The Miccosukees were originally part of the Creek Nation which was an association
             of clan villages in the areas now known as Alabama and Georgia. This territory was
             separated into two sections; the Upper Creeks, who lived in the mountains and
             spoke Muskogee (Creek); and the Lower Creeks, who lived at the base of these
             mountains and spoke Hitchiti (Mikasuki). While the languages are closely related,
             they are mutually unintelligible. This hindered full communication between these two
             groups that were constantly at war with each other. The Miccosukees are from the
             lower Creek region and speak Mikasuki which is derived from Hitchiti.

             The Miccosukee and other lower Creek Tribes lived together in harmony, sharing
             legends, religious practices and social gatherings in addition to trade and traditional
             stickball games. They lived by hunting, fishing and growing crops of which corn was
             the most significant. The new harvest is still celebrated each year at the sacred
             Green Corn Dance. Legends of the Miccosukee give interesting explanations of their
             origins. One reports a people dropping from heaven into a lake in northern Florida
             now called Lake Miccosukee and swimming ashore to build a town. No early written
             records clarify the picture.

             The arrival of Europeans in the 1500s placed the Creek people at the center of a
             three-way struggle for colonial supremacy on the southern frontier, The English,
             working out of the Carolinas, penetrated to the heart of the Creek nation seeking
             trade, political support, and land cessions. The French moved eastward from the
             Mississippi Valley, courting the Creeks as buffers against the English and Spanish.
             To the south, the Spanish who were only nominally in control of the Florida territory;
             sought friendly relations with the Creeks as a bulwark against the other European
             powers. Caught in the middle the Creeks mastered the art of playing the powers off
             against each other.

             In the early 1700's the Spaniards enticed some Lower Creeks to relocate into
             Spanish Florida and take up lands formerly occupied by Florida's aboriginal tribes.
             This effectively created a barrier between Spanish territory and the English to the
             north. The Miccosukees, who were familiar with the Florida peninsula through hunting
             and fishing expeditions, were among the first to arrive sometime after 1715 in an
             effort to escape both the encroaching whites and their Upper Creek brothers.
             Complex town life soon evolved in permanent settlements that they established in
             the Appalachia Bay Region and along the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers.
             Families built and occupied substantial dwellings, engaged in skilled handicrafts and
             participated in a sophisticated social life.

             Following the American Revolution, white settlers started pushing west and south
             creating conflict with the Muskogee speaking Creeks. These conflicts led to the
             Creek War of 1813 and later the so-called first Seminole War of 1818.

             Miccosukees managed to stay in the panhandle for awhile resisting the greedy
             settlers, American soldiers, and crooked slave trader attacks on their towns.
             However they eventually left the area for good to settle around Alachua, south of
             Gainesville and the Tampa Bay Area.

             In 1821, when Spain sold Florida to the United States, Americans recognized the
             rights of Indians over much of the land in the peninsula. In 1823, they negotiated for
             the land in the "Treaty of Moultrie Creek." The Indian leaders who signed the treaty
             wanted peace. Therefore, agreeing to pull their clans back to a reservation in Central
             Florida, where they were to be allowed to live in peace for twenty years.
 

 

             To find out more check out  these cool web sites:

              http://www.indians.org/welker/micconst.htm