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Alachua County is a county in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census,the population was 278,468. The county seat is Gainesville,the home of the University of Florida since 1906,when the campus opened with 106 students.
The Seminole Wars were a series of three military conflicts between the United States and the Seminoles that took place in Florida between about 1816 and 1858. The Seminoles are a Native American nation which coalesced in northern Florida during the early 1700s,when the territory was still a Spanish colonial possession. Tensions grew between the Seminoles and settlers in the newly independent United States in the early 1800s,mainly because enslaved people regularly fled from Georgia into Spanish Florida,prompting slaveowners to conduct slave raids across the border. A series of cross-border skirmishes escalated into the First Seminole War in 1817,when American General Andrew Jackson led an incursion into the territory over Spanish objections. Jackson's forces destroyed several Seminole and Black Seminole towns,as well as the briefly occupied Pensacola before withdrawing in 1818. The U.S. and Spain soon negotiated the transfer of the territory with the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819.
Micanopy is a town in Alachua County,Florida,United States,located south of Gainesville. It is part of the Gainesville metropolitan area. The population as of the 2020 census was 648.
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today,they live in Oklahoma and Florida,and comprise three federally recognized tribes:the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma,the Seminole Tribe of Florida,and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida,as well as independent groups. The Seminole people emerged in a process of ethnogenesis from various Native American groups who settled in Spanish Florida beginning in the early 1700s,most significantly northern Muscogee Creeks from what are now Georgia and Alabama.
Osceola,named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama,became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee,and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman,James McQueen. He was reared by his mother in the Creek (Muscogee) tradition. When he was a child,they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees,led by a relative,Peter McQueen,after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people.
The Second Seminole War,also known as the Florida War,was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups of people collectively known as Seminoles,consisting of American Indians and Black Indians. It was part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars. The Second Seminole War,often referred to as the Seminole War,is regarded as "the longest and most costly of the Indian conflicts of the United States". After the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832 that called for the Seminole's removal from Florida,tensions rose until fierce hostilities occurred in the Dade battle in 1835. This conflict started the war. The Seminoles and the U.S. forces engaged in mostly small engagements for more than six years. By 1842,only a few hundred native peoples remained in Florida. Although no peace treaty was ever signed,the war was declared over on August 14,1842.
John Jumper or Heneha Mekko,was Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation from 1849 to 1865,and again from 1882 to 1885. He was also a Baptist pastor. Jumper led those Seminole who supported the Confederacy,signing a treaty with the new government in the hope of gaining an Indian state if they were successful. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army Seminole Mounted Volunteers.
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park is a Florida State Park,encompassing a 21,000-acre (85 km2) savanna in Alachua County,Florida lying between Micanopy and Gainesville. It is also a U.S. National Natural Landmark. It is crossed by both I-75 and U.S. 441. It is in the center of the Paynes Prairie Basin. The basin's primary source of drainage is Alachua Sink. During occasional wet periods,the basin will become full. A notable period occurred from 1871 to 1891 when the Alachua Sink was temporarily blocked. During this period,shallow draft steamboats were a frequent sight on Alachua Lake in the center of the prairie. The region was also historically known as the Alachua Savannah. Its drainage has been modified by several canals. Since 1927,Camps Canal has linked the basin to the River Styx which leads to Orange Lake and eventually the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Johns River. That reduced the basins water intake by half. Additional changes to the prairie's environment have been detrimental to its hydrology. In 1970,the state of Florida acquired the land and has been in the process of restoring the environment to a more natural condition ever since.
Holata Micco was a leader of the Seminoles in Florida during the Second Seminole War and was the remaining Seminole's most prominent chief during the Third Seminole War,when he led the Seminoles' last major resistance against the United States government. With the possibilities of military victory dwindling,he finally agreed to relocate with his people to Indian Territory in 1858. As part of the settlement,he was paid $6,500 plus $1,000 each for the subchiefs and $100 each for the women and children who went with him. He is buried in Hughes County,Oklahoma.
Micanopy,also known as Mick-e-no-páh,Micco-Nuppe,Michenopah,Miccanopa,and Mico-an-opa,and Sint-chakkee,was the leading chief of the Seminole during the Second Seminole War.
The Treaty of Payne's Landing was an agreement signed on 9 May 1832 between the government of the United States and several chiefs of the Seminole Indians in the Territory of Florida,before it acquired statehood.
King Payne was a son of the Seminole high chief Cowkeeper and succeeded him as leading chief of the Seminoles upon his death in 1783. He led his people against the Spanish and Americans from Georgia and established a number of towns and villages,including Paynes Town in Paynes Prairie,both of which are named for him. Paynes Prairie is in present-day Alachua County,Florida,between Gainesville and Micanopy. U.S. Route 441 and Interstate 75 cut through the prairie.
Billy Bowlegs III,Billy Fewell,aka Cofehapkee,was a Seminole elder,who was also of African-American descent. He was a tribal historian in Florida.
John Horse,also known as Juan Caballo,Juan Cavallo,John Cowaya and Gopher John,was a man of mixed African and Seminole ancestry who fought alongside the Seminoles in the Second Seminole War in Florida. He rose to prominence in the third year of what was to become a seven-year war when the first generation of Black Seminole leaders was largely decimated and the primary Seminole war chief,Osceola,fell into the hands of the American military commander,General Thomas Sydney Jesup.
Ahaya was the first recorded chief of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe. European-Americans called him Cowkeeper,as he held a very large herd of cattle. Ahaya was the chief of a town of Oconee people near the Chattahoochee River. Around 1750 he led his people into Florida where they settled around Payne's Prairie,part of what the Spanish called tierras de la chua,"Alachua Country" in English. The Spanish called Ahaya's people cimarones,which eventually became "Seminoles" in English. Ahaya fought the Spanish,and sought friendship with the British,allying with them after Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in 1763,and staying loyal to them through the American Revolutionary War. He died shortly after Britain returned Florida to Spain in 1783.
The Indigenous peoples of Florida lived in what is now known as Florida for more than 12,000 years before the time of first contact with Europeans. However,the indigenous Floridians living east of the Apalachicola River had largely died out by the early 18th century. Some Apalachees migrated to Louisiana,where their descendants now live;some were taken to Cuba and Mexico by the Spanish in the 18th century,and a few may have been absorbed into the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.
The Seminole in the American Civil War were found in both the Trans-Mississippi and Western Theaters. The Seminole Nation in the Trans-Mississippi Theater had split alliances. However,the majority of the tribe in the Western territories joined the Union Army under the leadership of Billy Bowlegs. Others,such as John Jumper,supported the Confederacy. The Florida Seminole participated in some skirmishing in central Florida. They were likely at the Battle of Olustee in February 1864.
Gad Humphreys was an officer in the United States Army and an Indian agent in Florida. He was appointed to his post in 1822. He was supportive of the Indians and tried to help them and protect them from encroachments by White settlers. He was accused of abusing his post by preventing or delaying the return to their owners of fugitive slaves that had taken refuge with the Indians. An investigation was conducted,but none of his accusers were willing to testify. Even so,he was removed from his post in 1830.
Chipco,also known as Echo Emathla,was a 19th century Seminole chief and warrior. He was one of the most prominent Seminole chiefs during the Seminole Wars,and by the end of the conflict he was the main leader of the Muscogee-speaking Seminoles in Florida. At a young age,Chipco and his family of Red Sticks fled as refugees to Florida because of the War of 1812,where they joined the Seminole tribe. As Chipco grew older he became a chief and eventually fought against the United States and its policy of Indian removal. Chipco was one of the Seminole leaders at the Dade battle,where Seminole warriors successfully ambushed a column of the United States Army and killed over a 100 enemy soldiers. This battle started the Second Seminole War,which Chipco would participate in through its entire duration. By the end of the Seminole Wars,Chipco and his band were part of the group of Seminoles who remained in Florida,and they were the only Seminole band who continued living in Central Florida.
References
- ↑ Jim Robison (1998-04-05). "Billy Bowlegs Iii Had A Name With History". Orlando Sentinel . Retrieved 2013-02-15.
- ↑ "Seminole Indian Chiefs and Leaders". Access Genealogy. Archived from the original on 2013-04-07. Retrieved 2013-02-15.
- Johansen, Bruce E. and Donald A. Grinde, Jr. The Encyclopedia of Native American Biography, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997.