Sunday Favorites: Who Were the Seminoles? Part 2

MANATEE COUNTY – When we left off last week, the collective groups of Native Americans and escaped slaves known as "Seminoles" were finally beginning to settle across the state, when a group of chiefs were forced to sign a treaty stipulating that all Seminoles living in Florida must relocate to a reservation near Okeechobee.

Known as the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, the agreement established a four-million-acre reservation that extended north of present-day Ocala south to Tampa Bay but was inland from the coasts. The location of the reservation was strategic as the government did not want the Native Americans trading with Cuba and the Bahamas.

A meeting to negotiate the treaty was scheduled in September of 1823, with 425 Seminoles in attendance that chose Mikasuki Chief Neamathla to represent them. In exchange for the reservation, the Seminoles placed themselves under the protection of the U.S., and give up all claims to lands in Florida. In return, the U.S. government offered protection, as long as they remained peaceful.

The U.S. also agreed to provide them with farming supplies and rations for one year, until they could plant and harvest new crops, along with a stipend of $5,000 per year and an interpreter, school and blacksmith for a 20 year period. In return, the natives were supposed to apprehend any runaway slaves or other fugitives and return them to the U.S. government.

While the majority of Seminoles would be relocated to the reservation, the treaty stipulated that Neamathla and five other chiefs could keep their villages along the Apalachicola River, according to John and Mary Lou Missal in their book "Seminole Wars, American's Longest Conflict."

Of course, the agreement did not pan out. Because the Seminoles were such as diverse group, many felt they had been tricked and unrepresented in the discussion. Those who refused to relocate were considered "hostile" and the U.S. set up a series of forts across the state to enforce the treaty.

In 1829, Andrew Jackson was elected President and under his leadership Congress signed the "Indian Removal Act," mandating that all Native Americans be relocated west of the Mississippi.

By 1832, the U.S. Department of Ward was tasked with negotiating a new treaty with the Native Americans, which was called Treaty of Payne's Landing. Seminole leaders supposedly signed the treaty and agreed to leave the state although negotiations were conducted secretly with no minutes taken and no detailed accounts of the discussions ever published. Later, those chiefs that signed the document claimed to have done so under duress. The document sparked the Second Seminole War, which lasted from 1835-1842.

Raids, skirmishes and a handful of larger battles raged throughout the Florida peninsula, with the outgunned and outnumbered Seminoles effectively using guerrilla warfare against American military forces. One of the few ports of was right here in Tampa Bay. Natives were held at Egmont Key until they could be shipped to New Orleans and then begin passage to Oklahoma. Some very famous Seminole Chiefs such as Wildcat and Osecola passed through this area, according to Covington.

The Second Seminole War cost the U.S. upwards of $40 million dollars. Over 2,000 white men were killed and a countless number of Native Americans (the government never reported those losses). In the end, 4,000 natives were removed to Oklahoma, according to James Covington in his interview with the Manatee County Historical Society.

You can read more about the Seminole Wars here:

Those few hundred men, women and children that escaped exile, evaded soldiers by slipping deep into the Everglades. They were forced to begin their lives over once again in surroundings very different than what they were accustomed to. Tune in next week as we examine the Third Seminole War the heart-breaking journey that permanently established the Seminoles in the Everglades.