The Key to Collection Managent

This week in the archives I was faced with the dilemma of having too many documents and not enough time. For an intern I have learned that this is usually the case. The project at hand of preparing a finding guide requires great detail and sometimes this may be time consuming. However I have gathered a lot of really interesting and awesome pieces of history that will no doubt be of impeccable interest to researchers of Florida Native American history!

Also this week transitioned from gathering information to learning how to enter that information into the computer. One of my supervisors, Ben Dibiase, taught me the basics of using the PastPerfect database. For those of you interested in working for a historical society or museum, you will most likely come across this database. It makes collection management so much easier! It is a tool that allow Archivists to assist researchers with finding what they are looking for more efficiently. In the upcoming weeks I will be entering the documents I have gathered into the database and determining what key words researchers would use to find said documents. I really enjoyed learning how to use the database not only because i love to organize, but also because I know this skill will be essential after graduation and in my career.

Second-hand history

So far throughout my experience researching in the FHS archives, I have gathered a significant amount of material to compile into a Native American finding guide. I have come to find that Native Americans, the Seminole tribe in particular, have parts of their past that are shrouded in mystery due to lack of first hand history recorded by the tribe themselves. It is a common misconception that the Seminole tribe were the first Native Americans to inhabit Florida, however I have come to find that this is not the case. The Seminoles are a later tribe, compiled of many generations of earlier tribes taken over by conquest and slave trade. Such tribes include Timucuan, Ais, Creeks and Apachee. The Florida Historical Society has been around since the late 1800's and have acquired a rich collection of Native American related material. However, most o the documents I have come across ate second hand accounts from trading companies, lieutenants from the military, scholars, government documents and so on. The exceptions I have seen are deeds involving land and slave trade, and promissory notes written by chiefs and members of the tribes themselves. Below is a picture of a promissory note written by Nipeeholo, the Warrior King's son of the Cussitows to Panton Leslie and Company. Some pieces are missing or torn out.

It reads as follows:
"On or before the first day of June next ensuing- I hereby promise to pay or cause to be paid unto Mr. Panton Leslie and Co. their order, the sum of one hundred and thirty five Spanish milled dollars....or the value thereof in good raw deer, or bear skins at the marked price, if not in paper currency-- for value received of them".

Let the show begin...

One thing I love about participating in this internship is I not only get to help the staff and researchers of the Florida Historical Society, but I also learn new and fascinating aspects of history. This week I have been going through vertical files that have no finding guide, so I have no clue as to what I may encounter. I started this internship not knowing anything about Florida history (as a 20 year resident I am not proud of this). I came across a folder about slavery and learned that not only were African Americans victims of slavery but Native Americans were as well! I was honestly surprised to learn this fact. One newspaper article in particular caught my attention. It was from Jacksonville 1946 and mentions Indian warriors kept as military prisoners in St. Augustine at Fort Marion ( now named Castillo de San Marcos). The lieutenant in charge, Richard Henry Pratt, decided he wanted to show off his Indian prisoners and display their "wild and primitive" nature by making them participate in a bullfight. The more theatrical, the better. The star of the show was Tsen-T'ainte better known as White Horse. He closed the show by killing the bull and ripping out and eating its kidney. This story is so interesting to me because I always imagined slavery as being chained up and forced to cook or clean, but to put on a show of this nature is surprising. I chose to share this finding because it is a part of history that is not spoken of and many people might be as surprised as I was to learn this eccentric historical fact.
Below is a picture of the newspaper article I found