OUR DUTY TO THESE WARDS OF THE NATION.
Under the present status the Seminoles are prosperous, happy and contented. But the vanguard of civilization is marching on, and thinking, friendly minds must solve the question of the protection for this remnant of a tribe we have dispossessed of their natural rights. Dwellers of every land, from Scandinavia to the Congo have a Christian welcome to our shores. The slums of Europe pour in upon us to fill our almshouses and to be supported by our taxes. We have during the past quarter century contributed more than $50,000,000 to the education of the freedmen, yet except in individual cases, the improvement is scarcely noticeable.
Men and women are sacrificing their lives for the heathen of other lands. Is not the Seminole, this remnant of a long-persecuted people, as worthy of consideration as the oppressed Cuban or the half-naked Filipino?
Christianity is donating millions of money to this end, while our own “wards,” too many of them, are yet living in the dark superstitions of their fathers.
Photograph by E. W. Histed.
CHIEFTAIN TALLAHASSEE, WITH HIS WHITE FRIEND, THE
LATE L. A. WILLSON
“The very history of the tribe is carved in poor Tallahassee’s face. He
is the incarnation of ‘The Man without a Country.’”