20
an Indian child go to school that doesn't want to go. But
generally they're going. They're learning English, and
they speak English. But I find along there, with these
teenage Indians, a funny sense. The real tragedy of them is
that they drink and drive. The Tamiami Trail is not a
safe place for that, and every now and then I hear of some
son of a dear friend of mine that's been driven in a canal
or killed a'drinkin' and driving' or something. They are
learning English, but you'd be surprised the way they stay
Indian, and I'm not surprised.
I spoke to you earlier about Louise Tiger. Louise is
nominally a white woman. She's half Choctaw and half
Mississippi [white]. She met Bobby Tiger when he was
wrestling in his uncle's camp in Hialeah, and married him
then. She prefers to live on the Trail. There's a great
freedom. It's...hell, those Indian boys have got their
hair down to their shoulders. They're the handsomest
hippies you ever saw. They'll give you the peace sign.
This is what the whole hippy world's living for. Why should
they run away from their families? Their families let them
be like they want to be and do what they want to do.
K: Well, now, you're giving me that impression that most....
R: Well, those boys around there just plain look hippy. These
fifteen, sixteen, and whatnot.
K: OK, but wait. Let me ask you this, Jane. Are they staying
there in the...?
R: They're staying there, living there, driving their airboats,
running around, driving stock cars. I mean they run into
town. They prefer [it] there.
K: Are any of them moving into the city?
R: Less now, I believe, than did a decade ago. Because now...for
example, Indian families would always take turns camping out
in the center of Hialeah Race Track. That was a job in town.
K: Right. Well, now, in case people who might hear this tape
would wonder at that, maybe you should elaborate on that.
R: Hialeah Race Track is the most beautiful in the world. It
has a moat in the center, and beyond the moat, it has an island
upon which is an Indian chickee. During the race season,