True Left

Kings and Generals' historical animated documentary series on the history of the Native American Civilizations continues with a video on the Seminoles - the Native American tribe that never fully surrendered to the American government, despite three Seminole Wars between the United States and the tribes which emerged from the Creeks. The video will focus on the history and culture of the Seminoles, the wars against the USA and one of their leaders - Osceola.

The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earthen platform mounds, and often other shaped mounds as well.[1][2] It was composed of a series of urban settlements and satellite villages (suburbs) linked together by loose trading networks.[3] The largest city was Cahokia, believed to be a major religious center located in what is present-day southern Illinois.

The Mississippian way of life began to develop in the Mississippi River Valley (for which it is named). Cultures in the tributary Tennessee River Valley may have also begun to develop Mississippian characteristics at this point. Almost all dated Mississippian sites predate 1539–1540 (when Hernando de Soto explored the area),[4] with notable exceptions being Natchez communities. These maintained Mississippian cultural practices into the 18th century.[5]

Cultural traits

A priest with a ceremonial flint mace and severed sacrificial head, based on a repoussé copper plate
Mississippian copper plates
Reconstruction of the Birdman burial at Cahokia.
Mass grave burial at Cahokia of fifty-three sacrificed Native American women
Shell tempered ceramic effigy jug with swirls painted in clay slip, Rose Mound, Cross County, Arkansas, U.S., 1400-1600 CE, 8" (20 cm) high

A number of cultural traits are recognized as being characteristic of the Mississippians. Although not all Mississippian peoples practiced all of the following activities, they were distinct from their ancestors in the adoption of some or all of these traits.

    The construction of large, truncated earthwork pyramid mounds, or platform mounds. Such mounds were usually square, rectangular, or occasionally circular. Structures (domestic houses, temples, burial buildings, or other) were usually constructed atop such mounds.
    Maize-based agriculture. In most places, the development of Mississippian culture coincided with the adoption of comparatively large-scale, intensive maize agriculture, which supported larger populations and craft specialization.
    Shell-tempered pottery. The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shells as tempering agents in ceramics.
    Widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rocky Mountains, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Ocean.
    The development of the chiefdom or complex chiefdom level of social complexity.
    The development of institutionalized social inequality.
    A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one.
    The beginnings of a settlement hierarchy, in which one major center (with mounds) has clear influence or control over a number of lesser communities, which may or may not possess a smaller number of mounds.
    The adoption of the paraphernalia of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), also called the Southern Cult. This is the belief system of the Mississippians as we know it. SECC items are found in Mississippian-culture sites from Wisconsin (see Aztalan State Park) to the Gulf Coast, and from Florida to Arkansas and Oklahoma. The SECC was frequently tied into ritual game-playing, as with chunkey.

The Mississippians had no writing system or stone architecture. They worked naturally occurring metal deposits, such as hammering and annealing copper for ritual objects such as Mississippian copper plates and other decorations,[6] but did not smelt iron or practice bronze metallurgy.

The Seminole are a Native American people originally from Florida. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, as well as independent groups. The Seminole people emerged in a process of ethnogenesis from various Native American groups who settled in Florida in the 18th century, most significantly northern Muscogee Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama.[1] The word "Seminole" is derived from the Muscogee word simanó-li, which may itself be derived from the Spanish word cimarrón, meaning "runaway" or "wild one".[2]

Seminole culture is largely derived from that of the Creek; the most important ceremony is the Green Corn Dance; other notable traditions include use of the black drink and ritual tobacco. As the Seminole adapted to Florida environs, they developed local traditions, such as the construction of open-air, thatched-roof houses known as chickees.[3] Historically the Seminole spoke Mikasuki and Creek, both Muskogean languages.[4]

The Seminole became increasingly independent of other Creek groups and established their own identity. They developed a thriving trade network during the British and second Spanish periods (roughly 1767–1821).[5] The tribe expanded considerably during this time, and was further supplemented from the late 18th century by free blacks and escaped slaves who settled near and paid tribute to Seminole towns. The latter became known as Black Seminoles, although they kept their own Gullah culture.[6] After the United States achieved independence, its settlers increased pressure on Seminole lands, leading to the Seminole Wars (1818–1858). The Seminole were first confined to a large inland reservation by the Treaty of Moultrie Creek (1823) and then forcibly evicted from Florida by the Treaty of Payne's Landing (1832).[6] By 1842, most Seminoles and Black Seminoles had been removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. During the American Civil War, most Oklahoma Seminole allied with the Confederacy, after which they had to sign a new treaty with the U.S., including freedom and tribal membership for the Black Seminole. Today residents of the reservation are enrolled in the federally recognized Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, while others belong to unorganized groups.

Perhaps fewer than 200 Seminoles remained in Florida after the Third Seminole War (1855–1858), but they fostered a resurgence in traditional customs and a culture of staunch independence.[7] In the late 19th century, the Florida Seminole re-established limited relations with the U.S. government and in 1930 received 5,000 acres (20 km2) of reservation lands. Few Seminole moved to reservations until the 1940s; they reorganized their government and received federal recognition in 1957 as the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The more traditional people near the Tamiami Trail received federal recognition as the Miccosukee Tribe in 1962.[8]