Atlanta Daily World

ATLANTA DAILY WORLD Sunday, November 27, 1960

Seminoles, Still At War With U. S., Integration

BIG CYPRESS, Fla. - (ANP) - The Seminole Indians who are, theoretically at least, still at war with the United States, don't go along with the federal government and the Supreme Court on the matter of school integration. They don't like it. And what is more, Uncle Sam is meekly supporting the Seminole Indians in their refusal to integrate their school in this reservation village. The government pays the bills for the school and apparently has abandoned hope of getting Seminole children into local public schools, because the Bureau of Indian Affairs plans a new school building in 1961. It is the only Indian school in Florida not integrated. The Seminoles object to sending their children to school with children of Texas-Mexican migrant farm worker parents, not because of social or racial prejudice but because most of the Texas-Mexican children speak Spanish more than English. The Indians want their children to attend public schools with English speaking white children - older boys and girls are being transported by bus to school in Clewiston - but the nearest white elementary school is 50 miles away at Labelle of Clewiston, and that's too far. Supt. Virgil Harrington of the U. S. Indian Agency at Dania, and the Big Cypress Seminole tribe, represented by Chief Billy Osceola, lost their last battle two years ago to the Hendry County School Board to get the little Indians into white schools. "The federal government wants to do all it can to help give the Indian children an education, but under the present setup it is felt that they are not getting the full educational benefits they should have," Harrington told board members.