where did the seminole native americans live?
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands
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 People who kept more traditional ways had settlements along the Tamiami Trail and tended to speak the Mikasuki language . They later were federally recognized in 1962 as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida . As metropolitan areas in South Florida began to grow , the two groups were closely associated with the Everglades . They struggled to maintain privacy while serving as tourist attractions . They earned money by wrestling alligators and selling craftworks . As of 2008 , the Seminole Tribe of Florida had five reservations , and the lands of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians were collectively considered a sixth reservation . The two tribes have each developed casino gaming on some of their properties to generate revenue for support , services and economic development . 

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 A total of 17 @,@ 000 Cherokees and 2 @,@ 000 of their black slaves were deported . The area , already occupied by Osage and Quapaw tribes , was called for the Choctaw Nation until revised Native American and then later American policy redefined the boundaries to include other Native Americans . By 1890 , more than 30 Native American nations and tribes had been concentrated on land within Indian Territory or " Indian Country " . 

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 Following the demise of the Calusa and Tequesta , Native Americans in southern Florida were referred to as " Spanish Indians " in the 1740s , probably due to their friendlier relations with Spain . Between the Spanish defeat in the Seven Years ' War in 1763 and the end of the American War of Independence in 1783 , the United Kingdom ruled Florida . The first known use of the term " Seminolie " is from a British Indian agent in a document dated 1771 . The beginnings of the tribe are vague , but records show that Creeks invaded the Florida peninsula , conquering and assimilating what was left of pre @-@ Columbian societies into the Creek Confederacy . The mixing of cultures is evident in the language influences present among the Seminoles : various Muskogean languages , notably Hitchiti , and Creek , as well as Timucuan . In the early 19th century , a US Indian agent explained the Seminoles this way : " The word Seminole means runaway or broken off . Hence ... applicable to all the Indians in the Territory of Florida as all of them ran away ... from the Creek ... Nation " . Linguistically , the term " Seminole " comes from the Creek words Sua ( Sun God ) , ma ( mother , although in this connotation it is pejorative ) , and ol ( people ) to mean " people whom the Sun God does not love " , or " accursed " . 

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 Creeks , who were centered in modern @-@ day Alabama and Georgia , were known to incorporate conquered tribes into their own . Some Africans escaping slavery from South Carolina and Georgia fled to Florida , lured by Spanish promises of freedom should they convert to Catholicism , and found their way into the tribe . Seminoles originally settled in the northern portion of the territory , but the 1823 Treaty of Moultrie Creek forced them to live on a 5 @-@ million @-@ acre ( 20 @,@ 000 km2 ) reservation north of Lake Okeechobee . They soon ranged farther south , where they numbered approximately 300 in the Everglades region , including bands of Miccosukees — a similar tribe who spoke a different language — who lived in The Big Cypress . Unlike the Calusa and Tequesta , the Seminole depended more on agriculture and raised domesticated animals . They hunted for what they ate , and traded with European @-@ American settlers . They lived in structures called chickees , open @-@ sided palm @-@ thatched huts , probably adapted from the Calusa . 

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 The plantation was originally 1 @,@ 000 acres ( 4 @.@ 0 km2 ) , most of which has been taken over by forest ; the structures and grounds of the park now comprise approximately 60 acres ( 242 @,@ 811 @.@ 385 m2 ) . Evidence of Pre @-@ Columbian Timucua life is on the island , as are the remains of a Spanish mission named San Juan del Puerto . Under British rule in 1765 , a plantation was established that cycled through several owners while Florida was transferred back to Spain and then the United States . The longest span of ownership was under Kingsley and his family , a polygamous and multiracial household controlled by and resistant to the issues of race and slavery . 
