Mikasuki
The Mikasuki , also Miccosukee or officially Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida , are one of the three federally recognized tribes of the Native Americans living in Florida .
Language and culture
The Mikasuki speak a language closely related to the Hitchiti and both dialects are therefore combined to form the Hitchiti-Mikasuki language . This belongs to the eastern subgroup of the large Muskogee language family and is still spoken by at least 500 people in Florida today. The Mikasuki were once part of the Creek Confederation and moved from present-day Alabama via Georgia to northern Florida. There they built their city near today's Tallahassee , which was structured as follows: In the center was a rectangular square, which was surrounded on three sides by earth walls. In the middle of the square there was a stake up to 13 meters high, which was used as a target in various games and an animal skull was attached to the upper end. Outside the square were the rectangular, often recessed houses. These consisted of posts rammed into the ground, which were connected with wattle made of branches. Finally, the walls were coated with clay on the inside and outside and were also covered with matting inside. The entire construction was given a gable roof and the entrance was at the end of one long side. The families had gardens where they grew corn and pumpkins. There were also communal fields with the usual crops such as corn, beans and tobacco.
history
In historical times, the Mikasuki inhabited the valley of the upper Tennessee River in what is now the US state of Georgia as part of the Chiaha . They later split off from the Chiaha and moved northeast to North Carolina . Under constant pressure from European immigrants, they migrated to northern Florida in the 18th and 19th centuries. Together with members of the Creek, groups of smaller indigenous peoples and runaway Afro-American slaves, they formed the Seminole tribe . During this time the ethnogenesis of the Seminoles began, with the Mikasuki making up the majority of the relatives.
At the beginning of the 19th century there were the first attacks by the Americans who reclaimed slaves who had run away from the Seminoles, but without success. In 1819 the United States bought Spain from Florida under threat of war for five million dollars. General Andrew Jackson waged a campaign of revenge against insurgent Creek in 1818, burning 300 Mikasuki houses, destroying their food supplies and driving out the survivors. In 1829, Andrew Jackson, now a national hero, became the 7th President of the United States. He arranged for the forced resettlement of the Seminoles with the Mikasuki affiliated with them to the Indian territory and thus triggered the Second Seminole War (1835–1842), which was to cost the United States 30 million dollars and over 2,000 fallen soldiers. The number of Seminoles and Mikasuki killed is unknown. 4,420 tribesmen were deported to Oklahoma; the rest had fled and hid in the inaccessible Everglades and the Big Cypress Swamp .
In 1845, the army signed a treaty that divided Florida along the Peace River . All land south of the river outside the coastal areas should belong to the Indians. But the contract was constantly broken and the Indians deceived, kidnapped or otherwise deported to Oklahoma. Only about 200 indigenous people were left unmolested in the Everglades. About two thirds of these Seminoles belonged to the Mikasuki; the rest were in a different language.
When the American Civil War began in 1863 and general interest turned to the conflict, the last of Florida Indians enjoyed nearly 50 years of peace. You now had unobstructed access to the Big Cypress Swamp. In the 1920s, the US Army Corps of Engineers built canals to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico to partially drain the swamps in interior Florida. Now the interest in land ownership in the region increased and the Indians living there were persecuted again. In the meantime the US government had set up the small Big Cypress Indian Reservation there , which was later to be followed by two more. But the suspicious residents with Indian roots came reluctantly. Around 1940 there were still some who preferred life in the marshland to life in the reserves.
The Seminoles of Florida are proud to this day that they were never officially defeated by the US Army. From this they later derived their rights as a sovereign nation. After the invasion of the whites and the increased settlement of the coastal areas of South Florida, the pressure on the Seminoles increased. Two groups emerged from which the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida were formed.
During the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson , the Seminoles made a $ 40 million claim in reparation for land confiscated. In 1976, the Washington government paid $ 16 million in compensation for the land grab. Every tribe member, including those living in Oklahoma, should get their share of this money.
Todays situation
In 1957, the Mikasuki were recognized by the State of Florida as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and in 1958 they received official federal recognition from the US federal government. In 1959, soon after the Cuban Revolution , representatives of the tribe visited the head of state, Fidel Castro . They were recognized by Fidel Castro's Revolutionary Government , which drew the attention of the US federal government. The members of the Mikasuki tribe, for example, have passports that were first recognized internationally by Cuba . The flag of the Mikasuki is similar to the flag of the Seminoles and consists of four horizontal bars in the colors white-black-red-yellow. Most of the descendants of the Seminole now belong to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma .
The tribe operates a luxury hotel - casino and golf club in Miami and has its own police force . The Miccosukee Indian Village was founded in 1983 and shows a number of artistic works, such as paintings, handicrafts and patchwork women, costume dolls made of palm fiber and old photographs. In addition, everyday objects from life in the swamps are shown. The museum is located on Tamiami Trail 41 in Miami, Florida.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Hans Läng : Kulturgeschichte der Inder Nordamerikas , p. 150–156, Verlag Gondrom, Bindlach, 1993. ISBN 3-8112-1056-4
- ↑ a b c d A Brief History of the Miccosukees. Retrieved December 19, 2016 .
- ↑ Florida Police Cars