Miccosukee Indian Reservation

The Miccosukee Tribe are the people who never surrendered. Descending from Hitchiti-speaking towns of the Creek Confederacy, they migrated to Florida in the early seventeen hundreds and then fought three Seminole Wars against the United States over four decades to avoid removal west of the Mississippi. They won by staying out of reach in the Everglades.

The Tamiami Trail highway bisected their territory in nineteen twenty-eight, bringing outside contact whether they wanted it or not. When federal recognition was finally offered, the tribe made an unusual move: in nineteen fifty-nine, tribal leader Buffalo Tiger traveled to Cuba and was offered recognition of Miccosukee sovereignty by Fidel Castro, using international pressure to strengthen their position with Washington. The United States officially recognized the Miccosukee Tribe on January eleventh, nineteen sixty-two.

Their reservation straddles the edge of Everglades National Park, where they remain today.