Journey into the Everglades: Unveiling the Seminole Way of Life (1928) | Rare Footage of Wildlife and Indigenous Culture

Businessman and adventurer Homer Augustus Brinkley produced this film in 1928 after living for several months among the Seminole Indians in the Everglades. He later used the film in a traveling show that featured a live, caged bear and himself dressed as a Seminole. Photographed by William B. Feeland, the film contains some of the earliest moving footage of the Seminole. Beginning with panoramic shots of vegetation, waterways, and abandoned structures, the film includes footage of wildlife, such as an owl, raccoons, water moccasins, alligators, deer, a wild turkey, and a bear. Scenes of Seminole life center on Camp Californee. They include two women grinding corn and close-ups of their clothing. Women and children are shown in chickees, open-sided huts with thatched palm roofs. Views of the landscape include orange groves and crops in the field, Seminoles walking through the forest, and canoe travel. A family returns from a hunt with the father presenting a brace of raccoons. One man wrestles an alligator in a clearing; others spear fish from dugout canoes. Also filmed are a woman called Princess Shimpollhiee and Chief Josie Billie. An elderly man prepares for the Green Corn Dance and there is the Catfish Dance around a fire. Other dances shown include the Sun Dance, Turtle Dance, and Buffalo Dance. Men, women, and children are shown playing a vigorous game of stick ball.

Scenes of the Everglades.