Hi ladybugclub. Thank you for your thoughtful questions. This thread was meant to be! I'm actually an enrolled Seminole tribal member! First I'd like to address the word costume. We don't consider our traditional style of clothing to be a costume. It is offensive to me when someone refers to my beautiful patchwork clothing as a costume. I always think to myself. It's not Halloween! The more appropriate word would be tribal regalia, or tribal clothing.

I think that context is entirely important here. I wear my beautiful tribal clothing on a daily basis to work, school, etc. i also wear regular business clothes, so it's just whatever I feel like wearing that day. I don't however get up and say let me put my costume on today. To me, it's a beautiful piece of clothing that identities me as Seminole. I would never wear my traditional clothing to a costume party. To do so, would be disrespectful to who I am as a Seminole person. I feel like it would patronizing to our people, to diminish the essence of who we are by compartmentalizing it as a conversation piece at a costume party. When I think of the word costume, I think of something that is only worn once a year for Halloween or other event like Mardi Gras or something similar.

To put it in further context. I personally would never dress as an Asian person or African person as I've never lived their life experiences as a person of that ethnicity. There's a lot of books abt Seminoles but there is so much more that is unwritten about our culture. Even as a person who lives in my tribal community, worked in the tribal government and participates at all levels of the social and cultural fabric of our tribe, I still feel like I'm continuously learning. Even though your mom's 1/8 may not seem as much, i want to encourage you to learn more about your heritage. Maybe you could visit the tribal communities. I am here to encourage and hopefully help you to understand a perspective of a Seminole tribal member.