Two individuals who shaped the development of one of Florida's major urban centers When they married in 1900, Frank and Ivy Stranahan began a life together on the Florida frontier that would shape and define the development of one of the state's most sophisticated urban centers. Pioneering spirit and economic enterprise linked them to Seminole Indians, venture capitalists, and colorful entrepreneurs along the New River settlement; today they're recognized as a founding family of Fort Lauderdale and their riverfront home has been restored and designated a National Historic Landmark. Frank Stranahan came south from Ohio in 1893 to run an overnight camp on the stagecoach line carrying passengers from Lake Worth to the Miami area. He soon opened a trading post that thrived on commerce in pelts, plumes, and hides with Seminole Indians, who in turn purchased goods and groceries to take back to their camps in the Everglades. Stranahan's business interests expanded to include real estate and banking. An honest businessman, he became a respected political and civic leader, instrumental in the birth of Fort Lauderdale in 1911. When the Florida land boom collapsed and his bank closed, Stranahan's mental and physical health failed, and he committed suicide in 1929. Ivy Cromartie, a native Floridian, was 18 when she arrived at the settlement as its first schoolteacher and met her future husband. Energetic and articulate, she focused her activities outside the home. Besides teaching, she was active in a variety of reform movements ranging from Audubon Society efforts to save the plume birds to temperance and women's suffrage, working mainly through the Florida Federation of Women's Clubs. She is best remembered for her role as an advocate for Indigenous American rights-especially education and child welfare-primarily with the Friends of the Seminoles, an organization she established in the 1930s. Before her death in 1971 she spoke frequently about her full life to reporters and historians and was interviewed extensively by Kersey.

The books in the Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series demonstrate the University Press of Florida's long history of publishing Latin American and Caribbean studies titles that connect in and through Florida, highlighting the connections between the Sunshine State and its neighboring islands. Books in this series show how early explorers found and settled Florida and the Caribbean. They tell the tales of early pioneers, both foreign and domestic. They examine topics critical to the area such as travel, migration, economic opportunity, and tourism. They look at the growth of Florida and the Caribbean and the attendant pressures on the environment, culture, urban development, and the movement of peoples, both forced and voluntary. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series gathers the rich data available in these architectural, archaeological, cultural, and historical works, as well as the travelogues and naturalists' sketches of the area in prior to the twentieth century, making it accessible for scholars and the general public alike. The Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, under the Humanities Open Books program.

In a series of interviews conducted from 1969 to 1971 and again from 1998 to 1999, more than two hundred members of the Florida Seminole community described their lives for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida. Some of those interviews, now showcased in this volume, shed light on how the Seminoles' society, culture, religion, government, health care, and economy had changed during a tumultuous period in Florida's history. In 1970 the Seminoles lived in relative poverty, dependent on the Bureau of Indian Affairs, tourist trade, cattle breeding, handicrafts, and truck farming. By 2006 they were operating six casinos, and in 2007 they purchased Hard Rock International for $965 million. Within one generation, the tribe moved from poverty and relative obscurity to entrepreneurial success and wealth. S"eminole Voices" relates how economic changes have affected everyday life and values. The Seminoles' frank opinions and fascinating stories offer a window into the world of a modern Native community as well as a useful barometer of changes affecting its members at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Frustrated in their attempts to gain official recognition by the United States, a group of Miccosukee Indians met with Fidel Castro in 1959 and were recognized by the Cuban government. The man behind this unprecedented move to provoke the U.S. government into action was Buffalo Tiger, a Miccosukee elder who has become one of the most prominent Indian leaders in the southeastern United States in the modern era. Born in a small village in the Everglades in 1920, Buffalo Tiger grew up immersed in the traditional customs and language of the Miccosukees. As the modern world encroached on the Miccosukees and the Everglades shrank around them, Buffalo Tiger became an energetic and outspoken leader of the community. As the first tribal chairman of the Miccosukees, he oversaw the adoption of a tribal constitution and worked diligently to implement reforms and to protect the community's cultural and natural resources. In the 1970s the Miccosukees became the first modern tribe to take complete control of their affairs and federal budget. Buffalo Tiger's penetrating observations about his people and the world around them, combined with the skilled scholarship of historian Harry A. Kersey Jr., illuminate a memorable life, a tireless leader, and an Indian community still proud to call the "River of Grass" its home. Harry A. Kersey Jr. is professor emeritus of history at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of several books, including An Assumption of Sovereignty: Social and Political Transformation among the Florida Seminoles, 1953-1979 (Nebraska 1996) and The Florida Seminoles and the New Deal, 1933-1942.

In the early 1950s the very existence of the Florida Seminoles was in jeopardy. Mired in poverty, poorly educated, underemployed, and without a tribal government, they also faced the possibility that the U.S. Congress would terminate services to them. Fortunately, loss of reservation lands was averted and the situation began to improve. When the federal government approved a charter and constitution for the tribe in 1957, it marked both the official resumption of tribal sovereignty after more than a century and the first agreement that did not force removal of the Seminoles from the reservation. An Assumption of Sovereignty continues Harry A. Kersey Jr.'s examination of Seminole history. He studies the effects of shifting governmental attitudes and policies on the Florida Indians during the past quarter-century. He also charts the social, economic, and political experiences of the tribe during these volatile decades. By the end of the account, readers understand that the Seminole tribe has become organized, functioning, and sovereign, with a stable economic base. The author has made extensive use of oral history from tribal elders as well as the memoirs and records of Florida congressional leaders. Harry A. Kersey Jr. is a professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of The Florida Seminole and the New Deal, The Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes: A Critical Bibliography, and Pelts, Plumes, and Hides: White Traders among the Seminole Indians, 1870-1930.

In 1959 a group of Miccosukee Indians, frustrated in their attempts to gain official recognition by the United States, met with Fidel Castro and were recognized by the Cuban government. The man behind this unprecedented move to provoke the United States government into action was Buffalo Tiger, a Miccosukee elder who has become one of the most prominent Indian leaders in the southeastern United States in the modern era.

This book is the story of Buffalo Tiger's life, told in his own words. Born in a small village in the Everglades in 1920, Buffalo Tiger grew up immersed in the traditional customs and language of the Miccosukees. Making their home for generations in the remote reaches of the Everglades, the Miccosukees were able to retain much of their older way of life well into the twentieth century. As the modern world encroached on the Miccosukees and the Everglades shrank around them, Buffalo Tiger became an energetic and outspoken leader of the community. He and other Miccosukees fought for years to escape the shadow of the larger, better known, and more politically powerful Seminoles. As the first tribal chairman of the Miccosukees, Buffalo Tiger oversaw the adoption of a tribal constitution and worked diligently for reforms and to protect the community's cultural and natural resources. In the 1970s the Miccosukees became the first modern tribe to take complete control of their affairs and federal budget.

Buffalo Tiger's penetrating observations about his people and the world around them, combined with the skilled scholarship of historian Harry A. Kersey Jr., strikingly illuminate a memorable life, a tireless leader, and an Indian community still proud to call the "River of Grass" its home.

This study examines the nature of the Indian trade on the Florida frontier at the turn of the 20th century, and focuses on the reciprocal economic and social relationships which developed between the trading familes and their Seminole clientele.