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A storyline in Sage Sweetwater's Dominga Rio of Cuero from Texas reflects Seminole Indians of Florida's newly purchased Hard Rock Cafe
Over a year ago, Sage Sweetwater wrote a storyline in her fourth novel out, DOMINGA RIO OF CUERO. That storyline is set in BIG CYPRESS SEMINOLE INDIAN RESERVATION, Fla. The Seminole Tribe of Florida fought the U.S. Army in the 1800s and resisted forced migration to Oklahoma. A century later, they rescued themselves from poverty by becoming the first tribe to venture into the gambling business.
The Seminoles just purchased $965 million dollars worth of Hard Rock Casinos and Hotels making it the first American Indian tribe to buy a global company.
Now is the time for an ambitious new challenge - being the first American Indian tribe to buy a global company.
The Seminoles are motivated in their history and preserving their culture as is Sage Sweetwater through her storytelling.
Indian tribes are profiting from modern-day in Florida.
The Seminoles became the first U.S. tribe to offer high-stakes gambling in 1979, when they opened a bingo hall in Hollywood, Fla.
Ironically, over a year before the Seminoles' purchase of the Hard Rock properties, Sage Sweetwater created a storyline not from the bingo hall which survived several court challenges, and in 1988, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which established federal regulatory authority and standards, but Sage quilled an illegal cockfighting ring in the Big Cypress.
Indian tribes are not required to pay corporate income taxes on tribal revenue. But for their Hard Rock deal, the Seminoles created a separate taxpaying corporation to own and manage Hard Rock that makes it subject to public disclosures.
Sage Sweetwater's storyline uses the Judas horse to communicate with the spirit of Chief Abiaka, incorporating the Florida swamps, airboats, alligators and mangroves as realistic backdrop should the novel become a screen adaptation. Sage has already had some interested Hollywood producers.
The Seminoles spent many years fighting the U.S. Army. They fled south to the Everglades to avoid the forced migration known as the Trail of Tears in 1830. President Tyler ordered the end of military actions against the Seminoles in May 1842. The Seminole tribe never surrendered to the U.S. Army.
The Seminoles settled in the Everglades. They lived in poverty for decades. Tribal elders recall days when they hunted their own food and lived without utilities.
"There are a lot of prejudiced people in the world who hate Seminoles already," Max Osceola says, citing what he feels is jealousy over the tribe's wealth and Hard Rock purchase "that will just add fuel to the fire."
EXCERPT FROM
CHAPTER 6
Chief Abiaka's Moccasins
DOMINGA RIO OF CUERO by Sage Sweetwater
Copyright 2006-2007
“Sun up,” the Judas hears Chief Abiaka say. “He’s from our old village.” Chief Abiaka is telling all the swamp that the Judas can be trusted. “Horse is coming for bad people in today’s village.” As far as Chief Abiaka is concerned, he’d already done this same battle on this same horse to its end in the Seminole War and the Judas is hunting an evil image that captures the comeback of the Seminole War. The Judas sees Chief Abiaka lace his moccasins on his rested feet, and then the Judas puts his rested hooves on. He gallops off into the mangroves.
The Judas’ idea is anywhere crime can happen, he’ll been redirected and assigned to it by his handler—something he doesn’t mind at all. Rounding up wild mustangs, though, will always be his favorite job. It’s high upon his vita— way up at the top listing his special skills and outlining his personal history. He is the hallmark of the Western culture.
“Wings of war,” he hears Chief Abiaka whisper.
“Can you say it a little louder, Chief—I didn’t quite hear what you just said,” the Judas communicates, his ears twitching.
“Wings of War,” Chief Abiaka repeated louder.
“Got it,” the Judas nods, and then fires off in the direction of the gray-shingled huts. It’s a challenge to be able for him to navigate now that he’s further into the tidal mangrove forest. It’s chaotically jumbled. The coon hunters have sent their coonhounds too near the mangroves and one of the dogs is hung up in a tree. Coons systematically head to the mangroves when the dogs are sent after them instinctively knowing that the dogs cannot travel here. The Judas hits a wall of wickerwork in an old forest of red mangroves, the basketwork designed by the arching and interlacing prop roots in what could be a blurred explosion of horse and alligator—wildcat and panther too. But so far—all he’s seen is a rat snake prowling in a mangrove tree—not enough for the Judas to turn back. “I can jump that wall,” the Judas says with confidence, turning around and going back a few hundred yards to get a running jump.
“Can do, Chief Abiaka say.” Chief Abiaka is now riding upon the Judas’ back
“Grab my mane!” the Judas says. “Dig in those moccasins!”
An old-day photographer spent many days just waiting for a shot like this! Hunting an image that captured a time-honored moment in history caught in freeze-frame that Dominga Rio would want to hang on her wall.
It is a marriage between nature and timelessness. This is a day as old as civilization. Civilization defines itself as the material it uses. Think of this scene the next time you see a wild mustang and a cigar-store Indian wearing colorful beaded moccasins.
The Judas made a daring leap and caught pasture in the sky. The sun had just broken the horizon and the Judas listened to the pounding of Chief Abiaka’s heart—a timeless drumbeat. Chief Abiaka is grinning beneath his greasepaint, “We’ve always done this in my family. My family lives for long time—father lived to be ninety-five, grandfather ninety-nine.”
“One giant leap for horsekind! Picture a thousand roosters getting released from prison on the same day and the raucous racket they are making is that they are all high on amphetamines for another night’s round of illegal cockfighting they have not subscribed to. That’s where all the noisy airboats were headed last night—to the illegal cockfights staged at the warehouse. The Judas runs down the men who are doling out strychnine to the roosters readying them for tonight’s fight. The Judas is in the right place at the right time. Chief Abiaka had been watching those gray-shingled huts and what was inside them for a long time and he was just waiting for the right equalizer to come along. He is glad it is an equine equalizer—the mighty copy of the one he rode in the Seminole War. “Wings of War!” Chief Abiaka whoops. “No noisy airboat tonight—rooster flies gone—Yip! Yip! Aaheey!” The men run for their lives as the Judas installs the Judas Law. The doors of the gray-shingled huts are flung open—the men on the run. The roosters are hemorrhaging—blood money.
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Chrissy