Florida Native American Heritage Trail publication

The Trail was awarded a major grant by the Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources to produce an important booklet entitled, The Florida Native American Heritage Trail.  The effort involved the Trail Board and many heritage sites and representatives of Native American organizations throughout the State of Florida. Refer to the article on this Project at the Trail Newsletters page.  The Project was completed on June 30, 2007.  Over 40,000 copies of this publication were distributed throughout the State of Florida including every public and private elementary school library, all State public libraries and all Trail sites.

The Trail Board of Directors met on December 11, 2006 and agreed to change the name of the organization to better reflect the future growth of the Trail as it proceeds to expand throughout the State of Florida.  The new name will be:

      The Trail of Florida's Indian Heritage, Inc.

Please refer to the article on the background to this name change at the Trail Newsletters page. 

This web site will be modified in the future to reflect this name change.  The site will be accessible by using the new name, Trail of Florida's Indian Heritage.org or the old name, Trail of the Lost Tribes.org

All Trail Sites and Historic Interpreters should provide near term Activities and Events scheduled at their location for listing in the following bulletin board.  Please contact the Trail webmaster, Roger Block, with your Activities and Events news.

INDIAN TEMPLE MOUND MUSEUM, Fort Walton Beach, FL

For more events & activities click on the site title above to access their web site.

For more events & activities click on the site title above to access their web site.

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M E D I A    R E L E A S E

CONTACT:     727-726-1668

Walter Bowman

Education Director

Safety Harbor Museum

Safety Harbor Museum Internment Ceremony

A very rare, public internment ceremony was held on Saturday, June 30 at the Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History.  About 200 people attended this respectful ceremony conducted by the Spirit People Intertribal Family, a Native American group located in the Tampa Bay area that honors the history and traditions of Native Americans from Paleo-times to the modern era.

In 1930, a local farmer came upon some ancient Indian human remains. In 2003, his daughter placed the remains in a box and left them on the doorstep of the Safety Harbor Museum with a note that these items should be taken into the Museum’s care.  Over the years, archaeologists from Tallahassee and Gainesville reviewed the bones and concluded that the person was from the Weedon Island era (200 AD to 900 AD). 

Late last year, the Safety Harbor Museum Director Bobbie Davidson Jones and Education Director Walter Bowman decided that these human remains should be properly returned to Mother Earth in the small burial mound located at the Museum site.  But who could or would properly conduct such a sacred ceremony?  They wrote letters to the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Florida and Oklahoma.  But after receiving no responses, the Museum contacted the local Native American organization, the Spirit People Intertribal Family.  The Spirit People organization is experienced and authorized to conduct ceremonies of internment.  After following all the regulations of NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) and notifying all interested parties concerning the ancient human remains, the Museum and the Spirit People Intertribal Family cooperated on planning the sacred internment ceremony at the Safety Harbor Museum site.

What made the planned ceremony very unique was that the internment ceremony would be performed as a public event to enrich the Tampa Bay public’s appreciation for the ancient past and develop public awareness of how a sacred internment is conducted.

The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM.  The Spiritual Leader and ceremony director, Robert Chastain, who is a member of the Reedy River Indian Community in South Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, represented the Spirit People organization in leading the ceremony.  He announced to the large crowd what the solemn ceremony process was and what public protocol was required during the internment process - complete silence and no picture taking while the burial was conducted.  At 10:00 AM a fifteen minute private ceremony was held to properly prepare the human remains for burial in the small burial mound located just east of the Museum on the Museum property. 

 The sacred private ceremony took place in a small room in the museum where Robert Chastain gathered with six Spirit People leaders and the four museum witnesses.  The sacredness of this ceremony was very moving to me and to all who attended.

Then in a procession, the Spiritual Leader led the Spirit People members and witnesses out of the museum to the public gathering around the small burial mound.  A shallow trench had been prepared in the east side of the burial mound.  The large crowd was completely silent and transfixed as Robert Chastain placed the ancient bones carefully in the trench while members of Spirit People blocked the public view of the remains.  Prayers were said as the process was completed.  Then groups of Spirit People women carried shells filled with earth and spread it over the remains.  Sacred herbs and medicine were spread over the dirt layers and the shallow trench was carefully and respectfully filled up.  Upon filling the shallow trench with the dirt, the Spiritual Leader, Robert Chastain, announced, “He has gone home. Emeenu.”  The Native Americans in the audience responded with a solemn – “Aho” or Amen. 

This was a truly wonderful and solemn ceremony conducted with all the sacredness and respectfulness appropriate for anyone.  The Spirit People Intertribal Family organization should be commended for making this public event a true cultural experience for the Tampa Bay community.  Most times this ritual is done quietly and in private.  And the Safety Harbor Museum is to be saluted for their responsible actions in arranging for this very special internment ceremony.

Robert Chastain, Spiritual Leader of the internment ceremony.

 For further information, please call the Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History at 727-726-1668 or e-mail us at info@safetyharbormuseum.org.  You may also visit us at www.safetyharbormuseum.org.

You may also contact Pamela Weighs the Truth at by e-mailing waterbird61@yahoo.com or you may visit www.spiritpeople.org.

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WEEDON ISLAND PRESERVE CULTURAL AND NATURAL HISTORY CENTER, St. Petersburg, FL

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