The Legacy of Removal: Seminole Resistance, Survival, and Triumph

Seminoles and Seminole ancestors have fought for their place in Florida, and their homelands, for centuries. Since the first Spanish colonizers came to the shores of La Florida, they have fought against the tide of removal, assimilation, and eradication. But the most blatant of these injustices were policies taken by the United States government. This includes the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

This week, join us as we look at the lasting impacts of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. We will also explore the STOF THPO’s most recent StoryMap. It traces Seminole Removal, the Indian Removal Act, and the lasting effects through time and space. We encourage you to explore this and other StoryMaps from the THPO, which can be found here.

Today in our featured image, you can see the Seminole Removal Trail as depicted by the STOF-THPO in their new StoryMap.

 

The Indian Removal Act of 1830

President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law on May 28, 1830. The Act authorized him to grant lands west of the Mississippi River to Indigenous tribes in exchange for their ancestral homelands. While this language sounds benign, in reality it authorized the forced removal and relocation of entire communities, cultures, and tribes of people.

Heavily targeted by the Act were the “Five Civilized Tribes:” the Indigenous peoples of the southeast which includes the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Muscogee, and Seminole. The removal affected an estimated 100,000 people, the majority being relocated from 1830 to 1840. While a few went willingly, most were fiercely opposed to this removal. The most famous relocation movement, the Cherokee “Trail of Tears,” happened in the winter of 1838 and 1839. Over 8,000 Cherokee people perished on the forced march.

Unfortunately, these stories of death, forced relocation, and heartbreak are a common thread throughout the story of Indigenous removal. An estimated 17,000 southeastern Indigenous peoples were eradiated in this push for relocation. The scars from this policy can still be seen in Indian Country today.

 

A Shrinking Homeland

But pressure on Seminoles to relocate, assimilate, or remove themselves from their ancestral lands did not start, or even end, with the Indian Removal Act. The Spanish first came to Florida in 1513, with the arrival of Juan Ponce de Leon’s expedition. He would subsequently claim the peninsula for Spain. Following the Spanish arrival, the Seminole ancestor’s range would slowly shift, shrink, and become further constrained as the centuries passed. With the power shift from Spain to the United States, they were pushed onto even smaller pieces of land. Below, you can see an image from the STOF-THPO StoryMap. It depicts Indigenous historic and ancestral range, overlapped by Spanish occupied territory.

It should be noted that there was significant interaction between the Indigenous peoples of Florida and the Spanish. The boundaries of these territories were not strictly defined, and trade and movement were prolific.

 

The Treaty of Moultrie Creek

The Spanish ceded the Florida territory to the United States in 1821. Immediately after, the United States began a series of campaigns aimed at constraining and controlling Seminole lands. U.S. Army officials pressured a few Seminole leaders to sign the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823. Later nullified and never fulfilled, it forced Seminoles to a small reservation in the center of the state (below).

Although a select few, such as Micanopy, had signed the Treaty, the majority of Seminole leaders rejected the treaty, citing it as unjust. The Treaty of Moultrie Creek highlights the U.S. government’s deep misunderstanding of Indigenous groups in Florida at the time. Rather than a unified ‘Seminole’ nation, the region was home to many distinct bands, each with its own leadership. Those who signed the treaty did so in an effort to hold onto what land they could — even though it had already been greatly reduced. But the treaty ultimately worked against them, and those who signed were among the first to be removed following the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Fort Brooke was established in 1824 to enforce the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. Around this time, the United States government also began to erect and establish a number of forts throughout the state and in key locations. These forts were also intended to put pressure on Seminoles, disrupt their movement, and effectively force them to a smaller geographic area.

It also, after the Indian Removal Act, gave them the increased military presence needed to capture, detain, and deport Seminoles north. These forts were liberally spread throughout the state, forcing Seminoles further south and inland. Below, in another map from the STOf-THPO, you can see the distribution of U.S. military forts erected during this time. Those established in the first half of the removal process are in light orange.

 

The Seminole Trail of Tears

Seminoles were fiercely opposed to removal and did not want to leave their homelands. By the time the Seminole War period was over, the Seminole population in Florida would shrink from almost 5,000 to only a few hundred. The war period was also incredibly expensive. According to the National Museum of the American Indian, the U.S. government spent $20 million dollars (about $4,545.45 per person) removing and relocating ~4,400 Seminoles to Indian Territory.

In our featured image, you can see the pathway that many Seminoles would have taken from their homelands in Florida north to Indian Territory. Many were gathered at various forts throughout the state, like Fort Myers located on the map. They were then shipped north via steamers such as the infamous Grey Cloud. Egmont Key, located in present day Tampa Bay, acted as a concentration camp and holding area for hundreds of Seminoles before they were shipped further north.

The small key was the site of incredible suffering, as Seminole captives (most of whom were women, children, and elders) were imprisoned on their forced journey north. Many would begin in Fort Myers, stopping at Egmont Key for a time, before travelling further up through St. Marks, New Orleans, and eventually to Fort Gibson. Fort Gibson was often the last stop on the Trail of Tears before being forced onto federal reservations (Egmont Key 12-13). Although no archaeological record remains of the internment on Egmont Key, newspapers at the time referred to it as a stockade, or prison. Seminoles have referred to it as “The Dark Place,” “Our Alcatraz,” and a concentration camp (Egmont Key 11).

 

Polly Parker

One name that is synonymous with Seminole resistance, resilience, and refusal to give up is that of Polly Parker. Polly was on the last journey of the steamer the Grey Cloud in 1858. She had been captured two years earlier on Fisheating Creek in 1856. In 1858, Billy Bowlegs, Polly Parker, and 162 other Seminoles were held at Egmont Key. While at Egmont Key, she later recounted being held under armed guard in the stockade (Egmont Key 14). As the Grey Cloud travelled further, it stopped south of Tallahassee at St. Marks to refuel. From there, the prisoners were bound for New Orleans, and then the Mississippi River before reaching Fort Gibson.

For most, that is how the story played out. But, not for Polly Parker. There are conflicting accounts as to if Polly had planned her escape with others, or if it was a spur of the moment decision. While at St. Marks, Polly was allowed to go gather medicine for those who were ill on the journey.

In a 2022 The Marjorie Magazine article Mahala Billie Osceola was asked to reflect on Egmont Key and the story of Polly Parker following a visit to the site. She recalled what she had learned, saying “When I asked my mother Mariann Billie, she said, ‘I learned later on she [Parker] was told to just go. Don’t worry about the people who she was collecting medicine for — the sick on the boat — because they said she needed to warn the Seminole people they were going to die eventually. So, she saved herself to warn as many as she could.’”

Polly Parker would walk over 300 miles home, back to Okeechobee. She would continue to live in her homelands and build her family around her. This is a legacy that can still be seen today, in people like Mahala Billie Osceola. She shares that “Polly Parker’s legacy continues to live on through her family, which continues to grow bigger throughout the years. My mother, who is one of Polly Parker’s many descendants, decided to create a family tree for a family reunion in honor of Polly Parker.”

When asked how they were related, she said, “Polly Parker is my third great grandma. She is my grandpa’s great grandma. She is my mom’s dad’s great grandma.”

 

The Myth of “Post-Removal”

Those who were removed from Florida were forcibly relocated to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s Reservation in Oklahoma. This brought with it its own challenges, and put them at odds with other tribes. They struggled with the environmental shifts, as well as lacking their own separate land and governance. As with many other removal policies, this sought to undermine their own cultural identity and independence from other Indigenous groups. Leaders like Holatta Micco (Billy Bowlegs) fought for the Seminoles to have their own land and reservation.

In 1856, the Seminoles would finally secure their own reservation in Indian Territory, leading to the formation of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. That is why today there are two separate Seminole tribal entities: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Although they share many common historic threads, their paths diverged after removal. The remaining few hundred Florida Seminoles would eventually become the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Often in the history books, there is a line drawn once the official “removal” policies end. This idea of “post-removal” life is one that is much more nuanced than that. The Seminole War period and Indian Removal decimated the Indigenous peoples of the southeast, including the Seminole. Those who were left behind were forced to pick up the pieces with only a few hundred people left. For decades after, they also lived warily, waiting once again for U.S. troops to come roust them from the Everglades. Abiaka (Sam Jones) led the Seminole people deeper into the Everglades, guarding against further encroachment by the United States.

In the 1950s Indian Termination policies became the latest effort to control, eradicate, and manage the Indigenous “problem.” Indian termination would have culturally assimilated Seminoles and other Indigenous groups, stripped them of their sovereignty, and taken their land. In direct response to these policies the Seminole Tribe of Florida fought for federal recognition, which they were awarded in 1957.

 

Tracing Seminole Removal with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office

The STOF-THPO’s new StoryMap builds a temporal and geographic walk-through of Seminole Removal, tracing the pathways of those who were forcibly removed, relocated, and stolen from their homelands. The pieces of the map that have been shared here are not complete. We deeply encourage you to explore the entire work, as it is much more complex than can be shared over a few static images. It also shines a light on the geographic distribution of legacy that we can see from leaders who escaped, such as Polly Parker.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida today is directly connected with the struggles and sacrifices of those during the removal period. We heartily encourage you to explore the StoryMap and reflect on the living legacies of those who came before. Link below!

 

The Indian Removal Act: The Seminole Tribe of Florida by Gladiz Velez, Geospatial Analyst

 

 

Additional Resources

Egmont Key: A Seminole Story. The Seminole Tribe of Florida Tribal Historic Preservation Office. https://stofthpo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Egmont-Key-Digital-book-web.pdf.

 

Author Bio

Originally from Washington state, Deanna Butler received her BA in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Washington in 2014. Deanna moved to Florida in 2016. Soon, she began working for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Deanna was the THPO’s Archaeological Collections Assistant from 2017-2021. While at the THPO, Deanna worked to preserve, support, and process the Tribe’s archaeological collection. She often wrote the popular Artifact of the Month series and worked on many community and educational outreach programs. She lives in Lakeland, FL with her husband, two sons, and dog.