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at night. “We later found out that the
Indians thought we had this weird
ritual of holding candles in our belly
buttons,” Hutchinson says, laughing.
They became friends with Billy Bowlegs
Wetlands by Jim Hutchinson, oil on canvas, 1999.
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III, a tribal historian and the descendant
of the Seminole warrior Billy
Bowlegs, who even took the couple
to his secret vegetable garden, hidden
deep in the wilderness.
“He had made a garden, like all the
old Seminoles, in the center of a hammock,
that he took us to,” says Hutchinson.
“He kept it in case he would have
to retreat there. He died a couple of
months short of his 103rd birthday. “
The Hutchinsons gave up most creature
comforts to experience the quickly
vanishing way of life. Once, a newspaper
society reporter came to interview
the couple and asked Joan how she got
her hair done way out on the reservation.
“Joan laughed and said, ‘Well, I
just walk over to the canal over there,’ ”
says Jim. >> Distant Thunder by Jim Hutchinson, oil on canvas, 2000.