When building its cultural tourism programming, from its tribal RV park to the Ah-TahThi-Ki Museum, the Seminole Tribe of Florida first turns to its members.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is as deeply rooted in their homeland as the Everglades. Like the region’s famous sawgrass marshes, Seminoles and their ancestors have thrived in the peninsula’s tropical climate for thousands of years.
These days, as balmy weather draws visitors from around the world, the Seminole people invite travelers to learn more about their heritage through several tribally owned operations under Florida Seminole Tourism. Big Cypress RV Resort provides camping sites, cabins, an outdoor pool, and related amenities. Billie Swamp Safari offers animal exhibits and guided wetlands tours on airboats and swamp buggies, while the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum presents Seminole history, culture, and perspectives on contemporary issues.
The question of interpretation is critical throughout. How do Seminole communities tell their stories through these attractions?
Dante Blais-Billie, Seminole citizen and assistant director of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, explains that visitor-facing institutions must, first and foremost, prioritize the needs of the Seminole people.
“It’s really about preserving the agency of our Tribe,” she says. “When we’re looking at decolonizing what cultural tourism is, it’s about respecting the boundaries of what the tribal members want to show.”
When we’re looking at decolonizing what cultural tourism is, it’s about respecting the boundaries of what the tribal members want to show.
This means that every exhibit and activity on offer is subject to the approval of Seminole tribal members through both formal and informal channels.
Formal tribal oversight
All of Florida Seminole Tourism’s operations are overseen by the Tribal Council, which includes representatives from each of the Tribe’s six reservations. The Council has approved current programming, and no significant changes can take place without official authorization.
For Billie Swamp Safari and Big Cypress RV Resort, which focus on experiences of the landscape and wildlife, day-to-day functioning is generally consistent. However, at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, new rotating exhibits and an ever-growing collection require regular oversight to ensure that decision-making is culturally appropriate.
“The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum offers a work experience program in which Seminole teenagers from the nearby Ahfachkee School gain on-the-job mentoring in areas like archaeology, collections management, and conservation for class credit.”
This oversight is conducted by several committees that bring together both museum staff and tribal community members. The Museum Advisory Committee (MAC) reviews the content and verbiage of public displays, the Acquisitions Committee handles the acquisition of new items for the permanent collection, and the Tribe’s NAGPRA Committee ensures the wider Southeastern collection remains in co-ordinance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
While museum staffers offer curatorial expertise regardless of tribal affiliation, it’s critical that these committees include the perspectives of multiple Seminole tribal members and their lifelong cultural knowledge.
“One of the main messages of our museum is that Seminole culture is widely diverse,” Blais-Billie notes.
“We have different clans. We have different beliefs and customs, amongst even just two families within the same clan. We’re always aware of having that kind of diversity among our tribal member advisors to make sure that all groups of the Tribe are being represented.”
Informal community relationships
In addition to the formal oversight of the Tribal Council and relevant committees, the Ah-Tah-ThiKi Museum, Billie Swamp Safari, and Big Cypress RV Resort all benefit from their sheer proximity to the Seminole citizens they serve on the Big Cypress Reservation.
“You drive through the neighborhoods of these tribal members when you come to our attractions,” Blais-Billie says. “We’re amongst our community members and part of that community.”
She emphasizes that Seminole people are encouraged to use the museum as a resource to explore their heritage and identities and to engage freely with staff during their visits.
“A tribal member can always feel comfortable and safe to reach out to staff, even if we’re just standing in the museum, and say, for example, ‘I don’t know if you’ve gotten a perspective from Bear Clan about this object, but I don’t think that this should be preserved this way,’” she says.
“We’ve never actually gotten to that stage,” she added, “because before that would ever happen, we already take those precautions really far in advance.”
Hiring and training
From official procedures to casual visits, the engagement of Seminole tribal members is particularly important because the majority of employees at the attractions are not Seminole.
Across visitor operations and other departments, the Seminole Tribe of Florida prefers to hire Seminole tribal members first, followed by citizens of other Native nations. The tribe also runs job fairs and work experience programs to recruit Seminole youth and mentor them in their fields of interest.
The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, in particular, offers a work experience program in which Seminole teenagers from the nearby Ahfachkee School gain on-the-job mentoring in areas like archaeology, collections management, and conservation for class credit. In addition, Seminole students from any school can secure a paid internship with the Museum through the Seminole Tribe’s Student Work Experience Program (SWEP). The tribe has seen participants of these programs go on to work full-time for related departments.
Even with these programs in place, at this time, much of the tribe’s visitor-facing workforce is non-Native. To ensure staff are prepared to reflect well on the Seminole Tribe, as of 2019, all new hires are required to participate in a museum tour and cultural training conducted by the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum’s education coordinator.
“One of the main messages of our museum is that Seminole culture is widely diverse.”
This is true regardless of individuals’ tribal citizenship or background — not just for standard customer service roles but for every position from accounting to construction management. Even if certain employees don’t require cultural knowledge to perform their duties, they’re expected to be respectful representatives of the tribe both on and off the job.
“We’re ambassadors of the Seminole Tribe of Florida,” Carrie Dilley, marketing and advertising coordinator of Florida Seminole Tourism, says. “At every step, we need to make sure that we’re representing the tribe the way the tribe would want to be represented. We work for the Tribal Council, but by the same token, we have more than 4,000 employers — the individual Seminole tribal members.”
Serving the tribe
When it comes to cultural tourism, authenticity is often top of mind for both site operators and visitors. After all, no one wants to engage in encounters that are inaccurate or exploitative.
On the other hand, authenticity may connote capturing a moment in history to preserve under glass rather than meeting communities on contemporary terms.
For her part, Blais-Billie sees the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum as a place for visitors to learn about Seminole history and for Seminole people to host an ongoing discourse about their present and future. Whereas outside institutions may invite them to contribute exhibits on the vague theme of “Seminole identity” or “Seminole culture,” they can use this space to curate programs that focus on more granular subjects of interest, as with a recent exhibit on tattooing.
“The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum [is] a place not only for visitors to learn about Seminole history, but for Seminole people to host an ongoing discourse about their present and future.”
“At the end of the day, our entire purpose is to serve the tribe in whichever way they see fit,” she says. “If tomorrow the entire tribe decides they don’t want us to do what we’re doing now, we have to go back to the drawing board and figure out how we can be the best institution we can be for them.”
For now, a combination of proximity, formal oversight, and general community engagement ensures that Florida Seminole Tourism offers visitors an immersive Everglades experience that’s mutually beneficial for all involved.
The American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association’s Cultural Heritage Planner
For details about AIANTA, visit https://www.aianta.org/
