The Miccosukee Indian Tribe of Florida: Survival in a Harsh Environment

The Miccosukee Indian Tribe of Florida was federally recognized in 1962 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Secretary of the Interior. According to well-known Tribal Historian and author, Jerald T. Milanich, “Floridians were amazed in 1962 when the Miccosukee Tribe was federally recognized by the federal government. Few people realized that the Miccosukee had long been in Florida; most people simply thought they were Seminoles.”

Miccosukee Indians were a part of the Creek nation living in north Florida north of the current city of Tallahassee. The village or town of Miccosukee or Mikasuki was settled by members of the Miccosukee Tribe and its believed had become part of the developing Seminole Nation, north Florida neighbors immediately west of Miccosukee. It was mapped by the British in 1778 and originally called Mikasuki. The British records note there were 60 homes, 28 families and designed with a typical Creek town square. Andrew Jackson invaded the village in 1818 and defeated their Chief Kinhagee and destroyed the homes and farms. Like many Georgia and north Florida Creeks they left following the raids by the U.S. government forces and joined the Seminoles in Florida. Nearly all of written history declares the Miccosukee people as being part of the Seminole, perhaps being distinguished by being Mikasuki-speaking versus the Hitachi-speaking Seminole.

During the Indian Wars of the 1800s, most of the Miccosukee were removed to the west, but about 100, mostly Mikasuki-speaking Creeks, never surrendered and eventually hid out in the Florida Everglades. To survive in this new environment they had to adapt to living in small groups in temporary “hammock style” camps spread through the Everglades’ vast river of grass. The Miccosukee stayed isolated in this environment for about 100 years, resisting efforts to become assimilated into the growing Florida population. Then the Tamiami Trail was built across the Everglades from Miami to Naples in 1928. The Tribe was now exposed and eventually accepted the New World’s concepts while retaining their traditional ways.

As we previously discussed, the Seminole Tribe was proposed for termination of Indian rights and privileges in 1952. “Being proposed for termination galvanized the Seminoles.  On October 9, 1953 an emergency meeting was called at the Indian agency headquarters in the Dania, Florida Reservation. There were two issues to be considered:  First, convincing the U.S. government that the Seminole Tribe was not ready to take over management of its own affairs, and second, convincing the government that all native people living in Florida were not Seminole.” In August 1957 the Seminole Tribe of Florida received its federal recognition without the Miccosukee people.     

Millennials Part 2: Meeting Their Expectations on the Casino Floor

In our last blog of this series, we discussed Millennial traits and characteristics. A key characteristic we see affecting casinos is in the swift adaptation to new technologies and the accompanying expectations.

High Expectations 

An article in the Las Vegas Review Journal by millennial Richard N. Vilotta summarized it well: “When I come to the casino, I’ll have six of my buddies with me and we want a blackjack table so that all of us can play and interact at the same time. I have a list of our favorite drinks and microbrews that we’d like to have while we’re playing. Oh, and since we’re all Michigan State grads, we’d like to be sure that the Nebraska game is on a television we can all see because we’d like to catch the game as we play. And because we’ll be watching the game, the pace of our play may be a little slower — hope that’s OK. We also want to make sure it’s all right for us to take pictures at the table so that we can show some of our other friends what a good time we’re having.” So Millennials have adapted to, and expect, multiple simultaneous entertainment outlets.

Another adaptation is that Millennials often prefer to spend money on experiences, rather than things. Casino operators have seen the shift from the traditional slots and big buffet model to spending on things like high-end night clubs, pool cabanas and table service. How can gaming operators integrate these preferences?

Skills-based games

We’ve written previously on the potential to integrate skills-based games to the casino floor. Nevada and New Jersey have approved regulation that opens the door for some unique skills-based games. Nevada’s bill is specific to skills-based slot machines, which could integrate a video game-style bonus round that would increase a player’s chances based on their video gaming skills. These types of games are seen as integral to attracting the younger patrons.

New Jersey’s law is much broader – accepting proposals for a broader definition of skills-based games. A free throw shooting contest at the Borgata was approved in February, bringing unique visitors to the casino from across the US. Clever ideas like this will not only expand the casino’s clientele, but also appeal to those younger patrons who are looking for an experience rather than a bank of slots.

Social gaming

Millennials spend an average of 12 hours a week on social gaming and casino operators are looking for ways to translate that to the gaming floor. Eric Meyerhofer, CEO of Gamblit Gaming, estimates the potential market in the United States to be $8 billion to $10 billion.

The idea is to integrate games like Candy Crush, Halo and Call of Duty into the gaming floor. But some say that just adding a new name to the same old slot machines won’t cut it. So slot machine designers are looking at ways to integrate a real-time social element to a bank of slots, enabling players to play against their friends.

In fact, one study showed that Millennials actually prefer simple slot machines - slots with 3 coins, one line. Millennials don’t want to play the penny slot with 50 lines, and they lose interest quickly. So casinos actually risk losing interest by introducing the same old slot machine that has just been rebranded as Candy Crush. Perhaps a more appealing game would be a slot machine that has fewer lines and combines a bonus skills-based round, and/or that social element of playing against other players.

In the meantime, casinos have seen traffic move away from slots and toward table games, and casino operators are increasing table games to accommodate this shift.

From an entirely different perspective, the MGM group has created a successful social gaming platform called MyVegas that allows users to win points which can be exchanged for hotel nights or experiences like dinners, club entry or drinks.  This successfully combines the social gaming platform with the experience factor that Millennials crave while building brand loyalty.

Wrapping it up

So, we know that Millennials are multi-taskers (or have short attention spans, for the nay-sayers) who tend to play games while watching TV. So while the traditional thinking was to keep players on the gaming floor, offering few distractions, we now see that those “distractions” are exactly what Millennials want. Casinos could look to implement multiple focal points in gaming areas. A bank of socially connected slots could also feature a wall of TVs showing sports or perhaps center around an entertainment feature such as a rotating competitive rock climbing wall or even an indoor skydiving tunnel.

And gambling is no longer the focal point of the vacation; rather, it’s just a part of a vacation experience that is expected to include high-end clubs, excellent food and other resort amenities. While some of these preferences are specific to the Millennial group, we do see a shifting in expectations throughout the generational spectrum - a casino vacation is no longer about sitting at a bank of slots before heading to the buffet. It's become much more. 

The Seminoles, Part 2: Assimilation, Termination and Finally Recognition

See Part 1 of our Seminoles history, and our 3-part series on the Historical Overview of the Southeastern Creek Tribes and Creek Nation for a greater understanding of the Seminoles.

Florida became the 30th state in 1845. In 1855 the relentless push of the Florida frontier caught up with the Seminole when military surveyors and a group of Seminoles exchanged gunfire. The Third Seminole War had begun and new demands to remove the remaining Seminole to Indian Territory were strong. This war was a series of limited engagements and in 1858 the war drew to a close after U.S. troops were able to penetrate the Big Cypress Swamp and destroy settlements and stored food supplies. About 150 Seminoles were taken to the Indian Territory leaving a few hundred Seminoles scattered among the Everglades. It is the descendants of those few unconquered who live in Florida today.

Following the Third Seminole War the Seminoles lived in relative isolation for several decades. Small settlements, each with several chickees, dotted the hammocks around Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades and the Big Cypress Swamp to the south. Toward the end of the century trading posts were established in Fort Lauderdale and other areas. Seminoles traded items such as alligator hides and egret feathers, valued items in the fashion world. The massive drainage projects began in southern Florida in the 1890s hindered the Seminoles’ trading and economic pursuits. But then came the 20th century boom that brought new residents and tourists to Miami and Fort Lauderdale on the Atlantic Coast and Fort Meyers on the Gulf Coast. Instinctively the Seminoles began to stress tourism as a new economic opportunity. In the 1930s and 1940s some of the Seminole began to raise cattle returning to a resource their ancestors had turned to a century before.

During the 1930s and 1940s federal agencies provided some services to the Seminole but these were threatened in the 1950s by federal legislation that sought to remove the special status of the American Indian Tribes. Indian termination remained the policy of the U.S. government from mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. It was shaped by a series of laws and policies with the intent of assimilating Native Americans into the mainstream society. Assimilation was not new; the belief that indigenous people should abandon their traditional lives and become “civilized” had been the basis of policy for centuries. But what was new was the sense of urgency, that with or without consent, tribes must be terminated and begin to live like Americans. To that end, the U.S. Congress set about ending the special relationships between tribes and the federal government. The intent was to grant Native Americans all rights and privileges of citizenship, reduce their dependence on a bureaucracy whose mismanagement had been documented, and eliminate the expense of providing services for native people.

In practical terms the policy ended the U.S. Government’s recognition of sovereignty of tribes, trusteeship over Indian reservations and trust lands, and the exclusion of state law applicability to native persons. From the government’s perspective Native Americans were to become taxpaying citizens subject to state and federal taxes and laws from which they had previously been exempt.

Being proposed for termination galvanized the Seminoles. On October 9, 1953 an emergency meeting was called at the agency headquarters in the Dania, Florida Reservation. There were two issues to be considered: first, convincing the U.S. government that the tribe was not ready to take over management of its own affairs; second, convincing the government that all Indians living in Florida were not Seminole. In March 1954 Seminole Tribal members testified at a Joint Hearing before U.S. congressional committees of Interior and Insular Affairs. Additional hearings were held in April 1955 wherein the Tribe requested continuance of 25 years of government supervision and separation of the Seminoles from the Miccosukee and Traditionals. By March 1957 a tribal committee had been formed to draft a Tribal constitution and corporate charter. The Constitution and Bylaws were accepted by tribal vote on August 21, 1957 and ratified by the U.S. Congress later that year, thereby granting the Seminoles federal recognition as the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The Tribe would be led by an elected tribal council comprised of representatives from each of its six Florida reservations. The Tribal members would elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman.

The Seminoles remarkable entrepreneurial success began in the 1970s when they established a tax-free cigarette shop on the Seminole Hollywood, Florida Reservation. Later they were the first U.S. Indian Tribe to open a major high-stakes bingo operation. In 1988 the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress to regulate the conduct of gaming on Indian lands. The Seminoles immediately developed plans for casino gaming. Since that time they have developed and own seven gaming facilities on their Florida lands including two Hard Rock Casino and Hotel Complexes, two Seminole Casino and Hotel properties and three other Florida casinos. In 2007 the Florida Seminoles acquired 100 percent of the Hard Rock Company. This entity now owns 192 locations which include hotels, casinos and restaurants in 60 countries. Other significant Seminole enterprises include their citrus groves and cattle ranches. Their cattle enterprise is the 12^th largest cattle operation in the United States. Today the Seminole Tribe of Florida has over 90,000 acres of Trust land and boasts 12,000+ Tribal members. The Seminole Tribe of Florida is without a doubt one of the great American success stories of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries.

Sources, Florida Indians from Ancient Times to Present, 1998, Jerald T. Milanich; Tribes of the Southern Woodlands, Time-Life Books; The Southeastern Indians by Charles Hudson; Creek Country, The Creek Indians and Their World, by Robbie Ethridge; The Seminole Wars 1817 – 1858,Joe Knetsch, 2003; and numerous web sites including the Seminole Tribe of Florida site.  

The Seminole Tribe of Florida: Survival in a New Land

The Seminole Tribe of Florida was granted federal recognition by the United States Congress in 1957 and is fully independent of the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma.  The Seminole Tribe is one of the four federally recognized tribes in the southeastern states that is of Creek origin. (See our 3-part series on the Historical Overview of the Southeastern Creek Tribes and Creek Nation for a greater understanding of the Seminoles.)

By the mid-eighteenth century the Indian nations of the southeastern United States had been shattered by the federal government. In many cases their ethnic identities were all but gone. In Florida, the great Timucua, Ais and other significant tribes no longer existed, devastated predominantly by diseases introduced by European explorers. For Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama, north Florida offered a new and different life – land and the desire to live in peace free from the intertribal and international conflicts taking place just to the north of Florida.

Florida offered fertile land for agriculture and livestock. Locales that once sustained Spanish and Indian missions and ranches from the Florida Panhandle area to St. Augustine and Palatka became home to Creek Indians. The Spanish in the St. Augustine area actively encouraged the movement of Creeks into Florida and the Creeks were quick to establish avenues of trade. Artifacts recovered from archeological sites indicate that Florida Creeks initially lived much like their Creek relatives to the north. But gradually they became independent of the northerly Creeks and developed a new way of life suited to their surroundings. By 1760 they had received a new name “Seminole” from the Spanish “cimarrones” meaning wild ones who broke away.

It is believed the name Seminole was first used relative to those former Creeks who settled in the area of Central Florida near the present city of Gainesville, and that the band later led by the famed “Cowkeeper” was the group to whom this first applied. The band had migrated to the area from the Oconee River region of southern Georgia around the mid-1800’s and tended the cattle they found in central Florida at the abandoned Spanish ranch La Chua. They were at one time part of the Lower Creeks who had migrated southward in search of better and more open lands. 

Important aspects of Creek life were retained by the Seminoles. Each Seminole town maintained its own identity and name. Traditional Creek activities such as stickball games, taking of the black drink, the “busk” or green corn celebration and dance, and smoking the peace pipe continued. Seminoles became actively involved in partnering with white traders, exchanging honey, cow and deer hides, garden produce for European ceramics and metal items from buttons to guns. Women were full participants in this trade, exchanging their garden products and handcrafted items. Individuals and their families began to emerge as entrepreneurs and economic decision makers versus the traditional town councils and hereditary leaders. A distinctive Seminole way of life different from that of the Creek Indians was emerging.

In addition to Lower Creeks who had migrated to Florida, other Indians including Yuchi and Yamasee Indians and black slaves who had escaped from plantations in the Carolinas and Georgia also moved to Florida and in some instances had joined the Seminoles. In the early nineteenth Century another large migration of Creeks took place following Andrew Jackson’s defeat of Upper Creek warriors at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. For Jackson, interceding in what had essentially been a Creek civil war had been a convenient way to deal a blow to the Indian population and free lands for new white settlers. He sided with one group of Upper Creeks against the Upper Creek faction known as “Red Sticks” named for their red war clubs. It was the Red Sticks who were among those who migrated to Florida.  

In 1817 Jackson invaded Spanish Florida and attacked Spanish towns pushing some bands of Seminoles south. Two years later, Spain ceded Florida to the United States and Florida became a U. S. Territory. That same year the First Seminole War Began. By 1820, after the influx of Creek Indians following the Red Stick War, there were 5,000 Creeks and Seminole Indians living in Florida. In 1823 the United States government signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek with several Seminole chiefs in an effort to prevent further friction between new white settlers and Seminoles. This forced the Seminoles to agree to move to lands in the central part of the state, from Fort King, near present day Ocala, to Lake Okeechobee in the south.

In 1830 the Indian Removal Act became the law of the land – Southeastern Indians were to be moved west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory. The Seminoles simply refused to go. Federal militia were sent to deal with the situation; the Second Seminole War was underway. In 1835 Seminole warriors lead by their historically great leader, Osceola, raided an army supply train south of Gainesville. Ten days later in the Dade massacre other Seminoles attacked and decimated a contingent of more than 100 United States soldiers.

Two years later 400 Seminole warriors and 800 federal troops fought a pitched battle immediately north of Lake Okeechobee. From this engagement the Seminoles learned not to face federal troops in an open test of fire power, but to fight a guerilla war with raids and skirmishes. Eventually many Seminoles were captured or surrendered and shipped to Indian Territory. By 1842 the Second Seminole War was over.  Of the 6,000 who had lived in Florida fewer than 500 remained. Small bands of Seminole people sought refuge in the isolated Everglades.