Osceola's Head Summary and Analysis

The Circuit Judge in Laroche's case reaches a decision. She decides that the Seminoles will be fined only one hundred dollars each and no charges filed. Laroche, on the other hand, she finds guilty as charged. He is fined five hundred dollars and his exile from the Fakahatchee Strand is extended for another six months. In this way, the Judge narrowly avoids causing a controversy by finding the Seminoles guilty, but punishes Laroche for the crime. Laroche had thought himself safe due to ambiguity in the law books about what a "consultant" could do with the Seminoles in the wildlife preserve, since the Seminoles are permitted to take wild things without worry.

The Florida Seminoles are descendants of the Yuchi, Creek and Cherokee Indians. In 1821, the government had begun three Seminole "subjugation and removal efforts." The last one in...