Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE UNCONQUERED SEMINOLES
The US waged war on Florida's Seminoles three times. The First Seminole War, from 1817
to 1818, was instigated by Andrew Jackson, who ruthlessly attacked the Seminoles as
punishment for sheltering runaway slaves and attacking US settlers. Trouble was, Florida
was controlled by Spain. After Jackson took over Pensacola, Spain protested this foreign
military incursion, forcing Jackson to halt.
In 1830 now President Andrew Jackson (aka 'Old Hickory'), passed the Indian Removal
Act, which aimed to move all Native Americans west of the Mississippi River. Some Semi-
noles agreed to give up their lands and move to reservations, but not all. In 1835 US
troops arrived to enforce agreements, and resistance led by Osceola, a Seminole leader,
triggered the Second Seminole War.
The war was fought guerrilla style by 2000 or so Seminoles in swamps and hammocks,
and it's considered one of the most deadly and costly Indian wars in US history. In Octo-
ber 1837, Osceola was captured under a flag of truce and later died in captivity, but the
Seminoles kept fighting. In 1842 the US finally called off its army, having spent $20 milli-
on and seen the deaths of 1500 US soldiers.
Thousands of Seminoles had been killed or marched to reservations, but hundreds sur-
vived and took refuge in the Everglades. In 1855 a US army survey team went looking for
them, but the Seminoles killed them first. The resulting backlash turned into the Third
Seminole War, which ended after Chief Billy Bowlegs was paid to go west in 1858.
But 200 to 300 Seminoles refused to sign a peace treaty and slipped away again into
the Everglades. Technically, these Seminoles never surrendered and remain the only 'un-
conquered' Native American tribe.
In the 1910s, brutally impoverished, the Seminoles discovered that tourists would pay
to watch them in their temporary camps, and soon 'Seminole villages' were a mainstay of
Florida tourist attractions, often featuring alligator wrestling and Seminole 'weddings.'
