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Tampa
& Cotanchobee
The
word Tanpa, from which Tampa
derives its modern name, was used for hundreds, & perhaps, thousands
of years before the coming of Europeans to these shores. It was the name
of a nearby Indian village. When the Spaniards arrived, at least by
1513, this lower southwest shoreline was a focus of their explorations.
They heard the Natives using this word, & the Spaniards wrote it in
their documents. They did not understand it, & no dependable
translation survives, but its use today echoes that rich and exciting
history.
Another
way in which the Natives distinguished this area was by its topography.
They called it cotan’chobî,
a contraction of the phrase cotanî
chobî, "the big place where the water meets the land." In
English, we write their words “Cotanchobee.” Here, the beautiful
river that we know today as the Hillsborough sweeps gracefully to its
wide, deep bay, before merging with the Gulf of Mexico. How many
Natives occupied this land before the Europeans found it? We will never
know for sure but, certainly, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of
men, women, and children lived here or traveled across this rich land.
Where you stand now, they passed their lives: they walked, ate, slept,
worked, loved, & died here. Consider how much this land has meant to
all of its inheritors.
Cotanchobee
& Tampa
Today’s
Tampa was a war town, born of the conflict between the bold, young
United States & the Native peoples for control of the land & its
tremendous resources. The Spanish Crown relinquished control of La
Florida for the first time in 1763. The British, overlords for a
short 21 years between the 1st & 2nd Spanish
Occupations, created two Floridas, East & West, for administrative
purposes. Then, they left in 1784, with the end of the American
Revolution, & returned the land to the Spaniards. But, by 1810,
partly as a result of the Louisiana Purchase, the northern & western
borders of “the Floridas” had been defined & the new United
States wanted the area, with its long, strategic shore line. In 1821,
“Florida” became a single U.S. Territory, with the shape that we
know so well today. The numbers of Euroamerican & African American
settlers & slaves streaming into Florida began to increase rapidly.
In 1813-14, the Native peoples of Alabama had risen up against the white
settlers & had been defeated badly by Andrew Jackson. Several
thousand of those warriors & their families moved southward &
joined their cultural kinfolk, whom English speakers called the
Seminoles & Miccosukees, across the interior & along the shores
of what Americans now called Tampa Bay. Once again, the stage was set
for conflict over Florida’s vast land & resources, & Tampa
would have yet another name – Fort Brooke, as well as a cen- tral role
in the coming drama that would be played out across Florida.
The
U.S. & the Indians
The
19th-century conflicts recorded in U.S. history as the 1st,
2nd, & 3rd Seminole Wars were, in reality,
part of a much larger & longer clash of cultures. Since its own
birth, in conflict, the U.S. had wrestled with “the Indian problem.”
Although the tribes were recognized as sovereign nations &,
therefore, independent actors in this international drama, the
continuous population growth & ever-expanding settlement of the new
“Americans” spawned almost a century of Wars of Indian Removal that
were destined to end, finally, at Fort Brooke, Florida, the Indians’
Cotanchobee, in 1858. From the Iroquois in the north, to the Cherokees
in the Carolinas &, finally, to the Seminoles in Florida, the U.S.
fought the Indians over control of land. In 1813 U.S. soldiers had
crossed an international border to burn Indian towns in Spanish Florida.
In 1817-18, Andrew Jackson entered Spanish Florida & destroyed
Indian towns, crops, & livestock, in the 1st Seminole
War. By the Treaty of Moultrie Creek (near St. Augustine), in 1823, the
Florida tribes were confined to a reservation in the interior of the
peninsula, but getting them to go there was another problem entirely.
Supplying them with promised foodstuffs was yet another. A military
fortification, to be constructed on Tampa Bay, would permit the U.S.
government to get promised supplies to the Indians & also would
defend against Cuban Spaniards who might supply their old Indian friends
with arms & ammunition.
Tampa
Bay & Fort Brooke
It
was Gen. Andrew Jackson who recommended that a fort be built on Tampa
Bay. James Gadsden, his aide, suggested that troops from the Fourth
Infantry should be the first to be stationed at the new post. Col.
George Mercer Brooke, a hero of the War of 1812, commanded a unit of the
Fourth, which was stationed at Pensacola. Col. Brooke arrived at the
Tampa Bay site on Jan. 22, 1824, with four companies. The fort
that he designed had utility, convenience, & beauty. Capt.
Isaac Clark, a military comrade, pronounced the barracks with its
setting among majestic live oaks & wild orange trees, “The best
barracks of its kind, in the United States.” A visitor found the site
“delightful.” Beyond the beauty of its location, Cantonment Brooke -
soon, Fort Brooke, would become the southern anchor of a U.S. military
line of offense & control that would be anchored on the northeast by
Fort King, at the Indian Agency, near the site of the old Indian village
of Ocale (Ocala, “my
camp”). In proposing the
fort on the bay, Gadsden had told the Secretary of War that “a
judicious location of an adequate force simultaneous with the
concentration of the Indians cannot but have the happy effect of
obtaining such a control as to render them perfectly Subservient to the
views of the Government.” In this, he was echoing the view of many in
government, but not of the military officers on the scene. The soldiers
knew that the Florida Indians had no intention of becoming “perfectly
Subservient” to anyone.
Fort
Brooke & Tampa
Throughout
the 2nd & 3rd Seminole Wars (1835-42;
1856-58), Fort Brooke served as the nucleus of a small but growing
community that included not only soldiers of many ethnic backgrounds
& languages, but also settlers, slaves, & freedmen lured by the
military economy, as well as by all of the excellent features of terrain
& climate that continue to attract residents & visitors today.
Among the troops were many foreign born men for whom military enlistment
provided fast & easy entry into the new society, although service in
the heat, mosquitoes, & snakes of Florida would not seem easy at
all. An Englishman, John Bemrose, who served as a hospital orderly at
several Florida forts, recorded that he met Germans, French, Scots,
Polish, Swedes, Canadians, & Nova Scotians. Their languages seemed
to him “like the chatter of Babel.” The Indians visited the fort to
obtain supplies. Indian prisoners & emigrants encamped there,
awaiting transport. The long shoreline of Cotanchobee also made a fine
meeting place for Cuban fishermen who secretly brought in arms &
ammunition to support the Indian resisters. In Jan. 1834, Hillsborough
became Florida’s 18th county, & its seat was named for
Tampa, the settlement that had taken root around Fort Brooke. The fort
remained active until it was formally abandoned by the U.S. government
on Dec. 21, 1882. It was occupied regularly until 1860 &,
thereafter, was a seasonal camp for soldiers from Key West Barracks.
Fort
Brooke & the Indians
When
the U.S. acquired Florida, in 1821, the policy of the U.S. government
still favored making treaties & attempting to buy Indian lands.
Within a decade, however, the situation changed dramatically. Gen.
Andrew Jackson became President Jackson. The Indian Removal Act (1830)
made it official policy that any future treaties would require the
Natives to move to the newly created “Indian Territory” west of the
Mississippi River. The situation of the Florida Indians already had been
worsened significantly by the Treaty of Moultrie Creek (1823), which
restricted them to poor, wet, & unproductive lands in the center of
the peninsula. The military authorities tried to restrict liquor dealers
from the reservation, but with little success. Some settlers, desirous
of Indian lands & the economic upturn that a military presence would
bring, disguised themselves as Indians & attacked their own
neighbors in order to justify a call for a military buildup. Promised
supplies did not arrive on time; the Indians’ planting &
harvesting cycles were disrupted; & starvation became a real
possibility. The Treaty of Payne’s Landing (on the St. John’s
River), forced upon the Florida Indians in 1832, was strictly a Removal
treaty. The determination of the U.S. government to enforce this
treaty would precipitate the longest & most costly Indian war in
U.S. history. The entire fighting system of the U.S. Army, Navy, &
Marine Corps would change because of the experiences of the soldiers at
Fort Brooke & other Florida forts during the Seminole Wars of
Removal.
War
Years: the U.S.
The
Wars of Indian Removal in Florida were national, rather than merely
regional, events. Americans who, early in the war, supported forcing the
Indians out of the path of white settlement, lost interest as fighting
dragged on with no clear victories or defeats. The cost of the war
mounted steadily, with only relatively few prisoners to show for the
effort. Reports to families from husbands, brothers, & uncles in the
field were very mixed. Some saw the hills, hammocks, & richness of
the foliage and thought Florida an Eden. Most could barely stand it. One
soldier wrote home: “If the Devil owned both Hell and Florida, he
would rent out Florida and live in Hell!” Even the scenic beauty of
Fort Brooke could not compensate for the heat, mosquitoes, snakes, &
the maddening humidity. Enlisted men earned only $5 per month. Desertion
was a constant problem. Besides the Indians & the climate, the
terrain was the enemy as well. Much Florida coastal land was still swamp
& even the highland pine barrens were clogged with palmettos &
dense undergrowth. Marching quietly & easily was impossible.
Fighting was suspended during the summer’s “sickly season,” but
malaria & dysentery shadowed the soldiers nonetheless. This
situation was only worsened by the fact that the Indians had the
distinct advantage of fighting on their own territory. European linear
tactics were of little use against an enemy that appeared &
disappeared at will, fighting ‘hit-&-run’ style & melting
into the trees and swamps. U.S. soldiers at Fort Brooke were fighting
America’s first ‘guerilla’ war.
War
Years: the Indians
U.S.
warfare, based on the European model, required confrontation: two armies
must oppose each other on open land. But the Indians fought in small,
flexible units, under individual war leaders chosen for the occasion by
the war council. When the council decided upon a series of preemptive
strikes against the U.S., late in 1835, they believed that the U.S.
would see their power & resolve, & leave them alone. They did
not realize that, in the eyes of the white government, they had issued a
challenge that would bring down upon them the entire military might of
the U.S.. The opening gambit was the destruction of a column of 108 men,
marching from Fort Brooke to Fort King, under the command of Maj.
Francis Dade, on Dec. 28, 1835. For the next seven years, at least
one sixth of every graduating class from the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point would be posted directly to Florida to fight the Indians.
Over 10,000 regular soldiers, sailors, & Marines, plus 30,000
citizen soldiers, would pass through the Territory &, (from 1845)
the State. Twice, in 1842 & 1858, the U.S. would simply withdraw
from the conflict, without benefit of treaty. The terrain & the will
favored the Indians. Manpower &, sometimes, arms, favored the U.S.
Ultimately, only slightly over 3,000 Indian men, women, & children,
plus their ex-slave & Freedmen dependents, were removed from
Florida. The U.S. believed that the remaining few hundred Indians
never would be able to survive. Once again, they were mistaken.
Years
of Conflict
Throughout
its existence, Fort Brooke retained its prominence in the U.S.
military’s offensive operations in Florida. Below present-day Whiting
St., there were horse sheds, a bake house, a carpenter’s shop, a
Quartermaster’s store, a “pen” for Indian prisoners, a hospital,
& a cemetery. Nine overall commanders would take the field in
Florida, & most of them would visit the fort at one time or another.
Among them were Gen., later President, Zachary Taylor, Gen. Thos. S.
Jesup, & Lt. Col. William Harney. Soldiers of all ranks, from
privates to generals, would gain military experience here that would
propel them to advancement in the nation’s later 19th-century
wars: the Mexican War, the Civil War, & the U.S. wars against the
western, Plains, Indians. The Fort Brooke reservation, 4 miles square,
reached the zenith of its occupation in late 1837, when 65 officers
& 1,596 enlisted men were in garrison. Over the last year, 450
Indians had been gathered at the fort, awaiting transport to the West.
Others continued to come in or be captured. On June 2, 1837, Osceola
& Abiaka & a war party of about 200, released the prisoners.
Gen. Jesup was disheartened. “This campaign, so far as relates to
Indian migration,” he wrote, “has entirely failed.” In Oct. 1837,
a number of Indian war leaders were captured, & the fort’s
garrison was reduced, even as the war dragged on for another five years.
The U.S. withdrew from Florida in 1842, ending the 2nd
Seminole War, & Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act,
encouraging white settlement of the Florida frontier.
Years
of Removal
The
entire U.S. watched the Florida struggle, & the names of the war
leaders became household words. Today, towns, cities, & landmarks
across the nation, for example, as well as numerous individuals, are
named for Osceola (Asse yahóla)
one the young firebrands of the resistance. But Micanopy (Miccó
anópî), Philip (Emáthla), Billy Bowlegs (Holata
miccó), & Sam Jones (Abiáka),
were among the more powerful official leaders of the wars. Micanopy
& Philip were captured & sent West in 1838, along with the
family of Osceola, who had died in prison at Fort Moultrie, SC. Bowlegs,
the last to give up, left Tampa Bay on the steamer Grey
Cloud, bound for New Orleans & on to Indian Territory, in1858.
Old Jumper (Otî emáthla), & the
young warrior Wildcat (Cowácochî)
were sent West also. Jumper died en route, at New Orleans
Barracks, but Wildcat lived to increase his fame as a warrior. Sam
Jones, a powerful medicine man & the backbone of the resistance,
told the U.S. that he would never give up, as long as he had “a single
ball and charge of powder.” When he could no longer shoot, he
declared, he would “live on fish” &, when his lines were worn
out, he would “make others of horse hair” &, when his hooks were
worn out, he would “cut up his old tin pans & make others.” Sam
Jones & his followers found safety in the Everglades & he died
there, true to his word never to give up his fight. To this day, the
Florida Seminoles pass these names down among the warriors’
descendents, & name children with words from the old war-medicine
songs.
The
Fort & Town of Tampa
Above
Whiting St. & the military reservation, the Town of Tampa was taking
shape even as the wars continued. First came men who provided skills
useful to the military: cobblers, harness makers, laundresses,
blacksmiths, among others. Sometimes their families came as well. Among
the officers & men who appreciated the intensity of Florida’s
climate & landscape, some stayed on after their service, as
merchants or government agents. Throughout the wars, & the years of
intermittent raids & skirmishes, the Indians continued to visit Fort
Brooke & Tampa also, to trade or fish, or conduct other business.
The Indians had made it clear all along that their fight was not with
individuals but, rather, with a government that would go so far as to
kill them in order to take away their homes. But the withdrawal of
troops in 1842 angered & frightened many Floridians, & tensions
mounted again, until they erupted in a short series of skirmishes that
constituted the 3rd Seminole War (1856-58). U.S. soldiers
destroyed a camp & garden belonging to Billy Bowlegs, & the
Indians fought back. For the second time, however, the U.S. made a
unilateral decision to pull its troops out. The cost of removing the few
hundred remaining Seminoles would far outweigh the benefits. They
would finally be left alone in their homeland. The tiny community of
Tampa would remain also, until the coming of Henry Plant’s railroad,
in the late 19th century, would provide a distinct economic
base for municipal growth.
War’s
End
“They
are taking us beyond Miami,
They are taking us
beyond the Caloosa River,
They are taking us
to the end of our Tribe,
They are taking us
to Palm Beach,
Coming
back beside Lake Okeechobee,
They are taking us
to an old town in the West.”
-----------------------------
“We are going with
Washington [government].
What
boat do we get in?”
Seminole
Laments
The
years following 1858, the end of the 3rd, & last, of the
Seminole Wars were times of sad reorganization for Florida’s Indians.
Their families had been torn apart, their ceremonial cycles had been
disrupted, & their agricultural base had been destroyed. In their main
objective, however, they had been successful. Those few hundred of the
people who had fought so valiantly to remain had found refuge in the wild
& harsh Everglades, where no others dared venture. They were
profoundly weary, but they were alive, & still in their homeland. By
the 1880s, they would once again return to Tampa, to the Cotanchobee of
their ancestors. They would meet white settlers in peace asking, once
again, only to be left alone to live their lives. This time, they would
find understanding.
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