Grant Foreman • The Five Civilized Tribes

The Seminole Indians defended their liberty and homes in Florida at an appalling cost of life. They defied the efforts of the white people to drive them from their country to which they clung with a tenacity and desperation that have no parallel in our humiliating annals of Indian spoliation. By their courage, strategy, and resourcefulness they exposed to ridicule an invading army of more than ten times their number. Their homes and settlements destroyed, driven into well-nigh inaccessible swamps and hunted like wild animals out of their hiding places during a six-year reign of terror, they were carried from time to time as prisoners to the Indian Territory.⁠1

They were at last conquered by a long and expensive war of attrition, and except for a few hundred who escaped the soldiers, the removal was completed in the year 1842. By resistance to removal from their homeland these indomitable people had incurred the wrath of our Government that imposed punitive and humiliating measures upon them. One of the most harmful of these was the stupid policy of requiring them to be merged with the Creeks in their western home. So‑called treaties had been entered into in 1832 and 1833 wherein the Indians were made to say that they agreed to the terms.⁠2 All the available evidence shows that they were not favorable to this plan, but on the contrary were bitterly opposed to it for reasons fundamental in their history and conflicting interests.

The Creek domain assigned to the Seminole for their occupancy by the Stokes commission under authority of Congress⁠3 was the p224 area lying between the Canadian River and the North Fork of the Canadian and extending west to the Little River. Black Dirt and his band, the first arrivals in the West in 1837, settled on Little River within the limits assigned his tribe. But the Creeks indiscriminately occupied the best part of these lands, the Tuckabatchee Town in the winter of 1836‑37, headed by Opothle Yahola, locating on the choice area near the junction of the Canadian and the North Fork including the site of the future town of Eufaula. So, subsequently when the Seminole emigrants arrived they found their country already occupied. They were brought by water from time to time, and nearly all disembarked at Fort Gibson where they were mustered by the agents whose duty it was to count the survivors of those tragic journeys and provide for the issue of their rations.

They had been dragged from their homes, compelled to abandon their meager possessions and arrived at Fort Gibson destitute, cold, and hungry and were dependent on the rations issued there for their existence. The difference in climate, soil, resources and living conditions between their former home and the strange country into which they were thrust was so great and forbidding that these bewildered, embittered, and broken-spirited people preferred to remain in camp around the fort and receive rations, rather than to venture upon the uncertain hazards of extracting a living from the soil of a new country. Subsistence was furnished one party of Seminole near Fort Gibson in 1842 at a cost to the Government of three and one-half cents each per diem, which must have provided meager fare for these wretched people.

Chief Mikanopy was somewhat more tractable than many of the subchiefs and he was induced to remove with some of his followers to the Deep Fork; in 1841 this band had nearly eight hundred acres of land fenced and planted in corn. They also were raising beans, pumpkins, and melons and small quantities of rice.⁠4

By March 1842 the Seminole immigrants numbered 2,833 and were distributed as follows: 1,098 of Alligator's and Halahtochee's bands from nine to fifteen miles north, 70 of Coachoochee's band three miles south on the Arkansas River, and 827 of Mikanopy's band scattered in settlements from ten to from ten to forty miles southwest of Fort Gibson, and p225 Concharte Micco's band of 479 twenty miles south of the fort. Black Dirt's band of 360 was living on the Little River at the western extremity of the Seminole domain.⁠5 Other bands were located on the Illinois River near Park Hill.

In February, 1842, a party of 220 Seminole under their head men in charge of Capt. Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1830: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1830: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

T. L. Alexander of the Sixth U. S. Infantry were placed on a ship at Tampa Bay and brought to New Orleans; here they were confined in the barracks for nine weeks awaiting other parties of emigrants. When all had arrived Captain Alexander set out from New Orleans on the steamer President. In May progress of the boat was arrested by low water about sixty miles above Little Rock and the Indians camped on the river bank several weeks awaiting a higher stage of water. When it came, they renewed the journey, but were again obliged to stop June 1 at Webbers Falls where Alexander debarked his company of 302 Indians who were taken overland to their new home.⁠6 They included the young chief Waxie Hadjo who had surrendered the previous November with seventeen warriors and thirty women and children.

Another company of 102 Seminole captives brought from Tampa Bay to New Orleans in April were placed in charge of Lieut. Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1839: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1839: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

E. R. S. Canby who embarked them on the steamboat Swan July 22, 1842, and on August 5, because of low water in the Arkansas River landed them at La Fourch Bar six miles below Little Rock. After a delay of a week wagons and teams were secured and the party set out by land. Incessant rains and the hardship of the journey resulted in much sickness and their progress was very slow so that they did not reach Fort Smith until the twenty-fifth. From here, at the suggestion of General Taylor, they proceeded by way of the Choctaw agency to the falls of the Canadian River. Here it was necessary to open a road for twenty miles to where it intersected the route⁠7 from Webbers Falls to the North p226 Fork; over this route they proceeded to the Creek council grounds where, September 6, Canby delivered the Indians to their agent John McKee. This party included John Coheia or Gopher John, a Negro interpreter of some distinction and talents, whose shrewdness enabled him to possess $1,500.00 which he was able to loan to the conductor for the expenses of the party, Canby not having been able to negotiate a draft for the purpose.

Nearly fifteen hundred Seminole Indians under Alligator and Wild Cat, and other chiefs, were now encamped around Fort Gibson in a distracted condition, homesick and discouraged, inflamed by their forcible removal from their homes in Florida; destitute and bewildered; for want of tools, helpless to cultivate the land or build homes; without means of transportation to the land provided for them even if they wished to go there; but above all else resolved not to locate in the country of the Creeks, become subject to their control, and risk the loss of their slaves and free-born Negroes who accompanied them.

These helpless and wretched people were living on the lands of the Cherokee who took pity on them and permitted them to cultivate the soil;⁠8 but some of them rewarded their friends by killing stock to keep their families from starving. In 1842 Alligator and a large number of his followers at Fort Gibson waited on George W. Clark, their issuing agent; they desired to know when the Government would give them the axes, hoes, and rifles promised by the officers to whom they surrendered in Florida. They said that before they were marched to the boats, General Jesup, in order to lighten the burden of removal of the land them to thrown away their old rifles, kettles, tools, and other cherished possessions, which would be replaced by the Government when they arrived in their new home. This promise had not been redeemed in the more than four years since the arrival of most of them in the West.⁠9

Gen. Zachary Taylor, who was stationed at Fort Smith in command of the Southwestern Frontier, was directed in 1842 to visit Fort Gibson and investigate the situation of the Seminole Indians living near there with a view to removing them from the Cherokee Nation. Alligator and several hundred of his followers had surrendered to Taylor on the west side of Lake Okeechobee in the spring of 1838 and were brought west. He had now returned to Florida with a number of other Seminole p227 chiefs in company with a detachment of the 4th Fourth Infantry to use his influence with the remainder of the tribe in an effort to secure their removal. General Taylor was a just man who entertained much respect for these Indians and sympathized with them in their unhappy situation.

Alligator being absent, Taylor did not propose to take summary action against his people and told them that they would be allowed to remain where they were until their crops were gathered and their agent had returned from Washington. "His absence however, was so long protracted that it became an obvious dictate of humanity to postpone the removal altogether until spring, rather than drive women and children from comfortable huts, and expose them to the rigors of an inclement season," said Taylor. On the return of Agent Butler in the early winter Chief Ross was consulted about the matter and he said the Cherokee council had refused to demand the removal of the Seminole Indians then and had decided to postpone decision of the question until a general council of several tribes in the spring. "I learned moreover," said Taylor, "from a highly respectable member of the council at Fort Gibson that they were averse to any forcible removal of Alligator's party." In view of this attitude, said Taylor, he decided not to employ force to break up Alligator's settlement and enforce their removal until it was demanded by the Cherokee authorities.⁠10

As claims by the Cherokee and Creek farmers, against these unfortunate people for stock killed by them continued to pile up, chiefs of these tribes met some of the leading Seminole Indians in council on the Verdigris River in the spring to devise some means of removing the trespassers with the result that a number of small bands, including part of Wild Cat's company and Alligator agreed during the year to remove if the Government would provide the means as the Indians were destitute.⁠11 But the inflammable subject of their slaves prevented the fulfilment of this engagement.

The year 1843 was a particularly distracting one for these unfortunate, homeless people. Spring, the season for planting was passing, and it was nearly June when some of the Seminole immigrants indignantly and vigorously protested to their agent and condemned the faithlessness of the Government that had promised them axes and hoes and p228 had failed to provide these most necessary tools so they could cut the timber, clear the land, build their humble log cabins and plant crops for their sustenance. It was imperative, said their agent Thomas L. Judge, that 350 hoes and 159 axes be provided at once.

Another party of 350 captives was embarked on February 5, 1843, at Tampa Bay, for New Orleans. In charge of Lieut. Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1834: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1834: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

Henry McKavett, they left New Orleans on March 4 and on the eleventh reached Little Rock where they were detained by low water. McKavett landed his charges on the south bank of the Arkansas opposite the mouth of the Illinois River April 26.⁠12 They remained at Webbers Falls near by while awaiting transportation to their country. The spirit in which they came was evidenced by the retribution visited on their Negro interpreter. While in their Webbers Falls camp the interpreter

"was lying down saying he was sleepy. Several Seminoles were also lying on the ground near him; one observed to him that it was now a year since he had decoyed them into Gen. Worth and as he was sleepy they would give him a long sleep, and immediately plunged several knives into him. They then buried him and told Mr. Judge that they had buried their interpreter. I have not received the account of Mr. Judge who is very much disturbed at the murder; when I do I will forward it to you. No other violence was offered, and as I have no doubt none intended. The object being to kill the Negro, which had been agreed upon doubtless before leaving Florida."⁠13

Agent Judge said that on becoming acquainted with the circumstances he was surprised that the Indians had not killed their interpreter sooner.⁠14 Wagons were then procured and the Indians were transferred to their new home, where they arrived destitute. The next year the Seminole near Fort Smith shot at the guide and interpreter, Gopher John.⁠15

Agent Judge visited the various depots where during the summer of 1843 he issued corn and salt to some of the Seminole who had located in the Creek Nation. On this occasion he had an opportunity of observing some of the earlier settlers in their new homes and "noticing their p229 domestic arrangements; and in every instance their Cabbins were Clean and Comfortable, and content seemed to be manifest in all their Countenances and a large vessel of sofka to which all who called were welcome, which for the first time I tasted, and it was very good; they dress corn in a great variety of ways, some of which would be considered a luxury in any Civilized society."⁠16 He was surprised at the progress they had made: "I found them in possession of as good land as any in the country, and generally satisfied; and things comfortable around them; they had raised a considerable surplus of rice which they sell at $3.00 a bushel and good demand for it. . . . They are very desirous of having a school established; they have frequently named this subject. . . . Wild Cat and Alligator both have agreed to move next fall."⁠17 However, a drought that summer reduced by one-half the corn crop of the immigrants, but to offset that loss some of them had good crops of rice and potatoes.⁠18 For these people living on their land on Deep Fork, the government blacksmith was making plows, wedges, troughs and other farming utensils. But when the axes were all distributed, they were two dozen short of a full supply.

"I am inclined to believe that the character of the subjects of this sub-agency had been little understood or appreciated. I find them a high-minded, open, candid and a brave people; they pay more attention to the wants and comforts of their women than any other tribe I am acquainted with; they keep them well clothed, and the men pay particular attention to appear in clean and appropriate costume. They appropriate most of their annuity to clothe their women and children; in this respect they set a good example to other tribes. If these people received a tithe of the aid and assistance that other tribes are the subject of, their advances toward civilized life would be second to no tribe. It is true thayº have cost the Government much blood and treasure; notwithstanding which, I hope the Government will extend towards them an equal ratio of that fatherly care and protection of which other tribes have been such large recipients."⁠19

p230 The agent held a full council in July with the Seminole immigrants. Some of them proposed to disown Wild Cat and Alligator and their followers living at Fort Gibson. When this information was communicated to these chiefs, they declared that they were Seminole and acknowledged as their chief the old chief, Mikanopy, who had removed on the land set apart for the tribe. That they would go and look at the land and if they found some that suited them they would remove.⁠20

At council, said their agent, there were 3,400 Seminole present, exclusive of their Negroes. "Notwithstanding the immense crowd and the country around in every direction full of whiskey, there was not an Indian on the ground the least disguised with liquor; I never saw a more orderly assembly in any country. Their object in getting their whole people together was for the purpose of hearing what was done at Washington for their relief in a pecuniary point of view, and the prospect of their obtaining a distinct section of country."⁠21 The Seminole, Judge says, had a much larger number of children in proportion to their population than the Creeks.

There were more than 1,000 Seminole Indians living in the Cherokee Nation⁠22 and John Howard Payne visiting them, noted their desire to be admitted into the Cherokee tribe. This sentiment is not hard to understand when one recalls the sympathy exhibited by the Cherokee for the friendless and harried Indians defending their homes and families in Florida against the invading white forces. In the autumn of 1837 a deputation of influential Cherokee Indians volunteered to visit the warring Seminole people and carry a message from Chief John Ross calculated to end the strife and bloodshed in their country. While the enterprise was carried out at the request of the war department, it was not given the necessary support by those in authority in Florida to insure its success. The delegation left their homes and endured great hardship and personal inconvenience and loss and were not even compensated for the expenses they incurred. The Seminole Indians had not forgotten that the Cherokee people were their friends in the hour of trouble, and their talk of being admitted to that tribe is quite comprehensible.⁠23

p231 But the stay of the Seminole people in the Cherokee Nation was an unhappy and profitless experience. A traveler who saw them there gives a drab picture of their destitution and aimless existence:

"April 7 [1844]. Reached Fort Gibson on the Neosho. . . . Four companies of infantry and two of dragoons are stationed here under command of Lieut. Col. Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1811: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register. Loomis, a devoted Christian. April 8 — had a talk with Micanopy, the principal chief of the Seminoles through the interpreter, Gopher John. Told him what I wanted. He said there had been a man talking something about a school, but he did not know much about it — could not tell whether his people would send their children or not. The 'governor', as Gopher John called him, seemed rather sleepy, and to care more about the contents of the bottle he carried with him, than whether his people were educated or not.

"Rode to the Seminole camp, half a mile from Fort Gibson; found 200 of the most miserable looking men, women, and children I had seen anywhere; the men had been on a drunk frolic, from the effects of which they had not yet recovered; the women usually select some day when their lords are sober, and do not require their care to enjoy their frolic. The night previous there had been a thunder shower, which failed however to break up their dance. One who recollects how they have been hunted and driven about in Florida for some years, can readily conceive the appearance their camp presented.

"The country assigned to them is between the forks of the Canadian: too cold in winter and too hot in summer for those who have been accustomed to the equable climate of Florida. . . . The Seminoles who have been settled in the Canadian Fork raise corn and rice; have 1,000 blacks among them, slaves for the most part, who pay a small tribute to their master, say two or three bushels of corn, or when they raise stock, a beef or two.

"April 9 — Rode out with Adjutant Belger of the 6th to pay our respects to Judge Fields⁠24 of the Cherokee bench. He had just finished a very fine and commodious house on a commanding eminence, but received us in his cabin. His lady, a Philadelphian of Quaker parentage; his daughter, educated in the East, very attractive. While there Micanopy, Alligator, and Wild Cat, followed by a troop of braves and canaille, some on foot and two on a horse, squaws at a respectable distance, came up to hold a council in regard to their matters.

p232 "Micanopy (the 'governor') brought an empty bottle, which with some significant gestures, he handed to the judge. The interpreter (Gopher John) signified that the Governor was growing sleepy, whereupon something was produced to quicken the old gentleman's faculties. This after partaking himself, he handed to his brother chiefs, but not a drop to the parched throats of his followers, who, from the nodding in the course of the council did not seem to have recovered from their late frolic. The governor began his speech by complaining that for sometime past councils had been held by the band near the fort without consulting him, and then alluded to a power of attorney given by some, not all, of the chiefs, to their agent, to negotiate for them with the government in reference to sundry matters of interest. Among these was entire discretion as to the point of their submitting to the Creek laws. Old Micanopy was alarmed lest his people would not submit to that rule, and had some apprehensions, no doubt, as to the two or three hundred blacks called 'Micanopy's slaves.' The Judge suggested their sending a delegation to Washington, which has since visited that city, with what effect we have not learned. . . . Left the Seminoles debating among themselves what course they would take, and returned to the fort."⁠25

By the spring of 1845 the Seminole Indians had all left the Cherokee Nation for their own home, except a band numbering 417 who expressed a wish to remain and live with their hosts. The Cherokee agent and the principal officers of the Cherokee tribe visited and held a council with them on March 17. They explained to the Seminole the terms of their treaty, the desire of the Cherokee for them to remove, and asked for their views on the subject. Addresses were made to them

"in which their actual condition was kindly shown them and the advantage pointed out that will result to them by locating among their own people, having their own firesides, cultivating their own fields, living under their own regulations and maintaining a high spirit of self respect and independence. These and kindred arguments had very evidently no very little influence in reconciling them to the country, and to continue further westward their pilgrimage. Although strongly attached to the Cherokees, and disposed, as they expressed p233 themselves, to share the destiny of the Cherokees, to live where they live and to go where the mysterious hand that leads the Indian may guide them — we expect to see them speedily and voluntarily joining their own people. They will unquestionably remove at an early day.

"There is — perhaps, scarcely any subject upon which the Cherokee people, and most particularly the Principal Chief, has been more abused and misrepresented by one or two government agents on this frontier, than that connected with the residence of the Seminoles among the Cherokees. It has been represented that it was entirely owing to his influence and wishes, that they have not since quietly and voluntarily joined their own people, and settled down in the Creek country, and that they were kept here for selfish purposes, somewhat in the capacity of brave but mercenary Switzers. For a proper appreciation however, of the subject and of the feelings and circumstances that have suffered them so long to remain here, it is only necessary to state a few facts.

"The Seminoles were brought here by the U. S. officers, after the termination of a protracted war, and to suit the convenience of contractors, were tumbled in among the Cherokees and subsisted for one year at Fort Gibson. Having no country of their own, and not wishing to subject themselves and property to the laws of the Creeks, they were resolutely averse to settling down in their country and sacrificing their nationality and ancient customs. Under these circumstances, and heartily sympathizing in their destitute condition, in their homeless state, and in the trials, wrongs, and keen sufferings they had borne for years with a manly and heroic fortitude, the Cherokees became their brothers, extended to them the hand of charity, bore with great generosity their depredations on property and were unwilling to raise their voice against them, and invoke the arm of the United States in forcing them away until some permanent and satisfactory provisions should be made for them.

"Such are briefly the considerations that have caused them to remain with us so long, but now that homes have been obtained for them, it is the wish of the Cherokees and the interest of both that they should go, as they will, and occupy them."⁠26

In the autumn of 1845 a band of Seminole Indians were still living on Vian Creek and their Cherokee neighbors endeavored to have them p234 removed. A resolution was adopted by the National Council on October 14 requesting the principal chief to invoke the assistance of the United States agent for the Cherokee Nation, in effecting that removal. Maj. George Lowrey, acting principal chief, returned the resolution with his disapproval for the reason that a compliance with it would necessarily enlist the service of the military arm of the Federal Government. The authorities of the Cherokee Nation had consistently and bitterly opposed any measure that would permit or encourage the intrusion of the United States forces in the internal affairs of the Nation; and the acting chief recommended that the Cherokee rely on their powers of persuasion on the unwelcome guests.⁠27

Another unbiased observer of these much oppressed people visited them in their country near Little River where he wrote from Tustenuggee Town to the Cherokee Advocate. He described a Seminole as comfortable when he had a blanket

"as old Abraham would say 'he full of sofky'; enough fire to light his pipe (at this time of year) his gun and 'tricks' thereto belonging — a hunting shirt, a girdle, handkerchief or shawl on his head, string of beads around his neck, a leather string around his leg, and last, tho' not the least in his estimation, a feather stuck in his hair and then if he has a piece of Tobac one inch square, he is, to use an Arkansas phrase, 'in town with a pocket full of rocks'. . . . Yesterday and day before, this place was crowded with Indians, several hundred being present. They had met to counsel on various subjects; one, the complaints made by Cherokees about certain Seminoles now in your country, whom they desire will immediately remove, and for that purpose have sent messengers to express the wishes of the chiefs. They say, however, that they expect a great deal is done on the credit of the Seminoles, as there are a heap of bad men among the Cherokees, who are just as willing to steal as anybody; but they do not wish their people to stay among their neighbors if they are tired of them. Another subject before them was the scarcity of corn, for want of which many are suffering, and to relieve whom they have drafted in advance on their annuity sufficient to purchase several hundred bushels to be distributed to the needy." The agent was to leave the next day for North Fork Town to negotiate for the corn.

"The chiefs deserve great credit for the promptness with which they called their people together and acted, when informed of the p235 complaints of the Cherokees. While at the agency they also drew public hoes due them by the United States, for which they now have use; having fenced in considerable fields and nearly finished planting; some corn is now up; and if it is a good season, I have no doubt from experience, they will make a sufficiency of corn to do them the next year.

"Although several hundred were about the agency for two days, I did not see one that was intoxicated; they camped around within three hundred yards, in little parties, giving the place an animated and picturesque appearance, huddled around their camp fires in groups after nightfall. Being in open woods, they could be seen in all directions."⁠28

The Author's Notes:

2 Charles J. Kappler, op. cit., II, 249, 290. For a further account of these treaties, see Indian Removal op. cit.

5 Clark to Armstrong, March 21, 1842, OIA, "Seminole emigrant file." A map in the war department made in 1845 shows "Alligator's Town" on the east side of Grand or Neosho River about ten miles above Fort Gibson; and "Wild Cat's Settlement" on the east side of Bayou Menard southeast of the Fort.

6 Alexander to Crawford, May 18, 1842; Alexander to Seminole agent June 1, 1842, OIA, "Seminole emigration file" A 1238.

7 This was an important thoroughfare later used by the emigrant trains to California during the Gold Rush.

11 Judge to Hartley Crawford, March 14, 1843, ibid., file J 1173‑1350, "Sub-agency."

12 McKavett to Jones, March 31, 1843, AGO, OFD, 121 M 43; ibid., May 1, 1843, 45 M 43.

13 Armstrong to Crawford, May 22, 1843, OIA, Seminole file A 1457, "Choctaw agency."

19 Judge to Armstrong, September 15, 1843, Report of commissioner of Indian affairs for 1843.

[ Seminole ]

p223 Chapter sixteen
Contemporary Descriptions

The Author's Notes:

[ Seminole ]

p223 Chapter sixteen Contemporary Descriptions

The Author's Notes:

p223 Chapter sixteen
Contemporary Descriptions