Part 1

The Miccosukee Indians were originally part of the Creek Nation, which was an association of clan villages that inhabited the areas now known as Alabama and Georgia.

This territory was separated into two sections: the upper creeks lived in the mountians and spoke Muskogee (Creek); and the lower Creeks, the Miccosukee's ancestors, lived at the base of these mountains and spoke Hitchiti (Micausuki). While the two languages are closely related, they are mutually unintelligible. This language barrier hindered full communication between the two groups and caused them to be constantly at war with each other.

The Miccosukees lived in harmony with the other lower Creek tribes, sharing their legends and religious practices, in addition to trading, attending social gatherings and participating in traditional stickball games. The native people lived by hunting, fishing and growing crops, of which corn was the most significant. The new harvest is still celebrated each year at the sacred Green Corn Dance.
Miccosukee legends give interesting explanations of their origins. One legend reports a people dropping form heaven into a lake in northern Florida, now called Lake Miccosukee and swimming ashore to build a town. No early written records clarify the origins.

Arrival of the Europeans in the 1500's placed the Creek people at the center of a three-way struggle for colonial supremacy on the Southern frontier.

The English, working out of the Carolinas, penetrated to the heart of the Creek nation seeking trade, political support and land cessions. The French moved eastward from the Mississippi Valley and courted the Creeks as buffers against the English and Spanish. To the south, the Spanish, who were only nominally in control of the Florida territory, sought friendly relations with the Creeks as a bulwark against the other European powers. Caught in the middle, the Creeks mastered the art of playing the powers against each other.

In the early 1700's, the Spaniards enticed some lower Creeks to relocate into Spanish Florida and take up lands formerly occupied by Florida's aboriginal tribes.

This effectively created a barrier between the Spanish territory and the English to the North. The Miccosukees, who were already familiar with the Florida peninsula through hunting and fishing expeditions, and in an effort to escape both the encroaching whites and their upper Creek brothers, were among the first to settle in Florida sometime after 1715.

Complex Miccosukee town life soon evolved in the permanent settlements that they established in the Apalachee Bay Region and along the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers. Families built and occupied solid dwellings, engaged in skilled handcrafts and anticipated in a sophisticated social life.

Part 2

Following the American Revolution, white settlers started pushing west and south, creating conflict with the Muskogee speaking upper Creeks.

These conflicts between the settlers and the Creeks led to the Creek War of 1813 and later, the so-called first Seminole War of 1818.

The Miccosukee managed to stay in the Florida panhandle resisting the attacks on their towns by greedy settlers, American soldiers and crooked slave traders. The Miccosukee eventually left the area and settled around Alachua, south of Gainesville and the Tampa Bay area.

In 1812, when Spain sold Florida to the United States, the American government recognized the rights of Indians over much of the land in the peninsula. In 1823, the Indians and the American government negotiated for the land in the "Treaty of Moultrie Creek". The Indian leaders who signed the treaty wanted peace, so they agreed to move their clans to a reservation in Central Florida. In the reservation the Indians were allowed to live in peace for twenty years.

By 1830, agitation by the new American settlers led the United States to adopt the Indian Removal Act which dictated that all Indians in the southeastern United Sates had to relocate out west.

This forced the Miccosukee to join other Creek tribes in the war known as the Second Seminole War, which lasted from 1835 to 1842, and the Third Seminole War, which lasted from 1855 to 1958. During these wars, the Miccosukee escaped forced relocation by fighting and hiding out in the Everglades. Present tribal members are descendants of some fifty people who eluded capture during these wars.

To survive in their new environment, the Miccosukee had to adopt to living in small groups in temporary "hammock" style camps spread throughout the Everglades' vast river of grass. Fishing and hunting continued to provide the main staples of their diets; however, the Miccosukee had to learn to harvest the native fruits of the hammocks, along with the coontie and cabbage palms of higher ground. Corn, which plays an important role in tribal customs became very difficult to grow.

In the 1870's identifiable Miccosukee communities began to re-form.

Although life was still a struggle, these were good times for the Miccosukee. Game was abundant and there was a surplus of alligator skins, deer hides and feathers. These goods were traded in town for cloth, tools, guns, salt and coffee.

Part 3

The Miccosukees' ability to adapt to a new lifestyle without becoming assimilated by the ever encroaching american world was tested throughout the 1900's. In 1906 and 1913, canals were cut to drain the northern and eastern Everglades for agriculture. Canals dug in the '20's and '30's drained the wetlands even more and reduced the fish and game populations drastically. Real estate booms changed Miami overnight into an expanding metropolis, while the construction of the Tamiami Trail in 1928 allowed non-Indians access to the abundant fish and game in the Everglades.

The most significant change for the Miccosukee came in 1947 when the U.S. Department of the Interior declared that most of the Tribe's ancestral land was to become part of the Everglades National Park.

From an isolated community that was near self-reliant, the Miccosukee Indians found themselves thrust into the rush of the twentieth century. The Miccosukee now experienced a need for more money, education and all that goes with the modern way of life. The land that was once theirs to roam and hunt was eliminated from the Miccosukee use. Miccosukee Tribal leaders decided that it was now time to seek outside aid to protect themselves and their future.

In adapting to new ways, the Miccosukee have always managed to retain their own culture. The Miccosukee way is best reflected in its yellow, red, black and white flag colors, which represent the circle of life - east, north, west and south. The Miccosukee view the whole universe spinning slowly in a circle what was, will be and will cease to be again. The Miccosukee have kept their language, medicine and clans and some even prefer to live in chickees, the traditional Miccosukee dwelling, instead of modern housing that is available. To renew their identity, the Miccosukee celebrate the sacred Green Corn Dance each spring.

In an effort to better communicate between the Miccosukee and non-Indians, the Tribe developed the Miccosukee Indian Village and Airboat Rides.

The Miccosukee Indian Village is an authentic family camp with sleeping and working chickees surrounding the cooking chickee, with its symbolic star-shaped ceremonial fire. The Village existed long before the Tamiami Trail was built. The Tribe purchased this property from its owner in the 1970's and added a museum, boardwalk and alligator arena. For the Miccosukee, the camps traditionally belong to the clan matriarch. Miccosukee clan membership derives from the mother's side of the family