Seminole

Act of April 26, 1906

Public Number 129 AN ACT To provide for the final disposition of the affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That after the approval of this Act no per son shall be enrolled as a citizen or freedman of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, or Seminole tribes of Indians in the Indian Territory, except as herein otherwise provided, unless application for enrollment was made prior to December first, nineteen hundred and five, and the … Read more

Billy Bowlegs and the Everglades of Florida

Billy Bowlegs

Watervliet Arsenal, near Troy, New York, is one of the places where Uncle Sam keeps his guns and powder, and as I was an ordnance officer, that is, an officer whose duty it is especially to look after the things to shoot with, I was on duty at that post when word came to me from Washington that the Indian chief, Billy Bowlegs, had broken out from the Everglades of Florida to go on the war-path, and that Uncle Sam wanted me to stop looking after guns in Watervliet, and to look after them in the South. Little John McCarty, … Read more

Yaha Hajo, Seminole War Chief

Advancing on Yaha Hajo, General Joseph Shelton placed the pistol at his breast, and drew the trigger, but the weapon missed fire. The Indian brought his rifle to his shoulder and shot the General in the hip; at the same moment the brave savage received a fatal wound from another hand, fell on his knees, attempted to load his rifle in that position, and died, resisting to the last gasp. with the obstinacy which always marks the death of the Indian warrior.

Halpatter Micco or Billy Bowlegs, Seminole Chief

In the sketches of other Seminole chiefs, and in the general Indian history, some account of this singular tribe of our aborigines has been given. Halpatter Micco’s history possesses peculiar interest, because he was among the very last few leaders of the fugitive race who were associated with the stirring scenes which transferred the remnant of it to the lands west of the Mississippi. His father, Secoffer, was an ally of the English, and cherished bitter hostility towards the Spaniards, taking the field against them in the troubles that followed the recession of Florida to their sovereignty. When dying, at … Read more

How to Register or Get your CDIB Card

This is based on the fact that the person providing the following information was born in 1940, for younger individual you will need additional generations. Here is a short check list you might want to look over before submitting your papers. It is a guide to help you, help them!!  When I say you need birth, death and marriage certificates these need to be Official state certified records – not copies. Your full name, address, telephone number and birth certificate, and marriage certificate.  (born 1940) Completed application form (downloadable from the BIA website) for CDIB card. Certificate of Degree of … Read more

Search the Dawes Rolls 1898-1914

Dawes Card

The Dawes Roll (Final Rolls) is a list of those members of the Five Civilized Tribes who removed to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during the 1800’s and were living there during the above dates. If your ancestor was not living in Indian Territory during 1898-1914 they will not be listed on the Dawes Roll! Only those Indians who RECEIVED LAND under the provisions of the Dawes Act are listed. It also lists those Freedmen who received land allotments as provided for in the Dawes Act. These pages can be searched to discover the enrollee’s name, age, sex, blood degree, type, census card number and roll number. Check the headings in each column. Type denotes whether the record is from a Dawes card.

Dawes Final Rolls Index

Final Roll Index

This is the index to the Dawes Final Rolls, listing individuals eligible for enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory. Each entry includes the enrollee’s name, final roll number, blood quantum, and index page.

Seminole Indian War

During the American Revolution (1776-1783), Spain gained control of Florida as part of the Treaty of Paris. On September 3, Britain also signed separate agreements with France and Spain, and (provisionally) with the Netherlands. In the treaty with Spain, the colonies of East and West Florida were ceded to Spain (without any clearly defined northern boundary, resulting in disputed territory resolved with the Treaty of Madrid), as was the island of Minorca, while the Bahama Islands, Grenada and Montserrat, captured by the French and Spanish, were returned to Britain. Spanish colonists as well as settlers from the newly formed United … Read more

Seminole Indian Bands, Gens and Clans

Many tribes have sub-tribes, bands, gens, clans and phratry.  Often very little information is known or they no longer exist.  We have included them here to provide more information about the tribes. Blount Indians. A Seminole band, numbering 43, under John Blunt, or Blount, for whom a reserve, 2 by 4 m. on Apalachicola r., Fla., was established in 1823 by the Moultrie Creek treaty (U. S. Ind. Treaties, 307, 1837). They went to lower Chattahoochee r., Ala., before the Seminole war of 1835-42, and after it removed with the Alibamu to Polk co. , Tex. , where 28 of … Read more

Black Drink

Black drink (“Carolina tea”; Catawba yaupon; Creek ássi-lupútski, small leaves, commonly abbreviated ássi). A decoction, so named by British traders from its color, made by boiling leaves of the Ilex cassine in water. It was employed by the tribes of the Gulf states and adjacent region as “medicine” for ceremonial purification. It was a powerful agent for the production of the nervous state and disordered imagination necessary to spiritual power. Hall says that among the Creeks the liquid was prepared and drank before councils in order, as they believed, to invigorate the mind and body and prepare for thought and debate. … Read more