Unconquered Florida Seminoles | Untold Stories

[Music] this episode of untold stories is underwritten by baron collier jr [Music] foundation [Music] tragedy and triumph survival and success shape the story of the people now known as the seminoles despite three wars to remove these native people from florida a small group persevered and today remain the unconquered seminole in the 18th century after the spaniards had more or less wiped out all the aboriginal tribes they came down at different times and different groups some even spoke different languages the whites at the time really didn't understand these different groupings different tribes and they applied the term seminal basically meant any indian living in florida during their migration into florida the creek indians perhaps encountered the last remnant of the people spanish explorers called the fierce ones the colusa we still have words in our language we have songs that our medicine people sing that are kalusa songs and so we maintained that it was impossible for these entire civilizations just to disappear now were they decimated and damaged over the years and over time of course and we believe that it's those remnants of those peoples and the creeks that have now formed what we know of as seminoles as the seminoles moved into the spanish colony of florida another group joined with them runaway slaves the seminoles welcomed these people they were good warriors and they also were experienced in agriculture because of their years on the plantation the seminoles flourished in florida farming and amassing large herds of free-ranging cattle a legacy of early spanish explorers by 1817 however the stage was set for a clash of cultures that would culminate in war the problem was that the colonists wanted their slaves back and both the seminoles across the border and the colonists in florida were wanting the cattle and so there was constant strife on the border and that's really the cause of the first seminal war add to that the fact that andrew jackson saw opportunity it was a spanish territory that the spaniards really didn't control why not get it for the americans and so he did by the end of the war in 1818 the seminoles were left in dire straits the land to which they are banished consists of dry sand ridges and intermittable swamps almost wholly unfit for cultivation they are now in a starving condition john lee williams florida became an american territory in 1821 although jackson had successfully forced the seminoles south pioneer expansion into the new territory would soon spark the nation's longest and most costly indian war the second seminole war was direct result of the indian removal act of 1830. this law basically said that all indians living east of the mississippi would be sent west of the mississippi the seminoles were forced in 1832 to sign a treaty where they would remove out to what is now oklahoma they resisted and the second seminole war resulted from that resistance as the seminoles moved ever deeper into the everglades the soldiers were forced to fight another enemy as well deadly diseases like malaria and typhoid public support of the war soon began to wane public sentiment began to really turn against the war after osceola and a number of other chiefs were captured under white flag of troops he died in prison and became a martyr a lot of people realized that he was simply a patriot fighting for his home and for his way of life with disease rampant and soldiers deserting and resigning in record numbers major general thomas jessup wrote to the secretary of war unless immediate immigration be abandoned the war will continue for years to come is it not worthy of consideration whether this wilderness can even be inhabited by white men the country is not worth the medicines we shall expend in driving the indians from it jessop's advice was ignored and by 1842 more than 4 000 seminoles had been forced from florida the government declared the war over but acknowledged that nearly 400 seminoles remained in florida the war had lasted seven long years and cost nearly 30 million dollars all for swampland most considered worthless in 1850 however the wet wasteland became a potential moneymaker when congress returned all swamplands to the states for reclamation and development the new state of florida now had the right to sell most of the everglades to settlers but the seminoles were in the way survey crews began moving into the everglades when an army crew destroyed chief billy bolig's garden in 1855 war erupted again more than 1400 soldiers were deployed to fight against an estimated 100 seminole warriors although outnumbered nearly 15 to 1 the seminoles proved a formidable force but after nearly three years of fighting chief billy boligs agreed to emigrate to oklahoma he and 125 followers sailed from fort myers on may 4th 1858 although the war was declared over there were still seminoles in florida the government realized that they were never going to get the remainder of them to leave florida there were so few of them they were scattered so widely throughout the everglades it was simply a waste of time and money they never signed a peace treaty because one was never offered to them they probably wouldn't have signed it anyway but because the civil war was coming along the u.s basically reduced them to a little over 200 and then left and that's why the seminoles are unconquered today the surviving seminoles moved deep into the everglades but the wars had opened the florida frontier to ever encroaching white settlement although a government report noted in 1875 that little has been known or heard of the indians since the seminal wars white settlers continued to press for the removal of the seminoles an agent was dispatched to see if the indians would be open to the idea of removal but the seminoles refused to hear any washington talk by the 1880s the idea of removal was dropped and an attempt was made to offer the seminoles individual homesteads instead of reservations the plan to mainstream the seminoles failed the semi-nomadic seminoles depended on hunting and trapping for their livelihood and their range was the entire everglades one writer warned in 1887 the moving lines of the white population are closing in upon the land of the seminole there is no further retreat to which they can go soon a great and rapid change must take place the seminole is about to enter a future unlike any past he has ever known clay mccauley within a few years mccauley's prediction was coming true the first attempt to drain the everglades was underway and florida was in the midst of its first land boom the seminole's years of isolation were coming to an end as pioneers moved steadily south the rich supply of pelts plumes and hides in this rugged frontier land spurred the establishment of several trading posts including george storder's store in everglade ted smallwood's store on chuckleski and bill brown's boat landing deep in the big cypress the trading posts were very important to the seminoles into survival and success the trading posts were run by non-indians but also pioneers themselves of the florida terrain they were able to provide that outlet for seminoles to make a living for their families by 1910 however the heyday years of trade were nearly over the lucrative plume trade was outlawed and the hyde market was increasingly unstable the result of systematic drainage of the everglades the drainage of the everglades starting in 1906 in the miami-fort lauderdale palm beach areas was one of those ways that the everglades was altered for all time for the seminoles right off the bat the trade routes were cut off bill brown sold the boat landing in 1908 and the episcopal church's glade cross mission was moved to the trading post to be closer to the seminoles by 1913 the missionary dr w.j gotten reported that the seminoles were facing economic disaster due to the scarcity of game in the everglades the draining of the everglades was almost for some people catastrophic when you live off an environment and you learn to live off of a certain pattern of high water low water then no water it changes a lot but it also changed the commerce and how seminole survived seminal history is deeply rooted and identity is deeply rooted in this this pattern of of obstacle and challenge and then survival and success the seminal situation spurred the formation of the seminole indian association founded by several long-time friends of the seminoles including w stanley hansen who would one day be known as the white medicine man hansen was the son of dr william hanson a fort myers pioneer who began treating the seminoles in 1884. school child he would often come home from school and there would be similar indian children playing in the yard and later became his friends and my father often said that's probably where he learned his first words of mikosuki the new seminole indian association joined other groups in the fight to protect the rights of the seminoles and to have land set aside for these dispossessed people even if they didn't want it although the federal government had already purchased some land for the seminoles their semi-nomadic lifestyle and their distrust of the government doomed the idea of relocation to reservations in the early 20th century instead the seminoles found other ways to survive tourists were fascinated with the colorful seminals and attraction operator henry coppinger senior shrewdly saw an opportunity to attract more visitors to his tropical gardens in miami in 1918 he asked a seminole family to set up camp at his attraction for the winter season the seminole camp was an instant hit and within a year another exhibition village was set up at nearby musa isle although the seminoles were on exhibit they continued their normal daily routine cooking doing chores and sewing by the early 1900s seminal women were developing new clothing styles creating intricate bands of colorful patchwork the bold and beautiful patchwork became a blazon of tribal identity and an important way for seminal women to earn extra income for their families the seminoles soon added another way to earn money at the tourist villages alligator wrestling first developed at the tropical gardens by henry coppinger jr in 1917. you had to ask a seminal snake clan woman for permission to wrestle an alligator because that wasn't something that was done in their culture the dangerous performances thrilled tourists and the seminoles became permanently linked to this invented tradition at the end of the tourist season the seminoles returned to their permanent camps in the everglades and resumed living off the land but new dredging projects were once again changing the landscape and the seminoles way of life dredging began in 1915 for the road bed of the new tamiami trail a cross-state road that would connect tampa to miami by 1923 barron gift collier had taken over construction of the road through the newly named collier county seminoles were hired to help navigate through the wet wilderness and collier's son later recalled there were many skilled engineers in those days who said building a road through the everglades couldn't be done i can tell you this if my father had not managed to establish very good relations with seminole indians that road never would have been built white men with trucks and engineers could build the road but they couldn't clear the way for the road and the indians could baron collier jr the tamiami trail opened in 1928 although the new road destroyed canoe trails and opened the seminoles territory to other hunters and developers the trail also offered a new economic opportunity for the seminoles the tamiami trail certainly became one of those areas where the indians literally and their word for it is moved out to the road and set up small tourist attractions like the ones they had already been in since 1917 in miami so that they could control their own destiny by being entrepreneurs setting up their own little tourist attractions with maybe a small zoo doing maybe a little alligator wrestling and having crafts they could sell to the tourists by 1930 an estimated 300 seminoles more than half of the population were involved in the tourist attraction business although the seminoles were surviving the depression was taking its toll and w stanley hansen reported to the seminole indian association in 1931 that the indians are willing to accept aid for the first time in their history the seminole's precarious economic situation was complicated by the fact that most were squatters and had no right to the land they were living on after years of resistance some seminole families agreed to move to one of the three reservations established by the government even reservation lands however were threatened my grandfather was successful working with senator gomez to stop what was called a blanchard bill that would have allowed oil excavation speculation in the big cypress reservation he stated in his letter how many times are you going to promise something to these people and then take it away to help encourage economic development on the reservations a report to the commissioner of indian affairs recommended we the representatives of the civilization that drove the seminole out of the cattle business have got to start at the very beginning and remake him into a cattleman roy nash the federal government's depression era new deal programs eventually help the seminoles return to successful large-scale cattle ranching although the reservations offered increasing economic opportunities many seminoles especially those living along the tamiami trail refused to move to the reservations their tourist villages however were increasingly seen as a demeaning livelihood by both the government and an outspoken missionary named deaconess harriet bedell bedell visited south florida in 1932 and was appalled by the tourist villages along the tamiami trail she said this is simply disgusting this is treating people like animals like like a zoo you cannot do this to human beings bedell reactivated the defunct glade cross mission and made her headquarters in everglades close to the tamiami trail seminoles despite her strong objection to the tourist villages however the businesses continued she did not want to see the small indians sell out so to speak on their on their culture my grandfather along with corey osceola josie billy and ingram billy basically were of the opinion that we're gonna do what we gotta do to eat although the deaconess made little headway against the tourist villages she eventually befriended some of the seminals and became a champion of their colorful crafts she went out there and helped them as much as she could she would take medicines she would take food little by little they began to trust this crazy lady who came out in her navy blue clothes the deaconess bought crafts from the seminoles and marketed them both locally and nationally but the promising cottage industry was soon threatened by an unlikely source overseas competition the japanese were copying american native crafts and they were selling them all over the united states very cheaply they were undercutting the indian tribes and harriet pitched such a fit about this that she went to washington d.c and she caused so much commotion that they passed a law saying that we could not import japanese copies of american native artifacts anymore the deaconess also worked with the seminole indian association to develop a trademark label that certified genuine seminal products by the mid-1930s the seminoles lands were threatened once again as plans were unveiled for the new everglades national park although reservation lands within the new park boundary were exchanged for more acreage abutting the big cypress reservation the new park meant the loss of traditional hunting areas the situation prompted an historic meeting with florida governor david schultz in 1936 it was actually billed as the first time that these seminals agreed to meet with a government official he wanted to be given a cash figure or services that the state could provide but my grandfather and the other men that were representing the the tribal people at the time said we just want to be left alone the governor later told reporters they say they fear the white men will keep moving them until they are in the water that was the expression they used by the late 1940s the seminole's fears were justified once again as they faced another serious threat from the government after world war ii they were trying to look around and see what finances could be cut and one of the things that the us government looked at were the indians and indian reservations and they thought well why don't we just try to mainstream these people and terminate them as indians with the threat of losing their identity and their sovereign rights as an indian nation the seminoles organized and became the seminal tribe of florida in 1957. not all of the seminoles however wanted to be included in the new federally recognized tribe the government realized that there was another tribe some people who were ideologically and politically separate from the seminoles that was the people along the tamiemi trail who came to be known as the mikasuki tribe of indians of florida and they organized in 1962. culturally the seminal tribe shares a language with mikasuki's shares a clan system with mikasuki's but the seminoles also have another language and that's the creek language the original greek language most of the seminoles and mikosukis continued in the tourism business until the 1970s when a novel idea took advantage of the tax-free status of the reservations and transformed the impoverished tribes leaders at the time that began to look at tax-free tobacco products and if you don't charge sales tax to that end user at the end of the day you're going to make a significant amount of money smoke shops opened on our reservations and then around the country by the late 1970s the seminoles had introduced another innovative enterprise that took advantage of their sovereign rights on reservation lands high stakes bingo indian gaming as we know it today was started because of a single bingo game and the installation of a bingo facility on the hollywood indian reservation so the seminole tribe of florida we consider ourselves you know the grandmother of gaming we gave birth to it the tribe opened a large corporate headquarters building on the hollywood reservation and reinvested its increasing income in other ventures including ecotourism and agriculture knowing that the lucrative smoke shops and gaming could one day be revoked by a high court ruling there's always going to be a battle over the tax status of tribes and i think most native people believe that there's a daily fight to stop indian gaming and that's why i say you know you ask a seminal and most of us will all say the same thing that the wars never ended because we know that they're still going on they're just being held on a different type of battlefield 50 years after federal recognition the seminole tribe of florida was one of the most successful american indian tribes in the country and the billion-dollar corporation was about to make headlines again as of december 7 2006 they bought the ranked groups hard rock hotels and casino that are worldwide and as councilman max osceola said the sun will never set on the seminoles hard rock there are a lot of people that wonder about all this money that the seminoles are amassing the great thing about their new economic ventures is that with those funds they can remain seminal and mikasuki they don't have to worry anymore about are they going to survive so all of this money is a very good thing for these tribal people it will actually help them remain who they are the legacy and probably the great irony of the seminal wars is if we hadn't fought these wars if we hadn't put so much pressure on these people driven them down into the everglades the seminole culture might very well have just disappeared by forcing them into these situations they held on to that identity and that culture you have to respect that and you have to be somewhat this program was produced for the citizens of southwest florida by wgcu public media show your appreciation for programs like these become a member of wgcu a business supporter or leave a legacy through a state or planned gift call or visit our website at wgcu.org [Music] you

Channel: WGCU Public Media

Views: 315,914

Keywords: Unconquered Florida Seminoles, Florida Seminoles Untold Story, Untold Stories Florida Seminoles, fL Seminoles, Florida Seminole history, Seminole Indians, Seminole indians, Seminole History, Untold Stories Florida, Seminole Indian History, seminole tribe, Florida Seminoles, seminole indians documentary, WGCU Untold Stories, native, Stories, Americans, Florida, Untold, Untold Stories, WGCU, American Indians history, Native American History, Native Americans, Florida History

Id: _xsfv7HKSy0

Length: 25min 47sec (1547 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021