1st/only female Seminole tribe leader passes on

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Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, 88, Seminole leader dies


Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, who became the first and only woman to chair the Tribal Council, died at her home Friday. She was 88.

Tribal officials and her family also believe she was the first Seminole Indian to graduate from high school. Born in Indiantown, she was unable to gain admission either to segregated schools for white or for black children, so as a young teen she convinced her mother to let her leave home for an Indian boarding school in North Carolina, said her son, Moses Jumper Jr.

She received a high school diploma and returned home with training as a nurse to help start the Indian Health Program. She became the tribe's first health director.

Mrs. Jumper was extensively involved in tribal government. She was among the original group that gathered under the Council Oak in Hollywood to create the Seminole Tribe's constitutional government and helped gain federal recognition of the tribe.

She chaired the Tribal Council from 1967-1971.

In 1970, she was one of two women appointed by then- President Richard Nixon to the National Congress on Indian Opportunity. She was a founder of the United South and Eastern Tribes, which became a powerful lobbying force for Indian interests.

"Because she was mixed race — she was half-Caucasian, she was half-Seminole — they told her they couldn't do those things. She went against the taboos of the tribe," her son said. "It gave her more willpower and more energy."

A tribal storyteller, she was the author of the books "And with the Wagon Came God's Word" and "Legends of the Seminoles," and narrator of the video "The Corn Lady." She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Florida State University in 1994.

"Not only will our tribe feel the loss of Betty Mae, but so will all of humanity," said Mitchell Cypress, chairman of the Seminole Tribe.

Mrs. Jumper is the last surviving matriarch of the Snake Clan. She was preceded in death by her husband, Moses. She is survived by three children, Moses Jumper Jr., Scarlett Jumper-Young-Liebowitz, and Boettner Jumper; two brothers and one sister; nine grandchildren; and 36 great grandchildren.

Visitation will take place from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday at House Of Prayer, 6200 Stirling Road, Hollywood. A service is at 11 a.m. Monday followed by interment at the New Seminole Cemetery in Hollywood.

link: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/pal...,6474306.story

[this aint juss no ordinary person so thought it deserves to be outside of news articles...if moved]