CMVAS celebrates 10th anniversary with lecture on Florida Seminoles

Oct. 8, 2008 -- The Central Mississippi Valley Archaeological Survey (CMVAS) will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m., ASU Museum, Room 182. Dr. Jane Anne Blakney-Bailey, Arkansas Archeological Survey, Toltec Mounds, State Park, will present a lecture, "The Florida Seminoles: Colonial Entrepreneurs." The lecture is free, and the public is welcome. Refreshments will be provided, and books and additional information on Arkansas archeology will be available.

A large group of Seminole Indians, known as the Alachua Seminoles, had an important political center in north-central Florida, circa 1790-1812. This archeological site, 8AL366, is known as the Paynes Town site.

The leader of the Alachua Seminoles, King Payne, and other members of the community successfully engaged in the colonial economy through cattle ranching, commercial agriculture, hunting, and exchanging of hides and pelts, and other entrepreneurial ventures.

The incorporation of these practices into their native economy was one of the many examples of how the Alachua Seminoles melded non-Indian practices and materials into their indigenous system, forming a distinctive blend of the old and the new.

The ability to be adaptive and flexible may explain how Paynes Town and earlier Alachua Seminole settlements obtained a degree of political autonomy and wealth that few other Seminole groups achieved. 

For more information on this special CMVAS 10th anniversary lecture, contact Dr. Julie Morrow, ext. 2071.
 

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