Creek, Hitchiti, Apalachee, Mikasuki, Yamassee, Yuchi, Tequesta, Apalachicola, Choctaw, Oconee joined with the last of the aboriginal Florida Indians, escaped slaves, outlaws and others to seek better lives in the thick virgin forests, wide grass prairies and spring fed rivers of North Florida.

Muscogee speakers had a word for these "renegades" who fled native homelands for Florida soil, a word which sounded like si-mi-no-li and meant "wild" or "runaway". The Spanish also had a similar sounding word which meant the same thing: cimmarones.

A commonalty of purpose--refusal to be dominated by the white man--served to combine these many culturally-similar factions into one group that today is known as the Seminoles.

In those days, the fledgling United States government carried out a policy of extermination and displacement regarding American Indians. U.S. officials were particularly disturbed by the protection and shelter, this organized group of runaways (Seminole) offered to escaped slaves. In addition, the choice lands of interior North Florida were openly coveted by white settlers. Conflicts, skirmishes, ambushes and racial hatred erupted periodically on the new frontier.

When Spain could not control the Seminoles, the U.S. government took occupation of Florida. Legendary Indian fighter General Andrew Jackson spent nearly two decades trying to solve the Seminole Indian "problem". Three aggressive military campaigns-- the undeclared Seminole Wars--and at least four fraudulent treaties, not to mention President Jackson's Indian Removal Act (The Trail of Tears) sought to completely wipe out the Florida Seminoles, in body and spirit. More than 4,000 Seminoles were among those displaced to Oklahoma. Many died along the way. Some were duped and some were taken against their will, others went along willingly, pride beaten down by the intense conflict. Their descendants remain there to this day, organized as the distinct Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

In addition to Jackson, an impressive list of U.S. Generals joined the fight to remove the Seminoles: Edmund Gaines, Zachary Taylor, Duncan Clinch, Winfield Scott, Robert Call, and Alexander Macomb were among the directors of a 40-year-battle to conquer the Seminoles.

Seven of those years--known to history as the Second Seminole War- -frame the most colorful era in modern Florida Indian history. The conflict began on December 28, 1835, when a band of Seminoles ambushed and killed U.S. Major Francis Dade and all but three of his 108 man regiment north of Tampa. It was a shocking defeat, one still studied today by military students.

Striking with surprise and disappearing into terrain unfavorable to conventional military warfare, several hundred Seminoles were able to elude capture by over 40,000 U.S. regulars and volunteers who served in Florida during the seven years of war.

Those years were further illuminated by two legendary Seminole leaders--the famous warrior Osceola and the inspirational medicine man Aripeka (a.k.a. Sam Jones). Elegant in dress, handsome of face, passionate in nature and giant of ego, Osceola masterminded successful battles against five different U.S. generals. Osceola was not a chief with the heritage of a Micanopy of Jumper, but his skill as an orator gave him great influence over Seminole war actions.

Osceola's capture, under a controversial flag of truce offered by General Thomas Jessup, remains today one of the blackest marks in American military history. A larger-than-life character, Osceola is the subject of numerous myths; his 1838 death in a Charleston, S.C. prison was noted on front pages around the world.

Though his exploits were not as well publicized, Seminole medicine man Aripeka may have been more important to the internal Seminole war machine than Osceola. Aripeka was a powerful spiritual leader who used his "medicine" to stir Seminole warriors into a frenzy. He is known as the mastermind of several battles, including the 1837 ambush now known as the Battle of Okeechobee.

Many years older than most of the Seminole leadership of that era, wise old Sam Jones was a staunch resistor to removal. He kept the resistance fueled before and after Osceola's period of prominence and, when the fighting had concluded, was the only major Seminole leader to remain in Florida.

By May 10, 1842, when a frustrated President John Tyler ordered the end of military actions against the Seminoles, over $20 million had been spent, 1,500 American soldiers had died and still no formal peace treaty had been signed. Thirteen years later, fighting erupted again when a U.S. Army survey party--seeking the whereabouts of Aripeka and other Seminole groups--was attached by Seminole warriors under the command of colorful Billy Bowlegs.

The eventual capture and deportation of Bowlegs ended aggressions between the Seminoles and the Untied States. Historians estimate there may have been only 100-300 unconquered Seminole men, women and children left all hiding in the swamps and Everglades of South Florida.

The last group of survivors comprised at least two main factions: Muscogee speakers who lived near Lake Okeechobee and those who spoke the linguistically-related Mikasuki tongue and lived to the south. In the remote environs of such uncharted Florida wilderness, the Seminoles remained, isolated from Florida society and the rest of the world until the 20th century.

The descendants of these last few Indian resistors are the members of today's Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, and the (unaffiliated) independent or traditionalist Seminoles.

Present day Seminoles are the descendants of Indians who refused to leave Florida when enforcement of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 resulted in the relocation of tribes from east the Mississippi River to Oklahoma. Today they still exhibit strong cultural ties to their past while demonstrating a propensity for entrepreneurship in gaming, cattle, agriculture, tourism, and land management.

The Seminole people are governed by a Tribal Council that includes the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and a representative from each of the Seminole reservations: Hollywood, Brighton, Big Cypress, and Immokalee. All are elected officials, the Chairman and Vice- Chairman each serving a four year term and the representatives two year terms. A Board is responsible for all Tribal business activities and enterprises. A President and Vice-Chairman, who also serves as Chairman for the Council, make up the Board.

Another interesting accounting of Seminole history. Seminoles, 20 November 1817 - 31 October 1818, 28 December 1835 - 14 August 1842 and 15 December 1855 - May 1858. This conflict began with the massacre of about 50 Americans near an army post in Georgia—climax to a series of raids against American settlements by Seminoles based in Spanish Florida. Brig. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, Indian commissioner of the area, attempted countermeasures but soon found himself and his force of 600 Regulars confined to Fort Scott (Alabama) by the Seminoles. War Department instructions to Gaines had permitted the pursuit of Indians into Florida but had forbidden interference if the Indians took refuge in Spanish posts. Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, who was ordered to take over the operation, chose to interpret Gaines' instructions as sanctioning a full-scale invasion of the Spanish colony. He organized a force of about 7,500 volunteers, militia, subsidized Creeks, and Regulars (4th and 7th Infantry and a battalion of the 4th Artillery), and invaded Florida with part of thin force in the spring of 1818. Jackson destroyed Seminole camps, captured Pensacola (capital of Spanish Florida) and other Spanish strongholds, and executed two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, accused of inciting and arming the Indians. These activities threatened American relations with Great Britain and jeopardized negotiations with Spain pertinent to cession of Florida (Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819). Eventually the British were mollified and a compromise agreement was reached with the Spanish under which American forces were withdrawn from Florida without repudiating the politically popular Jackson. As for the Seminole problem, it was temporarily allayed but by no means solved. In the Treaties of Payne's Landing (1832) and Fort Gibson (1833) the Seminoles had agreed to give up their lands, but they refused to move out. Following the arrest and release of Osceola, their leader, in 1835 Seminole depredations rapidly increased. These culminated 28 December in the massacre of Capt. Francis L. Dade's detachment of 330 Regulars (elements of the 2d and 4th Artillery and 4th Infantry) enroute from Fort Brooke (Tampa) to Fort King (Ocala)—a disastrous loss for the small, Regular force of 600 men in Florida. Brig. Gen. Duncan L. Clinch, commanding Fort King, took the offensive immediately with 200 men and on 31 December 1835 defeated the Indians on the Withlacoochee River. The War Department, meanwhile, had ordered Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott, commander of the Eastern Department, to Florida to direct operations against the Seminoles. Most of the hostilities had occurred in General Gaines' Western Department, but the War Department expected impending troubles in Texas to keep Gaines occupied. Nevertheless, Gaines had quickly raised about 1,000 men in New Orleans and, acting on his own authority, embarked for Florida in February 1836. Even after learning of Scott's appointment, Gaines seized supplies collected by Scott at Fort Drane and pressed forward until heavily attacked by Seminoles. He succeeded in extricating his force only with help from Scott's troops. Shortly thereafter Gaines returned to New Orleans. Completion of preparations for Scott's proposed three-pronged offensive converging on the Withlacoochee were delayed by Gaines' use of Scott's supplies, expiration of volunteer enlistments, and temporary diversion of troops to deal with the Creeks who were then on the warpath in Georgia and Alabama. (See Creek Campaigns.) Before the campaign could get underway, Scott was recalled to Washington to face charges of dilatoriness and of casting slurs on the fighting qualities of volunteers. Beginning in December 1836, Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup carried out a series of small actions against the Seminoles, and in September 1837 Osceola was captured. Colonel Zachary Taylor decisively defeated a sizeable Indian force near Lake Okeechobee in December 1837. After Taylor's expedition no more large forces were assembled on either side. Numerous small expeditions were carried out chiefly by Regular troops commanded successively by Jesup, Taylor, and Brig. Gen. Walker A. Armistead, and many posts and roads were constructed. Col. William J. Worth finally conceived a plan which consisted of campaigning during the enervating summer seasons with the object of destroying the Indian's crops. This plan was successful in driving a sufficient number of Seminoles from their swampy retreats to permit official termination of the war on 10 May 1842. During the long and difficult campaign some 5,000 Regulars had been employed (including elements of the 1st, 2d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Infantry) with a loss of nearly 1,500 killed. Nearly 20,000 volunteers also participated in the war which cost some thirty-five million dollars and resulted in the removal of some 3,500 Seminoles to the Indian Territory. The final campaign against the remnants of the Seminoles in Florida consisted mainly of a series of skirmishes between small, roving Indian bands and the 4th Artillery which was stationed at Fort Brooke.