Native American Histories: The Seminoles

Europeans Arrived in the Territory of the Muskogee People in the 1500s, bringing new diseases and causing wars. Some Muskogee Indians escaped to the swamplands of Florida. Spanish colonists called them cimarron, which means "untamed." The Muskogees in Florida adopted the Spanish word into their language as siminoli. To them, the word meant "free people." They were untamed because the Europeans had never ruled them. This independent spirit helped the Seminoles survive much hardship and suffering and preserve many traditions. Read more about the Seminoles' gripping past and their present-day lives.