Seminole Nation

Origins

After English raids emptied northern Spanish Florida of its earlier peoples, Muscogee towns, especially Hitchiti-speakers from the Lower Creek, moved into the region. From around 1750 the chief Cowkeeper led a group to the Alachua prairie, and others followed. The Spanish called them cimarrones, wild or runaway people, which became Seminole. Africans escaping slavery in Georgia and Carolina joined them as allies.

Rule and society

Seminole towns were autonomous, led by chiefs and war leaders and organised in matrilineal clans, with the Green Corn ceremony at their centre. They raised cattle on the Florida grasslands and farmed. Black Seminoles lived in their own villages, owing tribute and fighting as allies. Andrew Jackson's invasion in the First Seminole War of 1817 to 1818 helped push Spain to sell Florida.

Decline and legacy

In the Second Seminole War of 1835 to 1842, led by Osceola and Micanopy, the Seminole fought the United States to a costly standstill, but most were removed to Indian Territory, where Wewoka became their capital. A few hundred stayed in the Everglades; their descendants form the Seminole Tribe of Florida.