SWAMP CHIEF

A wonderful story about a Seminole Indian boy who must struggle between the values of his tribe and those of the white man. As first mate on a Miami fishing boat, twenty year old Joe Panther is in many respects a modern American youth. But suddenly he finds himself next in line for chieftancy when his grandfather, the tribe's old Micco, or leader, dies. There are problems of the authorities' callous disregard for Seminole customs; of the unconsolable pride and anger of Turtle Sam, one of the tribe's headmen; of Joe's father's own hesitancy to make decisions -- to be solved before things are righted and Joe is given his own boat. These and other threads of tense adventure on the sea and in the everglades weave exciting, perceptive patterns of character and social adjustment.