Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes. While the Spanish conducted early and devastating campaigns in the region in their attempt to Christianize or otherwise westernize the ‘savage’ people of the New World, this was nothing compared to the cultural, economic, and political havoc the United States would inflict a few centuries later. The conflict between South Florida’s Native Americans and the U.S. began in 1817 with the First Seminole War, (in which president-to-be Andrew Jackson was one of its popular generals) and has never ceased. This, combined with Jackson’s policy of Indian Removal, the Second Seminole War, and the Third Seminole War exponentially decimated the numbers of Native Americans in Florida to just over two hundred (best historical estimate).[1]  The drastic decline in population along with the forced diaspora from their homeland created an atmosphere of hopelessness for the Seminoles in their fight to maintain their land, culture, and way of life. While Native Americans of South Florida have lost the battle against westernization in respect to tribal autonomy and land removal, their ability to work flexibly within the government's system of oppression has caused the most significant reforms of the past century.

            Although Native Americans in South Florida retain a limited form of tribal autonomy, they have gradually adapted to westernized government norms through modeling the United States' court system and adopting mechanism of political hierarchy, thus re-entrenching western ideology. During the latter half of the 19th Century, the Federal Government decided to enact a series of Native American reforms geared to take even more land from the already diminished Indian territory. The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 declared that “no Indian nation or tribe” would be recognized “as an independent nation, tribe, or power” by the United States, which prohibited treaties with any sovereign entity of Native Americans and in effect made it significantly easier for the government to secure lands owned by them.[2] Furthermore, the “Dawes Commission,” established by President Cleveland after the Dawes Act passed, arranged for the abolishment of the tribal governments of the “Five Civilized Tribes,” one of which was the Seminole Nation.[3] These two Federal policies combined stripped Tribal governments of their sovereignty and autonomy in governing their land and people. For the next several decades, the Seminoles became increasingly reliant on the U.S. government and its precedents. After decades of internal political turmoil resulting from these actions,  in 1957 the Seminoles drafted their own “Constitution and Bylaws…,” which marked an impressive turning point for tribal autonomy, however its effects were not all positive. First, because the Seminoles had limited options if they wanted to secure some degree of autonomy, the document titled “Constitution and Bylaws…” is not technically a constitutional document of an independent nation, rather a corporate charter that defines the Seminole Nation as an entity to be regulated by the Federal Government. The ordinances and powers of the Tribal Council in many circumstances remain “subject to the Secretary of the Interior,” and even amendments to this constitution must be “submitted to the Secretary of the Interior and, if approved by him, shall thereupon take effect.”[4] Worst of all, the Seminoles had little choice in the matter; this was the best of their options, since the others ranged from a state of perpetual land encroachment by capitalist developers to assimilation into mainstream America. Secondly, the Constitution’s ratification marked a clear ideological abandonment of traditional native government in favor of U.S. bureaucracy and governmental norms. It set up a political hierarchy consisting of a Tribal Council, Court system, and the Chairman/Vice Chairman system resembling the U.S. executive branch’s mechanism.[5],[6],[7] Whereas justice was doled out by the chief or tribal gatherings beforehand, the new court system has trial and appellate courts, complete with chief justices and associate justices, adding to the hierarchy. [8] Although the idea of a constitution is not itself a western concept, its implementation for the Seminoles left them subject to the whims of a “historically racist” agency and represented an abandonment of their traditional governmental system in favor of a westernized one. [9]

            After western ideologies such as land ownership were forced upon the Seminoles, the fight against Indian Removal declined sharply, rendering today’s fight one of land reclamation, not preservation. Before the British arrived in North America, Native Americans in general had a far different perception of land ownership than the Europeans. Land was seen not as property to be bought, sold, and exploited as the Europeans believed, instead it was seen as a “common resource”.[10] In fact, pre-British Indian settlements enjoyed a communal form of land ownership; while they believed the land was theirs, it did not belong to any one person, but had been given to the people as a whole by the “Great Spirit”.[11] However, following years of clashes with British and Spanish colonists, Native Americans learned that the western world saw land as a valuable commodity. During these clashes, the Creek Indians were forced out of the Appalachian region. Those who moved south, into Florida, would become the Seminole Tribe, taking up residence in a land once inhabited by tribes who had been annihilated by disease and war brought on by the Spanish. After the United States of America formed, and the foreign policy disputes of the late 18th century and early 19th century had passed, the age of U.S. Indian removal began. However, the Seminoles refused to go down without a fight. It took three wars over the course of four decades to finally drive the Seminoles south of the Okeechobee and render their population insignificant. After Andrew Jackson’s wars and his policy of Indian Removal, only 208 Seminoles inhabited the entire state, an exponential decrease over forty years.[12] Following the Seminole Wars, the tribe has changed their fight from one of maintaining the land that they had to one of land reclamation. Although their land claims originated during the time of Jackson, the Seminoles were never compensated over the course of the next 150 years, but a ruling by the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) in 1964 proclaimed a debt of $40 million was owed to the Seminoles by the government.[13] Unfortunately, it was not until 1976 that the government payed only $16 million in reparations to the Florida Seminoles.[14] However, Bill Drummond, writer for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, writes that many Seminoles don’t want money, but the land instead.[15] Having seen other tribes get compensation in the form of both money and land, the Seminoles demanded the same from the ICC and the government, an action that demonstrated an integration of Seminoles into the political sphere to an extent that allowed them to advocate for rights under the United States’ legal framework. While there are some exceptions to the current trend of the pursuit of land reclamation instead of preservation, over the last decade the government has stopped taking more land from the Seminoles, in part due to the Tribe’s ability to work through government bodies like the ICC to benefit their people.

            The Seminole’s ability to work flexibly within the United States Federal Government’s system of oppression in the realms of tribal autonomy and land disputes has allowed for significant and beneficial reforms during the last century. As mentioned before, the Seminoles retain a limited form of tribal sovereignty through the “Constitution and Bylaws…” document ratified in 1957. Since the Indian Appropriations Act combined with the impact of the Dawes Act Commission on the Seminoles effectively stripped tribal governments of their sovereignty and autonomy, the Seminoles were forced to find a legal loophole of sorts. Although the document constantly defers authority to either the Secretary of the Interior, the Treasury, or the United States Constitution, which limits the power of the Tribal Council and the Chairman, it shows significant improvement from the previous status of the Seminole Tribe.[16]  Rather than a loose group of people, the ratification of this document imbued the Seminoles with a new sense of nationalism and hope for the future. Rather than remaining forcibly subdued by either the Federal or State governments of the U.S., they now had a legitimate face of their nation that could legally represent them and their interests, both in court and in negotiations. Thus, the Seminole Constitution represents a milestone in political organization as well as a turning point for their cohesion as a tribe since the 1800’s.[17] By finally providing a single voice through which to speak to the U.S. government, negotiations henceforth went much more smoothly and in favor of the Seminoles.  For example, the East Big Cypress Case (1948-1987) shows the chronological shift in Seminoles being able to successfully protect their rights, with the catalyst being the re-establishment of a tribal sovereign entity. [18] The East Big Cypress Case began when the Seminoles sued the State after it had allowed the Water Management Department (WMD) to build a levee which flooded thousands of acres of Seminole farmland, revealing the nature of Florida’s state government to do whatever it wants with Native American lands and just pay for it later. For decades, the case was stagnant and litigation seemed out of the Seminoles’ favor since two different groups presented themselves as their tribe’s ruling entity. However, the ratification of their Constitution and Bylaws in 1957 assisted the Seminoles to effectively form a single sovereign entity to fight for their rights on a state level. Harry Kersey Jr, a recognized expert on the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians of Florida, concludes that the ability of the Seminoles to have such large a success through the white man’s legal system represents a significant shift from the trend of the previous centuries.[19] He further explains, as a result of winning the East Cypress Bay case, the Seminoles were placed under Federal Trust Status, meaning their sovereignty over all areas they reside within now is unquestionable, making it significantly harder for the state government or other agencies like WMD to infringe upon their rights in the future.[20] Thus, milestones in political organization for the Seminoles allowed them to prevail over the same government structures that had oppressed them for years.

            Although the Seminoles lost the battle against westernization in respect to tribal autonomy due to their forced incorporation of western governmental norms and land removal because of European-imposed perceptions of property, the Seminole Nation’s ability to use the United States Government's legal and judicial system to their own benefit has led to the most positive reforms of the past century. While upon first glance, the Seminole’s conformity to western norms seems a contradiction to their values, it is vital to remember that these changes were forced upon them. With white settlers pouring into their land to claim it as their property, backed by government policies like the Dawes Act which removed the communal aspect of Native American’s orientation towards land, it is no surprise that tribes soon changed their ideology to better confront the changing times. Furthermore, the Seminole’s modeling of the U.S. Constitution and governmental systems served not to drain from their culture, but to catapult them out of a decades-long period of hopelessness for the future of their nation. Due to the Seminole’s ability to maintain a balance between their traditions and changing times thrust upon them, their prospects for success over future State or Federal attempts on their land and sovereignty look promising.

Footnotes:

[1] Harry A. Kersey. “Florida Seminoles and the Census of 1900”. The Florida Historical Quarterly.  Florida Historical Society (1981): 145–60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30146765.
 

[2] Jeffrey D. Schultz. Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: Hispanic Americans and Native Americans. The American political landscape series. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000.

[3]Kerry C. Kelly. "Teaching With Documents: Maps of Indian Territory, the Dawes Act, and Will Rogers' Enrollment Case File." National Archives. Accessed March 10, 2016. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fed-indian-policy/.

[4] "Constitution and Bylaws of the Seminole Tribe of Florida." Library of Congress. Accessed March 10, 2016. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/american-indian-consts/PDF/58060124.pdf.

[5] “Tribal Council." Seminole Tribe of Florida - Government. Accessed March 10, 2016.

http://www.semtribe.com/Government/TribalCourt/TribalCourt.aspx.

[6] “Tribal Court." Seminole Tribe of Florida - Government. Accessed March 10, 2016. http://www.semtribe.com/Government/TribalCourt/TribalCourt.aspx.      

[7] “Constitution and Bylaws” Library of Congress.

[8] “Tribal Council.” Seminole Tribe of Florida – Government.

[9] Eric M. Weiss. “At U.S. Urging, Court throws Lamberth off Indian Case.” The Washington Post. July 12, 2006. Accessed May 12, 2016. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071101161.html

[10] Eric Foner. "Chapter 1: A New World." In Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Seagull 4th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2014. 12-13.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Kersey. “Florida Seminoles & the Census.” The Florida Historical Quarterly. 145–60.

[13] Casey, Phil. "U.S. may have to Pay Seminole Nation for most of Florida, at 1830 Prices." The Washington Post, May 20, 1964. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

[14] Bill Drummond. "Indian Land Claims Unsettled 150 Years After the Jackson Wars." Sarasota Herald-Tribune, October 20, 1987. Accessed November 5, 2015.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19781020&id=XTYeAAAAIBAJ&
sjid=Nr8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4601,1746657&hl=en.

[15] Drummond. "Indian Land Claims." Sarasota Herald-Tribune

[16] “Constitution and Bylaws” Library of Congress.

[17] "Constitution and Bylaws” Library of Congress.

[18] Harry A. Kersey. “The East Big Cypress Case, 1948-1987: Environmental Politics, Law, and Florida Seminole Tribal Sovereignty”. The Florida Historical Quarterly. Florida Historical Society (1991): 457–477. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30147555.

[19] Kersey. “The East Big Cypress Case.” The Florida Historical Quarterly. 457–477.

[20] Ibid