Seminol Republic
Tvlimi Seminol
República Seminol
The Seminol Republic occupies the lower half of the Florida peninsula. Its unique identify places it as both an Indian nation and a part of Hispanic America.
Arrival of the Seminol people in Florida
The Seminol people trace their origin to the early eighteenth century, a chaotic era in the history of Florida. The original Spanish mission-and-village regime of East Florida was cracking under attacks by English slave raiders, and recurring epidemics added to the devastation. Many villages in the interior of the peninsula were left abandoned as their inhabitants fled for the fortified presidios near the coasts. But all this devastation was an opportunity for the Muscogui, or Creek, people living to the north of Florida. The Muscogui were caught in their own trauma, facing fierce intratribal wars and pressure from Carolina. Pushed out of Muscoguia and pulled to Florida, families of Muscogui began to move south.
The Spanish called the new arrivals Cimarrones, "wild runaways". They soon adopted the word into their own language as Simano-li, which in Spanish became Seminol. In modern times the Spanish form was then re-adopted as the term in the native language. And the term aptly described the independent attitude of the newcomers. Having forsaken the traditional power structures of the Muscogui chiefdoms, the Seminoles had no interest in submitting to the rulers of their new home, whether Spanish or indigenous. The middle decades of the eighteenth century were marked by fierce fighting between Seminoles and the Spanish Indians in East Florida.
In 1740 Spain brought in reinforcements from Cuba and Mexico to strike at the new base of Seminol power in today's Timucua and Potano provinces. The expedition successfully rebuilt and strengthened the fort at San Francisco de Potano. The campaign was decisive in that it convinced most Seminol leaders to move further south to land where Spain had few forts and fewer allies and where the Seminoles could live more securely. Some bands of Seminoles chose to remain near the Spanish towns; most of these eventually reached an accommodation with the colonial government and were recognized as subjects and allies. A large number settled near the capital in the depopulated province of Aguafresca.
Formation of Seminol ethnicity and language
The leader whom the Spanish called El Vaquero established Seminol's hereditary chiefdom near modern Ocale, East Florida, in 1750, and from there the Seminoles spread southward. The land of the modern-day state of Seminol was devastated by disease and slaving, and by this time had no major tribes besides the Calusa, who lived at the extreme southwest. The Seminoles soon merged with the small, scattered, and diverse population of the peninsula, and the broad adoption and intermarriage of this era produced the Seminol ethnic group as it is now known. Indigenous Floridians, runaway Spanish and English slaves, migrating Indians and Mestizos from the Florida missions, settlements of Cuban fishermen, and English traders from the Bahamas all became part of the expanding Seminol nation. The Calusa themselves were peacefully absorbed during this time, and soon their descendants were speaking Muscogui.
By the turn of the century, Seminol was a strong, vibrant, and mixed-race chiefdom that predominantly belonged to Indian culture, but which also incorporated many elements from Europe and Africa. The ethnic Seminol today are proud of their mixt heritage and their indigenous culture and language. Both Spanish and Muscogui are widely spoken in the state, with the larger cities tending to be more Hispanophone.
Spanish officials were attempting to represent the language in writing from the late eighteenth century, and missionaries from various denominations produced plans for a Muscogui alphabet. The language did not start to become standardized in Seminol until the establishment of public schools in the 1870s and 80s. In 1904 educators and writers from both Seminol and Muscoguia produced a definitive version of the Standard Muscogui language. Standardization gave the language an institutional base that has allowed it to survive pressure from colonial languages throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but it also has tended to homogenize the language and blur the traditional local dialects. The language academy has been based in Pensacola, West Florida since 1908 and nowadays is more flexible in allowing for differences in usage between the two main language areas.
Historically there has been a good deal of exchange of people between Seminol and its nearest island neighbors, the Bahamas and Cuba. The Bahamian islands north of New Providence are in fact majority Seminol by ancestry, though the people today speak either English or an Anglo-Seminol creole. They have been unwilling to learn the standard Muscogui language, preferring to get instruction in the English that is standard throughout their state.
The exchange with Cuba has been two-way. Cubans who have moved to Florida have in past generations mostly been accepted into the culture rather than form their own enclaves, and mainstream Seminol culture is said to include many Cuban elements. Besides this, Seminol is rather less wealthy and developed than Cuba, and migration tends to be from Seminol to Cuba rather than the other way. The ongoing allure of Cuba has kept Seminol tourism from really taking off. The towns along the Atlantic coast today depend on tourism, but they have not grown into the beachfront megalopolis that we know from our world.
From chiefdom to republic
In the late eighteenth century, the mature Seminol chiefdom also regularized its relationship with Spain. The Spanish accepted Seminol independence in return for nominal recognition as the sovereign power. The exchange of goods and diplomats between the Seminoles and San Agustin steadily added to the Hispanic influences in the chiefdom, including Christianity and the beginning of a written code of laws. There were occasional conflicts - in the early 1800s Spain used arms to enforce a border that strongly favored East Florida - but in general Seminol became a stable client of the Spanish Crown.
The Seminol elite were the most acculturated, and their landholdings, slaves, and Spanish manners increasingly isolated them from the population. A wave of revolutions in the Gulf region inspired some local people to revolt in 1834. It was the first of several revolts to shake the state.
In 1851 the revolutionary movement succeeded. Under the leadership of Gen. Aureliano Ruiz Davis, a militia officer of Spanish, Seminol and Anglo-African descent, rebels seized the government and drove members of the chiefdom into exile. Ruiz Davis declared Seminol a republic. However, representative government came slowly. For eighteen years ultimate power in the state belonged to a junta of milita officers. They balanced their grip on power with populist moves like abolishing slavery and breaking up large estates.
The first real elections in the state came in the 1860s when the state elected members to represent them in the new confederal Parliament. The early Parliaments passed serious limits on the power of state militias in an effort to curb some states' military adventures in California and elsewhere. This served to weaken Seminol's ruling clique. The revolutionary regime finally stepped aside in 1879 in favor of a head of state chosen by the legislature; this gave way in 1888 to a directly elected presidency.
The relationship with Spain and East Florida
All through the nineteenth century, the different governments of Seminol never explicitly renounced their relationship with Spain. Officials from the loyalist state of East Florida continued to come south and advise the government, the degree to which they were accepted varying according to the personality of the leader. Some administrations specifically acknowledged Spanish sovereignty, while others avoided the mention of it.
The twentieth-century turbulence in Spain that brought the king to America forced the Seminol government to make a decision. The official government statement welcomed the king as "our neighbor, friend, and Grandfather" - the last being a well-used term in ASB politics signifying deep reverence without obedience. Responding to a question from a reporter, a Cabinet secretary removed all doubt as to where Seminol stood: "We are a republic, not a monarchy, and have been that way for more than fifty years."
A sentimental connection to the East Florida monarchs remained, however. In some ways they have met the need for an apolitical leader figure in the state. Depending, again, on the individual, they have by and large remained popular in the state. Members of the royal family can expect a warm welcome when they visit, and the queen today is still addressed as Grandmother. The relationship between Seminol and its former royals resembles that between Cherokee and the English monarchy, or in our world, that between Fiji and the British crown.
Another issue that kept Seminol connected to Spain was the status of forts. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Spain built a number of small coastal forts in Seminol territory. In the late chiefdom era, Seminol acquired most of them through donation or purchase.
The only remaining Spanish presence was in the Keys. Considered a part of the East Florida colony in theory, the Keys stayed under the direct government of Cuba even after Florida became its own captaincy-general in 1795. The islands thereafter saw a growing population, largely of Cubans, and were generally acknowledged to be a Cuban possession. When Cuba cast off Spanish rule, the islands became a haven for loyalists and passed to East Floridian control. However, Seminol also asserted a claim to them. The dispute continued until the 1940s. A road and rail bridge through the keys was in the works, and the Seminol government announced bold plans to use the bridge to develop the Keys for tourism. The development package enticed enough Cayanos, and they voted to become part of Seminol. The final transfer happened in 1948.
Contemporary Seminol
As mentioned, the growth of tourism has been marked in Seminol since the mid-twentieth century. Again, this is not the South Florida of endless golf courses and retirement villages, but tourism has nonetheless brought changes to society. For the first time, substantial populations of people have appeared who have not easily been integrated into the Seminol ethnic identity. English and French can be heard in many cities and towns. The influx of money has lifted the standard of living in some parts of the state, but it has not been evenly distributed. The interior still must deal with the poverty and isolation seen in many of the ASB's indigenous regions. State administrations have tried to strike a balance between attracting businesses and forcing them to share the prosperity that they generate.
Both mainland and Caribbean; both colonial and indigenous; Black, White, and Indian; Seminol in many ways can be seen as a microcosm of the ASB.
Arrival of the Seminol people in Florida
The Seminol people trace their origin to the early eighteenth century, a chaotic era in the history of Florida. The original Spanish mission-and-village regime of East Florida was cracking under attacks by English slave raiders, and recurring epidemics added to the devastation. Many villages in the interior of the peninsula were left abandoned as their inhabitants fled for the fortified presidios near the coasts. But all this devastation was an opportunity for the Muscogui, or Creek, people living to the north of Florida. The Muscogui were caught in their own trauma, facing fierce intratribal wars and pressure from Carolina. Pushed out of Muscoguia and pulled to Florida, families of Muscogui began to move south.
The Spanish called the new arrivals Cimarrones, "wild runaways". They soon adopted the word into their own language as Simano-li, which in Spanish became Seminol. In modern times the Spanish form was then re-adopted as the term in the native language. And the term aptly described the independent attitude of the newcomers. Having forsaken the traditional power structures of the Muscogui chiefdoms, the Seminoles had no interest in submitting to the rulers of their new home, whether Spanish or indigenous. The middle decades of the eighteenth century were marked by fierce fighting between Seminoles and the Spanish Indians in East Florida.
In 1740 Spain brought in reinforcements from Cuba and Mexico to strike at the new base of Seminol power in today's Timucua and Potano provinces. The expedition successfully rebuilt and strengthened the fort at San Francisco de Potano. The campaign was decisive in that it convinced most Seminol leaders to move further south to land where Spain had few forts and fewer allies and where the Seminoles could live more securely. Some bands of Seminoles chose to remain near the Spanish towns; most of these eventually reached an accommodation with the colonial government and were recognized as subjects and allies. A large number settled near the capital in the depopulated province of Aguafresca.
Formation of Seminol ethnicity and language
The leader whom the Spanish called El Vaquero established Seminol's hereditary chiefdom near modern Ocale, East Florida, in 1750, and from there the Seminoles spread southward. The land of the modern-day state of Seminol was devastated by disease and slaving, and by this time had no major tribes besides the Calusa, who lived at the extreme southwest. The Seminoles soon merged with the small, scattered, and diverse population of the peninsula, and the broad adoption and intermarriage of this era produced the Seminol ethnic group as it is now known. Indigenous Floridians, runaway Spanish and English slaves, migrating Indians and Mestizos from the Florida missions, settlements of Cuban fishermen, and English traders from the Bahamas all became part of the expanding Seminol nation. The Calusa themselves were peacefully absorbed during this time, and soon their descendants were speaking Muscogui.
By the turn of the century, Seminol was a strong, vibrant, and mixed-race chiefdom that predominantly belonged to Indian culture, but which also incorporated many elements from Europe and Africa. The ethnic Seminol today are proud of their mixt heritage and their indigenous culture and language. Both Spanish and Muscogui are widely spoken in the state, with the larger cities tending to be more Hispanophone.
Spanish officials were attempting to represent the language in writing from the late eighteenth century, and missionaries from various denominations produced plans for a Muscogui alphabet. The language did not start to become standardized in Seminol until the establishment of public schools in the 1870s and 80s. In 1904 educators and writers from both Seminol and Muscoguia produced a definitive version of the Standard Muscogui language. Standardization gave the language an institutional base that has allowed it to survive pressure from colonial languages throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but it also has tended to homogenize the language and blur the traditional local dialects. The language academy has been based in Pensacola, West Florida since 1908 and nowadays is more flexible in allowing for differences in usage between the two main language areas.
Historically there has been a good deal of exchange of people between Seminol and its nearest island neighbors, the Bahamas and Cuba. The Bahamian islands north of New Providence are in fact majority Seminol by ancestry, though the people today speak either English or an Anglo-Seminol creole. They have been unwilling to learn the standard Muscogui language, preferring to get instruction in the English that is standard throughout their state.
The exchange with Cuba has been two-way. Cubans who have moved to Florida have in past generations mostly been accepted into the culture rather than form their own enclaves, and mainstream Seminol culture is said to include many Cuban elements. Besides this, Seminol is rather less wealthy and developed than Cuba, and migration tends to be from Seminol to Cuba rather than the other way. The ongoing allure of Cuba has kept Seminol tourism from really taking off. The towns along the Atlantic coast today depend on tourism, but they have not grown into the beachfront megalopolis that we know from our world.
From chiefdom to republic
In the late eighteenth century, the mature Seminol chiefdom also regularized its relationship with Spain. The Spanish accepted Seminol independence in return for nominal recognition as the sovereign power. The exchange of goods and diplomats between the Seminoles and San Agustin steadily added to the Hispanic influences in the chiefdom, including Christianity and the beginning of a written code of laws. There were occasional conflicts - in the early 1800s Spain used arms to enforce a border that strongly favored East Florida - but in general Seminol became a stable client of the Spanish Crown.
The Seminol elite were the most acculturated, and their landholdings, slaves, and Spanish manners increasingly isolated them from the population. A wave of revolutions in the Gulf region inspired some local people to revolt in 1834. It was the first of several revolts to shake the state.
In 1851 the revolutionary movement succeeded. Under the leadership of Gen. Aureliano Ruiz Davis, a militia officer of Spanish, Seminol and Anglo-African descent, rebels seized the government and drove members of the chiefdom into exile. Ruiz Davis declared Seminol a republic. However, representative government came slowly. For eighteen years ultimate power in the state belonged to a junta of milita officers. They balanced their grip on power with populist moves like abolishing slavery and breaking up large estates.
The first real elections in the state came in the 1860s when the state elected members to represent them in the new confederal Parliament. The early Parliaments passed serious limits on the power of state militias in an effort to curb some states' military adventures in California and elsewhere. This served to weaken Seminol's ruling clique. The revolutionary regime finally stepped aside in 1879 in favor of a head of state chosen by the legislature; this gave way in 1888 to a directly elected presidency.
The relationship with Spain and East Florida
All through the nineteenth century, the different governments of Seminol never explicitly renounced their relationship with Spain. Officials from the loyalist state of East Florida continued to come south and advise the government, the degree to which they were accepted varying according to the personality of the leader. Some administrations specifically acknowledged Spanish sovereignty, while others avoided the mention of it.
The twentieth-century turbulence in Spain that brought the king to America forced the Seminol government to make a decision. The official government statement welcomed the king as "our neighbor, friend, and Grandfather" - the last being a well-used term in ASB politics signifying deep reverence without obedience. Responding to a question from a reporter, a Cabinet secretary removed all doubt as to where Seminol stood: "We are a republic, not a monarchy, and have been that way for more than fifty years."
A sentimental connection to the East Florida monarchs remained, however. In some ways they have met the need for an apolitical leader figure in the state. Depending, again, on the individual, they have by and large remained popular in the state. Members of the royal family can expect a warm welcome when they visit, and the queen today is still addressed as Grandmother. The relationship between Seminol and its former royals resembles that between Cherokee and the English monarchy, or in our world, that between Fiji and the British crown.
Another issue that kept Seminol connected to Spain was the status of forts. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Spain built a number of small coastal forts in Seminol territory. In the late chiefdom era, Seminol acquired most of them through donation or purchase.
The only remaining Spanish presence was in the Keys. Considered a part of the East Florida colony in theory, the Keys stayed under the direct government of Cuba even after Florida became its own captaincy-general in 1795. The islands thereafter saw a growing population, largely of Cubans, and were generally acknowledged to be a Cuban possession. When Cuba cast off Spanish rule, the islands became a haven for loyalists and passed to East Floridian control. However, Seminol also asserted a claim to them. The dispute continued until the 1940s. A road and rail bridge through the keys was in the works, and the Seminol government announced bold plans to use the bridge to develop the Keys for tourism. The development package enticed enough Cayanos, and they voted to become part of Seminol. The final transfer happened in 1948.
Contemporary Seminol
As mentioned, the growth of tourism has been marked in Seminol since the mid-twentieth century. Again, this is not the South Florida of endless golf courses and retirement villages, but tourism has nonetheless brought changes to society. For the first time, substantial populations of people have appeared who have not easily been integrated into the Seminol ethnic identity. English and French can be heard in many cities and towns. The influx of money has lifted the standard of living in some parts of the state, but it has not been evenly distributed. The interior still must deal with the poverty and isolation seen in many of the ASB's indigenous regions. State administrations have tried to strike a balance between attracting businesses and forcing them to share the prosperity that they generate.
Both mainland and Caribbean; both colonial and indigenous; Black, White, and Indian; Seminol in many ways can be seen as a microcosm of the ASB.