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Professor Will Tell Of Highlands County's Involvement In Seminole Wars

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Mollie Doctrow, curator for South Florida Community College Museum of Art and Culture, will open the current exhibit, "Seminole Wars: The Fight for Florida," after James M. Denham's lecture on Jan. 15 in the University Center Auditorium. The exhibition will be open to visitors until Jan. 29, 2009.

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: January 7, 2009

AVON PARK - Two centuries ago, before Avon Park, Sebring and Lake Placid, there were other towns in Highlands County, occupied by Indians.

That's the subject of a lecture on Jan 15 by James M. Denham.

"The Seminoles were diverse, they lived in towns, and in various villages," said Denham, a Florida Southern College professor who also directs the Center for Florida History in Lakeland.

That is, until Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828. He decided all Indians should move west, so the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees were removed from Georgia and Alabama to Oklahoma.

The U.S. government tried to force out the Seminoles - the last of the "Five Civilized Tribes" to walk across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas to reach the Oklahoma reservation - but it was difficult because Seminole bands were so spread out across Florida territory.

"They were not very unified," Denham said. "That was part of the whole problem of negotiations. Various leaders were bribed off. It was really a mess."

First Seminole War

During the First Seminole War, Col. Jackson was ordered by President James Monroe in December 1817 to lead a campaign in Georgia against the Seminoles and the Creeks. Jackson was also charged with preventing Florida - then owned by Spain - from allowing runaway slaves to hide here.

Instead, Jackson found letters indicating the Spanish and British were secretly assisting the Indians, and believed the U.S. could not be secure. He captured Pensacola, perhaps upon purposely ambiguous orders from the president.

Spain was weak at the time, so Secretary of State John Quincy Adams used Jackson's conquest to persuade Spain to cede Florida to the U.S. Jackson was named military governor.

In 1823 the government negotiated the Treaty of Moultrie Creek with the Seminoles, establishing a reservation for them in the middle of the state, which may have included northern Highlands County. In 1830, with Jackson now as president, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act.

Second Seminole War

The peace lasted until 1832, when calls for the Seminoles to be sent west of the Mississippi started again. The Second Seminole War began in 1835, and ended in 1842.

"There were only a few hundred left by then," said Denham. "They escaped to Highlands, Collier and Monroe counties, and there was a declared victory by the U.S."

To deal with the most reluctant Seminoles, a string of forts was established across the lower peninsula, Denham said.

Locally, there were Fort Basinger, on U.S. 98 near the Kissimmee River; Fort Meade, on U.S. 98 and U.S. 17; and two others near Frostproof and the current day Avon Park bombing range.

Those who hear Denham's lecture will be given maps.

"As part of the handout," said Molly Doctrow, South Florida Community College Museum of Art and Culture curator, "there will be a map of all the forts in Florida. (Tourists) could make a trip and see some of the forts."

Third Seminole War

The final conflict began in December 1855, when 40 Seminoles led by Billy Bowlegs attacked U.S. Army soldiers, killing and scalping four. Indian attacks were recorded. The army and militia retaliated, and in November 1857, troops captured 18 women and children from Bowlegs' band, and destroyed several towns and fields of crops.

In 1859, Seminoles were given their own reservation in Seminole County, Okla. The 163 remaining Seminoles in Florida accepted $500 cash for each warrior, and $100 for each woman. In May, the war was declared to be over, although there were still Seminoles hiding in the hammocks and the swamps.

"The Second Seminole War was the most significant of the three," said Denham. Until America's involvement with Vietnam and Afghanistan, it was the longest, continuous war in American history.

It began with Dade's massacre, in Bushnell, the county seat of present day Sumter County. One hundred American soldiers were surrounded and killed by Chief Oceola, a leader in the Second Seminole war.

"It was a surprise attack," said Denham. "Although there were many indications there was going to be a major confrontation, due to the fact that a significant percentage of Seminoles chose not to move to the West."

Oceola is a controversial figure, the professor said. On one hand, he terrorized American troops. One the other hand, is the most important, and perhaps the seminal figure in the Seminole conflicts.

"It was a story that captured the American imagination," Denham said. "He was captured under a flag of truce. He was seen as a symbol of American arrogance."

The Seminoles were complex people too, he admitted. Some Seminoles found runaway blacks, and kept them as slaves.

Modern historians view the removals of Indian tribes to Oklahoma as ethnic cleansing. On the other hand, Denham agreed, the Indian policy was crucial to settling Florida and securing the American frontier, which eventually made the U.S. the strongest nation in the world.

"Indian policy then was very much foreign policy," he said. "It was connected with foreign powers who were enemies of the United States."

Denham will speak for 45 minutes, and then take questions from the audience.

"I try to stress why this is important, and why it is relevant to our time," Denham said. "The history of the Seminole Wars is a window into race relations."

WHO Prof. James M. Denham

WHAT Lecture on the Three Seminole Wars

WHERE University Center Auditorium

WHEN 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15

COST Free

MORE mofac.org

South Florida Community College Museum of Art and Culture will open its exhibit afterwards on "Seminole Wars: The Fight for Florida." Visitors can see a military supply wagon and listen to how two soldiers may have viewed their war in the Florida jungle.

Highlands Today reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at 863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com

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