Scenes of the Everglades

More than 2,000 Seminoles live on six reservations in the State and are located in Hollywood, Big Cypress, Brighton, Immokalee, Ft. Pierce, and Tampa. There was never a peace treaty signed and the Seminole Tribe has always been an independent nation.

As a very young child living in West Palm Beach, I witnessed Seminoles living at the Park off Flagler Drive, sleeping in thatched huts called chickees, a palmetto thatch over a cypress log frame. I was told that they slept off the ground so that the tarantulas would not get them, later to find out that was a fairy tale. We had no understanding of what a tarantula was other than it was poisonous and deadly.

They all wore the traditional bright colored clothing, selling their hand-made wares to the tourists. To kids, it was curious and fascinating--real Indians. As children, we played the game "Cowboys and Indians" and we never envisioned Indians looking like these. It has been a lasting memory.


I don't know where Chief Jim Billie lived back in the late 60's when I was a dental assistant here in Lake Worth. He was a patient where I worked and as I recall, about my age and good looking. When he was a boy, he lived in Dania. He was orphaned as a teenager and was taken in by the famous Osceola family. He became chairman of the 2,600 member Seminole tribe of south Florida from 1979 to 2001. Chief Billie spearheaded a drive that resulted in the Seminoles becoming the first Native American Indian tribe to establish a gaming industry on sovereign land.

Ron Exline and Betty Anderson were down at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood a few weeks ago contributing towards the tribe's multi-millions a year in profit that it takes in from gambling that has led to the Seminoles becoming one of the most financially solvent tribes in the United States. Earlier in the year, Charlie Crist and the Seminole tribe of Florida signed off on a gambling deal guaranteed to bring at least $1 billion to the State over the next five years.

Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel
Hollywood, FL