Seminole Doll Making

Classroom

• The Florida Seminoles
  This unit introduces major themes, events and individuals in Seminole history using primary sources from the collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida.
  

Audio

• Interview with Rubie Billie (interpreted by Betty Mae Jumper)
  Billie, through her interpreter, Jumper, discusses making and selling dolls; women's hairstyles; sewing patchwork design; and teaching children traditional crafts, traditions and values.
  
• Interview with Seminole basketmaker and needle worker Ethel Santiago
  Santiago discusses doll making, patchwork and Seminole clothing.
• Interview with Margaret Cypress, Seminole craftswoman
  Margaret Cypress describes her early childhood in Florida and at the Cherokee and Oklahoma Boarding Schools for Indians, speaking Miccosukee and learning English, learning crafts through the apprenticeship program, and doll making.
• Interview with Seminole needleworker Lottie Huff
  Huff discusses patchwork sewing, including when and how she learned the craft, patterns and designs, the choice of colors and fabrics, clothing styles, patchwork designs, and sewing machines.
  

Video

• Scenes of the Everglades (1928)
  Businessman and adventurer Homer Augustus Brinkley produced this film in 1928 to illustrate the exotic environment found in the Everglades. It contains some of the earliest film footage of the Seminoles.
  

Additional Resources at Other Institutions

• Seminole Tribe of Florida
  • Culture
    A brief history of beadwork, hairstyles, patchwork, Seminole dolls and more
    
    

Resources at the State Library and Archives of Florida

Florida Electronic Library
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