I met several Seminoles not too long ago. It got me interested and I read some of their history and talked to some individually.
- Some identify themselves as Micccosukee. some identify themselves as Seminoles and some will identify themselves as Creek or Seminole.
- The Seminoles are a band of multiple tribes. It was a smart move for former enemies to band together to defeat their common enemy of the US government. If they had not the US government would have picked them off one by one.
- The Seminoles were in abject poverty in the 1970s. They built a Hard Rock casino on their reservation in Hollywood florida. First they started out with bingo and then higher income gambling streams and then casinos. Today they own every Hard Rock casino in the world but for three. They also run cattle ranches and agriculture. The money from the casinos didn't start to flow to the individuals until the 1990s.
- Each receives more than six figures a year from the casino revenue.. This was confirmed on the internet and what I have heard from a couple of Indians themselves. So if you have two living together man and wife then double that number. I don't know if children get the same money. They have nice clothes and nice cars and expensive jewelry, but not all of them, some choose to just buy nice stuff. Additionally the places they live are generally remote and cheap. Five reservations. Hollywood, Cypress creek, fort pierce, brighton, and one other I can't recall off the top of my head.
- Most Indian tribes don't make near that kind of money. Only those who were good at business like the Seminoles or the Utes in Northern Colorado and utah. The Utes have oil.
- Seminole Chief Osceola 1804-1834 was half englishman. Under a truce flag at a fort in South Carolina he was captured and imprisoned. Totally illegal by the US government capturing somebody under a flag of truce. Died in prison according to official statements. One of the seminoles told me that their story or myth is that he starved himself in order to squeeze through the bars and escape. I read online that chief osceola's head was taken off by a doctor wanting to do research. I think that is bullsh**,and he was beheaded by the US government. Think about it if you're willing to illegally arrest a man willing to negotiate under a white truce flag wouldn't you just cut his head off? I suspect it's a government cover up. Seminole legend has it that Osceola starved himself to make himself so thin that he slipped through the bars of the prison.
- Most of the Seminoles are in Oklahoma and removed during the Trail of Tears.
- I got mixed answers asking three different Seminoles on whether a Seminole living in Oklahoma could move to Florida. It seems like a no-brainer. Go make a six-figure income simply by making a move. Two told me yes they are free to move. One told me no because they surrendered.
- I asked two directly if they cared whether FSU used the Seminole logo. Both said no they don't care. They didn't care about the name Washington Redskins. One said I call people white skin or black skin. One said about FSU I only care that they don't use an accurate representation of a seminole. The war feathers are from the plains tribes in the US......