The history of the Seminole Indians in Florida embodies a vital part of the tragic history of native and white American conflict throughout the entire United States. Drawing on widely scattered scholarship, including the oldest documents and recently discovered material, Covington gives us a complete account of the Florida Seminoles from their entrance into the state almost three hundred years ago, through the great chiefdoms of Micanopy, Osceola, and Billy Bowlegs, to the current political reality of democratic elections. (In fact one woman, Betty Mae Jumper, was elected tribal chairperson in both 1967 and 1969.)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Covington chronicles the 300-year history of the Seminole Indians in Florida. His account of their plight moves from their migration from Georgia and Alabama, through the three wars against the whites and forcible removal to Oklahoma Indian Territory of 90 percent of the survivors in 1858, to the current life of the descendants of the people who refused to relocate or surrender. Using manuscript and published sources, Covington (history, Univ. of Tampa) writes a comprehensive history of these elusive Native Americans. Despite the existence of comparable books (Edwin McReynold's The Seminoles , Univ. of Oklahoma Pr., 1975, reprint; J. Leitch Wright Jr., Creeks and Seminoles , Univ. of Nebraska Pr., 1987), this book will stand as the definitive monograph until a Seminole chooses to offer a Native American perspective. Highly recommended.
- Susan Hamburger, Univ. of Virginia Lib., Charlottesville
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Susan Hamburger, Univ. of Virginia Lib., Charlottesville
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
"The most comprehensive account of the history of the Florida Seminoles yet undertaken."--John K. Mahon, author of History of the Second Seminole War
The history of the Seminole Indians in Florida embodies a vital part of the tragic history of native and white American conflict throughout the entire United States. Drawing on widely scattered scholarship, including the oldest documents and recently discovered material, Covington gives us a complete account of the Florida Seminoles from their entrance into the state almost three hundred years ago, through the great chiefdoms of Micanopy, Osceola, and Billy Bowlegs, to the current political reality of democratic elections. (In fact one woman, Betty Mae Jumper, was elected tribal chairperson in both 1967 and 1969.)
After moving into the peninsula from Georgia and Alabama, the Seminoles fought three wars against the whites. By 1858, at the end of the final war, 90 percent of the tribe had been killed or forcibly removed to Oklahoma. Those who remained in chickees in the swampy grassland of south Florida comprised one of the last tribes in the country to retain cultural independence from whites. With the drainage of the Everglades and extension of highways and railroads into the area, the land the Indians lived on without legal title became prime real estate, and the Seminoles were evicted by the new white owners.
Covington brings the history of the tribe into this century as he describes the beginning of Seminole relocation to reservations, their participation in World War II, the inroads of Christianity in the 1940s, and the changes in tribal education, government, and agriculture and business ventures in the past three decades.
The history of the Seminole Indians in Florida embodies a vital part of the tragic history of native and white American conflict throughout the entire United States. Drawing on widely scattered scholarship, including the oldest documents and recently discovered material, Covington gives us a complete account of the Florida Seminoles from their entrance into the state almost three hundred years ago, through the great chiefdoms of Micanopy, Osceola, and Billy Bowlegs, to the current political reality of democratic elections. (In fact one woman, Betty Mae Jumper, was elected tribal chairperson in both 1967 and 1969.)
After moving into the peninsula from Georgia and Alabama, the Seminoles fought three wars against the whites. By 1858, at the end of the final war, 90 percent of the tribe had been killed or forcibly removed to Oklahoma. Those who remained in chickees in the swampy grassland of south Florida comprised one of the last tribes in the country to retain cultural independence from whites. With the drainage of the Everglades and extension of highways and railroads into the area, the land the Indians lived on without legal title became prime real estate, and the Seminoles were evicted by the new white owners.
Covington brings the history of the tribe into this century as he describes the beginning of Seminole relocation to reservations, their participation in World War II, the inroads of Christianity in the 1940s, and the changes in tribal education, government, and agriculture and business ventures in the past three decades.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some good information, but old-fashioned,
This review is from: The Seminoles of Florida (Paperback)
This book includes good historical information about the formation of the Seminoles and about the Seminole Wars, but it's not nearly so concerned with who the Seminoles are today. It also contains disturbing, seemingly unaware antiquated terminolgy like "war whoop," "savage," "semi-civilized" and "warpath," makes claims about the practice of scalping that go undocumented in the text, doesn't always distinguish between Maskoki and Mikasuki terms, and has a really odd epilogue. Four useful appendicies. Maybe good historical background, but not so great as a recent history of the Seminoles or as anthropology.
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