The Seminoles are a Native American tribe originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation was formed in the 18th century in a process of ethnogenesis. It was composed of Native Americans from Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, most significantly the Creek people, as well as African Americans who escaped to Florida from slavery in South Carolina and Georgia.
Roughly 3,000 Seminoles were forced west of the Mississippi River during Indian Removal. These included ancestors of the present-day Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. New members joined the group as they traveled to the west.
Approximately 300 to 500 Seminoles stayed in Florida, where they lived and defended themselves in and around the Everglades. In an effort to dislodge them, the US government waged the Seminole Wars, in which a total of about 1,500 U.S. soldiers died. The Seminoles never surrendered to the United States. The Seminoles of Florida call themselves the "Unconquered People". Today they have sovereignty over their tribal lands and an economy based on tobacco sales, tourism, gambling and entertainment. They were the first people to catch and consume stone crabs as we know them today.
The "Seminoles" are the symbol of the athletic teams of Florida State University. The university negotiated to gain agreement for use of the name with the 3,100-member Seminole Tribe of Florida. They officially approved the relationship and details of the images and costumes to be used.
History
In the late 18th century, the Lower Creeks, a tribe of Muscogee people, began to migrate into Florida to evade the dominance of the Upper Creeks. They intermingled with the few remaining indigenous people there, some recently arrived as refugees after the Yamasee War, such as the Yuchi, Yamasee, and others. In a process of ethnogenesis, they formed a new culture which they 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" . The Seminole were a heterogeneous tribe made up of mostly Lower Creeks from Georgia, Mkasuki-speaking Muscogees, and escaped African-American slaves, and to a lesser extent, whites 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 Muscogean Native American languages family, a language group that includes Choctaw and Chickasaw. It is chiefly on linguistic grounds that the modern Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida maintain their separate identity today.
During the colonial years, the Seminole were on good terms with both the Spanish and the British. In 1784, the treaty ending the American Revolutionary War transferred British rule of Florida to Spanish control. The Spanish Empire's decline enabled the Seminole to settle more deeply into Florida. They were led by a dynasty of chiefs founded in the 18th century by Cowkeeper. This dynasty lasted until 1842, when the US forced the majority of Seminoles to move from Florida to the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma) after the Second Seminole War.
There is also a village of Seminoles which has lived at Red Bays on Andros Island in the Bahamas since the British relinquishment of its claim to Florida in 1821 and relocation of families allied with their claims against Spain.
Religion
Seminole tribes generally associate themselves with three religions: Protestantism, Catholicism, and the Green Corn Ceremony. Green Corn Ceremonies have been practiced for centuries and are still practiced in modern day Native American culture throughout the southeast, in tribes such as the Seminole and Muscogee. Many Native Americans do not consider their spiritual beliefs and practices a religion. They consider these rituals part of their inner being . Before European intervention, Indian religion was passed down orally from generation to generation. They generally worshiped an all-powerful Creator, and believed in the idea of immortality and an after life .
In the 1950s, federal projects prompted the tribe's reorganization and put bureaucratic organizations in place within tribal governance to promote modernization. Many Seminoles embraced the idea of modernization, and as Christian pastors began preaching on reservations, Green Corn Ceremony attendance decreased. This created tension between religiously traditional Seminoles and Seminoles who began adopting Christianity. In the 1960s and 1970s, some tribal members on reservations, such as the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation, viewed organized Christianity as a threat to their traditions. Tribal reorganization had facilitated Christian conversion that became widespread.
By the 1980s, the loss of language and tradition in Seminole communities was observed. Many tribal members began to observe traditional Green Corn Dance ceremonies again and some moved away from Christianity. By 2000 religious tension between Green Corn Dance attendees and Christians (particularly Baptists) decreased. Some Seminole families participate in both religions.
Seminole Wars
Main article: Seminole WarsAfter attacks by Spanish settlers on Indian towns, Indians began raiding Georgia settlements, purportedly at the behest of the Spanish. In the early 1800s, the U.S. Army made increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory to recapture escaped slaves, including Andrew Jackson's 1817–1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians that became known as the First Seminole War. Following the war, the United States effectively controlled East Florida.
The Adams-Onís Treaty was signed between the United States and Spain in 1819 and took effect in 1821. According to its terms, 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, settlers pressured the Federal government to remove the Indians from their lands in Florida. Slaveholders resented that Indian tribes harbored runaway black slaves, and more settlers wanted access to desirable Indian lands. Georgian slaveholders 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. They promised lands west of the Mississippi River if the chiefs agreed to leave Florida voluntarily with their peoples. The Seminoles who remained, prepared for war. White settlers pressured the government to remove 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, he mustered at most 1,400 warriors (Andrew Jackson estimated they had only 900). They had 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 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. After a full decade of fighting, the war ended in 1842. Scholars estimate the U.S. government spent about $40,000,000 on the war, at the time a huge 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 Seminoles and left the estimated fewer than 500 survivors in peace.
Contemporary
During the Seminole Wars, the Seminole people began to break apart due to numerous aspects of the conflict and differences in ideology. The Seminole population had also been growing significantly, though it was diminished as an effect of the wars with the United States government. With the division of the Seminole tribe, some traditions such as powwow trails and ceremonies were maintained among them. However, the Oklahoma Seminoles and the Florida Seminoles described below are independent nations that operate in their own spheres.
Oklahoma Seminoles
As a result of the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) about 3,800 Seminoles and maroons were forcibly removed to Indian Territory (the modern state of Oklahoma). The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma now has about 6,000 enrolled members, who are divided into fourteen bands. Two are called "Freedmen Bands" (also "black Seminoles") because they descended in part 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. Recently tribal citizenship disputes have arisen related to the status of "Seminole Freedmen" in Oklahoma.
Florida Seminoles
The remaining few hundred Seminoles survived in the Florida swamplands avoiding removal. They lived in
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