SEMINOLE

North American Indian tribe speaking a Muskogean language; they are of Creek origin. In the last half of the 18th century, migrants from the lower Creek towns of Georgia moved southward into northern Florida, the former territory of the Apalachee and Timucua. By about 1775 these migrants had begun to be known under the name Seminole, derived from the Creek word siman-li meaning separatist, or runaway. The name may also have derived from the Spanish cimarrn, wild. The Seminoles were joined by runaway slavesIndian and Negroand others fleeing the power struggles between American whites and Indians in Georgia. The Seminoles lived more by hunting and fishing than by agriculture, constructed simple shelters of thatched roofs supported by poles (similar to the summerhouses of the tribes to the north), and decorated their clothes with bright-coloured strips of cloth in imitation of the brocaded materials worn by the Spanish. In an effort to stem white encroachment of their land and avoid removal to the west, the Seminoles fought a succession of wars in 181718, 183542, and 185558. (See Seminole Wars.) As a result of the First Seminole War, Spain ceded its Florida holdings to the United States. In 1832 a treaty binding the Seminoles to move beyond the Mississippi River was rejected by a large portion of the tribe. The Second Seminole War was one of the most costly of the U.S.Indian wars. Most of the tribe ultimately surrendered and were moved to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma), where they were settled in the western part of the Creek reservation. A few Seminoles remained in Florida, where their descendants numbered about 1,000 in the late 20th century. In Oklahoma the Seminoles were among the Five Civilized Tribes that included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, and Choctaw, all of whom had been forcibly removed from the southeastern United States by the federal government in the 1830s. For three-quarters of a century each tribe had a land allotment and a quasi-autonomous government modeled on that of the United States. In preparation for Oklahoma statehood (1907), some of this land was allotted to individual Indians; the rest was opened up to white homesteaders, held in trust by the federal government, or allotted to freed slaves. Tribal governments were effectively dissolved in 1906 but have continued to exist in a limited form. Some Seminole Indians now live on tribal landholdings that are informally called reservations. city, Seminole county, central Oklahoma, U.S., east-southeast of Oklahoma City. Settled in 1890 as a trading centre for farmers and stockmen, it was known as Tidmore until 1907, when it was renamed for the Seminole Indians, on whose land the site was located. Its population grew from about 1,000 to 35,000 in one year after discovery of an oil field in 1926. The city's industries include petroleum refining, oil-field equipment, and the manufacture of clothing and sewer pipes. Seminole Junior College was established in 1931. Inc. town, 1908; city, 1926. Pop. (1990) 9,251.