The Enduring Seminoles

by Patsy West

Early in this century, the Native Americans known as the Florida Seminoles struggled to survive in an environment altered by the drainage of the Everglades and a dwindling demand for hides. Patsy West describes how they turned to tourism and discovered another marketable commodity - their own culture. Though their exhibition economy originally was condemned by the government, it provided income for families as well as a lasting cultural identity for the people. Today, the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida promote their tourist activities to world-wide markets as "cultural heritage and ecotourism.". Illustrated with thirty evocative photographs, West's book supplies an original and colorful social and economic history of an unconquered people. Often told in the words of the many Seminoles whom West interviewed, this book is the only one available on the topic of the cultural tourism activities of an Indian tribe.