“The Relocation of Native Americans in Florida”
By Julie Snyder, Wahneta Elementary School
Summary
The students will study the attempts by the United States government to relocate the Seminole
Indians of Florida. Students will also learn how these efforts led to the Second Seminole War.
Objectives
1. Students will learn why the United States government wanted to relocate the Seminole
Indians during the 1800’s.
2. Students will study the effects of relocation on the Seminoles.
3. Students will create a timeline leading up to the Second Seminole War.
4. Students will use Thinking Maps to study the causes and effects leading up to the
Second Seminole War.
U.S. History Event
1821 to antebellum Florida (pre-1861): United States governments efforts to relocate Native
Americans, specifically the Seminole Indians due to westward expansion by white settlers.
Grade Level
Elementary school
Materials
“Thinking Maps” manual by Innovative Learning Group, Graphic Organizer (Timeline), KWL chart,
research articles, and Activity log.
Lesson time
Four 45-minute periods.
Lesson Procedures
Procedures
1. Introduce the lesson by having students do a “KWL” chart on the Seminole Indians.
Students make 3 columns. In the first, they write “What I Know About the Seminole
Indians”. In the second, write “What I Want to Know About the Seminole Indians.” In the
third, write “What I Learned About the Seminole Indians.” Have students fill in the first
two columns.
2. Make a class “KWL” chart. Fill in the first two columns with what students think they
know or want to know. Save the third column to be completed as part of the assessment
piece.
3. Students should be encouraged to take notes while the teacher presents information on
events leading to the Second Seminole War. (Research articles on included in resources
section).
4. Discuss how these events might have led to war between the United States government
and the Seminole Indians.
5. Students will work in pairs to complete multi-flow maps listing causes and effects of the
government’s attempts to relocate the Seminole Indians.
6. Students will create a timeline showing events leading to the Second Seminole War.
7. Students will participate in a debate over whether the United States government was
trying to protect the Indians through relocation or whether the government was just trying
to take their land.
Activities
1.) Create multi-flow map for Cause-and-Effect Reasoning on the U.S. government’s attempts to
relocate the Seminole Indians.
Thinking Process
The process of sequencing is extended by identifying the interrelated causes and effects of
events.
Thinking Map
The “Multi-Flow Map” is used by students for showing and analyzing cause and effect
relationships. In the center rectangle, write in an important event that occurred. On the left side
of the event, write in the effects of the event. As you identify more causes and effects add them
to the Map. If you are studying a system, you will find that there are effects in the system which,
in turn, influence initial causes. This circular cause and effect relationship is called a feedback
loop.
(EVENT)
causes
Questioning Using the Multi-Flow Map
*What are the causes and effects of this event?
*Which causes relate to which effects?
*Which of the causes and effects are most important?
*What are the feedback influences on this system?
effects
2.) “KWL” chart:
What You Know About
the Seminole Indians
What You Want to
Know About
the Seminoles
What You Learned
About the Seminoles
3.) Timeline Information Sheet
1813-14 – Creek War in Alabama forces Native survivors to flee southward where they join
Florida natives. General Andrew Jackson rises to power.
1816 – First Seminole War begins after Jackson crosses into northern Florida.
1817-1818 – General Andrew Jackson and his army were sent to northern Florida to fight the
Seminoles and seize the land from Spain.
1821 – Spain sold Florida to the U.S. from five million dollars. Slave catchers from southern
states swarmed into Florida to reclaim runaway slaves, capturing free blacks and Indians as well.
1823 – Facing increasing pressure from white settlers to move farther down the Florida
peninsula, several dozen Seminole chiefs signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, granting them 5
million acres of land in southwest Florida (between the Withlacoochee River and Lake
Okeechobee).
1830 – U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act; government officials began negotiating
with the Seminoles to leave Florida.
1832 – The Treaty of Payne’s Landing set forth conditions for six Seminole inspectors to travel to
Oklahoma to check proposed Seminole tribal grounds. The chiefs subsequently signed the
Treaty of Fort Gibson (Oklahoma) agreeing to give up their Florida lands within three years and
move west of the Mississippi River, to the country assigned to the Creeks.
December 28, 1835 – Osceola leads Seminoles at Battle of Withlacoochee, slays U.S. Indian
Agent. Major Francis Dade, 105 soldiers killed en route from Tampa
to Fort King (Ocala). Second Seminole War (1835-1842) begins.
1835-1842 – The Second Seminole War, cost the U.S. more that $20 million and more than 1500
soldiers and civilians. Hostilities ended with negotiations that recognized hunting and farming
grounds for the Seminoles. But no peace treaty was signed, no boundaries were defined for
Seminole territory in Florida.
Assessment
Complete “KWL” chart.
Write in activity log:
-How would you feel if someone took away your home? What would you do? Compare your
answer to what the Seminole Indians did when the government tried to take their land.
Resources
“Thinking Maps” by Innovative Learning Group
Gannon, Michael V. Florida: A Short History. University Press of Florida:
Gainesville, Florida (1993).
http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/timeline/timeline3.html -Everglades Timeline (Territorial Florida,
Statehood, & the Seminole Indian Wars: 1821-1858); State University System of Florida, 2002
www.seminoletribe.com -Seminole Timeline; The Seminole Tribune; Seminole Tribe of Florida
Florida State Parks and the Seminole Wars; Florida Dept. of Natural Resources