The Seminole are a Native American people originally of
Florida, and now residing in that state and in Oklahoma. The
Seminole nation came into existence in the 18th century and was composed of Native Americans from Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, most significantly the Creek Nation, as well as African Americans who escaped from slavery in South Carolina and Georgia (see Black Seminoles). While roughly
3,000 Seminoles were forced west of the Mississippi River, including the Seminole
Nation of Oklahoma, who picked up new members along their way, approximately 300 to 500
Seminoles stayed and fought in and around the Everglades of Florida. In a series of wars
against the Seminoles in Florida, about 1,500 U.S. soldiers died. The Seminoles never surrendered to the United States government, hence, the Seminoles of Florida call themselves the "Unconquered People." The
Florida Seminoles are the only American Indian tribe never to have signed a formal peace treaty with the United States.[1]
Today, they have sovereignty over their tribal lands, and an economy based on tobacco, tourism and gambling. The
"Seminoles" are also the symbol of the athletic teams of Florida State University. In response to the NCAA's proclamation that Native American names and logos will not be permitted
by its member institutions unless the namesake tribe concurs, both the 3,100-member Seminole Tribe of Florida and the
6,000-member Seminole Nation of Oklahoma have officially approved the relationship and the details of the images used.
Early history
After the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, the indigenous people of Florida were decimated by disease, and it is
believed that the few survivors were evacuated by the Spanish to Cuba when Florida fell under
British rule in 1763.
In the 18th century, members of the Lower Creek Nation began migrating into Florida to
remove themselves from the dominance of the Upper Creeks, and intermingled with the few remaining indigenous people there, some
recently arrived as refugees after the Yamasee War such as the Yuchi, Yamasee, and others. They went on to be called "Seminole", a derivative of
the Mvskoke' (a Creek language) word simano-li, an adaptation of the
Spanish "cimarrón" which means "wild" (in their case, "wild men"), or "runaway" [men]. The Seminole were a heterogeneous tribe
made up of mostly Lower Creeks from Georgia,
Mikasuki-speaking Muskogees, and escaped
African American slaves, and to a lesser extent, white Europeans and Indians from other tribes. The unified Seminole spoke two languages, Creek and Mikasuki
(a modern dialect similar to Hitchiti), two different members of the Muskogean Native American languages family, a language group that also includes
Choctaw and Chickasaw. It is largely on linguistic grounds
that the modern Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida maintain their separate identity
today.
The Seminole were on good terms with both the Spanish and the British. In 1784, the treaty ending the American Revolutionary War returned all of Florida to Spanish control. However, the
Spanish Empire's decline allowed the Seminole to settle deeper in to Florida.
Until the majority of Seminoles were forced to move to the Indian Territory (modern
Oklahoma) after the Second Seminole War, the Seminole were led by a dynasty of
chiefs founded in the 18th century by Cowkeeper.
The Seminole Wars
-
After attacks by Spanish settlers on Indian towns, Indians based in Florida began raiding Georgia settlements, purportedly at
the behest of the Spanish. The U.S. Army led increasingly frequent incursions into
Spanish territory to recapture escaped slaves, including the 1817–1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians by Andrew Jackson that became known as the First Seminole War.
Following the war, the United States effectively controlled East Florida.
The Adams-Onís Treaty [2]
was signed between the United States and Spain in 1819 and took effect in 1821. According to the terms of the treaty, the United
States acquired Florida and, in exchange, renounced all claims to Texas. Andrew Jackson was named military governor of Florida. As American settlement increased after the treaty,
pressure grew on the Federal government to remove the Indians from their lands in Florida. Many Indian tribes harbored runaway
black slaves, and the settlers wanted access to Indian lands. Georgian slaveowners also wanted the "maroons" and fugitive slaves living among the Seminoles, known today as Black Seminoles, returned to slavery.
In 1832, the United States government signed the Treaty of Paynes Landing
with a few of the Seminole chiefs, promising them lands west of the Mississippi River
if they agreed to leave Florida voluntarily. The remaining Seminole prepared for war. White settlers pressured the government to
remove all of the Indians, by force if necessary. In 1835, the U.S. Army arrived to enforce the treaty. Seminole leader
Osceola led the vastly outnumbered resistance during the Second Seminole War. Drawing on a population of about 4,000 Seminole Indians and 800 allied
Black Seminoles, the Seminoles mustered at most 1,400 warriors (Andrew Jackson estimated
they had only 900) to counter combined U.S. Army and militia forces that ranged from 6,000 troops at the outset to 9,000 at the
peak of deployment, in 1837. To survive, the Seminole allies employed hit-and-run guerrilla tactics with devastating effect
against U.S. forces. Osceola was arrested when he came under a flag of truce to negotiations in 1837. He died in jail less than a
year later. His body was buried without his head.
Other warchiefs such as Halleck Tustenuggee, Jumper, and Black Seminoles Abraham
and John Horse continued the Seminole resistance against the army. The war only ended, after a full decade of fighting, in 1842.
The U.S. government is estimated to have spent about $20,000,000 on the war, at the time an astronomical sum. Many Indians were
forcibly exiled to Creek lands west of the Mississippi; others retreated into the
Everglades. In the end, the government gave up trying to subjugate the Seminole in their
Everglades redoubts and left less than 100 Seminoles in peace.[2]
The Seminole nation today
The Flag of the Seminoles of Florida, adopted in 1979
In the United States 2000 Census, 12,431 people reported themselves
racially solely as Native Americans with only a Seminole tribal affiliation. An additional 15,000 people identified themselves as
Seminoles in combination with some other tribal affiliation or race. [3]
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma has about 6,000 enrolled members, who are divided into fourteen bands. Two are called
"Freedmen Bands" (also black seminole) because they count their descent from escaped slaves. Band membership is
matrilineal: children are members of their mother's band. The group is ruled by an elected council, with two members from each
band. The capital is at Wewoka, Oklahoma. The Seminole Tribe of Florida and the
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida entered into agreements with the US government in 1957 and 1962, respectively,
confirming their sovereignty over tribal lands and agreeing to compensation for seized territory. Since then, the tribes have
developed an economy based largely on sales of duty-free tobacco, tourism and gambling. On December
7, 2006, they purchased the Hard Rock Cafe chain of
restaurants.[3] The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
was formed in the 1960s by members of the Florida Seminole community who were unsatisfied with the Seminole Tribe of Florida;
they were largely Mikasuki-speaking descendants of the Chiaha, or Upper Chehaw, who
had originally lived in the Tennessee Valley as opposed to the majority of Seminoles
who spoke Creek. [4] The
Miccosukee Tribe set up a 33-acre reservation on the northern border of Everglades National Park, about 45 miles west of
Miami.
"When South Florida tourism boomed in the 1920s, Seminoles capitalized by wrestling alligators for money. In 1979, the
Seminoles opened the first casino on Indian land, ushering in what has become a multibillion-dollar industry operated by numerous
tribes nationwide." [5] In more recent years, the Miccosukee Tribe has sustained itself by owning and operating a casino, resort, a golf club, several museum attractions, and the "Indian Village". At the
"Indian Village", Seminoles demonstrate traditional pre-Columbian lifestyles to educate people of their culture. The use of
"Seminole" as a namesake is common in Florida, with one county named after them, Seminole County, Florida, and another named after Seminole leader Osceola, Osceola County, Florida. There is also a city named
for them in Pinellas County, FL - Seminole, Florida.
Florida State University connection
The image and name of the Seminole chief, Osceola, serves as a symbol for Florida State University and several high school athletic programs in the state, use the
nickname, "Seminoles" as well.
According to The New York Times article "Florida State Can Keep Its
Seminoles", [6]
the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) prohibition
of Native American logos, signs in stadiums, cheerleader and band uniforms, and mascots as presumed "hostile and abusive" did not
apply to FSU and the Seminoles, and would be considered on a case by case basis elsewhere. FSU was exempt as both the 3,100-member Seminole Tribe of Florida and the 6,000-member Seminole
Nation of Oklahoma officially approved the relationship and the details of the images used. The
article states, "The Seminoles are the only American Indian tribe never to sign a formal peace treaty with the United States. To celebrate this status, Florida State erected Unconquered, a statue of
Chief Osceola outside its football stadium."
Notes
- ^ [1]
- ^ Covington, James W. 1993. The Seminoles of Florida. Gainesville, Florida:
University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1196-5. Pp. 145-6
- ^ Hard Rock Purchase
See also
External links and sources
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