The term semanóle, or isti simanóle, signifies _separatist_ or
_runaway_, and as a tribal name points to the Indians who left the
Creek, especially the Lower Creek settlements, for Florida, to live,
hunt and fish there in entire independence. The term does not mean
_wild, savage_, as frequently stated; if applied now in this sense
to animals, it is because of its original meaning, "what has become a
runaway": pínua simanóle _wild turkey_ (cf. pín-apúiga _domesticated
turkey_), tchu-áta semanóli, _antelope_, literally, "goat turned
runaway, wild," from tchu-áta, ítchu háta _goat_, lit., "bleating
deer."[46] The present Seminoles of Florida call themselves
Ikaniú-ksalgi or "Peninsula-People" (from íkana _land_, niúksa, for
in-yúksa _its point, its promontory_, -algi: collective ending);
another name for them is Tallaháski, from their town Tallahassie, now
capital of the State of Florida. The Wendát or Hurons call them
Ungiayó-rono, "Peninsula-People," from ungiáyo _peninsula_. In Creek,
the Florida peninsula is called also Ikan-fáski, the "Pointed Land,"
the Seminoles: Ikanafáskalgi "people of the pointed land." The name
most commonly given to the Seminoles in the Indian Territory by the
Creeks is Simanō′lalgi, by the Hitchiti: Simanō′la'li.
[Footnote 46: This adjective is found verbified in
isimanōlăidshit "he has caused himself to be a runaway."]
Indians speaking the Creek language lived in the south of the
peninsula as early as the sixteenth century. This fact is fully proved
by the local names and by other terms used in these parts transmitted
by Fontanedo (in 1559, cf. Calusa): seletega! "_run hither!_" now
pronounced silítiga, silítka, abbrev. from isilítka; isilítkäs _I run
away_, lit., I carry myself away, off; lítkäs _I am running_. Silítiga
is now used as a personal name among the Creeks.
We have seen that a portion of Fontanedo's local names of the Calusa
country are of Creek origin, and that another portion is probably
Timucua. The rest of them, like Yagua and others, seem to be of
Caribbean origin, and a transient or stationary population of Caribs
is mentioned by Hervas, _Catalogo de las lenguas_ I, p. 386 as having
lived in the Apalachi country.[47]
[Footnote 47: Cf. Proceed. Am. Philos. Society of Phila., 1880,
pp. 466, 478.]
The hostile encounter between Creeks and Calusa, mentioned by Romans
(cf. Calusa), probably took place about A. D. 1700, but the name
Seminole does not appear as early as that. Previous to that event the
Creeks seem to have held only the coast line and the north part of
what is now the area of Florida State. A further accession resulted
from the arrival of the Yámassi, whom Governor Craven had driven into
Georgia and into the arms of their enemies, the Spaniards of Florida,
after suppressing the revolt of 1715 in which they had participated.
The Seminoles of modern times are a people compounded of the following
elements: separatists from the Lower Creek and Hitchiti towns;
remnants of tribes partly civilized by the Spaniards; Yámassi Indians
and some negroes. According to Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country
(1799), pp. 25. 26, they had emigrated from Okóni, Sáwokli, Yufála,
Tamá`la, Apalatchúkla and Hitchiti (all of which are Lower Creek
towns), being invited to Florida by the plenty of game, the mildness
of the climate and the productiveness of the soil. The Seminoles
mentioned by him inhabited the whole peninsula, from Apalachicola
river to the "Florida Point," and had the following seven towns:
Semanóle Talahássi, Mikasuki, Witchotúkmi, Alachua, Oklawáha `láko,
Talua-tchápk-apópka, Kalusa-hátchi. Some of the larger immigrations
from the Creek towns into those parts occurred: in 1750, after the end
of the Revolutionary war, in 1808 and after the revolt of the Upper
Creeks in 1814.
When Wm. Bartram traveled through the Seminole country, about 1773, he
was informed that Cuscowilla, a town on a lake of the same name and a
sort of Seminole capital, had been built by Indians from Okóni old
town, settled upon the Alachua plains: "They abdicated the ancient
Alachua town on the borders of the savanna, about fifty miles west
from the river San Juan, and built here, calling the new town
Cuscowilla. (About 1710) they had emigrated from Oconee town, on the
Oconee river, on account of the proximity of the white people." They
formerly waged war with the "Tomocos (Timucua), Utinas, Calloosas,
Yamases" and other Florida tribes.[48]
[Footnote 48: Wm. Bartram, Travels, p. 97. 179. 190-193. 216.
217. 251. 379-380. The name Cuscowilla bears a curious
resemblance to the Chicasa town Tuskawillao, mentioned by Adair,
History, p. 353. Cf. also Okóni, in List of Creek Settlements.]
The Seminoles were always regarded as a sort of outcasts by the Creek
tribes from which they had seceded, and no doubt there were reasons
for this. The emigration included many of the more turbulent elements
of the population, and the mere fact that many of them spoke another
dialect than the Maskoki proper (some belonging to the Hitchiti or
southeastern division of the family) is likely to have cast a shadow
upon them. The anecdote narrated by Milfort (Mémoire, p. 311-317)
furnishes ample proof of the low esteem in which the Seminoles were
held by the Creeks. But, on the other side, emigration was favored by
the Creek communities themselves through the practice observed by some
of their number to send away a part of their young men to form branch
villages, whenever the number of the inhabitants began to exceed two
hundred. Several towns will be found in our "List of Creek
Settlements," in which the process of segmentation was going on upon a
large scale in the eighteenth century.
The Seminoles first appear as a distinct politic body in American
history under one of their chiefs, called King Payne, at the beginning
of this century. This refers more particularly to the Seminoles of the
northern parts of what is now Florida; these Indians showed, like the
Creeks, hostile intentions towards the thirteen states during and
after the Revolution, and conjointly with the Upper Creeks on
Tallapoosa river concluded a treaty of friendship with the Spaniards
at Pensacola in May, 1784. Although under Spanish control, the
Seminoles entered into hostilities with the Americans in 1793 and in
1812. In the latter year Payne míko was killed in a battle at Alachua,
and his brother, the influential Bowlegs, died soon after. These
unruly tribes surprised and massacred American settlers on the Satilla
river, Georgia, in 1817, and another conflict began, which terminated
in the destruction of the Mikasuki and Suwanee river towns of the
Seminoles by General Jackson, in April, 1818. After the cession of
Florida, and its incorporation into the American Union (1819), the
Seminoles gave up all their territory by the treaty of Fort Moultrie,
September 18th, 1823, receiving in exchange goods and annuities. When
the government concluded to move these Indians west of the Mississippi
river, a treaty of a conditional character was concluded with them at
Payne's Landing, in 1832. The larger portion were removed, but the
more stubborn part dissented, and thus gave origin to one of the
gravest conflicts which ever occurred between Indians and whites. The
Seminole war began with the massacre of Major Dade's command near
Wahoo swamp, December 28th, 1835, and continued with unabated fury for
five years, entailing an immense expenditure of money and lives. A
number of Creek warriors joined the hostile Seminoles in 1836.
A census of the Seminoles taken in 1822 gave a population of 3899,
with 800 negroes belonging to them. The population of the Seminoles in
the Indian Territory amounted to 2667 in 1881 (Ind. Affairs' Rep.),
and that of the Florida Seminoles will be stated below. There are some
Seminoles now in Mexico, who went there with their negro slaves.
The settlements of the Seminoles were partly erratic, comparable to
hunters' camps, partly stationary. The stationary villages existed
chiefly in the northern parts of the Seminole lands, corresponding to
Southern Georgia and Northern Florida of our days. A very instructive
table exists of some of their stationary villages, drawn up by Capt.
Young, and printed in Rev. Morse's Report on the Indians of the United
States (1822), p. 364. This table however includes, with a few
exceptions, only places situated near Apalachicola river (east and
west of it), in Alabama, Georgia and Florida; the list was probably
made at a time when Florida was still under Spanish domination, which
accounts for the fact that the county names are not added to the
localities. Many of these towns were, in fact, Lower Creek towns and
not belonging to the Seminole proper, all of whom lived east of
Apalachicola river, mostly at some distance from it. Seminole and
Lower Creek were, in earlier times, often regarded as identical
appellations; cf. Milfort, Mém., p. 118.
The remarks included in parentheses were added by myself.