Essay On The First Seminole Indian War

Through our history historians and college professors have stated the Seminole Indian wars were a series of wars fought between the Indians and the U.S military during our nation’s history. The word Seminole is coming from the Muskogee word “Simano-Li” taken originally from the Spanish “Cimarron” meaning wild or runaway. The Seminole tribe united in the 1700’s when groups of Indians from the Southwest lands had to flee from being enslaved. The Seminole Indians and other Indians settled in Florida which during that time was being held by the Spanish. During the year 1817 the Seminoles were accused if hiding runaway slaves. Because of this Andrew Jackson gave the order to 3,000 troops to attack the Seminoles and to make sure they didn’t return

to burn their land. This would be the start of the Seminole Wars. Some of the wars in our history were fought over what was called the Indian removal. According to Ron Soodalter, “The Second Seminole War started because of broken treaties that repeatedly sought to change the boundaries of the Seminole Indian reservation and in the end push the Seminoles out of Florida altogether. There were other Indians worth mentioning like the Choctaw, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and finally the Seminoles who were pushed out of their native land to move west to a so called reservation for the Indians under the Indian removal act. This movement became known as the Trail of Tears. There were upward of 6,000 Indians who perished in this forced removal mainly from the Cherokee tribe to which the Trail of Tears originated from. The Indian tribes perished from disease, starvation and exposure. It was a harsh event to try to control the lands of the Indians but for that time period that is how it was. I feel that these Indian wars and forced removal were not justified and un-necessary. Unfortunately the Indians were considered one of the United States biggest enemies. The Indian removals were a part of the greed present during the days of the pioneering in the early to mid-1800.
In 1832 the Payne Landing Treaty would take away all the land from the Seminole Indians. Later in 1834 the treaty was revised which allowed the Seminoles three longer and then they were to leave. The Seminoles became angry with this because they were being forced to move three years from the original treaty and not three years after the change These problems create the great Seminole wars. The U.S Army and the Seminoles fought three wars between 1816 and 1858. One of these wars that was fought was the Second Seminole Indian war. This war was fought for seven years. But the Second Seminole War fought from 1835-1842 cost upward of 530 million dollars more than the annual federal budget at the time and resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,400 Soldiers, this war started with the Dade Massacre, in which a Seminole Indian faction led by Seminole Indian chief Osceola ambushed 110 Soldiers led by Major Francis Dade while on march. On December 28th 1835 Chief Osceola murdered an Indian agent by the name Wiley Thompson which help fuel the fire for the battle against the Indians. There was supposed to be a peace pact but it was broken by the U.S Army. Many Soldiers would perish in these battles a lot were from disease. The forced removal from Florida caused about 3,000-4,000 Seminole Indians deaths and other deaths made some wonder why was all this necessary. The Seminole Indian removal was turned into what could have been a peaceful move into bloody fighting, Chief Osceola said “He would fight until the last drop of Seminole Indian blood moistened the dust of his hurting ground.
During the Seminole Wars one of the major battles that was fought between the Seminole and the U.S was the battle of Lake Okeechobee in which Colonel Zachary Taylor won a Pyrrhic victory over the Seminole allies, claiming success even though the U.S suffered greater casualties. Eventually over 10,000 regulars and 30,000 militia served in the Florida conflict. In 1842 the U.S military and the Indians came to an agreement allowing for several hundred Seminole Indians to remain in Florida. By 1856 the Seminoles were handed Indian Territory which was part of the creek country that later became known as the Seminole Nation. Today the Seminole Indians are recognized as one of five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma. On the global impact area regarding the Seminole Indian wars the Seminole Indians are people that have left us with a lot of their culture. Today as a present-day presence of the Indians most of them reside in Oklahoma. The Seminole continued tradition by making their Basketry which is made from the sweet grass from the Oklahoma land to which the Seminole Indians have been making for the last 60 years. Also with that they make their beautiful beads. The Chickee style architecture they used for homes was designed for quick disposal when they were on the run from United States troops. The Indian chiefs involved the Seminole wars were William Powell “Osceola” this Seminole Indian chief also went by “Black Drink” or Asiyahola” Chief Osceola fought and won five battles against U.S generals, during the 8 years of the Seminole Indian wars it cost an average of 50 U.S million dollars. One repercussion of these Indian wars was that if any of the Seminole Indians or any of the Indians in general cooperated with the white men they were punished by the Indian chiefs. Chief Osceola was the Indian chief who murdered the Indian agent John Williams. Another Seminole Indian chief who was involved in the Seminole Indian wars was chief Juan Caballo “Gopher John” He began as a black slave to the Seminole Indian then became a black Seminole warrior.
The breakdown of the Seminole wars was the First Seminole Indian war was (1817-1818) the second Seminole Indian war was (1835-1842) followed by the third Seminole Indian war (1855-1858) The first Seminole Indian war began with the invasion of the Eastern Florida by U.S Army forces commanded by General Andrew Jackson.

With the invasion Jackson’s troops destroyed the Seminole Indian crops, they stole their livestock and without hesitation destroyed Negro forts in the Apalachicola river regions. The presence of runaway slaves and maroons living among the Seminole which today is known as the Black Seminoles was another sore point. The largest battle fought of the war was between the Black Seminoles and the U.S troops. The second Seminole war was when we see Guerrilla tactics. Under Chief Micanopy 4,000 Seminole Indians and 800 black Seminole allies along with almost 1400 allied Seminole warriors fought against the whites. A major battle would be fought between the Seminole Indians the U.S troops at the battle of Lake Okeechobee in which Colonel Zachary Taylor won. It was in the second Seminole Indian war that Chief Osceola was captured under false flag of truce and would die later at Fort Marion. It was at this point that many of the Seminole Indians were forcibly removed and exiled to the Creek lands west of the Mississippi others would retreat to the Everglades where they would become known as the

Miccosukee.
The Third Seminole Indian war would follow and would be the final clash over land between the Seminole Indian and the White settlers. The third Seminole war was also known as the Billy Bowlegs’ war. By the time the conflict was declared finished on May 8th, 1858 there were fewer than 200 than Seminoles Indians residing in Florida. At the point Bowlegs surrendered and he only had forty warriors with him. In this Third and final war it was a clash of Intermittent guerilla conflict between the Seminole Indians and the United States. Billy Bowlegs was paid in the end by the U.S government to move to the Indian territory after that about 300 Seminole Indians remained in Florida exclusively in the Everglades.