FloridaView Blog

When the Europeans came to the Southeastern United States they found Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee and Creek Natives living here. Of these the Creek were by far the largest, both in land and population.

 

The largest tribes in the Creek world were the Muskogee (Muscogee). The upper Creeks lived in the mountains of southern Georgia and spoke Muskogee (Creek); and the lower Creeks lived at the base of these mountains in the northern half of the Florida peninsula and spoke Hitchiti (Micausuki). This tribe would evolve into the Seminoles and the Miccosukee of Florida.

 

The word Seminole means “runaway” and Chief Osceola is the most famous of the Seminoles. Osceola was one of the leaders during the Second Seminole War with the United States in the 1830s. Osceola led a group of 300 Seminoles opposed to relocation to Indian territories west of the Mississippi River. By using tactics unfamiliar to the white settlers and by hiding in the Everglades, Osceola and some of the Seminoles were successfully able to elude capture by the U.S. Army in the 19th century for a lengthy period.

 

The Seminoles of Florida are descendants of the "Unconquered People". Today, more than 2,000 live on six reservations located in Hollywood, Big Cypress, Brighton, Immokalee, Ft. Pierce, and Tampa.

 

The Miccosukee Indians of South Florida live in the “Heart of the Everglades”. You can visit the Miccosukee Indian Village just 30 minutes west of Miami in Dade County.