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.
Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida,517 U.S. 44 (1996),was a United States Supreme Court case which held that Article One of the U.S. Constitution did not give the United States Congress the power to abrogate the sovereign immunity of the states that is further protected under the Eleventh Amendment. Such abrogation is permitted where it is necessary to enforce the rights of citizens guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment as per Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer. The case also held that the doctrine of Ex parte Young,which allows state officials to be sued in their official capacity for prospective injunctive relief,was inapplicable under these circumstances,because any remedy was limited to the one that Congress had provided.
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida,it is one of three federally recognized Seminole entities.
The Big Cypress Reservation is one of the six Indian reservations of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. It is located in southeastern Hendry County and northwestern Broward County,in southern Florida,United States. Its location is on the Atlantic coastal plain. This reservation lies south of Lake Okeechobee and just north of Alligator Alley. It is governed by the Seminole Tribe of Florida's Tribal Council,and is the largest of the five Seminole reservations in the state. Facilities on the reservation include the tribal museum and a major entertainment and rodeo complex.
Billy Bowlegs III,Billy Fewell,aka Cofehapkee,was a Seminole historian of mixed Indigenous American and African American descent from Florida.
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, also known as Potackee (Seminole),was the first and so far the only female chairperson of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. A nurse,she co-founded the tribe's first newspaper in 1956,the Seminole News,later replaced by The Seminole Tribune, for which she served as editor,winning a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native American Journalists Association. In 2001 she published her memoir,entitled A Seminole Legend.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a federally recognized Seminole tribe based in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida,it is one of three federally recognized Seminole entities. It received that status in 1957. Today,it has six Indian reservations in Florida.
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the largest of the three federally recognized Seminole governments,which include the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Its citizens are descendants of the approximately 3,000 Seminoles who were forcibly removed from Florida to Indian Territory,along with 800 Black Seminoles,after the Second Seminole War. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is headquartered in Wewoka within Seminole County,Oklahoma. Of 18,800 enrolled tribal citizens,13,533 live in Oklahoma. The tribe began to revive its government in 1936 under the Indian Reorganization Act. While its reservation was originally larger,today the tribal reservation and jurisdictional area covers Seminole County,Oklahoma,within which it has a variety of properties.
Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki is a museum of Seminole culture and history,located on the Big Cypress Reservation in Hendry County,Florida. The museum is owned and operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The museum itself was named in a Seminole language phrase:Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki,which means "a place to learn,a place to remember".
The Council Oak Tree is an historic oak tree on the Hollywood Seminole Indian Reservation in Hollywood,Florida,at the intersection between U.S. 441 and Stirling Rd. It has been the site for many important events in the history of the Seminole Tribe of Florida since at least 1957. Some of the events in the early 21st century include the 25th Anniversary celebration for the birthplace of Indian gaming (2004),the Tribe's 50th Anniversary celebration (2007),and the signing of the Seminole Gaming Compact (2010). The tree's image serves as a tribal logo. A restaurant at both the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel &Casino Hollywood and Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa is named for the Council Oak. The documents for the purchase of the hotel,casino and contents were signed under the Council Oak Tree. On December 4,2012,it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Council Oak Tree Site on the Hollywood Seminole Indian Reservation.
The Tampa Reservation is one of six Seminole Indian reservations governed by the federally recognized Seminole Tribe of Florida. It is located in Hillsborough County,Florida.
William Buffalo Tiger was a political leader of the Miccosukee Nation based in the Everglades area of Florida. He served as the first elected tribal chairman from 1962 to 1985,and before that was head of the General Council from 1957 and a chief. His activism led to political organization of the Miccosukee and their gaining federal recognition in 1962 as an independent Native American tribe. They wrote a constitution to govern their people.
Bill Osceola was the first president of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. When the federal government marked his tribe for termination,Osceola came up with the idea of creating a rodeo as a tourist attraction to raise funds. The rodeo earned enough money to pay for tribal representatives to lobby against termination and formally organize as a tribe.
Billy Osceola,was the first elected chief of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. He became an ordained minister and was extremely influential in shifting the Seminole Tribe of Florida from traditional spiritual practices to the Baptist faith. He was the first elected chairman of the tribe after their 1957 reorganization.
Marcellus William Osceola Jr. is the current and 7th Tribal Council Chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Osceola won a special election in 2016 to replace James Billie,who was ousted following a recall petition and was re-elected to a full term in 2019.
Ethel Cutler Freeman was an American amateur anthropologist and the first female trustee of the American Institute of Anthropology. She is best known for her research of Seminole culture on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in Henry County,Florida. During her career,she also conducted fieldwork with other Native American communities,including the Arapaho,Shoshoni,Navajo,Hopi,and Kickapoo. She also conducted research among the people of the Virgin Islands,the Bahama Islands,and Haiti as well as the Maasai and Zulu in Africa.
Josie Billie was a Mikasuki-speaking Seminole medicine man,doctor,and Baptist preacher. Billie was a member of the Panther clan of the Seminoles in southern Florida. He actively collaborated with American anthropologists and researchers like Ethel Cutler Freeman,Frances Densmore,Robert Greenlee,Robert Solenberger and William Sturtevant. Billie served as a public spokesman for the Florida Seminoles and created recordings of traditional folk songs and information about the traditional Seminole religion. As of 2017,his camp is part of the Tribal Register of Historic Places.
Susie Jim Billie (1900–2003) was a Seminole traditional maker of medicine and grand matriarch of the Panther clan in her region. She was born at the turn of the last century in Collier County,Florida in the United States,and resided on the Big Cypress Reservation,where she practiced traditional healing arts for her community. Billie received most of her training in folk medicine from her grandfather and uncle,who were medicine men of the tribe. She knew not only the herbal remedies for physical ailments,but the songs,chants,and ritual expressions that lent power to cures as well.
County Road 833 (CR 833) is a 53-mile-long (85 km) county road near the Florida Everglades. Located in Broward and Hendry counties,it connects Miccosukee Indian Reservation and the Big Cypress Indian Reservation with agricultural land south of Lake Okeechobee. It is known as Snake Road in the Miccosukee Indian Reservation,Josie Billie Highway in the Big Cypress Indian Reservation,and Sam Jones Trail in unincorporated Hendry County. CR 833 was previously designated State Road 833 (SR 833).
