A Seminole Voice in the Useppa Museum - Thoughts and photos by UseppaGin - On Saturday night, January 18th Tina Marie Osceola, a member and Tribal Associate Judge of the Seminole Tribe spoke at the Barbara Sumwalt Museum. With facts and stories she reshaped what many of us understood as Seminole history. The chronicle of the past is more complicated than we thought, messier, and more heartrending. There is no clear line between the different Florida indigenous people. There was a melding into what became known as The Seminole Tribe. None of us in the room knew, including lifelong Floridians in the audience, about the concentration like camp on Egmont Key near Tampa. Seminoles were interned there prior to being shipped to reservations in Arkansas and Oklahoma in the 1800’s. We didn’t know approximately 1400 Florida native people’s remains are in the Smithsonian and other museums stored in boxes because there is no clear bureaucratic way to bring them home. A Seminole voice shared fragments of a history we need to learn more about. Tina Osceola said that is the importance of museums, the importance of the Barbara Sumwalt Museum. The past becomes real. Please support the Museum and its Gift Shop.