THe Indian tribe who bought the Hard Rock cafe

Less than a generation ago, the Seminole tribe of Florida were living a precarious life of poverty in the Everglades. Yet last week, they bought the Hard Rock chain for a knock-down price of $965m. And it's unlikely to be the last major deal struck by an Indian tribe.

Less than a generation ago, the Seminole tribe of Florida were living a precarious life of poverty in the Everglade swamps. Yet last week, they acquired the whole Hard Rock restaurant chain from the Rank Group (LON: RNK) for a knock-down $965m. For the Indians, who arrived for the announcement at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square in traditional dress, the deal has huge symbolic significance. "Our ancestors sold Manhattan for trinkets," said tribe council member Max Osceola Jr. "We're going to buy Manhattan back, one hamburger at a time."

The Seminoles have always been fighters, says the FT: they boast they never surrendered during the mid-19th century American Indian wars, despite coming close to extinction after being cornered in alligator-infested swamps by federal troops. After four decades, the hostilities ceased; but it wasn't until the 1950s that the tribe acquired sovereign nation status. For the next 30 years, they eked out a living from tobacco, citrus fruit and cattle.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.