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The Miccosukee tribe originated in Alabama and Georgia before migrating to Florida in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were historically part of the Creek Nation and had ties to the Seminole Indians until their separation in the 1910s. The tribe requires members to have Miccosukee or Seminole ancestry and not be enrolled in any other tribe. The tribe owns and administers four reservations in Miami, including one for business ventures. Their sovereignty was recognized by the US government in 1999.
The Miccosukee tribe is a group of Native Americans who originally settled in the regions known today as the states of Alabama and Georgia before migrating to Florida in the 18th and 19th centuries. Historically members of the Creek Nation, the Miccosukee tribe also maintained strong ties to the Seminole Indians of Florida until their formal separation in the 1918s over language differences. The tribe requires members to be born of Miccosukee mothers or be at least half Miccosukee or Seminole and not be enrolled in any other tribe. The sovereignty of the Miccosukee Tribe was legally recognized by the United States federal government in 1999, once the tribal constitution was approved by the United States Secretary of the Interior.
Before the arrival of Spanish explorers and other European settlers in the early 16th century, the Miccosukee tribe inhabited the Tennessee Valley region. The origin of the tribe’s name is disputed, but some theorize that it was coined by Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon’s men who referred to the natives as micos sucios (Spanish for “dirty monkeys”), which becomes Miccosukee. According to the surviving records, at the time of first contact with Europeans, the Miccosukee tribe lived in mud-covered huts in small villages. Once the Spanish had ceded Florida to the British Empire in the 16th and removed most of the Florida Indians to Cuba, several Native American tribes, including the Miccosukee, arrived to reclaim the newly unoccupied land.
After migrating to Florida in the 18th and 19th centuries, many members of the Miccosukee tribe were involved in the three confrontations between the Seminole Indians and the United States government known as the Seminole Wars. The Seminole Indians fought the forced relocation and U.S. attempts to invade Florida, but the territory was ceded to the United States by the end of the Third Seminole War in 1818. The surviving Seminoles, including the Miccosukee, fled to the Everglades to avoid resettlement although many were forced west into Indian Territory and perished en route. The Miccosukee speak Mikasuki, a different language from the Seminole, and left the Seminole tribe in the 1919s.
The Miccosukee Tribe owns and administers four different reservations in the vicinity of Miami, Florida: Tamiami Trail, Alligator Alley, and two other reservations near Krome Avenue and US 41. Tamiami Trial is the main residential reservation. Alligator Alley and Krome Avenue reservations are for the tribe’s business ventures, including gas stations, tobacconists, golf, gambling, and resort amenities. Proceeds from business ventures are used to maintain the tribe’s services and fund future development.
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