Lifeways

The Seminole are considered part of the Southeast Culture Area. Like other SOUTHEAST INDIANS, they were farmers as well as hunter-gatherers. They built their villages near rivers in swamplands. Their houses, known as chickees and made from palmetto trees, had pole foundations, thatched roofs, raised platforms, and open walls. They were perfectly suited to the warm, wet climate: open to stay cool and high enough to stay dry. A small attic was used for storage, as were outdoor poles from which utensils could be hung. The Seminole also built cooking huts that were shared by different families.

By throwing embers from a fire onto logs and removing the charred wood with stone and bone scrapers, the Seminole made sleek and graceful dugout canoes. Sometimes the hull walls were only an inch thick. Some of these dugouts had platforms in the rear where a man could stand and use a long pole to push through swamps. Meanwhile, passengers could spear fish or alligators. Hunters also attacked alligators on land by pushing logs down their throats, flipping them over, and spearing and clubbing them.

Seminole children as young as four years old had to help with chores, such as gathering wood for fires, stirring soup, and kneading dough. Older boys went hunting and fishing with their fathers while the girls learned domestic skills such as cooking and sewing.

The Seminole developed a unique style of clothing in postcontact times. Using patchwork and rickrack techniques, they pieced together shirts and dresses with bright, stunning colors.