Jun 20 2008
Cotanchobee Park: A 12 Part History of Tampa, Part 3
Text follows picture.
The U.S. & the Indians.
The 19th-century conflicts recorded in U.S. history as the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Seminole Wars were, in reality, part of a much larger & longer clash of cultures. Since its own birth, in conflict, the U.S. has wrestled the “the Indian problem.” Although the tribes were recognized as sovereign nations &, therefore, independent actors in this international drama, the continuous population growth & ever-expanding settlement of the new “Americans” spawned almost a century of Wars Of Indian Removal that were destined to end, finally, at Fort Brooke, Florida, the Indians’ Cotanchobee, in 1858. From the Iroquois in the north, to the Cherokees in the Carolinas &, finally, to the Seminoles in Florida, the U.S. fought the Indians over control of land. In 1813 U.S. soldiers had crossed an international border to burn Indian towns in Spanish-Florida. In 1817-18, Andrew Jackson entered Spanish-Florida & destroyed Indian towns, crops, & livestock, in the 1st Seminole War. By the Treaty of Moultrie Creek (near St. Augustine), in 1823, the Florida tribes were confined to a reservation in the interior of the peninsula, but getting them to go there was another problem entirely. Supplying them with promised foodstuffs was yet another. A military fortification, to be constructed on Tampa Bay, would permit the U.S. government to get promised supplies to the Indians & also would defend against Cuban Spaniards who might supply their old Indian friends with arms and ammunition.