Tribal Leader, Journalist, Author
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper was an incredible woman. She was one of two women appointed by U.S. President Richard Nixon to the National Congress on Indian Opportunity and inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. Florida State University conferred on her an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree for her many years of commitment to improving the education, health, cultural and economic conditions of her people. Yet she was a humble person whose faith came first in all she did.
• Inducted by the governor into
the Florida Women's Hall of Fame
• Received presidential appointment to the National Congress on Indian Opportunity.
• Co-founder, Chickee Independent Baptist Church
The first and, to date, only female chairperson of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc., Betty Mae Tiger was born in Indiantown, Florida on April 27, 1922 to a Seminole mother and a Euro-American father.
Born in a time when children of Euro-American heritage were believed to bring "bad luck" to the tribe, traditional Seminole law demanded that they be put to death.
All of the prescribed methods were equally gruesome for outcasts such as Betty Mae and her two-year-old brother, Howard: strangulation, abandonment in the woods, drowning, or having their mouths stuffed with mud.
When medicine men decided that it was time, they came to their great-uncle Jimmie Gopher's home. Gopher, however, had abandoned such beliefs when he became a follower of Jesus and ordered them off his property at gunpoint. Afterward, he moved the children to the Dania/Hollywood (Florida) Seminole community where Betty Mae and Howard would be safe.
In spite of her shaky beginning, Betty Mae Tiger's life would be marked by the extraordinary. In years to come, the same young girl whose life Seminole law had demanded would accomplish many things to benefit her people.
She attended the Cherokee Indian School in North Carolina, and in 1949 became the first Seminole to earn a high school diploma. After graduating the nursing program, she returned to Florida where she completed field training, married Moses Jumper, and the couple had three children.
She was the Seminole's first public health nurse, its first health director, and would also establish the Indian Health Program to improve health care for her tribe.
In 1957 she served on the first council that helped to organize Florida Seminole government which enabled her people to obtain federal recognition. She was also elected to the tribe's Board of Directors.
As Betty Mae Tiger Jumper continued to demonstrate exceptional skills, she was elected as the tribe's first-and to date its only-female chairperson (1967-1971). She is also believed to be the first woman elected as chairperson (or chief) of any federally recognized tribe.
Through financial savvy, Jumper also brought her tribe-which had less than forty dollars in its treasury when she took office-to a surplus of a half-million dollars by the end of her tenure. Other programs she instituted include the leasing of Seminole lands to outside businesses which brought in additional revenues.
She founded Smoke Signals, the tribe's first newspaper (1963) and was its editor for many years. It was renamed Alligator Times in 1973, and in 1982, became the full-color, award-winning Seminole Tribune. Also a columnist for the newspaper, she shared quaint, colorful stories of Seminole life.
While Jumper was chairperson, in 1968, the United Southeastern Tribes (USET) was formed to bring together the Seminole, Miccosukee, Cherokee and Choctaw, and grew to become one of the most powerful lobbies in Indian country.
The coalition has since expanded to include more than two dozen additional tribes that share the responsibilities of directing educational and health concerns for its membership.
In 1970, Jumper was one of two women appointed by U.S. President Richard Nixon to the National Congress on Indian Opportunity. In 1994, Governor Lawton Chiles inducted her into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. In the same year, Florida State University conferred on her an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree for her many years of commitment to improving the education, health, cultural and economic conditions of her people.
The honor made Jumper the first Native American ever to receive such a distinction from the university.
Dr. Betty Mae Tiger Jumper was also instrumental in establishing Chickee Independent Baptist Church on the Seminole Indian Reservation. It was so named because it began beneath a chickee-an open-sided thatched-roof dwelling supported by upright cypress logs-to serve the tribe's Christian community. She was also instrumental in the erecting of the present church building which exists close to where the original chickee once stood. A devout member, she and other elders taught youngsters to sing hymns and songs in the Creek and Mikasuki Languages in order to preserve them.
Also an author, Dr. Jumper's works include And With the Wagon Came the Word (2000), which chronicled the introduction of the Christian faith to the Seminole people.
In 1998, she wrote Seminole Legends. Each story was beautifully illustrated with a full-color original painting by artist and friend-to-the-Seminoles, Guy LaBree, to preserve ancient tribal stories for younger generations.
A version of the above article appears in 100+ Native American Women Who Changed the World, by KB Schaller (Cherokee/Seminole heritage), winner of a 2014 International Book Award, Women's Issues category. Her books are available through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Books-a- Million, and other book sellers. She lives in South Florida, Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. Contact KB Schaller: soaring-eagles@msn.com. http://www.KBSchaller.com.
