“The Isti-Semole (wild men) who inhabit the peninsula of Florida (1836) are pure Muskogee, who have gradually detached themselves from the confederacy, but were still considered members of it till the United States treated with them as with an independent nation. The name of Seminoles was given to them on account of their being principally […]
Seminole Indians, Seminole Nation (Creek: Sim-a-no’-le, or Isti simanóle, ‘separatist’, ‘runaway’ ). A Muskhogean tribe of Florida, originally made up of immigrants from the Lower Creek towns on Chattahoochee river, who moved down into Florida following the destruction of the Apalachee and other native tribes. They were at first classed with the Lower Creeks, but began
Muskhogean Family, Muskhogean Stock, Muskhogean People, Muskhogean Indians. An important linguistic stock, comprising the Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and other tribes. The name is an adjectival form of Muskogee, properly Măskóki (pl. Maskokalgi or Muscogulgee). Its derivation has been attributed to an Algonquian term signifying `swamp’ or `open marshy land’, but this is almost certainly incorrect. The Muskhogean tribes were confined chiefly to the Gulf states east of almost all of Mississippi and Alabama, and parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. According to a tradition held in common by most of their tribes, they had reached their historic seats from some starting point west of the Mississippi, usually placed, when localized at all, somewhere on the upper Red River. The greater part of the tribes of the stock are now on reservations in Oklahoma.
Big Swamp Indians. A name applied to Seminole, principally of the Mikasuki division, near Miccosukee Lake, Leon County, Florida. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Big Swamp Tribe as both an ethnological study, and as a people. McKenney and Hall, Ind. Tribes, II, 157, 1854. Alternate Spellings
