"Concentrate them on the Apalachicola River"

Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee,
Florida.

Andrew Jackson's plan for a Seminole homeland on the Apalachicola River

by Dale Cox

Chattahoochee, Florida - The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida have survived generations of war and are today synonymous with the Big Cypress and Everglades regions of South Florida. 

Their greatest tribulation began when the United States assumed control of Florida in 1821. Battered from the opening years of the Seminole War, the Seminole and Miccosukee were scattered and unsettled. Large and long-settled towns including Ekanachatte, Holms' Town, Tallahassee Talofa, and Miccosukee were in ashes. Newer but important communities including Boleck's (Bowleg's) Town and the large maroon (self-liberated and free Black) settlement under Nero had been destroyed. Fields cleared through years of labor lay fallow or were already occupied by new American settlers. Orchards and fish weirs lay untended. [1]

The new "owners" of Florida did not intend to continue a treaty signed years earlier by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and Spain. It declared that only lands so far inland as the tidal influence on the rivers and creeks (or such as were transferred by treaty) should be open for settlement. All the rest of the interior belonged to the Native Americans, with the restriction that they could not sell or otherwise dispose of these lands without the consent of the King of Spain.

Since the United States clearly did not plan to abide by this agreement, four new schools of thought grew among the whites over what should be done with the Indians. The first called for the complete relocation of all Native Americans from Florida to the Creek Nation in Alabama and Georgia, despite the fact that the Treaty of Fort Jackson had just reduced Creek lands by more than 22 million acres. It also ended any claims that the Muscogee had to Florida by cutting them off from it. [2]

Early 19th-century painting of American Indians
catching and smoking sturgeon in the Apalachicola
River across from Aspalaga Bluff.
University of West Florida

A second option called for the mass removal - at government expense - of all of the American Indians in Florida to new homes west of the Mississippi River. Actually proposed by Thomas Jefferson for all Native people east of the Mississippi, this idea seemed logical to white thinkers who could not conceive that the Seminole and Miccosukee would not readily give up their lands if offered the opportunity to do so. 

The third option, supported by a bevy of early Florida leaders, suggested the drawing of an imaginary line across the peninsula at some point well below areas coveted for white settlement. All of the Indians would voluntarily remove [i.e., be forced] below the line. Despite their claims that the new "reservation" included vast areas of good land, there is plenty of evidence that promoters of the scheme knew that the region was sickly, swampy, and sandy.

Andrew Jackson
(Later in life.)
Library of Congress

The fourth option, proposed by none other than Andrew Jackson himself, is perhaps the most intriguing of all. Since it is the only one of the four that proposed leaving a large area of their original homeland in Seminole and Miccosukee hands - not to mention a significant area of rich agricultural and timber land - you might be interested in learning more about it. [3]

Jackson was acting as military governor of Florida when he proposed the idea of creating a massive land-stake for the Seminole and Miccosukee on the Apalachicola River. He viewed them as distinctly separate from the Muscogee or Creek Red Sticks that had come down into Florida during and following the Creek War of 1813-1814. These latter individuals, Jackson felt, should be required to return to the Creek Nation in Alabama and Georgia. The Seminole and Miccosukee, he suggested, should be left with good lands:

...As to those who have been born and raised within the Floridas, it is absolutely necessary that they should be collected at one point, and secured in their settlements by act of Congress, in case they cannot be prevailed upon to unite with the Creek nation, to which they originally belonged: this latter course is very desirable for their own safety, as well as dictated to us by sound policy. [4]

The general turned governor proposed that Congress provide an annuity to assist in the survival of the Indians and that efforts be made to encourage them to "embrace an agricultural life." Of course, Miccosukee, Ekanachatte, and other towns were noted for their massive fields and herds of cattle, horses, and other livestock until Jackson and his forces destroyed them during the fighting of 1817-1818. 

...Should the Indians prefer continuing within the Floridas, it will be expedient, for the safety of our frontier on the seacoast, to concentrate them on the Appalachicola river, immediately adjoining the southern boundary of Georgia and Alabama, on both sides of the river, and downward, so as to include a sufficient area for them. By this means a sufficient white population may be interposed between them and the seaboard, and afford a settlement strong enough to cover and protect St. Augustine and Pensacola, as well as the peninsula of Florida. [5]

Unlike anyone else proposing options for where the Native inhabitants of Florida should go, Jackson surprisingly held one distinction - he actually discussed his idea with some of the people for whom recommended leaving lands on the Apalachicola River:

...[Y]ou will see that the difficulty of collecting the native Indians of the Floridas to the point on the Apalachicola will not be great. They are rejoiced to hear that a country will be allowed [them] to live in at all - such have been their apprehensions of their future fate since the transfer of their country to the United States, excited, no doubt, by mischievous advisers; and they will be still more so to find that they will be fostered and protected by the American Government. [6]

19th-century paddlewheel steamer preparing to head
down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers.

Jackson proposed that Congress immediately designate the large area for the Seminole and Miccosukee, instead of waiting for a treaty to be negotiated. He felt it made more sense to reserve these lands in Florida from the beginning before they could be settled, also pointing out that if the Indians concentrated on lands of their own, surveying the rest of the new territory would be easier. [7]

Jackson did not mention that he was personally familiar with the lands along the upper Apalachicola River because he had seen them himself during the spring of 1818. They were some of the richest in Florida and the area that he envisioned as a permanent home for the Seminole and Miccosukee included today's Jackson, Gadsden, and at least the northern halves of Calhoun and Liberty Counties.

By 1860, Jackson and Gadsden would prove to be among the most agriculturally productive counties in the state. According to census data collected that year, the two counties were among the seven most productive in Florida, with farms valued at more than $2.7 million dollars ($101.6 billion today). [8]

History, of course, shows that Andrew Jackson's recommendation for a Seminole and Miccosukee nation on the upper Apalachicola River was not accepted. The Treaty of Moultrie Creek (1823) instead condemned the vast majority of Native Americans in Florida to difficult lives on new lands in the central and southern reaches of the territory. Desperation for game and resentment at seeing white settlers occupying better lands nearby led to cattle raids and confrontations. Tensions rose.

Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
Where army officers tricked the
Seminole exploring party.

Trickery followed as an exploring party of Seminoles went west to look at proposed new lands in what is now Oklahoma. Before their leaders and warriors in Florida could even consider the matter, the U.S. Government claimed that these explorers had agreed for the entire tribe to go west. They said that they had not and the Seminole and Miccosukee people in Florida told U.S. officials that the explorers lacked such authority in the first place. The United States turned deaf ears to this position and fighting exploded. Men, women, and children died by the thousands. 

The U.S. Government likewise moved against the Muscogee (Creek) people in Alabama. Claiming that its powerful army could not protect them from settlers intruding on Creek lands and unscrupulous land speculators determined to swindle them at every turn, officials told the Creeks that they could either go west at federal expense or remain behind and live on under the laws of the states on small individual plots as required by the Indian Removal Act of of 1830.  That act, championed by Andrew Jackson himself, led to the forced removal of most Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Muscogee (Creek) by 1837. Only the Seminole and Miccosukee held out in significant numbers.

What might have happened had the U.S. Government accepted Andrew Jackson's 1821 recommendation that a large area of land be titled to the Florida tribes on the upper Apalachicola River? 

Sylvania Marker in Jackson County
The lands proposed for the Seminole
and Miccosukee instead became
home to some of the largest bastions
of slavery in Antebellum Florida.

It is an interesting thought to ponder. They still would have received annual payments from the U.S. Government as they did on the much poorer lands later assigned them in Central and South Florida under the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, but they would have owned by legal title - not just moral right and treaty - most if not all of four agriculturally or timber rich North Florida counties. 

The most important navigable waterway connecting a vast agricultural region of Alabama and Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico passed right through the center of these lands. In fact, the City of Apalachicola which soon developed at the mouth of the Apalachicola River was one of the three busiest ports anywhere on the Gulf prior to the Civil War.

With richer farms and some of Florida's top timberlands, the story of the Seminole and Miccosukee people from 1821 to 1835 might have developed in a much different way. Jackson likely would have regretted giving legal title to so much prime Florida real estate (prime in the 19th-century, that is) to them. Land given by treaty, as all Native Americans know, is easy to take away. Land given by legal title, however, is not so easy to take.

From his expansionist perspective, Andrew Jackson clearly rethought the wisdom of giving legal title for large areas of land to Indian nations before he pushed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. By then the concept was to title small pieces of land to individual Native American heads of households. These could more readily be swept up by land speculators and swindlers. Not so when an entire tribe owns all of its land by title in one giant block.

Andrew Jackson was no longer a powerful general in 1821, however, and had not started his rise to the Presidency. The country's political leaders found it easy to ignore his suggestion. His proposed home for the Seminole and Miccosukee people instead became part of the Territory of Florida's third county when Jackson County was created and named for him on August 12, 1822. At that time Jackson County extended from the Choctawhatchee River to the Suwannee.

One can only wonder whether he remembered his idea for a Seminole and Miccosukee homeland on the Apalachicola at all nine years later when the Indian Removal Act of 1830 became law.

To learn more about the years before and immediately after Jackson County was established, please consider my book: The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.

References

[1] For a history of the beginning of the Seminole War era, please see Fowltown: Neamathla, Tutalosi Talofa & the first battle of the Seminole Wars by this writer.

[2] These various options are discussed in numerous letters of time.

[3] Gov. Andrew Jackson to Sec. of State John Quincy Adams, Oct. 16, 1821, H. Doc. No. 513, 17th Congress, 1st Session.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Census of Agriculture, Florida 1860, USDA Census of Agriculture Historical Archive.

Searching for Econchattimico's Town

By Dale Cox

Lake Seminole – One of the most significant historic sites in Jackson County lay somewhere north of Sneads along the bank of the Chattahoochee River. Tocktoethla (“River Junction”) was the last Florida home of Econchattimico, the “Red Ground King” who once battled Andrew Jackson’s army for control of Florida and became one of the few Indian chiefs ever to win a major battle in the Federal court. The exact site of his final home has never been identified.

Econchattimico left his original home at Ekanchatte, a Lower Creek town that stood on the site of today’s Neal’s Landing for more than 50 years, after it was destroyed by Colonel William McIntosh and a large force of U.S. Creek Auxiliaries in 1818. After hiding for a time in the swamps of the upper Chipola River, where he kept large herds of livestock, the chief moved back to the Chattahoochee River and settled a new town about halfway between Neal’s Landing and Sneads. He lived there until 1838 when U.S. troops led by Zachary Taylor used muskets and bayonets to force the elderly chief and his people west to the Indian Nations in what is now Oklahoma.

Upon the departure of the chief and his followers, the cabins and fields of Tocktoethla were occupied by white settlers who dubbed their new community “Indian Town.” Located near the important riverboat landing of Port Jackson, “Indian Town” remained an identifiable settlement through the time of the War Between the States, but eventually faded from local memory.

Archaeologists searched for traces of Econchattimico’s settlements during the 1940s and again in 1979-1980. They found enough shattered pieces of Creek pottery to identify general areas of Indian presence, but never found the site of the chief’s primary town.

A comparison of Colonel James Gadsden’s original survey plat and notes of the chief’s reservation with George Houston’s 1843 survey plat and notes shows that “Indian Town” or Tocktoethla was originally located in about the center of the northern half of Section 28 of Township 5 North, Range 7 West in Jackson County. Both surveys show the actual settlement site.

The site was roughly three-quarters of a mile due east of today’s Arnold Landing at the Apalachee Wildlife Management Area north of Sneads. It was completely flooded by the completion of Lake Seminole during the 1950s and no trace of the original town location remains above water.

Some areas of the original reservation assigned to Econchattimico at the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823 do remain above water. In fact, a section of today’s River Road (Highway 271) passes through the old reservation from just south of its intersection with Butler Road north for about two miles. Some of the original fields farmed by Econchattimico and his people are still in use today.

Note: If you would like to learn more about Econchattimico and the other Native Americans of Jackson County, please consider purchasing my book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years. It is available in Marianna at Chipola River Book and Tea (downtown on the same block as the Gazebo Restaurant) or online at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dalecox.

The Headless Indian Chiefs of Jackson County

Although few people remember it today, there is an old legend about a spot on the Apalachicola River near Sneads that is said to be haunted by the restless spirits of two Indian chiefs. It is said that on foggy nights, their headless bodies can be seen standing by the river, evidently hoping for the return of their heads.

Whether you believe in their supernatural aspects or not, old stories like this one are important reminders of the days before radio and television when long winter evenings were spent telling stories by firelight. As such they represent an important part of Southern culture and often have a basis in some real incident.

The story of the headless Indian chiefs, for example, preserves the dim memory of real events that took place along the Apalachicola River during 1830s. The area bordering the river just north of today’s Gulf Power Plant was then a Native American village called “Walker’s Town.”

The village was part of a reservation set aside by the Treaty of Moultrie Creek for a chief called the “Mulatto King” by the U.S. Government and the “Black King” by the Spanish. He had lived in this spot for many years and gained his name because his father had been a black Spanish trader and he died at his home during the early 1830s.

Following the death of the Mulatto King, the leadership of the village passed to his nephew, a man named John Walker. He stayed on good terms with the neighboring whites and was well known to many Floridians in his day.

During the early years of the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), a large party of refugee Creeks came down into Florida from Alabama. After engaging in a series of battles with white troops, they agreed to surrender if they would be allowed to keep their arms and live with other Native Americans until a boat could be arranged to transport them to the new Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. John Walker offered to let them live at his village and they assembled there in 1837.

One of their leaders was a well-regarded chief named Coa-Hadjo. Shortly after he arrived at Walker’s Town, however, Coa-Hadjo became embroiled in an argument with one of Walker’s followers, a warrior named Lewis. The argument grew out of control and Lewis drew a knife and stabbed Coa-Hadjo. When their chief died from his wounds, Coa-Hadjo’s followers then dragged Lewis from his home and executed him by firing squad according to traditional Creek law.

It would seem that the story might end here. The people of Walker’s Town left for Oklahoma less than one year later and most of Coa-Hadjo’s former followers, now led by the chief Pascofa, fled back into the swamps to continue their war against the whites.

Strangely, though, the heads of both Coa-Hadjo and Lewis soon wound up in the possession of Dr. Joseph R. Buchanan of Cincinnati, Ohio. He wrote a letter from Pensacola in 1839 indicated that he had acquired the skulls of the two men, along with the skull of the long-dead chief Mulatto King as well. Apparently he either dug them up himself or purchased them from some local citizen who did so.

Dr. Buchanan believed he could learn the personality and other aspects of the dead by studying their skulls. He wrote a brief report on the “information” he gathered from the skulls of Coa-Hadjo, Mulatto King and Lewis and then added them to his macabre collection.

The old Apalachicola River legend preserves the memory of this bizarre grave-robbing incident and the headless Indian chiefs of the story are undoubtedly Coa-Hadjo and Mulatto King. What eventually became of their heads is not known.

Jackson County's Indian Reservations

This field on the shore of Lake Seminole north of Sneads has been farmed since it was first cleared by Native Americans more than 180 years ago. In around 1818 or 1819, a party of Creeks led by Econchatimico ("Red Ground King") moved to a new village site here on the Chattahoochee River after their town at present-day Neal's Landing was destroyed during the First Seminole War.

By 1823, they had managed to clear fields, build homes and settle in at the new location, about 10 miles north of Sneads. In the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, signed that year, the U.S. Government reserved a four square mile piece of land surrounding the new village for Econchatimico and his people. A second, smaller reservation was also established on the Apalachicola River near the present Jackson County Port Authority site for a second chief, Mulatto King, and his followers.

The rest of the land in Jackson County, however, was opened to settlement and the last few hundred Native Americans living there were confined to the reservations.

Econchatimico remained on his land until 1838 when, based on prior agreement, he and his followers were removed by U.S. Army troops commanded by future President, Colonel Zachary Taylor.

The reservation was immediately occupied by white settlers, who began farming the newly abandoned fields and the communities of Brown's Ferry, Port Jackson and Butler Landing eventually grew here. Most of the old reservation was flooded when Lake Seminole was created during the 1950s, but a few small portions remain above water level and can still be seen in the vicinity of the Apalachee Wildlife Management Area along River Road north of Sneads.