2024 Ornament Goes On Sale November 1st!
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The 2024 Garden Club of IRC
33rd Annual Ornament:
Seminole Indians of Indian River County
Seminole Indians of Indian River County
Yes, Seminole Indians used to live in Indian River County, FL. As recently as the 1940s and 1950s, they had encampments in three locations in the County – a couple of miles west of Vero Beach just off Route 60 (Route 30), further out Route 60 at the 10-mile bend, and just west of Roseland near the St. Sebastian River and a free-flowing well of fresh water.
The Seminoles selected places for their settlements that had a supply of fresh water, a waterway for fishing and transportation using their dugout canoes, space to build their chickees, hopefully with game nearby, and within walking distance of a white man’s small settlement.
Their encampment sites never interfered with a landowner’s cattle operation, grove operation, or farming operations. For Seminoles encamped on ranch land, sometimes the rancher would hire the Seminole men to help with the cattle.
To navigate the County, the Seminoles would develop trails. One such trail on Orchid Island ran from the Indian River Lagoon to the Atlantic Ocean is now Beachland Blvd. Each encampment usually contained a grouping of several families – fathers, mothers and children, adult brothers with family, etc.
Normally it was the mothers who came to town to shop for necessities: food items they didn’t grow or produce themselves, cloth for making their clothes and shoes to wear inside the white man’s places of business, otherwise they would go barefoot. An Old Timer remarked that as a child he saw the Seminole women in their colorful clothes at the grocery store in Vero on Saturday.
Sometimes the Seminole women would stop at residences on their way into Vero to sell or barter the berries they grew. If the lady of the house happened to be in her yard, the Seminoles would stop and stand quietly and patiently wait until she sensed their presence.
Then the Seminoles would engage her in conversation. A 1913 plat of Vero shows streets named: Seminole Street (now 14th Ave) and Osceola Blvd (20th Street). We also have the Seminole Building, Seminole Shores, Seminole Park, Osceola Park, Seminole Lane, and many others.
When the Brighton Seminole Reservation opened near the northwest shore of Lake Okeechobee in South Florida in the early 1950s it became apparent to the Seminoles in Indian River County that it offered Seminole schools for the children, an early learning center, land for families and cattle, their own medical facilities, a senior center, their own police, and fire departments and court system, the Seminoles began to move to Brighton.
Ornament designed by Bonnie Pfiester. All process from sale of this ornament will be used by the Garden Club of Indian River County, Inc, for its projects.
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Laura Moss and Nancy Catania showing off the Gardenfest ornament (left). Merrill P. Barber's Granddaughter pictured here after purchasing the 1994 Merrill P. Barber bridge ornament (right)
Last Year
Riverside Theatre's
50th Anniversary Ornament
Each year, our ornaments feature places, people or events in Indian River County near and dear to our hearts. Many residents enjoy collecting and gifting these ornaments, eagerly await their arrival.
