Annie Tommie's Camp

Seminole matriarch Annie Jumper Tommie and her family established a Panther clan camp c. 1902 on a site located on the north fork of the New River east of the present-day Broward Boulevard bridge. Annie Tommie’s Camp was the last permanent Seminole camp in the City of Fort Lauderdale. There, Annie and her husband, Doctor Tommie, lived with her mother Mammy; brother Willie Jumper; and Annie’s children, including Tony Tommie, who were well-known to local residents. The camp consisted of a cooking chickee, work and sleeping chickees, and a landing and work area on the New River. Nearby, the young Seminole boys practiced baseball on their own diamond in preparation for games against local schools. The camp was a local tourist attraction, where Annie pioneered the manufacture and sale of Seminole Indian dolls, which later became an important industry for the tribe. Fort Lauderdale pioneer Ivy Stranahan convinced Annie and her family to move to the new federal Indian reservation west of Dania (now Hollywood), where Annie became the leading matriarch in June, 1924. Annie Tommie died in December 1946 at the age of 90.