|
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Lee Tiger was first interviewed for the program in 1977. Here he discusses his mixed
parentage and his interest in strengthening his participation in his Indian heritage
through naming and cultural practices (1-2). Because his mother was non-Indian, he
briefly explains the difficulty in obtaining a name and a clan. The son of Buffalo Tiger,
Lee Tiger tells about his father's role in forming the Miccosukee Tribe and his opinion
about crucial issues in the 1950s (3-4). The Miccosukee are in some ways behind the
Seminoles, but Tiger likens the differences to those between Republicans and
Democrats in the same family (5). Tiger explains that Miccosukee conservatism has
changed some, with the passing of senior generations, although "they still move very
slowly" (6). He sees language as an important part of cultural preservation and
discusses his father and James Billie's attempts to preserve the languages. He notes
that the Miccosukee families retain the language, although projects to write it are not
so far along (7). "That is one of the biggest challenges," Tiger states," to keep the
young people interested in the tradition and culture" (8). A "cultural shock" occurred in
the last generation, with the changes in society and economy; consequently, people are
"still catching up" with the modern world. People who lived in chickees twenty years
ago now live in houses. The changes are good and bad. Like a child near a hot iron,
there is at times a lack of knowledge about how to handle new wealth. But there are
good cultural programs the tribes have initiated. The cultural shock is also in part
responsible for health problems, in that the diet has changed, leading to diabetes, and
that Indians cannot physically process alcohol the way Europeans can (18).
Tiger and his brother developed their musical interests through their environment,
which led to their performing and recording pop music (9-10). Their father asked them
to perform in South Florida to draw non-Indians to the reservations, to "learn more
about the tribe" (11). They did this, and it was the foundation for annual arts and
music festivals that are still held. Tiger discusses some of the Indian elements in their
music, but suggests that is a result of creativity; the genres of music are quite different
(13-14). He has attended Green Corn Dances, and intends to take his Seminole children
to one at Big Cypress, where there is no alcohol (15).
Tiger's main work is in tourism, "trying to get recognition for American Indians in the
arena of enterprise development and tourism" (15). He has been involved with eco-
heritage tourism on Big Cypress and creating networks between Native Americans and
larger government tourist institutions. The Seminoles have taken the lead in working
with this "product," and he hopes his tribe will do more with it (16-17). Tiger has also
been involved with the Florida Department of Transportation in the area of American
Indian Outreach (17-18).
SEM 244
Interviewee: Lee Tiger
Interviewer: R. Howard
29 June 1999
H: This meeting is with Mr. Lee Tiger and we are in a conference room at the
Seminole Tribal Headquarters. Lee, I have just allowed you to refresh your
memory. We did an interview with you back in 1977 for the Oral History Program
but it does not mention in there what clan you belong to. What is your clan?
T: I come from a mixed family. My father was Bird clan and my mother was non-
Indian. So, in that case, when I was born, I was given a baby name in English
and a baby name in Indian language, in Mikasuki.
H: What was that name?
T: Shimioshi.
H: And what does that mean?
T: My grandfather said it was lazy. I was lazy baby. [Laughter.] So, I guess I was
lazy. As I grew up, and when I got into my earlier twenties, I started feeling the
need to come back to my roots, to what is more my blood, because of the
mixture of blood that I had. My father being a Florida Indian, Miccosukee, that
was stronger in me, I guess, than my mother, who was of European descent that
had various different bloodlines. Also, growing up on that side of my family,
because my family split at an early age; we went through a divorce situation, my
mother and father, so we grew up on our Indian side. My father took us. Like I
was saying, in my early twenties we started coming back. Especially being in
music, because that is what my brother and I did for a living back then, only
music, which we still do, but back then it was all we did. We were looking for, I
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 3
guess, secrets from our selves that we could talk about, or sing about, or share,
and we started to write more about our Indian culture and, in doing that, seeking
into our own selves. I was trying to go back to the Corn Dance and I had a
problem because I did not know how I was going to get my name changed
because I did not have a clan. So, I talked to my uncle, Jimmy Tiger, and other
Tribal members, and they said, look, you could just try. You just have to go there
and try it and do your best.
H: Go where?
T: To Corn Dance. So, in 1974 I did. I went back to Corn Dance. I had not been
since I was a little child. We used to go all the time when I was a little child.
Then, when I was twenty-four, I believe, that was when I went and got it. I had to
get a clan.
H: You had to ask permission?
T: Other people had to ask for me because in the structure of the protocols with
clans, certain people have to do something with certain other people. You
cannot just ask directly. So, it was handled correctly, through the right protocol,
and they allowed me to have my father's clan. So, I did become a Bird Clan,
ever since then. That is what I am now, Bird Clan. The medicine man back then,
who was a good one, I felt was very important to me, Ingraham Billie. I do not
know if you have anything on him.
H: Yes.
T: To me, [he was] one of the stronger ones in the era of my lifetime. I was happy
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 4
that I was able, before his passing, to get accepted through him.
H: Did any of your other brothers or sisters go through that also?
T: My brother, Steve, was trying to do it and he got there too late. He missed it.
That same time, in 1974. I told him, well, you should go back and try again.
Maybe he will. He has not yet.
H: Did you have any sisters?
T: No. From my mother-her name is Ann, Ann Marie-that marriage with my
father, Buffalo Tiger, was just two of us. But he married after that, again, and
had three other children. So, I do have a half-sister and two half-brothers.
H: Are they full Miccosukee?
T: No, they also were [of a] non-Indian mother.
H: Your father, Buffalo Tiger, was he the Tribal Chairman at some time?
T: Yes, he was. He was the person ... he was actually a spokesman back in the
1950s. He was asked by the medicine people to speak for the tribe, the Trail
Indians, because there was a lot of problems back in the 1950s. Indian people
would be cutting palmetto, or hunting, and fishing, the only life they knew, living
off nature, and the state folks would come in and try to give them tickets or tell
them not to do it. But that was the only way they knew it. My father got involved
through trying to remedy some of those problems by going to Tallahassee. I
guess that was his first contact as a spokesman. That was the early 1950s and
the late 1940s, I guess, when they started having problems. That is how he got
started and eventually became an elected official in the early 1960s, as Tribal
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 5
Chairman. He served as the Tribal Chairman through, I believe, 1984. He was
the Tribal Chairman that got the Tribe recognized and that brought them out of
what was before just a non-organized system of folks just existing naturally, off
the earth, which they wanted to do. They liked it that way, but as the modern
world started encroaching, there was no way to continue that, because also the
food supply, the water was not clear to drink anymore, the deer, you could not
hunt, and you could not fish too good anymore. So, they had to find a new way
and that is why they had to seek recognition. The other families up in the
northern Fort Lauderdale area and Brighton, they had already moved into that
arrangement with the government and had a constitution. They developed, I
guess around 1957, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and under that organization
they now have several different land bases throughout Florida. But, the
Miccosukees around in the Trail area, they decided to hold back and be a little bit
more conservative, and so it was not until later that they sought recognition and
finally achieved it.
H: Do you know when that was that they achieved their recognition?
T: I think it was 1962, early 1962, and it was quite difficult to do. The federal
government did not want to recognize the tribe, the lower families, Seminole
families or Creek families. They did not want to recognize them separately.
They said they are all Seminoles. But there was a little bit more, political and
also maybe some traditional [reasons] why the Trail Indians felt that they wanted
a different kind of contract or a different agreement with the federal government.
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 6
I was only a child back then. There are probably some other inside things that I
do not know. Now, as I look back, as years have gone on, and now with the
families the way they are, and the way the things are as of 1999 .... For
example, my family, my children are Seminole Tribal members, I and my uncles
and aunts are Miccosukee. It reminds me almost of a kind of political split, like
Americans have Democrats and Republicans. Republicans have one kind of
thinking, a little bit different than the Democrats, but they are all still families and
even in one house you will have a split like that, with a wife and husband or a
brother and a sister. So, it is kind of similar, and there could have been more
things attached, originally.
H: Was a difference in religious beliefs one of them?
T: No, no. Not at all. The medicine man and what he had was for both, it did not
matter. There were some, like Muskogee Creeks, that were involved in it; a lot of
them went out to Oklahoma, and some of the northern Creeks were also part of
the settlement of the new Seminole in Florida back in 1957. That was separate
from some of the other lower Miccosukee-speaking people who were originally
around in Tallahassee back in the 1700s, 1600s. Right out west of Tallahassee
is a lake called Lake Miccosukee, and that is the original town of a lot of the
Miccosukee-speaking people. In fact, Seminoles and Miccosukee nowadays,
alike, had used that town. Their forefathers were there. Then there were some
other families coming from Georgia and Alabama that were from other areas.
When, I think, the Seminoles in Florida got recognition in 1957, they took in some
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 7
of those people together, too, that were left in Florida from the wars. When the
wars happened, really, all the families, the Indian families, banded together,
worked together, to exist. And even some Black Seminoles were a part of that.
In the 1960s, I think, after the Seminoles did go ahead and coordinate
themselves in 1957, then eventually the Trail Indians decided to get recognition.
In a little bit different way, like I said. They were a little bit more slow moving,
more reserved and conservative.
H: Now that is changing, isn't it? They are getting more into similar types of
activities as the Seminole Tribe, like the gaming and things like that.
T: It is. The elders are passing on, my father's generation and folks that were his
elders; they are gone. The younger people, I think, are now moving forward and
advancing, in a certain way, although still Miccosukee does move, in a way,
slower in certain areas. For example, they are not going to probably be setting
up other areas of gaming or something like that. They move very slowly, and still
I notice that it is very slow that way. But as far as the business, they have gone
ahead and built this new resort that hopefully will be a good investment for the
Tribe.
H: Where is that located?
T: That is out west of Dade County; it is east of the Miccosukee community about
fifteen miles, and it is west of Miami, about ten or fifteen minutes west of the
airport. It is not too bad of a location. I mean, it is not on the beach. But with the
facilities they have it is beautiful. It is modern. It is a pretty progressive gaming
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 8
facility and very nicely done with all the bells and whistles, excluding some of the
class-three gaming, like roulette or things like that are not there. I am sure if the
Tribe has a compact, it would probably be there; but right now it does not have
those things.
H: Is it open now?
T: Yes, it is. In fact, I went to the grand opening on the 14th of this month. It was
very nice; the opening was very well attended and had a lot of activities and a lot
of excitement regarding that hotel.
H: Back in your interview in 1977 you talked about a movement to write down the
Miccosukee language. Is that something that has been ongoing, any kind of
program for cultural preservation among the Miccosukee?
T: I cannot really speak for the programs that are on hand at this time but I can tell
you that one of my father's dreams was to write it down so that it would be there,
would never be lost. Just as [Seminole] Chief Billie has said it is one of the main
things he is proud of here, with the Seminole Tribe, that the language is still here
and intact, it is as well with the Miccosukee families. My father's idea was, of
course, to write it down and to have it forever there. Some of it was written; I
know because I have seen a little dictionary that he used to have, and that may
still be around, with some words and different things, counting, and animals. But
I do not think there has been and alphabet or anything, really, that would be able
to write the language completely, as of yet. I know that he is in the middle of
writing a book on his achievements, his life, and so on, that may talk about that,
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 9
as well. But I do not think that either tribe has written a book that would take in
the whole language. I know that both tribes, though, do put an emphasis on
retaining tradition, culture, and trying to pass it on to the young people. That is
one of the biggest challenges, to keep the young people interested in the
tradition and culture. Of course, nowadays there is so much going on. We are
still in the midst of a cultural shock, I think. We are still in the middle of this
phase and I think it is probably going to take years before we really come out of it
and our young people are accepted [on] both sides, between the two worlds. I
think, right now, we are still catching up with the modern world or catching up
with history, and we are still in the midst of it.
H: Approximately what is the population of the Miccosukees?
T: I think it is somewhere around five hundred.
H: You just mentioned about the Miccosukee being a little behind in some areas,
how about housing? Do some people still live in chickees?
T: There may be a few. It is moving real fast now, in that way. The Tribe, because
of the gaming facilities being so successful, yes, now they are having more
houses. They are building more houses. More people are living in houses.
People that I remember when I was twenty years old that were living in chickees
now have houses. They also have cars. And the modern world is moving real
fast insofar as that, which is good in some ways, but it is also not good in certain
ways.
H: In what ways is that not good.
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 10
T: Just like a child that does not know about what he is doing and gets a hot iron
and, what do you do, you touch it and you get burned. A lot of the people that
never had dollars and never had the responsibilities of what dollars bring, and
also the negative sides of what dollars can do, it is all new and it can be
damaging in certain ways without knowing how to handle things. But the good
thing is, I think, that the tribes are recognizing that and are trying to use the
dollars to come up with programs to help families and help young people to learn
about these things. That is the positive side of it. But it is still, like I said, cultural
shock that I think that we are going through. I think it is going to be a little while
longer before the young people-maybe not the ones now, but maybe the next
ones that will be going through that phase-know the old ways and know the
modern world and found a good common ground to exist.
H: You mentioned earlier about music and you and your brother performing. What
kind of music did you play and what instruments?
T: We were kind of a product of our environment-just as Indian families have
always done, adapted their ways. We grew up with, when we were little kids, our
cousins playing guitars in the villages. We heard it and we got inspired. So, by
the time we got to be teenagers, the music that was out when we were
teenagers, a lot of music was coming in from England, like the Beatles, or the
Rolling Stones, and all of those groups that we really liked, and they inspired us.
We also, as time went on, really liked the rhythm and blues and soul music, so
we kind of merged all of that with what our own feelings were and developed our
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 11
own songs starting from the late 1960s. We recorded music in Woodstock, New
York, the town of Woodstock, back in 1968, I guess, when the Woodstock
[concert] was actually going on. In fact, we knew about it. We were about twenty
miles away from it, but we did not go because we had families, then, too. People
would come back and say, do not bring your kids there, it is dirty, you cannot
take showers, there are no bathrooms, there is no food, you have to park twenty
miles away. So we said, no, we do not want to go. We did not go, but we were
actually there and recording our first record.
H: What was your group's name?
T: Back then we were called Sun Country. We worked out of Miami Beach at [what
were] back then all the major concert [facilities], back then they were like dance
halls and teenage night club things, but they were quite big. I remember in the
late 1960s there was one place called The Image. It was on Miami Beach and
they had Led Zeppelin, and Tiny Tim, and Lovin' Spoonful. Every major band
you could think of back in the 1960s probably went through there: the Yardbirds,
Ten Years After, gosh, so many. We used to be house band there, that is where
we got picked up by a record company in New York that we went up and signed
with. From there we went to California, to Los Angeles, to seek that area,
because that is where the really big music area was besides New York, so we
went there and lived, probably about two years. [We] played places like the
Whiskey-a-Go-Go. Our manager back then owned a club called The Experience,
right on Sunset Strip, so we played there and had people from the Rolling
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 12
Stones, to Eric Burton and The Animals, to Big Mama Thornton, that would come
into the club, and we were just a local band then. It was a nice time for our
musical career and we liked it; we liked doing it. But finally my father asked me,
why don't you come back and help your people; do your music out in the
reservation and maybe people could come out and learn more about the tribe.
So, it was the beginnings of creating a community relations program through
concerts, through Indian benefit concerts. We then got in touch with Rick Shaw's
old radio, Tiger Radio, WQAM. I met a couple of the DJs and they said, nobody
knows about you, so if you guys do a concert, we will put public service
announcements on our radio station and send you people out there. And they
did, and a lot of people came out to our little concerts at Jimmy Tiger's Indian
Village, out back on a little platform stage. For a few years we did that and then
later it turned into what is now called the Indian Arts Festival, and Music Festival.
That was the beginnings of what they have now. In fact, they still have those
events going on and people still go out to visit the Miccosukee Tribe out there to
go to those events.
H: These are held annually?
T: Yes. They are still held.
H: Is there a particular time?
T: Yes. The annual Indian Arts Festival is December 26 through the January 1, and
the Music and Crafts Festival is held in the third week in July, I believe they do it.
And now there is a new one that Billy Cypress, since he has been in there, put
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 13
together, and that is the Freedom Fest, the fourth of July. So, now they have
three.
H: This is Billy Cypress who is now the Chairman of the Tribe?
T: Chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe. There is also a Billy Cypress who is with the
Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum.
H: Are you still performing?
T: In the last few years we signed a record contract with an American Indian record
label called Sound of America Records, [with] a guy by the name of Tom Bee,
who we heard about back years ago. He was originally with the company
Motown, out of Detroit; he was signed with his group called Exit, and we
remembered him. Anyway, he went on after his group did pretty well with
Motown, he later became and A and R producer at Motown, working with all of
the different acts there. Eventually he opened his own American Indian record
company, probably about ten years ago. He worked at it and developed his
company and helped develop a Native American category in music stores.
There never was one; for many years there has been gospel, or jazz, or
international, rock, country. Well, there is now a Native American classification in
most record stores-in America, anyway, I do not know about other countries.
He pioneered that area, and we signed with him about three years ago. We are
working now on our third CD with him. In fact, I was doing some bass work for
James Billie a couple of years ago. A few years back I was working with him and
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 14
his music. I thought that if he had a harder beat, like a stronger bass and drums,
then some of his songs could be, to me, even stronger. I did some work with him
for about a year, my drummer and myself, and he had another guitar player. We
did that for a while, and he did some recording. So, I sent it over to that record
company, to Tom Bee, with Sound of America, and he wrote me back and let me
know he would be interested, that it still needed to evolve a little bit more sound.
About a year ago his new producer got in touch and they sent him new stuff, and
he decided to work together with him. So, now in Florida there are two American
Indian artists signed to this Native American record company, and that is James
Billie, and the other is Tiger Tiger, which is me and my brother. Of course, there
are all kinds of other artists on that label, from Indian reggae groups, to traditional
flutist, to powwow singers, to guys like Marion Brando, or folks that do Indian
type work. I believe that he signed with it, too.
H: Is your music of the traditional vein?
T: No, it is not. Traditional Florida Indian music is songs and kind of like prayers,
and they use shakers, like rattles-turtle shells or [made] out of cans-and you
put them on your legs and during Corn Dance you do the songs and sing. But
that kind of music would not be used for contemporary, although we use the
turtle shell shakers in some of it. And every once in a while we will use some
chants or some Indian words in our album.
H: Is it more like a country-rock?
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 15
T: Yes, like a rock, country, blues .... It has some R & B. Like I said, it is a merger
of all of our past, of when we were growing up and the music that really inspired
us. Over the years we also have put [in] some other instruments, like drums.
We try to be creative and put in some other instruments: bells, drums, flutes, and
we have used even bagpipes. We try to be creative and use whatever we feel
would be unique for the song, to make it.
H: You mentioned a couple of times the Green Corn Dance, with getting your name
changed and with the music that is performed there. Do you attend the Green
Corn Dance?
T: I have attended it. I might take my children back next year. I was going to go
this year out in Big Cypress, there is one out there that I was going to go to and I
got too late, like my brother. [Laughs.] I have to go next year-it is once a year-
and I will take my children. My children will want to go; they really want to go,
and I am glad that they do. I am glad that they are compelled to go and see what
it is all about. That is good. That is the way I was when I came back.
H: Why would you take them to the one in Big Cypress versus the one in ...
T: The one out on Tamiami Trail? I think I would take them here [at Big Cypress]
because, for one thing, I know some of the people there that are involved, and I
think with my kids never going I would be more comfortable there, at this
particular time. I would eventually take them to the other ones out on the Trail,
as time goes on, but I would break them in from some of the Seminole people up
here, because they are Seminole, too.
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 16
H: One of the things I have heard about being a big difference with the one at Big
Cypress is that they do not have alcohol. Is that one of the considerations?
T: Yes, I prefer that. There would be fasting there, to where people would be, I do
not know if you would call it high, but just that your mind opens up that way, but
as far as alcohol, no, there would not be [any]. To me, I think that might be
better, especially for children, if they are around. My son is only ten, so I think it
would be better. Although, when they get older, I think they should go ahead and
go to another one, too, and compare them.
H: You are playing music, but that is not your primary occupation.
T: No. My primary occupation is, I guess, continuing the plight of trying to get
recognition for American Indians in the arena of enterprise development and
tourism. Florida is a big tourism industry state and there is so much that Indian
people can offer in that arena. The industry does not know what the Tribe has to
offer, or they are just now learning. I have been getting involved in that as the
Seminole Tribe has taken a lead in developing eco-heritage tourism out in Big
Cypress.
H: Can you tell me what is eco-heritage tourism?
T: Yes. Ecology tours; that is learning about the nature of the surroundings: plant
life, wildlife, and human life. The heritage side of the tourism is the heritage of
the Florida Indian people, who have been here and have adapted to the
Everglades and found a way to exist and the lifestyle of what they went through
many years ago. So, what has basically been created in Big Cypress is an
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 17
opportunity for people to experience, for a day and overnight, or multi-day
arrangement, an eco-heritage experience. They have hiking, they have swamp
buggy tours, and they also have air boating, which people love to do. It is not
real ecology-minded because it is machines doing it, but it was a way of people
moving around, and it caught on and people love to ride on them. It was a way
of transportation, actually, to get from one area to another with the saw grass,
many years ago. People still like to do that. And then we have, at night, folklore,
around the campfire, story telling, beadwork, woodcarving, and various different
activities that one could observe and be a part of. Not only that, at the new
museum ...
H: Where is this new museum?
T: Everything that I am talking about, insofar as the eco-heritage tourism
developments that I have been mainly focusing on the last few years, is on Big
Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, where the Billie Swamp Safari is and also
the [Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki] museum. In our packages that we encourage folks to take is
first the visit to the museum, where one would see the film. I do not know if you
saw the film. If you have not, you should see it. It gives one a kind of a sitting
tour through history, and development, and adaptation, where we came from,
where we are now, and where we are going. I always try to get people to see
that first, to realize where they are. Then after that we take them to all the fun
stuff. That is what I have been mainly doing, trying, first of all, to partner the
Tribe with the unique eco-heritage tourism products that it has with the tourism
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 18
people in greater Fort Lauderdale [to] create a relationship, which we have done,
with the Convention Visitor's Bureau. Not only that, we have also now partnered
with the State of Florida, the new tourism department, it is called FLAUSA, or
Visit Florida, and I also have a seat on the tourist board. I was invited to serve
on that, and I am still serving on it, for the last three years. My main reason for
being on that is so Native American people have board participation. I have
been serving on that under Florida Seminole Tourism because Seminole Tourism
has been developing these packages on Big Cypress and they are, first of all, in
need of having the products recognized by the state, and the county, and also
the world. They have taken a leading role in doing that and deserve to have the
product out there because it is the best. It is a very fine product. I wish my tribe,
Miccosukee, had also wanted to do that, and maybe they will, eventually. But at
this point, the Seminole Tribe has taken a leading role in that development, and I
am happy to assist in working to get those products out to the state, to the
county, and then out to the world, so that people who are visiting can have a real,
true ecology-heritage adventure, or safari, by an Indian tribe.
H: You work as a consultant to the Tribe?
T: Yes. I am a subcontracting consultant. I do also some subcontracting for the
FDOT-The Florida Department of Transportation. The American Indian
Outreach Program, I have been working with them for a couple of years now to
help them reach out and get onto reservations and let tribal members know of the
opportunities that the FDOT has for them. Folks that are working in construction,
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 19
if they want to get assistance from the disadvantaged business enterprise
category, we can help them get that help so that they can get the work they want
and start up. We have already had a couple of tribal members from Seminole
become certified and get on that program. My main work has been in tourism
development and communications, trying to be a liaison between Indian and non-
Indian in the tourism arena.
H: Tell me about what you think are some of the biggest health issues that Indian
people face today. On Big Cypress, I have been told, it is diabetes and
alcoholism. Is it the same at the Miccosukee reservation?
T: I think so. I think it is probably the same. I think, again, that is still part of our
cultural shock, and not only cultural but physical shock of adaptation. We are still
in that phase because our food was a lot different before we met the non-Indian
and started eating his food, and sugar, and different things that we did not have
before. Adapting to those things is a slow process and so we have a lot of
overweight people with diabetes problems and whatever [being] overweight
brings to you. With alcohol, the same thing. I guess we are also like Asian
people, that it has not been in our blood for a long time so it is more pure. The
alcohol will probably hurt us quicker than it would a non-Indian or somebody
maybe from Europe, who has had alcohol in their blood for centuries. I think
those two probably hit it right on top, as far as the major health problems that I
could see. I think it must be that, diet.
H: If you were to give a general characterization of the Miccosukee reservation
SEM 244
Lee Tiger
Page 20
versus Big Cypress versus Brighton, could you give me an overview of how you
see the differences and similarities.
T: I do not know that much about Brighton, although I have been there for a few of
the festivals, and then I went up there for an FDOT workshop that we put
together. As far as I could see, the difference [is that] Miccosukee, of course, is
out on Tamiami Trail and it is not close to any cities. It is in its own little world, in
a way just like Big Cypress, but then in Big Cypress you have new developments
with the tourism, which is good because a lot of people can work at it. I think,
probably, Brighton is a little bit more remote than Big Cypress, but I think they
may be pretty much parallel with the lifestyle and all of what may be offered. I
think they all have a police station, health, and they may have schools; I think
that Brighton may have schools, I know Big Cypress does. I do not really think
there would be anything so drastically [different]. I think they all have their same
problems with alcohol or drug abuse. [End of Tape Side A]
H: I want to thank you for your time and all of the information that you have given
me, Lee, on June 29, 1999. Is there anything else that you would like to add that
I have not asked you about, that you think we ought to know?
T: I think we covered pretty much. I will just wait until the next twenty years and
maybe something new will come along to talk about then.
H: Okay. Thank you, again.
|