Long before the Everglades became a national park, it was a refuge. This page is an introduction built from published sources, including the tribes’ own. For the full story, we point readers first to the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.
War and refuge
In the nineteenth century the United States fought three wars against the Seminole and Miccosukee people of Florida. The Miccosukee Tribe’s history records that Andrew Jackson’s forces burned the main Miccosukee settlement in 1818 during the First Seminole War; that the Second Seminole War began in 1835 and lasted seven years; and that the Third Seminole War, from 1855 to 1858, was the final U.S. effort at removal. Those who were never removed held on in the Everglades and Big Cypress.
Recognition
The Seminole Tribe of Florida ratified its constitution and bylaws on August 21, 1957, a record held by the Library of Congress. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida won federal recognition in January 1962. In 1998 the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act recognized tribal homelands along the Tamiami Trail — the road built across the Glades between 1915 and 1928.
A note on how we tell this history
Tribal history is not ours to invent or embellish. We quote published tribal sources, label oral history clearly, and welcome corrections from tribal members and historians.