Buried Treasures

In 1972 in Florida, in location referred to as “Alligator Alley”, I was led into a mangrove swamp by a Seminole Indian (Tribe which never has signed a treaty with the U.S. government.), to show mer where he had found some bones which were those of a prehistoric animal! He pointed out to small island in the deeper part of the swamp. When I asked if it was shallow enough I could come back next day and wade out to it, he responded “Sure, if quicksand don’t get ya, the gators will!” He said the next day someone would take me to island in a dugout boat. Next morning, two older Seminole women were waiting there in a dugout. I asked an Indian boy if he were going too? “Oh no, only girls can take you to protect you from gators now while girl gators on nest, eggs!” I asked the boy why woman in front of boat was wearing what appeared image of alligator hanging by it’s tail around her neck? “It’s a gator charm made of bark, grasses, thorns for teeth that keeps mother gators from getting mad!”

Once in the boat the boy pushed us off and we made the short voyage to the island, the two women pushing the boat with long poles. As the indian women sat eating and talking, I started to dig at the center of the island, near a large banyan tree. The digging in muck, through roots was slow, hard; finding only small unidentifiable bone fragments; until finally I pulled a larger bone from the muck. It was the vertebra of a prehistoric animal!

As I kept digging, I heard a strange snapping sound in the hole. It seemed like the farther I dug down, the louder the strange snapping sound had become! I hadn’t discovered anything of significance but the vertebra and I was exhausted. One of the Seminole woman was asleep and the other was cradling the alligator effigy charm and chanting. Down to my upper arms in the muck, when snapping even louder? I turned to the chanting Indian woman and asked “What is that snapping sound?” She said with a sigh “It’s mother gators guarding their eggs. Each time your hands reach down in that hole, it’s their jaws opening up and snapping shut.” My arms, hands shot up out of that hole…the digging was finished…the adventure was over!