I can't atone for Indian atrocities, but, as far as they were concerned they were being invaded and their land taken, they were certainly more savage than Christian.
I am certainly not advocating that President Jackson liked Black people either.
You are correct, they were Creek when Columbus arrived and were mainly in Georgia and Alabama but some wound up in present day Florida as (Southern) tribes always grow and expand territory.
the way I heard it, and my recollection could be fuzzy, 2/3 of the Seminole Tribe wound up in Oklahoma by way of the Trail of Tears, and they are the ones that negotiated that treaty because the TRUCE they had with the US Government was abrogated when they sided with the Confederacy.
The FLORIDA Seminoles have never signed a Peace Treaty with the US Govt.
I read allot at that Link you provided, very interesting, Thank You-it says that Treaty was never Ratified.
A copy of this agreement, which has never been ratified, is found in an Appendix to the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, with the report of the negotiating commissioners, which copy has been reproduced in the appendix to this compilation, post, p. 1050.
edited to ping @Fantom
Let me say, I do appreciate your honest and decent reply. I appreciate such, as I do not hold any "noble" views of either side in historical perspective, rather a "Nature of Man" viewpoint.
As to truth ..or such understanding as may be. Last first as is my wont.
Ratification which you posted from the site.. I have no clue why it is posted as such, as the very header of the treaty states....
TREATY WITH THE SEMINOLE, 1866.
Mar. 21, 1866. | 14 Stats., 755. | Ratified, July 19, 1866. | Proclamed, Aug. 16, 1866. Note too that the posted info you made from that site says "1865".
As for Jackson, I doubt he hated Indians or Blacks.. anymore than likewise. Just saw a solution to a problem for both. Independent lands... he did not know that the USA would encompass the whole land soon enough.
Not just "southern tribes".. all tribes... including Whites.
Anywho, the Seminole were not an "aboriginal" Tribe, they were comprised of renegade outcasts of the Creek, Black runaway slaves and White outlaws. As such they hardy comprise a legitimate ..original Tribal/Nation.
Which sets a precedence that any group of People in the U.S. can establish itself as a "Tribe", with self governance.
As for the real ..such as it was "Trail of Tears". It was some of the Cherokee who where forcibly removed, in the dead of winter, when they violated the Treaty of Echota.
@corbe
