Seminole Seal

The inscription, Executive Department, in the seal border attest to the authority vested in the chieftain (or executive of the council) to act for the Seminole Nation. The scene in the central device represents the old-time era of serenity for the Seminole Indians. These people settled in the lake country of Florida in the 1700s. Some remained in the Florida swamps after many of the tribe moved to the Indian Territory in 1833. Around lakes and streams and swamps where the Seminoles lived, in both Florida and the Indian Territory, grew plants used for medicinal purposes and in religious rites. The tribesman in the device, wearing a plumed turban and off-the-shoulder hunting jacket, paddles his dug-out to a village across the lake, a scene that depicts the taking of the herbs and roots he has gathered to sell at the Trading Post, the foremost building in the village. ·The Seminole seal marked the documents of the Seminole Nation until it was terminated at Oklahoma Statehood.

References: Muriel H. Wright, "Seal Of The Seminole Nation," The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume XXXIV (Autumn 1956)