The Seminole Wars

The history of the indigenous peoples of Florida is a profound narrative of resilience and resistance, marked by the tumultuous encounters with European colonizers. This episode elucidates the initial contact between indigenous tribes and European explorers, detailing how the arrival of these outsiders catalyzed a series of violent conflicts, notably the Creek Wars and the subsequent Seminole Wars. The Seminole tribe, emerging as a formidable force, not only resisted colonization but also provided refuge to enslaved Africans, thus complicating the socio-political landscape of the region. Through an examination of the three Seminole Wars, we will explore the tenacity of the Seminole people in maintaining their autonomy against overwhelming odds. Ultimately, their legacy as the "Unconquered People" underscores a poignant chapter in the broader narrative of native resistance within the annals of American history.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We are all aware of theoutcome of European colonization
of the United States.
We know that over time,disease, expansionism and full on
treachery led to the forcedrelocation of indigenous people who
called this land now known asthe United States.
Hundreds of different tribes,maybe even thousands, populated the
United States.
And most of them foundthemselves at odds with an enemy

(00:22):
who had superior weapons,funding and a natural immunity to
diseases that they carriedwith them.
This ultimately put the nativepeople in a tough spot where they
either felt forced to signtreaties that gave the land they
and their ancestors had huntedand survived on for thousands of
years, or they felt that theyshould fight to the end.

(00:42):
Today we will be looking intoa glimpse of this fight at the people
who to this day still claim tobe the unconquered tribe whose actions
in giving runaway slaves a newhome may have caused the actions
against them to be even moredrastic than they already were going
to be.
The Seminole People of Floridaand a brief history of Florida as
well.
All that and a little extra onanother episode of the Remedial Scholar.

(01:10):
Holy smokes.
Welcome to the Remedial Scholar.
I am your host, Levi and I'vemissed you.
I know I made this bigdeclaration of things are going to
be different.
I'm going to stay on top of this.
And then I went and got a jobwhere I have to be up at 4am so my
schedule has been walked andit has prevented me from finishing

(01:31):
this episode specifically in atimely manner.
But you know, excuses, excuses.
I'm just, I'm trying to get better.
That's all I'm trying to do.
But you know, I'm ready to get going.
Once again.
I hope you have been having agood year so far and if you are new
here, welcome a littlereintroduction because my multi hiatus
nature makes me feel like Ineed to explain the show and mission

(01:53):
before we get too far ahead.
I have an obsession for allthings history.
Always have, always will.
This show allows me to lookinto some of the lesser known topics,
but sometimes more knowntopics in history.
But I do try to findconnections and details that are
unique.
Do I always succeed?
Per chance, you be the judge.
But if you like history of anykind, then you're probably going

(02:14):
to like this show.
All right.
So with that out of the way,this is a topic that was not a direct
request.
But you know, I have beenasked previously to cover more indigenous
topics, which can be hardconsidering many of the tribes in
the United States relied onoral traditions of, excuse me, of
storytelling.
So there's a Lot of detailthat has been lost.
But luckily for us, we're inthe 21st century and there is a resurgence

(02:38):
in documenting about as muchof these things as we possibly can,
along with other things.
So I like this topic becauseit covers a wide range of things
and all of them are important.
Stories like this are, I feel,seldom discussed, as evident by the
fact that it was so hard forme to find any up to date videos
or anything.
This topic also follows alonga few key components of the United

(03:01):
States history and showcaseswhy this country is so intriguing
and rich.
With diverse stories acrossthe board, we have an umbrella of
this topic, a tale ofresilience, cultural fusion and freedom,
minus the Mel Gibson.
It also spans across Europeanhistory, briefly, kind of specifically

(03:21):
the Spanish and Brit Britishcolonies in North America, the indigenous
cultures.
But we are going to focusmostly on the Florida ones and also
the history and subjugation ofAfricans into slavery and their resistance
to that plight.
This, I believe, is a veryimportant topic to share.
Stories such as these, Ibelieve, are, you know, only going

(03:43):
to be more and more importantas time goes on.
So this episode has a fewpieces, so I want to share with you
the direction we're going tobe going.
Firstly, a little refresher onindigenous people in North America.
Then we're going to discussthe first encounters with Europeans,
how that changed life for theindigenous people, and then eventually
get to the birth of theSeminole tribe.

(04:04):
So to give a little historicalpreamble for this episode, we are
once again going to travelback to early nomadic people.
The leading theory, especiallyfor the indigenous people of North
America, is that they followedthe, the big game, the large beasties
across the bearing land Bridgearound 1618,000 BCE and then they
kind of split up into variousgroups depending on what animal they

(04:28):
preferred to hunt or whattheir style was.
So this is kind of a refresher.
We talked a little bit aboutthis in the the Maya episode, but
there's, you know, bloodtyping and DNA evidence that links
the two separate migrations ofindigenous people in North America
to those of Eastern Siberia,heck, even, maybe even link some

(04:48):
of them with the Manzi people.
The Dyatlov Pass episode asthe last ice Age waned and the tribes
that migrated changed theirpatterns of habitation more and more
becoming sedentary, semi nomadic.
Not the case across the board.
Obviously those in like theGreat Plains region still relied
heavily on following huntingherds, right?

(05:10):
Various game, like the bison,a big chunk, especially on the coasts,
started to make farming a habit.
By the 5th century BCE stillthere was a lot of, a lot of hunting
going on even in modern day Florida.
With some.
Like in what would be modernday Florida.
Sorry.
With some mammoth bones andcarvings depicting hunting from around

(05:32):
12,000 BCE found in Florida.
Florida back then, verydifferent from today.
Almost zero people eating eachother's faces or throwing a live
alligator through a drivethrough window.
Florida man trademarking jokesaside, Florida mantm, the climate
at the time was very different.
Different enough to enable thesurvival of a relative of the mammoths

(05:54):
we discussed recently, the mastodon.
Other fun creatures andcritters involved in the food chain
of these early Floridaresidents were things like the giant
armadillos, which soundspretty awesome.
It turns out that they arecurrently around though.
But I imagine just huge armadillos.
Just, you know, they couldhave used the shells as roofs for

(06:14):
their houses or something as.
Because my brain's dumb.
They also had camels.
Interesting.
And horses, which is asurprise because, you know, since
the stories always told thatthe Spanish brought horses and the
natives love them.
Turns out horses actuallyevolved in North America millions
of years ago and migrated toEurasia from the Bering Land bridge.

(06:36):
They did a little reverse ofwhat the indigenous people did.
Horses did eventually die outin the changing landscape in North
America and also were hunted.
Like the people living theredid eat them.
Which is why, you know, maybethat's why they were such a big hit
to indigenous people when theycame back.
You know, they, we, we, werecognize these things through some

(06:59):
sort of like DNA or something.
But anyway, super interesting,but we have humans entering the Americas
from anywhere 12 to 20,000years ago.
And then we have horses havingbeen introduced into Asia and Europe
beginning around 8,000 to amillion years ago.
Around 8,000 BCE or roughly10,000 years ago, they die out.

(07:19):
But you know, they would havebeen around for pretty much the entire
time native people were inNorth America to that point.
So maybe they did recognize them.
I don't know.
Aside from the interestinganimals across the land, the shape
of Florida was actually quitedifferent back then.
Instead of the iconic yetphallic peninsula currently in observance,
the shape of the SunshineState was more of a thimble.

(07:40):
It was.
The climate's also verydifferent, as I discussed, with the
wider land being much colder.
And the biggest difference tome, much more dry, which is surprising.
Aside from the ocean watersurrounding it, the only water sources
stemmed from sinkholes deepinland, which native people began
to settle around around 8,000 BCE.
The same time horses leftAmerica, the glaciers began to melt.

(08:03):
This caused a few things One,rising sea levels, and two, the land
became wet, real wet.
I don't know if I needed toemphasize it like that, but I did.
So anyway, here we are.
Many of these prehistoriclocations of indigenous people, you
know, they could have beenlost to the sea, like their habitats

(08:24):
and things, but still some arefound, which helps understand this
period a little bit.
People back then also livedinland near freshwater sources like
the sinkhole water pits that Italked about.
Around 600 years after thegreat pyramids were finished, fired
pottery was beginning tobecome a thing for the indigenous
people.
This is a little after thefirst settlements began to pop up

(08:44):
around the coast and waterfilled sinkholes.
But as mentioned a moment ago,the settlements on the coast are
now submerged.
Right.
As these early Floridians nearsettled near reliable water sources,
their way of life began toshift from just purely hunting and
gathering to somethingsomewhat more stable.
By around 500 CE, communitiesbegan to form in ways that suggest

(09:09):
sense of permanence and organization.
People were still hunting andfishing, of course.
Florida's waters were richwith fish, you know, shellfish, manatees,
stupid, sexy manatees and, andeven alligators, which they would
ride, of course.
No, but farming was beginningto take hold.
Land, especially in northernand central parts of the region,

(09:30):
was well suited for crops likecorn, obviously beans and squash,
often referred to as the threesisters because they were grown together
in a symbiotic way thatbenefited all three plants.
Farther south you went, theharder it was to sustain large scale
agriculture due to the marshy,sandy terrain, subtropical climate.

(09:52):
This is why the groups in thesouthern tip of Florida remain mostly
semi nomadic, relying more onfishing and forging and seasonal
migration rather than farming.
During this time, we seecomplex societies become more, more
and more complex.
You know, they weren't justscattered families eking out a living
in the wilderness.
Instead, they were organizedcommunities with clear leadership

(10:13):
structures, trade networks,large scale construction projects.
Some groups, like the Calusaon the Gulf coast built entire villages
on massive shell mounds,essentially creating their own high
ground in a state that neverhad much of it.
These mounds, called middens,were constructed using discarded
oyster and clam shells, or theshell of the giant armadillo, which

(10:38):
they formed raised platformsthat protected them from flooding
and provided vantage pointsfor defense.
The Calusa were unique in thatthey thrived without relying on farming,
instead mastering fishing andwaterway control, using dugout canoes
to navigate the intricate mazeof Florida's rivers and coastline.
For the north, the Appalachianand the Panhandle developed the sophisticated

(10:59):
agricultural systems and builtceremonial centers that resembled
temple mounds of theMississippian cultures.
Further inland, the Apalachee,known for their warrior society and
organized governance,cultivated vast corn fields and engaged
in ritual ball games that wereimportant both socially and religiously.
They lived in large circularhouses with central council houses

(11:22):
that could hold hundreds ofpeople and reinforcing.
They had this structuredsociety over in the Tampa Bay area.
The Tokabanga.
Tokabaga.
I don't know why I threw anend in there.
Tocobaga built their owndistinct villages, often centered
around a main plaza and largetemple mounds where their leaders
lived.

(11:42):
The Tokabaga were known fortheir use of wooden bows and powerful
long way long range arrows,making them formidable opponents
in battle.
They also harvested coontineplants which which was processed
into a starchy flower,providing them with an important
food source.
Beyond hunting and fishing,trade between these groups was extensive,
Moving through Florida'srivers, coasts, and even overland

(12:06):
routes.
Shells, pottery and othergoods made their way far beyond Florida's
borders, With evidencesuggesting that trade networks stretch
as far as the Great Lakes inthe Mississippi River Valley.
Pretty impressive.
This means that Florida'snative people were far from isolated.
They were part of a vast webof exchange that linked them to distant
cultures across North America.
Goods such as copper from theMidwest, mica from the Appalachian.

(12:29):
Appalachian.
I tried to combine bothpronunciations and once.
The Appalachian mountains andexotic stones from as far as the
Southwest have all been foundin Florida archaeological sites showing
just how interconnected thesesocieties truly were.
And while they may not havebuilt pyramids like the Egyptians,
they engineered impressive complexes.

(12:50):
They had intricate canalsystems, crafted sophisticated tools,
pottery, ceremony objects thatstill give us a glimpse into their
world.
You know, they weren't justsurviving, they were thriving.
And I think it is important tonote because, you know, media portrayal
doesn't always like toshowcase this.
So.
All right, loose summary ofnative Floridians up to just before

(13:13):
the Spanish landing on theshores to give another brief summary
of the expedition that led to that.
The Columbus expedition, whichthen led to the Ponce de Leon who
went to Florida.
And this was before JackSparrow was in search of his treasure
and the Fountain of youth,which is.
I could.
It's weird because a lot ofsources describe this as a rumor

(13:36):
and a myth attributed to him.
But then a few sources just belike, yeah, no Ponce de Leon.
He really was into that.
So I don't really know.
The jury's out anyway.
Columbus, Christopher J.
Columbus, sailed across theAtlantic Ocean in 1492 in an effort
to find a route to Asia, forthe Spanish talked about this in

(13:57):
the Pirate two parter.
But those of you who are new,this is important information in
my opinion.
Anyway, at the time, theoceans of the world, known world,
had been split up betweendominant powers in Europe.
Unbeknownst to those residingin the rest of the world, Portugal
had claimed a route aroundAfrica in 1479, which was the only
way to ship to get to Asia.

(14:19):
Only way by ship to get toAsia via chartered waters.
All right, this is importantto note because there's this myth,
and I talked about it in thepirate episode for so long that Columbus
was sailing west to prove thatthe earth was round, that nobody
went west because it wassurmised that there was a cliff that
they were going to fly off of.
And this is nonsense.
They knew there was somethingover there, they just didn't know
what.
And nobody had charted it atthis point.

(14:40):
So Spain and Portugal were thetwo dominant naval powers at the
time, and Portugal beat Spainand claiming a route to Asia around
Africa.
So then Spain decided, decidedto hire some explorers to be the
first to go and figure outfind a way to Asia that didn't encroach
on Portugal's route.
Right.
The seafaring route was themost logical as the Ottoman Empire

(15:02):
presented a difficultroadblock in any attempts to reach
Asia by land.
So either had to buy thingsmarked up crazy high by the middlemen
who could actually travel thatway, or.
Well, actually, that was kindof it.
So they did.
Columbus had advocated for awestward route to Asia and told the
Spanish ground that he coulddo it.
So they let him.
He actually did pitch thisidea to the Portuguese, but they

(15:24):
told him that his estimatedtravel mileage was super duper low
and that his voyage would befour times the length of his proposal.
Which is true.
They were right.
His queen.
He asked Queen Isabella andher advisors and they came to the
same conclusion, but she paidhim a year's salary not to tell anyone,
which is kind of weird.
Like, all right, anyway,eventually they reached an agreement

(15:45):
and away he went.
First voyage, he traveledreached the Bahamas, then Cuba, then
Hispaniola.
Second voyage from 1493 to 1496.
He got to the other side ofCuba, but then looped back around
to Hispaniola again, bouncingaround various islands in the Caribbean.
Voyage number three in 1498.
He actually made landfall inSouth America first, which is exciting.

(16:08):
Finally got to a continent.
But fate would have it back toHispaniola again and then back to
Spain in 1500.
His westward voyage in 1502did manage to reach Central America,
but never making it past theYucatan or even into the Gulf of
Mexico.
Yet somehow we're supposed tobe excited about him once a year
in the United States and neverstep foot on the future American

(16:31):
soil Anyway, while not everbeing successful in anything that
he set out to do, he did leadthe way for follow up expeditions.
A lot of copycats, if you will.
This is also a good spot toinform you that the etymology of
the new world.
In 1507, America was recordedas a reference to the new continent

(16:51):
of South America, then laterapplied to both north and South America,
stemming from the Italianexplorer Amerigo Vespucci, Latinized
and then Anglicanized into America.
The feminine twist on it is inreference to the land, as in Asia,
Africa, Europa.
So, yeah, anyway, back to the explorers.
One such expedition is Poncede Leon, who traveled to the region

(17:15):
in 1513 and has been tied tobeing the first explorer to see modern
day Florida.
Such as most of theseexplorative tales, there's strong
belief that someone did beathim to the punch.
There's a map from Portugalthat actually shows Florida and it
predates his expedition by 10 years.
I looked at the map, whoknows, it's hard to tell because

(17:36):
it's such a vague map.
But the thing that is reallyinteresting though is that Ponce
de Leon recognized that whenhe encountered the native people,
they kind of understood whathe was saying.
So he's like, well, maybesomebody was here before.
Which obviously somebody hadto have been there before if they,
if some of them knew roughlywhat he was saying.

(17:56):
Anyway, regardless, Ponce deLeon is one of the most notable explorers
of the time, largely creditedwith being the first European to
explore Florida.
He was the one who named it as well.
He arrived in the springduring Easter time and saw this island
and he's like, oh, this is alovely island and it's blooming with
the flowers.
And this kind of tied in with Easter.

(18:19):
So he decreed the land LaPasca de la Florida, the Feast of
the Flowers.
So, yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
Pretty.
You know this.
It's kind of not as excitingas I thought it was going to be.
If I'm being honest, I'm alittle let down, but it's okay.
When Pasta Leone and hisfriends arrived, their first interactions

(18:39):
with the indigenous people wasnot one that is comparable to the
tales around Thanksgiving withthe pilgrims.
Spanish were not entirely surewhat was happening and were still
under the impression that theywere in the islands near Asia and
must have been surprised whenthey got very hostile reactions that
they did because they probablythought that these people had interacted

(19:00):
with the Portuguese at thevery least.
Right.
And this was also why themoniker Indians.
Right.
Was given by the people, bythe Spanish people, to the native
people in the region since,you know, they had completely screwed
up their mission and refusedto believe they were wrong.
So this also feels like a goodtime to let you know that the term
American Indianinterchangeably can be used interchangeably

(19:23):
with Native Americans.
Super common American Indian.
Every now and then I'll besaying Indian just because that's
what it said in the source,but also, by and large, it's not
necessarily that abhorrent ofa thing to say.
When appropriate, I will tryto use the tribal names or just native

(19:44):
or indigenous, whatever those.
These are all the things thatI'm going to be saying, so don't
be shocked if you hear them.
Anyway, another littlesidetrack here, but you know the
North Sentinel island, theisland near India where there are
this indigenous people whothrow spears at anyone trying to
approach and, you know, havekilled various missionaries trying

(20:06):
to send them the word ofJeebus there.
There aren't really anydocumented interactions from outside
the.
From outside cultures to thisgroup before the 18th century, but
this is probably the, like,the best modern example I can think
of that parallels what it musthave been like to have the Spanish
arrive in the Americas.
Right.
Anyway, back to Ponce de Leon,the father of kings of Leon.

(20:29):
No.
Juan came back to Florida in1521 with the intention to start
a colony.
He traveled with livestock,settlers and priests, as well as.
As well as supplies toestablish that colony should they
not be able to forage whatthey need.
The group landed in what isnow known as Charlotte Harbor.
And yeah, they pretty quicklyrealized this was a bad move.

(20:51):
The settlers were driven offby the Calusa people who we discussed
a little bit ago.
And, you know, they'd beenaround in this area for a hot minute.
And the Calusa were Florida'soriginal power players.
Fierce warriors, skilledengineers, masters of the sea.
Unlike most of the indigenousgroups, they hadn't.
They didn't farm.
We talked about that.

(21:13):
You know, their entiresocieties around fishing and water
stuff.
So pretty impressive, very organized.
They had a heretical.
Not a heretical hereditary chief.
Right.
It's passed down through lineage.
And when Ponce de Leon showedup in 1513 and they, he.

(21:37):
That's.
That's who he interacted with.
And then in 1521 happened again.
They remembered he got woundedwith a poisoned arrow and then he
died.
So, yeah, for the next twocenturies they fiercely resisted
Spanish rule.
But by the 1700s disease,warfare and slave raids from the

(21:58):
British back tribes devastatedthe Calusa.
But the Spanish nobden trying, right?
They, they, they really wanted Florida.
The hard headed never learn, I guess.
The next major expedition inFlorida was that of Pamphilo de Narv
Narvaez who arrived near TampaBay in 1528.

(22:20):
He showed up thinking militarymight was enough to force the native
people he encountered togiving him golden food.
They looted villages, campsand found the Tokabaga and Apalachee
tribes he met.
You know, they didn'tappreciate this at all.
Soon, soon Panfilo foundhimself and his 300 men hungry and
unable to find the supportships that were supposed to come

(22:42):
for them.
The two tribes both utilizeguerrilla warfare, quick hit and
run attacks, ambushes andsuperior understanding of the territory
to terrorize these guys, theseattempted conquistadors.
The Spanish fled trying toreach me, the Arrafs, but they were
all lost at Sea.
Only four men survived thisexpedition out of 300.

(23:04):
That's rough.
That's, that's Magellan.
Levels of embarrassing goodnews is the failed attempts continued.
The next main one from 1539and lasted a decent amount of time
comparatively.
Hernando de Soto landed nearTampa Bay as well.
This time the Spanish were notmessing around.
More than 600 soldiers arrivedbringing horses and artillery.

(23:24):
Big time invasion.
And I realize that I underminetheir intensity when I say horsies,
but it's funny to me, so dealwith it.
He took his predecessor'sintensity and brutality and kicked
it up several notches.
He attacked villages,kidnapped leaders and ransom them.
You know, normal stuff for the Spanish.
He fought his way through thesoutheast region, but he also used
some trickeration to appeasenative people.

(23:45):
Had did the old party trick ofpretending to be a God of sorts to
pacify some of the people he encountered.
Neither the exact route orplace of death of De Soto is known,
but he did die of a fever in1542, which is either near modern
day Lake Village, Arkansas,MacArthur, Arkansas or Faraday, Louisiana.
They were in search of goldentreasure and found none.

(24:07):
They also lost a good chunk oftheir men because they were constantly
fighting local tribeseverywhere they went.
Eventually the survivors fleddown the Mississippi river and this
trip did a little did littleto solidify any standing Spanish
foothold in the New World.
The next attempt was one thatis now is landed in what is now known

(24:28):
as Pensacola, former briefhome of mine.
In 1559, Tristan de Luna yArellano established a settlement
there but as Florida oftendoes, it was hit by a hurricane and
completely dismantled andabandoned by 1561.
Also how horrific a hurricanemust have been back then.
Scary enough now and we have,you know, very advanced engineering

(24:52):
techniques and things tocombat such strenuous way like this.
Just crazy amounts of power inthis weather thing and it's somewhat
unpredictable, especially back then.
Yeah.
Anyway, unaware or justignorant to the failures of the Spanish,
the French explorers ReneGoyan the Laudonniere nailed it.

(25:14):
Established Fort Caroline inmodern day Jacksonville in 1564.
The difference between the twocountries attempts is that these
guys actually kind of tried tolive amicably with local tribes.
They traded peacefully,working on defensive alliances of
sorts.
I believe that part of this isthe fact that many of these settlers
were Protestant refugeesfleeing religious persecution.

(25:36):
These Kino.
I'm pretty sure that's how it goes.
Refugees had a much morepeaceful nature to them compared
to the less than a centuryremoved from the, the Catholic in
from the Spanish Inquisition.
Catholics, right.
They were like that wasn'tthat long ago for the Spanish.
So it's not like they're goingto be nice.

(25:58):
The Spanish were not pumped bythis, by the French trying to sneak
into their land.
Right.
Quote unquote, their land.
Thinking that their numerousfailed ventures granted them some
sort of claim to, to this land.
Which I would disagree.
I would say since the Frenchmanaged to make peaceful landings
and interactions with thelocal people, they kind of probably

(26:20):
had more right to continue tolive there than the people who continued
to repeatedly get killed andchased out.
Now in 1565 the Spanish led byPedro Menendez de Alvilez established
San Augustine.
St.
Augustine, if you rememberfrom the Pirates episode, St.
Augustine is the oldestcontinuously inhabited European settlement

(26:43):
in the United States.
Later that same year theSpanish attacked and pretty much
annihilated the French fort.
Can't win, you know, can't.
They can't win against thelocal tribes but good golly, they
can fight some Frenchreligious refugees.
The Spanish victory was shortlived as French privateer Dominique
de Juan George attacked andrecaptured the fort with no quarter

(27:07):
given.
AKA everybody died.
Nervous laughter don't.
I'm not laughing at theirdeath, but I kind of am anyway.
St.
Augustine became a hub ofactivity both economic and militarily.
With an actual survivingcolony established.
There was a rush to grow itand defend it.
Missionaries flock to the NewWorld hoping to convert the native

(27:29):
Indians which you know, whilevarious trades arrive hoping to establish
their own network.
St.
Augustine itself was alsoattacked by various things we discussed.
Francis Drake Sir FrancisDrake plundering the city before
also a fire and a hurricanehit the city in the same year 1599.
Still it expanded.

(27:49):
More Europeans traveled to theNew World and this put them at odds
with the, you know, the nativepeople living there.
There was a heavy effort toconvert native population over the
next century.
Between conversions and thediseases carried by the or not by
the United States, by theotherwise immune Europeans.
I don't even know where I gotUnited States in that sentence.
There's no, in my notes.

(28:09):
There's United States is noteven on this page.
I don't know what's happening.
The numbers of the indigenouspeople began to drop drastically.
So the New World had manyfruits to be had in St.
Augustine was somewhat agateway to that for Europeans.
Whoa.
All right.
To Spain, it was a strategicfoothold for controlling Florida

(28:31):
and protecting its treasure fleets.
But to the indigenous peopleof the region, it was, you know,
an unwelcome invasion, I'llsay, that disrupted their lands,
traditions and way of life.
From the very beginning, theTimuca, Apalachee, Guale those those
tribes fought back, attackingSpanish forces and resisting conversion

(28:53):
efforts.
While some indigenous leaderstried to form an alliance, most saw
the Spanish as hostileoccupiers and their fears obviously
not misplaced.
Disease, forced labor andcultural suppression would soon follow.
As Spanish settlementsexpanded across Florida, Georgia,
Texas, California, New Mexico.
Resistance from NativeAmerican groups only intensified.

(29:14):
The Spanish missionaries whoaccompanied these expeditions were
determined to convertindigenous people to Catholicism.
But conversion was rarely voluntary.
Missions were established nearnative villages, offering food, tools
and protection to lure people in.
Once inside the missionsystems, and it is converts were
expected to abandon theirtraditional beliefs, work the fields

(29:37):
and adopt European customs.
Some accepted these changes,hoping to gain favor or trade benefits.
But others resisted.
In Florida, the Apalachee andTimuca, Timucoa, ah periodically
revolted, burning churches,killing Spanish priests.
Meanwhile, in the Southwest,the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was one

(29:58):
of the most successfuluprisings, temporarily driving the
Spanish out of the New Mexicoterritory for over a decade.
But nothing was moredevastating than European diseases.
Smallpox, measles, influenzaswept through all of the communities
faster than any army evercould, wiping out entire villages

(30:18):
before the Spanish, French orBritish even arrived.
With no natural immunity,indigenous populations plummeted.
Some estimates suggest that itwas around 80 to 90% of Native Americans
in North America died due todiseases within the first 200 years
of European contact, which is crazy.
For many tribes, this meantnot just losing their people, but
also their histories, leaders, traditions.

(30:40):
Like I said, a lot of thisstuff is oral Tradition and you have
a good chunk of your tribegone, how are you supposed to learn
anything?
Survivors had to rebuild theircommunities in a world that was rapidly
changing over time.
As European settlements spreadin the United States emerged, Native
Americans were increasinglypushed off of their their lands.
In one podcast I listened towhile doing research for this episode,

(31:03):
a show called Bear Grease,which is, it's great, great show,
definitely recommend it.
But in particular I listenedto a few episodes on the Seminoles
and Osceola and anyway, theywere discussing Native Americans
and early fights withEuropeans and early Americans.
And the host, I can't rememberhis name, but he interviewed a woman

(31:26):
named Dr.
Patricia Wickman who's writtenseveral books on the Seminoles and
stated that the arrival andcolonization of Florida by the Europeans
affected the tribes of theregion in a similar manner to breaking
the like the break in a gameof pool, right?
And billiards.
So you have the cue ball, theEuropean settlers makes contact with

(31:48):
the racked balls, right?
And then they go all over theplace, all these different directions.
And that's kind of whathappened to the tribes in the area.
You know, the.
Well all over the continent,the Europeans, when they showed up,
the tribes scattered all overthe place.
And you know, while I'mfocusing on Florida in this episode,
it should be obvious that theoccurrences to the tribes in North

(32:09):
America were pretty similaracross the board.
Each area had its own varying outcomes.
But for now, until we divedown the rest of the regions and
other topics, I going to begeneralizing a little bit now.
As England began to seek afoothold in the New World, the Spanish
and British both tried to getlocal tribes to help them with their
efforts to expel the other.

(32:30):
This is similar to what theUnited States government would do
later on while they work toremove the American Indians to the
dedicated reservations.
The Spanish had an upper handin this pseudo proxy battle as they
had been established for sometime, right.
They had to began repairingsome of the relations with the tribes
that, you know, didn't moveaway from the carnage that they brought

(32:53):
earlier.
They utilized their Catholicmissions to give food and built shelter
to these guys.
They proselytized, convertingquite a few in the process.
They then utilized to utilizethis to encourage them to defend
Spanish property while theBritish armed other tribes and encouraged
them to attack the Spanish.
Over time, the native tribesin Florida succumbed to the attacks

(33:14):
and the dwindling populationsfrom various illnesses and enslavement.
The main tribes the Spanishhad brought on as defenders were
the Appalachian, the Timuca.
And they were all but Wipedout from this.
So the Spanish actually leanedon more than just the American Indian
as well.
They were also willing togrant a safe haven of some sort to

(33:38):
escape slaves from the north,even giving them a settlement of
their own.
Fort Mosey.
Sidebar on this.
As the Spanish, you know, feltthe need to be more peaceful than
the earlier tactics in orderto secure and defend their colony
in the New World, the Crownissued a decree in 1693 bars to to
grant asylum to anyone whoescaped to Florida as long as they

(33:59):
converted to Catholicism.
This, along with a mandatoryservice of four years and a militia,
granted the asylum seeker safe haven.
And this is anybody, right?
In 1738, the Spanish governorissued a construction order for a
fort north of St.
Augustine.
This would be the place thatall runaway slaves were directed
to go.

(34:20):
Once they accepted a baptismChristian name, accepted the military
militia terms, they were freecitizens in the eyes of Spain.
Not the best circumstances,but infinitely better than what they
were at word of this place,this mythical grass, real de Santa
Teresa de Mose, offeredsanctuary to escaped slaves.
Many would think that thismany would make this journey.

(34:43):
And I think that it is atestament to the harshness of their
previous circumstances thatthey were willing to run from like
all the way up in Virginia toFlorida at a chance of freedom, even
at the cost of their heritageand culture.
And this is going to tie in alittle bit later.
But the British, ever thegents to people who aid them in war,

(35:03):
then began to force the tribesthat helped them, mainly the Creek
and the Yamasee, into Floridato take land for their own.
The Spanish foothold thatlasted close to 200 years had come
to an end following the SevenYears War.
The Seven Years War waslargely fought outside of the scope
of our story.
But, you know, key part ofthis is that Britain had pushed Spain

(35:25):
into ceding Florida to them.
The Seven Years War actuallydid have its first rumblings in the
United States, though the.
No, the term we know it as isthe French and Indian War, which
is essentially a part of theoverarching Seven Years War.
Now, the French and nativetribes fought together against the

(35:46):
British up in the northerncolonies and like in Canada and Ohio.
Yeah.
Anyway, eventually theanimosity shared between the French
and the English expanded into Europe.
And then the war ended in 1763.
Colonial power in NorthAmerica had shifted pretty drastically.
While Britain, you know, theydid technically win this war.

(36:08):
Might notice the year itended, right?
1763.
Okay.
You might be wondering if ithad any effect on the Revolutionary
War.
And well, you would Be correct.
Britain won, securing Canadafrom the French, which led to the
most confused country thereever was.
That maybe South Africa ismore confused, I guess, but they

(36:30):
speak French and English, butmostly French under British rule
until 1982.
And that's not a typo.
I didn't actually write that.
Instead of 1892, 1982, I was.
That was just the other day,you know what I mean?
Like, anyway, Britain alsotook control of French lands east

(36:50):
of the Mississippi andanything west the French gave to
Spain for helping fight Britain.
Spain gave up Florida andessentially England had control of
over half of the exploredUnited States.
Now this sounds all good andwell, but the war became a major
financial strain, basicallydoubling their national debt in the

(37:11):
process of winning.
They also were limited intheir westward expansion, which the
colonists were eager to explore.
But with Spain being incontrol, and I use that term loosely,
they had nowhere to go.
The financial burden was takenon and put on the American colonists,
heavily taxed and also givenzero representation for the massive

(37:32):
taxation that they were paying.
Right.
These are the things that ledto the Revolutionary War, which is
obviously a topic for another day.
But basically, up until theAmerican independence, Florida was
not really a focus for anyone.
Life for those in Florida didnot really change as the powers that
be changed hands outside oftheir bubble.

(37:53):
Flags may have changed on thepolls in St.
Augustine or in Pensacola, butlittle population outside of those
places had any desire to carewho was in charge.
Okay, Seven Years War didaffect the American indigenous population.
The French would often leanedinto synchronicity in their cultures
and had no desire to push forforced conversions to Christianity

(38:13):
were no longer around.
Right.
Britain, who had theirscheming ways, now had control of
Florida.
However, like I said, therewas not a big focus on the Sunshine
State.
After the Revolutionary War,however, things began to change.
The Treaty of Paris followingthe war granted Florida back to Spain.
And if you thought that Spainwas incapable of growing a colony

(38:34):
in Florida before the SevenYears War, well, you're in for a
shock to know that they reallydidn't do anything here either.
This did enable more of thesame safe haven style government
things that the AmericanIndians had and runaway slaves had
encountered before.
I would say it was probablyless safe haven and more really like

(38:56):
nobody's paying attention,which is, you know, fair.
This would be the destinationfor any native people who did not
care to assimilate into Europeor the European lifestyle.
Now, stepping back in time alittle bit, with the European encroachment
in full effect, various tribesopted to form a confederacy of sorts,

(39:16):
to protect their lands and themselves.
One such confederacy was theCreek Nation, which had two main
sections.
They had the Upper Creek,which is modern day Alabama, and
the Lower Creek in Florida.
And these tribes bandedtogether in part because they had
already had this establishedtrade network and all spoke a Muskogean

(39:36):
dialect.
The Creek Nation, other timesreferred to as the Mushkogee or Muskogee,
consisted of a few differenttribes, none of which called themselves
Muscogee.
This is actually a.
It's not a.
I don't know how to describe it.
It's.
It's from Cherokee.
The Cherokee called thesepeople the Mushkogee, which is essentially

(39:56):
like swamp people.
This, which I feel like isrude, but okay.
Creek is actually also kind ofa weird word.
It's not a weird word.
We know what the word is, butit's Creek in terms of like the,
the tribe, Creek people.
The etymology of that is it'sderived from European traders who

(40:20):
then encounter groups alongthese two specific creeks and they
would, you know, when theywould tell people where they're going,
oh, we're going to go see theIndian on those creeks over there.
Right.
And eventually it just turnedinto we're going to go down to trade
with the Creek.
Like, like it spiraled down so far.
Pretty crazy.

(40:40):
Anyway, after theRevolutionary Revolution, Revolutionary
War, whatever, however youwant to describe it, George Washington
began to do his average amountof US Indigenous relations.
His view was essentially thatthe American Indians were just as
equal as their European counterparts.
Their society was just not as good.

(41:03):
So like the people themselves.
Love you.
You're great.
Beautiful.
Wish I could be you.
The way you live, we're alittle concerned by.
So I guess there's worse waysto view them.
According to the wealthytobacco plantation owner anyway,
you know, what does he know?
He offered a six point plan inwhich he decided the Native people

(41:26):
in America would receiveimpartial justice.
The regulation of buying oftheir lands, promotion of commerce,
promotion of experiments tocivilize or improve their society.
Presidential authority to givethem gifts and punish anyone who
violated their rights.
Awesome.
This is though of coursehinging on the people who signed.

(41:47):
If you signed it, you're good.
If you didn't, the Upper Creekwere the first to sign and subsequently
be assimilated into theculture of the new nation.
Definitely some parallels herebetween the Creek adaptation into
American life and the escapedslaves converting to Catholicism
in Spanish controlled Florida.
Right.
I can't speak on the decision.
I'm sure there's a lot ofinner turmoil to decide to convert

(42:10):
into American life.
The thought of being able tokeep your land, to learn new ways
to take, take care of it, taketo care for it, to, you know, have
a stable life, to not rely onmigration of animals, you know, this
kind of thing.
It had its appeal to them for sure.
And there was probably thishope that they could prosper under
these conditions.
But, you know, othersdefinitely had their doubts.

(42:32):
There were also severaltreaties that were signed on behalf
of all Creek people whichceded lots of land and essentially
took away any autonomy thatmany had, which would, you know,
lead to some infightingbetween the Upper and Lower Creek.
This would evolve into what isknown as the Red Stick War or the
Creek Civil War, getting itsname from the use of red clubs to

(42:53):
show hostility by the Creek,whereas a white stick would show
peace.
And then this came to a headafter a famous Native American man,
Tecumseh, a Shawnee man whoonce united several tribes in the
Ohio region to fight againstany colonizers, gave a series of
speeches.
He would travel across theSoutheast and inspired Native traditionalists

(43:15):
into not only rejecting manyof the modern ways of living, but
also shunned their fellowpeople for siding with the settlers.
This war caused a majordivision in those who believed in
the best course of action forthe survival of their people would
be assimilation and those whowould rather die than lose their
ways.
Ultimately, as we know,there's no real good decision because

(43:37):
the settlers and governmentwould do basically whatever they
felt necessary to grow theirland, either by diplomacy, conquest,
or a combination of the two.
The fighting betweenindigenous people eventually spilled
into a fight against theUnited States government, which,
as you can guess, was a bad move.
Tensions rose and violenceescalated quickly, especially after
the massacre at Fort Mims in1813, where the Red Stick warriors

(44:01):
killed hundreds of settlersand pro assimilated Creek.
That attack shocked theAmerican public and triggered a full
scale military response fromthe United States.
Enter Andrew Jackson.
If you know anything aboutindigenous history, you know things
are about to not be great for them.
Andrew Jackson, a general atthe time, led a coalition of United

(44:23):
States forces, Tennesseemilitiamen, the Tennessee Volunteers,
and eventually some Cherokeeand Creek allies and launched a brutal
campaign against the Red Sticks.
All of this led to devastatingBattle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.
There, Jackson's forcesoverwhelmed the Red Stick stronghold,
killing hundreds andeffectively breaking their resistance.

(44:45):
In the aftermath, the UnitedStates demanded a staggering land
cession over 22 million acres,much of it taken not just from the
Red Sticks, but also all ofthe Creek, even the ones who had
signed the treaties right theOnes who had fought with the Americans.
So, yeah, this betrayaldeepened existing fractures in the
Creek nation and pushed manytraditionalists survivors to flee

(45:08):
south into Spanish Florida,where they would regroup, form alliances
with other displaced natives,runaway slaves, and eventually become
the Seminoles.
All right, but this is kind ofthe best spot I found to put this.
But, you know, this.
This is something that I.
That does not get talked aboutin textbooks or in a lot of culture,
cultural conversation.

(45:29):
But, you know, I discussedenslaved Africans running for their
lives to earn their freedomthrough labor, military service,
converting Catholicism underSpanish law.
Right.
Or eventually just becomingslaves once again with native tribes
or just allowed to live near them.
A lot of white settlersactually chose to leave their own

(45:50):
communities to live withNative American tribes.
I first learned about thiswhile reading Sebastian Younger's
book Tribe, which is, youknow, it kind of reframed the way
I thought about early colonial life.
These weren't people fleeingpersecution or slavery.
They were walking away fromthe rigid, hierarchical, and often
isolating structure ofEuropean society.

(46:13):
Life in the tribal communitiesoffered them something else, you
know, belonging, equality, freedom.
Once they experienced that,many didn't want to go back.
Some of them even forciblyreturned, labeled as traitors, refused
to stay in their old world,you know, as a powerful reminder
that indigenous communitiesweren't just, you know, they weren't
a refuge for the oppressed,but they were a compelling alternative

(46:36):
for a lot of people and a bigpart of the history of this country
in general.
All right, so talk about the Seminole.
The Seminole.
The word itself stems from afew variations of different words,
but largely pointed to fromCimarron, which is Spanish for either

(46:57):
wild or untamed.
And there's a lot of placesonline that point that is for being
the namesake for escaped people.
Right.
Untamed, meaning they were rebellious.
Not and, you know, wouldn't surrender.
Not necessarily that theywere, you know, viewed as some sort
of wild beast.
There's also speculation thatthe R sound was one that was not

(47:17):
part of some tribal dialect.
So it was turned intoSeminole, which because of that,
in regard to Seminolesbecoming a group of a few different
tribes in Florida that cametogether to fight against the newly
established Americans.
So now you have theamalgamation of a few different tribes
who are very anticolonization, as well as a healthy

(47:39):
amount of runaway slaves whowere either brought into life sometimes
as slaves, albeit treatedmassively better than they were by
the European owners orEuropean ancestor having owners.
There's also groups of formerslaves who had just had their own
tribe, so to speak, like theywere Allowed to live on their own.

(48:02):
But there's.
So there's a.
A lot of.
I wouldn't say it's misinformation.
I would say it's slightlyincorrect because there's a narrative
that, about this topic thatthe Seminoles were super anti slavery
and they brought in all these slaves.
You fight the white man withus, right?

(48:22):
That's not how it happened.
They had slaves, they bought slaves.
They, the southern coloniststried to buy slaves from them.
But you know, they, since theyhated the white people, they weren't
going to do that.
But like I said, they didtreat their slaves way better, but

(48:42):
still they were slaves.
So I wanted to put a pause onthat and expand on that a little
more because I feel like thatis something that people like to
romanticize in a way aboutthis topic.
Like it's this beautifulharmony of these cultures to fight
the good fight, but not, not necessarily.

(49:03):
Anyway, if you remember, I'vesaid it a few times, there's a long
history of slaves running awayto what is now Florida when it was
controlled by Spain, right?
And Spain converted them tohelp defend their territory.
And that story of this land sofar near the ocean persisted and
spread and slaves would run tomake their journey.
And even if they weren't freewith the Seminole people, they were

(49:26):
massively taken care of.
In comparison, Seminole peopletreated them in a more similar way
to like medieval serfdom orlike land, land workers.
And in a.
I can't even think of theterm, but like medieval, like peasants.
You're working land, you haveto pay a tributary of sorts to the

(49:47):
lord, right?
That, that owns the land, butyou get to work there and you get
to keep most of the crops, right?
And that's how it was.
They, you know, they, theymade a deal with them.
They said, hey, we're going togive you these lands.
In some cases as much as like20 acres.
You farm it, you give us someof the crops.
Since you're better at farmingthan we are.
You have all these, you know,European methods of farming and agricultural

(50:12):
techniques that are really good.
You give us some of that andwe'll just kind of leave you alone.
Which is basically what happened.
But at the end of the day,they were slaves.
So these, these foodtechniques had allowed the Seminoles
to have way more food thanthey had before.
And it was kind of a mutuallybeneficial situation for the most
part.
Now this angered the UnitedStates slave owners more than just

(50:35):
having the slaves having a runaway and not be found, because now
this group of people wereUnwilling to give the slaves back.
And in the early 19th century,this was a big issue for the United
States agricult community andthus made them even more of an enemy
to the government than theyalready were.
And then, like I said, this iskind of where a lot of the confusion

(50:56):
stems from because there'sstories of Seminoles assimilating
freed slaves, merging thecultures into this big enemy United
States.
While former and maybe stillcurrent slaves did fight with the
Seminole, like I said, theywere not welcomed in.
And I'm.
I'm imagining there were someSeminoles that did end up, you know,
producing offspring with someof the former slaves.

(51:19):
And there's this bigpopulation of black Seminoles that
I don't want to ignore, but Iwant to make it very clear that the
Seminole people were stilllike, they utilized these people,
but they were still slave owners.
Right.
Anyway, okay, so firstSeminole War actually has some overlap

(51:41):
with the Creek War, the CreekCivil War.
Right.
Which led to splitting of theCreek nation, transitioned into the
first Seminole War with theSeminole people at the time being
majorly made up of the RedSticks who fled from.
Fled to Spanish Florida.
Andrew Jackson argued andultimately convinced the United States
to let him go to Florida andinvade and attack these Red Sticks

(52:05):
who had been harboring, quote,harboring slaves and raiding United
States settlements.
Like I mentioned before, Spaindid not really have a successful
hold on Florida.
So it's not like Jackson wasmaking this major international issue
by invading another country's land.
But it was still not.
Not totally accepted.
The first battle was in 1817where US troops tried to remove a

(52:30):
Mikasuki village, which madethe other tribes around very aware
of the intentions the UnitedStates had.
This would lead to what iscalled the Scott Massacre, where
a group of Seminoles ambushedand ambushed a supply boat on the
Appalachian Apalachicola River.
I've never seen that word before.

(52:50):
Usually it's Appalachian.
Appalachian, whatever.
Appalachicola, okay.
And they killed around 40soldiers and civilians combined.
And this was enough forJackson to retaliate, even though
there was no officialdeclaration of war.
He went through and burned alot of villages, fields, buildings

(53:10):
alike, capturing Spanish fortslike St Mark's and Pensacola.
He had two British citizenswho had been living amongst the Seminole
on the grounds of.
Executed on the grounds ofinciting resistance.
All of this done without anyoversight or permission from the
government.
He's just doing this.
Overall, this ended up leadingto the United States trading territories,

(53:33):
kind of the United Statesclaimed and well, didn't claim.
They gained control of Floridaand then renounced their claims to
Texas in 1821, which would endup leading to the Spanish American
War.
Right.
With the Alamo, which Idefinitely remember, and we got to
talk about that for sure.

(53:54):
Anyway, this is around thetime that the first Seminole War
is noted to have ended.
There's not like a hard end,but historians have a consensus this
is where it ends.
Right.
The period between the firstand Second Seminole War, from 1818
to 1835, was marked by a tenseand fragile peace that slowly unraveled

(54:15):
due to broken promises,settler encroachment and the growing
influence of one particularlyaggressive figure that we've already
met, Andrew Jackson.
After the first Seminole Warended, Florida officially became
United States Territory withthe ratification of the Adams onis
treaty in 1821.

(54:35):
And the United Statesgovernment wasted little time in
encouraging white settlementand preparing the land for development.
For the Seminoles, many ofwhom were displaced Creek warriors,
Maroons, which is the escapedslaves, the Black Seminoles and descendants
of earlier Native groups, thismeant being pushed even further south
into less desirable lands.
To formalize that push, theTreaty of Moultrie Creek was signed

(54:57):
in 1823.
It required the Seminoles togive up claim to most of northern
Florida and moved to areservation in central Florida.
In return, the United Statespromised food and farming equipment
and protection from encroachment.
But these promises unraveledpretty quickly.
Settlers ignored boundaries ofreservation and government aid was

(55:18):
inconsistent or outright neglected.
On top of that, the presenceof the Black Seminoles, the escaped
slaves of or their descendantsliving amongst the tribes or near
the tribes in infuriated theseplantation owners in the south who
increasingly pressured thefederal government to do something
about it.
Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson'sstar was rising, largely due to his

(55:40):
hardline stance against Nativeresistance and pro slavery.
His brutal success in theCreek War, where he defeated the
Red Stick faction like Imentioned, and his controversial
but effective campaign in thefirst Seminole War where he invaded
Spanish Florida withoutpermission, made him a national hero.
To many in the United States,Jackson represented strength, order

(56:01):
and expansion.
His military victories won himwide public support, and in 1828,
he rode that wave straightinto the White House.
Once president, Jackson madeIndian Removal a central policy,
and he argued that it was theonly way to protect both Native Americans
and white settlers.
Though in practice it waspretty much just to make room for

(56:22):
growth of the AmericasAmerican expansion, right, no matter
the cost.
In 1830, Jackson signed theIndian Removal act, giving the federal
government broad authority andvery vague authority to relocate
Native people west of theMississippi River.
Now, this wasn't 100% acceptedacross the United States.
In fact, I learned that one ofJackson's own former soldiers, a

(56:45):
man you may know named SirDavy Crockett, who fought in the
Red Stick and Creek wars, wasso disturbed by the cruelty that
Jackson had during those warsin this campaign that he witnessed
firsthand that when he becamepresident and signed the Indian Removal
Act, Crockett, like, riskedhis entire future political.

(57:05):
Like, he could have been apresident at some point, but he risked
all of that to just be sooutspoken against Andrew Jackson.
So that's pretty awesome.
I got to tell you, I did notsee Davy Crockett being a hero in
this story of sorts.
Yeah, we really got to talkabout the Alamo.
That podcast that I talkedabout, Bear Grease, told a story

(57:29):
about Davy Crockett in the war.
And they had burnt a citydown, and they were a village, not
a city.
They had burnt a NativeAmerican village down with, you know,
the bodies and everything there.
And they were looking forfood, and they were told to eat the
potatoes that were storedunder one of the houses.

(57:49):
And the grease from theburning bodies ran down the hill
underneath the house and mixedwith the potatoes, and that's what
they had to eat.
And it was at that moment thatDavy Crockett said, you know what?
This probably isn't.
Isn't good.
Good for me, good for anybody.

(58:10):
And famously had beenoutspoken about this kind of thing
ever since and also even wentas far to say as he was comfortable
with where he would be on hisjudgment day with his decision about
this.
So pretty interesting, right?
All right, so anyway, theIndian Removal act marked a major

(58:31):
shift from negotiated removalto forced removal.
The pressure on the Seminolesescalated pretty quickly.
In 1832, under growing federalinsistence, a small group of Seminole
leaders were pretty muchcoerced into signing the Treaty of
Paine's Landing, which agreedto removal pending an inspection
of lands in the West.
That inspection came back withmixed reviews, and many leaders,

(58:54):
most notably Osceola, rejectedthe treaty outright, claiming it
was signed under pressure ormisrepresented entirely.
There's also a myth thatOsceola stabbed this treaty.
He said, nope, not having itput his knife in it.
Whether or not that happened,who knows?
But it's just.
It's a fun story.
The United States, however,considered the treaty binding and

(59:16):
began preparing for forcedrelocation regardless.
By 1834, the federalgovernment was organizing removal
efforts, and Seminoleresistance began to solidify.
Osceola, who had already beenbriefly imprisoned after being imprisoned
by the United States, was ableto return to his people.

(59:37):
In December 1835, hisfollowers ambushed and killed over
100 US soldiers at in what isknown as the Dade Massacre, officially
launching the second Seminole War.
Now, Osceola, superfascinating part of the story.
His name is used in cities,places all across the country.
He was admired by NativeAmerican people and, you know, white

(01:00:00):
settlers all across the board.
He has statues all over the place.
His tenacity, fighting spiritwas one that people loved, even though
he was fighting against their government.
Like, people thought this wasthis, like a great story.
And especially after hisdeath, they're like, man, that guy
really had it right.
This David and Goliath storymade him famous to the point where

(01:00:21):
when he was in prison, dozensof artists were outside his cell
trying to paint his likeness.
The most interesting part ofhis history to me is that he was
outside of modern government limits.
To be considered a member of atribe like modern limits, he is largely
accepted by both historians ofEuropean descent and Native tribal

(01:00:44):
historians to have been around1/8 Muscogee Creek, but one quarter
is required to be considered apart of a tribe today.
But back then, that was not arequirement that you had to be half
full, whatever, any percentage.
It varied from tribe to tribe.
But big part of it was beingraised by a mother in the tribal
traditions.

(01:01:04):
He was born Billy Powell,which is not exactly the name you
think of when you think Nativeresistance to American expansion,
but yet he was Osceola BillyPowell, born in 1804, and his family
and tribe were pushed intoFlorida from Alabama during the Creek
Civil War.
Osceola and his family wereinspired by the speeches given by
Tecumseh, which I mentioned before.

(01:01:25):
And this would have happenedin some of his most formative years.
Osceola would have learnedabout or heard or seen it himself,
which inspired where he wasdestined to go.
The second.
The second Oliver.
The second Seminole War wasone which had a lot more balance
to it.
Not in terms of numbers, asthe Seminoles were drastically outnumbered,

(01:01:48):
but in terms of, like,tactics, grit, knowledge of the terrain.
The Seminoles held their ownand then some.
This, you know, wasn't a warfought with, like, front lines and
sweeping cavalry charges.
It was ambushes, hit and runraids, survival in one of the harshest
environments in the UnitedStates, right?
These swamp wars, like theSeminoles, along with their black

(01:02:09):
Seminole allies, knew the swamps.
You know, they knew the dense forests.
They knew this area.
And they used that knowledgeas an advantage.
Time and again, slippingthrough these thickets, launching
surprise attacks, vanishingbefore troops could mount a proper
Counter attack, or even knewwhat was happening.
The United States army, forall its resources and manpower, was

(01:02:30):
not prepared for this kind of war.
Soldiers fell not just toseminal attacks, but heat exhaustion,
malaria, dysentery, McGill'sPOP, and just plain bad luck.
Supply lines were unreliable,Morale was often low.
And the deeper into Floridathat they pushed, the more the army
realized just how difficult itwould be to root out people who had
every reason to never surrender.

(01:02:50):
Osceola remained a key figureduring the early years of the war,
rallying support and refusingto back down.
But in a move that drewwidespread condemnation even at the
time, even by the Americanpeople, United States forces captured
Osceola under a flag of trucein 1837.
They said, hey, we're gonna,we're gonna talk true stuff.
And then they captured him andthrew him in jail.

(01:03:12):
Super shady, super duper shady.
Yeah, people even, like Isaid, even American people were like,
yeah, that's not okay.
You can't do that.
He was imprisoned after thesupposed peace negotiation and then
died a few months later inSouth Carolina, likely from illness.

(01:03:34):
His death was a big blow tothe resistance, but the war continued.
Now his body was desecrated,his head removed, and his body buried
without it, which is stilllost, you know, the skull's still
gone.
People were grabbing thingsoff, like clothes off of his body
after he had died, like taking mementos.
Like I said, super famous guy.
What followed was a years long grind.

(01:03:55):
The United States employedmore aggressive tactics, burning
villages, destroying crops,and even using bloodhounds to track
the Seminole in the swamps,which is callback to the very first
episode right there.
Yet despite these efforts,total victory never came.
Some Seminoles were capturedor agreed under pressure to be relocated
to the Indian Territory inpresent day Oklahoma.

(01:04:18):
But a determined group refusedto go, retreating deeper into the
Everglades, into the swamps.
The Second Seminole Wardragged on until around 1842, no
real end in sight.
In the end, the United Statessimply decided it wasn't worth it
anymore.
The war had cost over $40million at the time, which is in

(01:04:38):
contrast to around the $20million the GDP had, which is crazy.
Taken more than 1500Americanlives, and still there was a unyielding
population of, of these peoplein Florida that they couldn't, couldn't
convince to leave, couldn't doanything about.
And after the long grind ofthe Second Seminole War ended in

(01:05:00):
1842, like I said, thegovernment was just like, okay, man,
we're done.
We had removed most of youguys, so I guess this is we're going
to call it a dub.
Yeah.
So there's.
They were.
They pretty much gave up, but.
But there's still a little bitof people in the Everglades.

(01:05:20):
Like I said, the United Statesknew they were still there.
But the sheer cost andfrustration of chasing them through
Florida swamps just didn'tseem worth it to them, at least for
a while.
For about a decade, thingswere relatively quiet.
The remaining Seminoles wereconstantly monitored and government
officials tried from time totime to persuade them to leave voluntarily.
Some groups, you know, smallgroups, agreed to relocate.

(01:05:43):
But the core group, led byfigures like Chief Sonic Mikko, AKA
Billy Bowlegs, love that name,stood firm.
They weren't interested in anymore negotiations or broken promises.
They had learned by then thatthe treaty with the United States
government often came with anunexpected expiration date, which,

(01:06:04):
yeah, you know, very true.
The uneasy peace eventuallybroke in 1855, sparked by, you guessed
it, American settlers pushingfurther into Seminole territory.
A group of United Statessurveyors, company by soldiers, deliberately
went into Seminole land toprovoke a response.
They destroyed crops andproperty near Billy Bow Legs camp
hoping it would force aconfrontation that would justify

(01:06:27):
another removal campaign.
It worked.
Bolegs and his warriorsretaliated and the Third Seminole
War began.
Unlike the second SeminoleWar, this one was much smaller in
scale, but it still played outin the same grueling terrain with
similar guerrilla tactics.
US Troops.
U of the US Sent troops.
But by this point the Seminolepopulation had dwindled and their

(01:06:49):
ability to mount sustainedresistance was limited.
Billy Bow Legs and his peoplefought a smart, stubborn campaign.
But by 1858, the war had wornthem down.
That year, the United Statesoffered Bowlegs a significant sum
of money, reportedly around$7,000 at the time, for himself and
thousands more of hisfollowers to finally relocate to

(01:07:10):
Oklahoma in the Indian Territory.
Reluctantly, he accepted.
Along with around 160 of hispeople, he made their journey west.
And that kind of essentiallyended the Seminole Wars.
But not everyone left.
A small group refused to go,choosing instead to vanish into the
depths of the Everglades.
These are the ancestors of themodern Seminole tribe of Florida,

(01:07:31):
which to this day proudlyidentifies as the Unconquered People.
In total, the Seminole wars,three separate conflicts over four
decades, cost the UnitedStates millions and millions of dollars
and thousands of lives.
No decisive military victoryever declared.
The government may haveremoved most of the tribe, but it
never broke them completely.

(01:07:51):
Their legacy is one of fierceresistance, cultural preservation
and a refusal to bend to theweight of an empire.
After the Third Seminole Warended in 1858, the United States
government essentiallyconsidered the Seminole problem resolved,
at least from a federal perspective.
Most of the Seminolepopulation had been removed to the
Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

(01:08:12):
And those who remained inFlorida were assumed to be few and
scattered, living deep in theEverglades where the government officials
and settlers largely couldn'treach and often didn't care to try.
But Florida and the Seminolestory, far from over.
For the Seminoles who stayed,life became about survival, secrecy,
cultural preservation.

(01:08:33):
They avoided contact withoutsiders, but built chickies, which
are open sided huts elevatedover swampy ground and lived off
the land, farming small plots,hunting, gathering.
For decades they essentiallylived off the grid.
They didn't send their kids topublic schools, didn't register with
the government and oftendenied any involvement with, quote,
the American life.

(01:08:54):
And this was their way ofmaintaining autonomy.
Their political stance was simple.
They never signed a finaltreaty of surrender and therefore
they were still free.
Meanwhile, in Florida, theother side of that story if you will,
Florida was changing.
The 1860s brought the CivilWar, during which Florida ceded and
joined the Confederacy or seceded.
Though the war didn't impactthe Seminoles much directly, it did

(01:09:16):
shape the region around them.
After the war, Reconstruction,railroads and real estate began transforming
Florida.
Swamps were drained, citieslike Tampa, Miami started to grow
and outsiders began eyeingSouth Florida as as tourist destinations.
By the late 19th century andearly 20th century, the Seminoles
started having more contactwith the outside world, often through

(01:09:36):
tourism.
Some began selling crafts,participating in fairs, exhibitions
and working as guides.
Even then, you know, moststayed fiercely independent, wary
of assimilation and deeplycommitted to their culture.
It wasn't until the mid 20thcentury that Seminoles began forming
formal institutions.
In 1957, the Seminole tribe ofFlorida was officially recognized

(01:09:57):
by the United States government.
That's right, 1957.
It's like 100 years after thelast war ended.
This recognition gave themcertain legal rights, access to federal
support and the ability toself Govern.
Later, in 1962, a separategroup of Miccosukee Seminoles who
had refused to join the 1957organization were also federally

(01:10:19):
recognized.
Both tribes still active todayand operate independently, but they
share cultural roots andcollaborate pretty often.
Starting in the 1980s, theSeminoles made history again.
This time in the business world.
They were one of the firsttribes to open tribal casinos.
Beginning with high stakesbingo halls and eventually expanding
to full scale resorts.

(01:10:40):
Today the Seminole Tribe ofFlorida owns the Hard Rock Art Hard
Rock International brand,including casinos, restaurants and
hotels around the world, whichI didn't know that's pretty fascinating
that success has helped fundhealthcare, education, housing and
cultural preservation for the tribe.
Tribe.
It's a ironic but powerful,twisted and seminal story.

(01:11:00):
People once pushed to thebrink of extinction.
Extinction.
Extinction.
There we go.
By settler greed.
Now thrive economically usingthe tools of capitalism to support
a legacy of resistance.
So what came next for theSeminoles and Florida for Florida?
Growth, development,Seminoles, survival, sovereignty.
You know, these, these thingsevolve simultaneously.

(01:11:23):
Today there are threefederally recognized Seminole entities.
The Seminole Nation ofOklahoma, comprised of those who
were forcibly removed afterthe second Seminole War.
There's the Seminole tribe, right?
And then the Miccosukee Tribeof Florida.
Total upwards of 20,000 in all locations.
And their influences beyondthat with I think the most famous

(01:11:48):
one for me, the Florida State University.
The school had an absence ofmale collegiate sports until 1947.
It was at that point beforethen a.
It was not a co ed university,it was a women's college.
And then in 1947 it integrated.
So it was now a co ed facility.

(01:12:08):
And they had a vote on whatshould be their symbol.
And the Seminole was votedlike unanimously.
Super popular and they said itwas that.
And then I think like the nextone was like the Statesman or something
like that.
So I think they chose correctly.
The Seminole Tribe actuallygave their permission and gave their

(01:12:31):
permission for the name andalso to use their likeness for their.
What is widely known as amascot, but Florida State calls it
a symbol because, you know, amascot implies some sort of demeaning
name.
And today their symbol isChief Osceola, which is pretty, pretty
cool, right?

(01:12:51):
His depiction approved by thetribe, which I really appreciate.
You know, there's a lot ofdialogue today about, well, why can't
we call the Washington team bytheir former name, the Redskins or
the Cleveland Indians.
But we can have the Chiefs,Blackhawks, Seminoles, you know,
those guys.
I feel like the difference ispretty obvious in my mind.
But you know, maybe it's notto everybody but these like the Seminoles,

(01:13:13):
the Chiefs, the Blackhawks islike, it's an appreciation for the
tribes that are connected towhere they're located.
Like it's not, I don't know,it's not a stereotype and it's not
meant to be a caricature ofthese real people.
It's like we're appreciatingthe past and who lived here before
and we think the names arecool and the heritage is cool.

(01:13:34):
But yeah, anyway, so that'sthe story of the uncon, Unconquered
Seminole people and theSeminole wars.
And I Think this was a nicetopic to do because there's a lot
of information on it since,you know, it's on the more recent
end of Native history.
But it's also pretty important.
Stories like this, you know,really shine a light on the darker
side of how this country cameto be.

(01:13:55):
These stories, you know,aren't meant to rag on the United
States and make it sound likeit's the worst place ever.
But I do think stories likethis are a good way to understand
how we got to where we are.
I also.
This is something.
This is just a me thought, butit annoys me that the Anabaptist
movement, which began in thelate 17th century, early 18th century,

(01:14:18):
the.
The Amish, right, they wantedto live outside of techno technology.
They wanted to live on theirown land.
They wanted to be ignored andthey're respected.
But the native tribes thattried to do that, not so much which
is.
Which is wild to me.
I wonder why that is.
Anyway, you know, so tocompletely ignore things like this

(01:14:38):
story, I think, think, youknow, it's kind of foolish.
And I'm glad I got to diveinto this a little bit because I
learned a lot from this andI'm hopeful that stories like this
inspire people to learn moreabout Native cultures that predated
this country.
I was speaking with a coworker of mine recently who is of
Native descent, and I wastelling him that despite growing

(01:14:59):
up in the Great Plains, beingable to visit museums that showcased
indigenous life before thesettlers and pioneers in that there's
still so much like that.
I just don't know.
And it's hard because a lot ofthese cultures, like I said, had
a largely oral tradition and alot of that got lost when people
were dying off and beingkilled off and things.

(01:15:20):
So it's hard to find a lot ofwritten information.
I want to thank specificallythe places I could find information
from the Bear Grease podcastthat I told you about.
Really great interviewsthroughout that and regarding.
That's where I got a lot ofthe information about the Seminole
tribe specifically, andOsceola as well.
Also a book that I listened towas titled the Seminal Wars.

(01:15:44):
A History from Beginning toEnd by Hourly history.
Like it.
It was an hourong audiobook,which was pretty cool.
And then there was a bunch ofvideos on YouTube on the subject.
Not like any super modernones, but, you know, a lot of good
ones.
And I think that, that, youknow, if you have an interest in
this topic, definitely gocheck them out.
If you enjoyed this episode,please share it with your friends.

(01:16:07):
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If you're on YouTube, drop thelike, subscribe, do all that stuff.
Those are things you can do tohelp out, you know, help the show
out, help us find more people,help more people find us.
And doing all that withoutspending any money, you know, if
you want to spend some money,check out the merch store.
I got the hat, I got the shirton, you know, that's in the description.

(01:16:28):
You'll find links to all thesocial media there as well in the
description.
There's a link tree in thedescription which also has all the
links on it.
And you can go through thatand click on topic suggestion.
If you want to suggest a topicfor me to do, you can do it through
that or you could email meremedial scholarmail.com and until

(01:16:50):
next time, keep questioningthe past.
The future will thank you.
Bye now.