"Scenes of the Everglades" by Homer Augustus Brinkley (1928)

These are excerpts of an original film produced by businessman and adventurer Homer Augustus Brinkley in 1928 to illustrate the exotic environment found in the Everglades. Brinkley lived among the Seminole Indians for a few months. He later used the film in a traveling show that included a live caged bear and himself dressed as a Seminole Indian. Photographed by William B. Feeland, the film contains some of the earliest moving footage of Seminole Indians. First, Seminole men and women are shown playing the "ball game" with handmade sticks in an open field in the Everglades. After the game, a close-up of the winners of the game is shown, as well as a closer view of the sticks used in the game. Next, Seminole men, women, and children perform a circular group dance around a fire. "The Buffalo Dance" is one of four Seminole dances included in the entire Brinkley film. A Seminole man poles a dugout canoe with a woman and two children along a waterway in the Everglades. Then in a segment titled "returning from the hunt," the man, woman, and children are seen returning to camp after a hunting trip, and the man is carrying the game they killed. A black bear cub is shown climbing a cabbage palm, as well as landscape scenes of the grasslands and forests of the Everglades. In the last segment, titled "a grove of wild oranges amidst moss-draped oaks," the dense trees of an Everglades hammock are shown, including wild orange trees.
To see full-length versions of this and other videos from the State Archives of Florida, visit www.floridamemo....
Repository: State Library and Archives of Florida, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 USA. Contact: 850.245.6700. [e-mail]
Persistent URL: www.floridamemo...

[@soulflowerjr]

The Buffalo Dance is really what the dance looks like and how they dance it in the video

[@daisyjane1070]

What a treasure - amazing.

[@scw1217]

Very cool video. Thanks for posting!

[@xavierspade666]

Wow! obviously lacrosse.... but of course we knew Native Americans invented that anyway. This is wonderful, and especially for such old footage.

[@greenbeagle13]

The land and waterway looks so "clean" and open...

[@Jsarah7886]

wow!! wonder if any of my people are among them...
Interesting!!!

[@Khoybert]

Man I hate playing stickball I always get hit in the head with the sticks when I'm standing behind a guy and it hurts so much