Seminole Clan Research Paper

Food: Seminole men were good hunters. Fish were speared from canoes. They caught otter, raccoon, bobcats, alligator, turtle, and birds. To catch deer, they would burn a patch of grass. When the new grass grew in, the deer came to feast, and the Seminole caught the deer. Villagers planted crops behind their house and on nearby hammocks. They did not weed or fertilize or irrigate. Wild plants mingled with the ones they had planted. The Seminole planted pumpkins, squash, and corn. Corn was the main crop. They used corn to make corn flour, corn bread, corn pancakes, and even a corn soft drink called sofkee. Sofkee is still a popular soft drink among the Seminoles on reservations today. They sweetened their food with sugar cane, and to get the sugar …show more content…
Husbands traditionally went to live in the wife's clan camp. Each clan is characterized by a non-human entity with which is shares many traits, such as strength, courage, or endurance. Clan members are not supposed to marry within their clan. Children inherit the clan of the mother. One must be at least 1/4 Seminole in order to qualify as a tribal member. When the last female in a clan passes on, the clan is considered extinct. Several historical clans, including Alligator, are now extinct. The Panther clan is the largest clan in today's Seminole Tribe of …show more content…
All Seminole children wore patchwork dresses and a bead necklace, but the girls switched to a blouse and skirt at age three. Seminole men wore breechcloths and leggings made of different types of hides such as deer and sometimes cotton. Seminole women wore wraparound skirts, usually woven from hides also. Shirts were not necessary in Seminole culture, but men and women both wore poncho-style wraps in cool weather. The Seminoles also wore moccasins on their feet. In colonial times, the Seminoles adapted European clothing into their own characteristic styles, including turbans and long colorful tunics for men and full patchwork skirts for women. Seminoles used a lot of beading in their clothing, and also embroidered it. To complete the woman's outfit, she wore as many strings of glass necklace beads as she could afford. Seminole baby gets the first strand of beads at birth and additional strands every year thereafter. At middle-age the sequence is reversed, until she finally goes to her grave with the first string of beads given to her at birth.
The men cut all their hair close to the head, except a strip about an inch wide, running over the front of the scalp from temple to temple, and another strip, of about the same width, perpendicular to the former, crossing the crown of the head to the nape of the neck. The women wore their hair back in a ponytail usually tied with