is the Snake. The biggest ones are Panther, and the second one is the Bird, and a third one is the Wind.
- Immokalee is located in, close to Naples and Fort Myers, and it's a farming town, and we have a migrant people works, comes here during the harvest time in the winter time, and their are about, I'd say, four or five different nationalities here, Cubans, Haitians, and Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, and Indians, and White and Black, so right there are about six, probably be more, but that's how much I have come in contact, which I had been living here almost, more than half of my life, that I have come in contact with those people. But, I don't know the population, because every time I ask, we've grown and then, we're back to normal, because this is a town of a traveling people.
- [Narrator] Sofkee, fry bread, some cultivated fruits, and vegetables, along with wild game, are among the traditional foods of the Seminoles. Sofkee, a corn drink, is boiled into a thin porridge, using corn or grits and water. Fry bread and pumpkin bread are other favorites.
- I learned it from, by watching my mother, and also my step grandmother, who I spent a lot of time with my grandfather. They taught me like first, they taught me not to get burned, because it was an open fire. We didn't have refrigerators or anything like that, so, we have to eat up fresh meat, like, they have to go and kill it, turkey, deer, and alligator tail, and we didn't eat that too much, but we had, and we didn't have no other meat, that we could get that we had that. And, my grandfather showed me how to skin an alligator, take the tail part and prepare it. A lot of times, we ate turtles, we ate all kinds of turtles that we catch, and we can roast them, we can make a stew out 'em, and we can fry them, and, roasting a turtle is very tricky. You have to take inside out, clean inside, we've got open him, just little space, which is a part of a main learning how to cook turtle. And that's, I think there's a best part of my meal is turtle. Catching is the hardest part.
- [Narrator] The Seminoles are influenced, by contact with non-Indian cultures. Traditional food preferences, mixed with the new, creating combinations, such as Seminole tacos or Seminole hamburgers.
- I make Seminole hamburgers, which is... it look like a Spanish tortillas, but ours is thick, about that thick, and we don't fry, we cook it on the grill. Also cook the hamburger and put it in there, that's what we call Indian hamburger. And, also Seminole taco is on a fry bread, with chili and all the onions and lettuce, and all the stuff on the plate, what we call Seminole tacos. Then we prepare a hamburger, I like my hamburger, and Seminole burgers, which I put it in my dough, how to cook that, and a lot of times I'll cook a fried chicken and French fries and mashed potatoes.
- [Narrator] Fire is a central symbol of hearth and home for Seminole women, with rules and restrictions regarding its use. Suzie Billy is saying that a woman's place is by the fire. It's up to each woman, to control her own life, and carry out the cooking. It is her place to see that the meat is prepared for drying. And if it's corn, she should know how to prepare that too. She says, when a woman grows old, like she is today, with great, great grandchildren, it is her place to have a home, and to have a fire going. A Seminole woman must never stop teaching, what she has learned in childhood, so that she will know how to continue to be a Seminole. Medicine or singing can be used to protect the fire in the home. In this song, Suzie Billy is calling an animal to protect the home. You must always pick your first camp, start the fire and sing the song. This will be your first home, and it will be protected.
- [Narrator] Miccosukee language classes are found on each of the reservations. In Hollywood, the language classes are taught at the culture center.
- When we first started this program, that was back in 80, and that was just a survey, on all four reservations. And after the survey was done, we found that the majority of the parents, wanted their children to learn, to speak the language, and also learn about their culture, because we were losing it, and our language wasn't written also. So they feel like there was a need, if we don't start doing, teaching our children how to speak their language, and to continue to know their culture, we're gonna lose it. And being an Indian, you wonder, you know, where you're from or why you're different. So if you know about, your background and know some of your language, you know where you are and you can feel good about yourself. That was our main thing, is to feel good about ourself. And even when we go out, off the reservation, to live or, to make a living, we're not gonna fall down. We can, you know, succeed, if you wanted to. This is Miccosukee language, and this is the Creek language, that we have developed. We're using the same material, same pictures, same artists, but it's two different languages, so we are doing it that way, and we have some books, other books that we have here, that we have developed, it's also in Creek, I mean, this is Miccosukee, but I don't have the Creek, but it would be the same pictures, by the same artist. And we just started recently, doing the legends, and this is the story about the rabbit, bringing back the fire. And when we do the materials, we use our own tribal people. So we wanted the community involvement.
- [Narrator] Suzie Billy is a respected medicine woman, on the Big Cypress Reservation. She knows how to gather, and prepare the herbs used for healing. The knowledge of medicine, is passed from one generation, to another.
- You should get the knowledge, from the person, face to face, who is breathing, and you are breathing, and get that knowledge, it's a wise and a strong medicine. But if it was put it on a tape, tape takes everything, then when you get it from a tape, your medicine will never be that strong. It will never be wise to you. Cause I was taught that you must sit face to face, and learn it from, so you would have that strength and knowledge, to use it. We are learning from the, our oldest ancestors there. That was the way we want it to explain it to our children and our future children. That was a...
- [Narrator] Traditional folk medicine, is used for healing, alongside non-Indian medical practices. Dr. David Hilton believes in working with the Indian medicine men and women, and prescribing treatments for his patients.
- I've spent a good deal of time with the medicine men, trying to learn, what I can about their concepts of health, and healing, and medicine and so on. And as matter of fact, I've learned a lot from the medicine man, about what health and healing is all about. One thing that was interesting to me in talking with Buffalo Jim, as I often do. One time, I asked him, what kind of problems he has, as a medicine man. And, without hesitating, he said, the biggest problem he has is, that the patients don't do what he tells them. And I thought that was very interesting, cause that's probably the biggest problem that I have too, and any doctor has.
- Women definitely have their role, and the women in my family, the women were always the, dictators of the camp, because that's their camp. The clan system is very important, but it's dying out very slow. The main reason why is that, years back again, we didn't have television, and everything else that's setting around, or cars and jets and airplanes and airboats. And, that can distract us to what we're doing, it was probably the same way on ours, when you finished a basic day's work, whatever you got left to do, except pass on legends and stories and whatever, or more gossip. So, your clan system could have been passed down, and it could have been told and retold and retold. It will maintain as long as there's a older person, that's got any memory of stories and the legends, and the way it was taught.
- [Narrator] If you put your fire out, when you go to the next camp, it will be there, when you return. You don't see ashes, you don't see the flame, but the fire is still there, because you use the medicine before you left. Use this song and medicine to keep your family together. I'm teaching this to my children and grandchildren. I want them to have the knowledge.
- This project was funded in part, by the Florida Endowment for the Humanities. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
