Betty Mae Tiger Jumper
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BoomersOTR
N 27° 01.368 W 080° 28.190
17R E 552590 N 2989071
Historical Marker located in Indiantown, Florida at SW Warfield Blvd. and SW Jefferson Ave.
Waymark Code: WM104TZ
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 02/26/2019
Views: 5
Historical Marker inscription:
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper
Born in 1923, Betty Mae Tiger Jumper was the first Chairwoman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, elected in 1967. She spent her early life with her parents, Ada Tiger and Abe Partan, at the Seminole camp in Indiantown. Tribal medicine men threatened to put Jumper to death because her father was white. "I was a half breed. An evil one," she explained. To protect their children, the family relocated to the reservation in Dania. Segregation laws barred Seminoles from attending Florida schools. At age 14 Jumper was sent to an Indian boarding school in Cherokee, North Carolina. She was the first Florida Seminole to learn to read and write English, and the first to graduate from high school. She graduated from nursing school in Oklahoma in 1946, and spent 40 years improving and modernizing healthcare for the Seminole community. She co-founded the Seminole News in 1956, the Tribe's first newspaper. In 1994, Florida State University awarded Jumper an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters. A gifted Tribal storyteller, Jumper authored And With the Wagon Came God's Word, Legends of the Seminole, and a memoir with Patsy West, A Seminole Legend. She died in 2011, at age 88, Betty Mae Tiger Jumper walked on, leaving an enduring legacy.
Marker Number: F-1024
Date: 2017
County: Martin
Marker Type: Roadside
Sponsored or placed by: GFWC Woman's Club of Stuart, Florida Department of State
Website: Not listed
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