Seminole Crafts

Food

The Creek Indians were primarily farmers. They raised corn, squash, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and melons. Each family had its own garden. All members of the tribe helped plant, cultivate, and harvest the crops. They also gathered seeds, berries, and nuts. Blowguns were used to hunt small game and birds. The men hunted fowl, turtles, fish, shellfish, and deer. The Indians ate many fruits including bananas, oranges, pineapples, and coconuts. All parts of the palmetto palm tree were used for food. The top was eaten. Molasses was made from the berries. The leaves were ground into flour. Even salt was gathered from the burned trunk of the tree. 

Customs of the Creek Confederacy

The Seminoles were originally part of the Creek Confederacy. After losing their home to white settlers, part of the Creek Confederacy moved to Florida. There the Indians banded together and formed a new tribe.

Festivals

The Green Corn Festival was celebrated by the Southeastern Creek Indians. Each person sat in a large circle and drank a bad tasting black drink which made them sick. The drink was then taken away. The Indians washed themselves in the stream making themselves feel clean inside and outside. Next they confessed wrongdoings to the Great Miko. Then the people were given more of the black drink and sent into hot, steam-filled palm leaf tents. The Indians stayed until the Great Spirit had forgiven their wrongdoings. This was followed by a festival which lasted four to eight days. During the festival the Indians played games, danced, and sang.

Tools/Weapons

dugout canoes

Art

Each year a woman was given a string of beads on her birthday. One new string was added each year until the women turned 40 years old. The necklaces covered the women's neck up to her ears and chin. When the women became 40 years old she began to lay one strand of beads aside year by year until only one strand was left. The Seminole women never went into public without the necklaces. Both the men and women of the Seminole tribes decorated their bodies with tattoos and body painting.

Seminole Beads Seminole Beads

 

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