Seminole Tribe showcases long-lost declaration of independence


The Buckskin Declaration of Independence on display at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum in Clewiston, Florida. Photo from Facebook

The museum of the Seminole Tribe of Florida is exhibiting the long-lost Buckskin Declaration of Independence.

The document was hand-delivered to then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower on March 1, 1954. But the tribe hadn't seen it again until the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library located it and agreed to loan it to the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum for the Struggle for Survival exhibit, The Broward-Palm Beach New-Times reported.

"We have, and have had for centuries, our own culture, our own customs, our own government, our own language, and our own way of life which is different from the government, the culture, the customs, the language, and the way of life of the White Man," the declaration reads. We do not say that we are superior or inferior to the White Man and we do not say that the White Man is superior or inferior to us.."

The document, which kept the federal government from terminating the tribe, will be on display through November.

Get the Story:
Seminole's Buckskin Declaration Now on Display After Being Lost for Decades (The Broward-Palm Beach New-Times 2/8)

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