LIVING HISTORY
recalled of life in the camp. “We picked oranges,
tomatoes. We cut palms. We put them in bundles of 25
and took them to Okeechobee and sold them. We
hunted deer and gators. We would butcher the deer
and take the meat home to eat and take the hide to
Okeechobee to sell. We sold alligator hides too and ate
the tail meat. We had dogs, chickens, and hogs. We
caught the hogs live and put them in the pen to fatten.”
Because many generations were present in the
camp, uncles and aunts participated in the rearing of
children, as well as parents. Now, all of the elders are
gone; the only surviving member of Shamy’s mother’s
generation.
8
“Jack Tommie and my uncles took me under their
wing and raised me,” Shamy said. “They taught me to
hunt, to fish, to catch turtles, to gig gar fish. They
always spoke Creek and that is how I know it. They
taught me how to make bows and arrows and how to shoot
them.” When making arrows, Shamy recalled, his elders
would “sit by the fire and get skinny crooked sticks for
arrows. They would skin the branch and take the stick and
put it in front of the fire. They would shape it until it was
straight. They took bird feathers from iron heads or curlews
and showed me how to put it on the end of the arrow and tie
it with thread so it would go straight. We sharpened the end
to a point and rolled it up under the fire. The bows and
arrows were for hunting birds and rabbits.”
At top, Shamy Tommie with daughter, Tammy, left, and wife, Wanda, and
grandson Shamarion. Above, Shamy displays traditional clothing he made
from elk skin.
They also hunted gopher tortoises and alligators. “We had
a gopher rod, a half-inch rod with a hook to stick down in
the gopher hole. Gophers were hard to get out because you
had to dig them out. If we looked for water turtles, one person
would get in the water and feel along the edges until we
found one up in the grass. Then we would toss it to someone
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