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31-717: By the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, the Seminoles had relinquished all claims to land in the Florida Territory in return for a reservation in the center of the Florida peninsula and certain payments, supplies and services to be provided by the U.S. government, guaranteed for twenty years. After the election of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States in 1828, the movement to transfer all Indians in

62-483: A huge hickory tree atop an ancient Indian mound , most likely built by the Tocobaga culture centuries before. Brooke directed his troops to clear the area for the construction of a wooden log fort and support buildings, but he ordered that several ancient live oak trees inside the encampment be spared to provide shade and cheer. In 1824, the post was officially rechristened Fort Brooke. Fort Brooke would serve as

93-512: A major outpost on Florida's west coast during all three Seminole Indian Wars and the Civil War . The fort also played a part in the development of the village of Tampa. In October 1863, the small Civil War Battle of Fort Brooke was fought nearby. On May 6, 1864, both Fort Brooke and Tampa were captured by Union forces. As Tampa languished during the 1870s and early 1880s, so did Fort Brooke. The last roll call of soldiers occurred in 1882 and

124-501: A night. The next day, in order to secure his release, Osceola agreed to abide by the Treaty of Payne's Landing and to bring his followers in. In August 1835 Private Kinsley Dalton (for whom Dalton, Georgia is named) was killed by Seminoles as he was carrying the mail from Fort Brooke to Fort King. In November, Chief Charley Emathla, wanting no part of a war, led his people towards Fort Brooke where they were to board ships to go west. This

155-639: Is now Ocala was reopened in 1834. A new Seminole agent, Wiley Thompson , was appointed in 1834, and the task of persuading the Seminoles to move fell to him. He called the chiefs together at Fort King in October 1834 to talk to them about the removal to the west. The Seminoles informed Thompson that they had no intention of moving, and that they did not feel bound by the Treaty of Payne's Landing. Thompson then requested reinforcements for Fort King and Fort Brooke , reporting that, "the Indians after they had received

186-779: The Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell , the native remains were transferred to the Seminole Tribe of Florida , and the artifacts were given to the Tampa Bay History Center and other institutions for research and preservation. In 1823, Colonels George Mercer Brooke and James Gadsden of the United States Army were ordered to establish a military presence on Tampa Bay in the newly acquired Florida Territory to contain

217-878: The Garrison Channel . Most of the fort's structures were situated at the current site of the Tampa Convention Center , with the military reserve stretching from the current location of the Tampa Bay History Center to the southeast to Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park to the northwest, with many modern buildings and public spaces (including Amalie Arena and much of the Tampa Riverwalk now located in its former footprint. Several unmapped army and Seminole cemeteries along with many artifacts were discovered during various construction projects. The soldiers' remains were re-interred at

248-587: The Seminole Indians according to the Treaty of Moultrie Creek and to curtail illegal activities along the Gulf coast. On 10 January 1824, Brooke and four full companies of the U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment from Pensacola established "Cantonment Brooke" at the mouth of the Hillsborough River , just about where today's Tampa Convention Center sits in downtown Tampa . The site was marked by

279-514: The Annuity, purchased an unusually large quantity of Powder & Lead." Brigadier General Duncan L. Clinch , United States Army commander for Florida, also warned Washington that the Seminoles did not intend to move, and that more troops would be needed to force them to move. In March 1835 Thompson called the chiefs together to read a letter from Andrew Jackson to them. In his letter, Jackson said, "Should you ... refuse to move, I have then directed

310-533: The Commanding officer to remove you by force." The chiefs asked for thirty days to respond. A month later the Seminole chiefs told Thompson that they would not move west. Thompson and the chiefs began arguing, and General Clinch had to intervene to prevent bloodshed. Eventually, eight of the chiefs agreed to move west, but asked to delay the move until the end of the year, and Thompson and Clinch agreed. Five of

341-635: The Florida and the Caribbean. The indigenous peoples of Florida had largely died out by the early 18th century. Various groups and bands of Muskogean-speakers (called Creek Indians by the British), Yamasees and Yuchis moved into the area, often with the encouragement of the Spanish colonial government . These groups, which often lived on both sides of the border between Florida and Georgia , came into increasing conflict with white settlers after

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372-546: The Florida peninsula from just north of present-day Ocala to a line even with the southern end of Tampa Bay . The boundaries were well inland from both coasts, to prevent contact with Spanish and British traders from Cuba and the Bahamas . Neamathla and five other chiefs, however, were allowed to keep their villages along the Apalachicola River . Under the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, the United States government

403-428: The Seminoles (under much milder conditions than with whites), were fairly well integrated into the bands, often inter-marrying, and rising to positions of influence and leadership. The treaty negotiated at Payne's Landing called for the Seminoles to move west if the land were found to be suitable. The delegation of seven chiefs who were to inspect the new reservation did not leave Florida until October 1832. After touring

434-626: The Treaty with the Florida Tribes of Indians, was an agreement signed in 1823 between the government of the United States and the chiefs of several groups and bands of Indians living in the present-day state of Florida . The treaty established a reservation in the center of the Florida peninsula. It also ceded all coastal lands to the United States Government, as the U.S. wanted control of overseas trade between

465-503: The United States became independent . When the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821 (by means of the Adams-Onís Treaty ), the conflict increased. In 1823, the United States government decided to settle the Seminoles on a reservation in the central part of the territory. A meeting to negotiate a treaty was scheduled for early September 1823 at Moultrie Creek, south of St. Augustine . About 425 Seminoles attended

496-866: The United States to west of the Mississippi River grew, and in 1830 the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act . Determined to move the Seminoles west, the United States Department of War appointed James Gadsden to negotiate a new treaty with them. In the spring of 1832 the Seminoles on the reservation were called to a meeting at Payne's Landing on the Oklawaha River . The negotiations were conducted in obscurity, if not secrecy. No minutes were taken, nor were any detailed accounts of

527-522: The area for several months and conferring with the Creeks who had already been settled there, the seven chiefs signed on March 28, 1833 at Fort Gibson , Arkansas Territory a statement (also referred to as the Treaty of Fort Gibson) that the new land was acceptable. Upon their return to Florida, however, most of the chiefs renounced the statement, claiming that they had not signed it, or that they had been forced to sign it, and in any case, that they did not have

558-406: The ban, feeling that it equated Seminoles with slaves and said, "The white man shall not make me black. I will make the white man red with blood; and then blacken him in the sun and rain ... and the buzzard live upon his flesh." In spite of this, Thompson considered Osceola to be a friend, and gave him a rifle. Later, though, when Osceola was causing trouble, Thompson had him locked up at Fort King for

589-665: The climate at the Creek Reservation was harsher than in Florida. The Seminoles of Florida did not consider themselves part of the Creeks. Although many of the groups in Florida had come from what whites called Creek tribes, they did not feel any connection. Some of the groups in Florida, such as the Choctaw , Yamasees and the Yuchis had never been grouped with the Creeks . Finally, runaway slaves , while often held as slaves by

620-476: The fort during this period, and the area was the site of a minor raid and skirmish during the American Civil War . The obsolete outpost was sparsely garrisoned after the war, and it was decommissioned in 1883 just before Tampa began a period of rapid growth, opening the land for development. Fort Brooke was located on what is now the southern end of downtown Tampa along eastern bank of the river and

651-401: The meeting, choosing Neamathla , a prominent Mikasuki chief, to be their chief representative. Under the terms of the treaty negotiated there, the Seminoles were forced to place themselves under the protection of the United States and to give up all claim to lands in Florida, in exchange for a reservation of about four million acres (16,000 km²). The reservation ran down the middle of

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682-482: The money promised was slow in arriving and promised sums were not met. Murders and conflicts between Natives and white settlers within the allocated territory also went unpunished, violating the Article 4 of the Treaty. Subsequently with the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832, implementing the Indian Removal Act of 1830 , the 4 million acres of central Florida land set aside for the tribes in the Treaty of Moultrie Creek

713-476: The most important of the Seminole chiefs, including Micanopy of the Alachua Seminoles, had not agreed to the move. In retaliation, Thompson declared that those chiefs were removed from their positions. As relations with the Seminoles deteriorated, Thompson forbid the sale of guns and ammunition to the Seminoles. Osceola , a young warrior beginning to be noticed by the whites, was particularly upset by

744-472: The mouth of the Hillsborough River in present-day Tampa, Florida in 1824. Its original purpose was to serve as a check on and trading post for the native Seminoles who had been confined to an interior reservation by the Treaty of Moultrie Creek (1823), and it served as a military headquarters and port during the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). The village of Tampa developed just north of

775-622: The negotiations ever published. This was to lead to trouble later. The U.S. government wanted the Seminoles to move to the Creek Reservation in what was then part of the Arkansas Territory (which later became part of the Indian Territory ), to become part of the Creek Nation , and to return all runaway slaves ( maroons ) to their lawful owners. None of these demands were agreeable to the Seminoles. They had heard that

806-484: The new reservation. Gadsden was able to persuade the chiefs of these villages to move, however, and they went west in 1834. The United States Senate finally ratified the Treaty of Payne's Landing in April 1834. The treaty had given the Seminoles three years to move west of the Mississippi River . The government interpreted the three years as starting in 1832, and expected the Seminoles to move in 1835. Fort King , in what

837-421: The power to decide for all the tribes and bands that resided on the reservation. Even some U.S. Army officers observed that the chiefs "had been wheedled and bullied into signing." Furthermore, "there is evidence of trickery by the whites in the way the treaty is phrased." Several villages had been allowed to stay in the area of the Apalachicola River after 1823 when the rest of the Seminoles had been forced into

868-420: The tribe $ 5,000 a year for twenty years, and provide an interpreter, a school and a blacksmith for the same twenty years. No white person was allowed to settle, farm, or hunt the reservation land as well. In turn, the Seminoles had to allow roads to be built across the reservation and had to apprehend any runaway slaves or other fugitives and return them to United States jurisdiction. In the first nine years,

899-591: Was considered a betrayal by other Seminoles. Osceola met Emathla on the Fort King trail and killed him. The next month the Second Seminole War would begin with the Dade massacre . On the same day as the Dade Massacre, Osceola and his followers shot and killed Wiley Thompson and six others outside of Fort King. Witnesses: Treaty of Moultrie Creek The Treaty of Moultrie Creek , also known as

930-405: Was obligated to protect the Seminoles as long as they remained peaceful and law-abiding. The government was supposed to distribute $ 6000 worth of farm implements, cattle and hogs to the Seminoles, compensate them for travel and losses involved in relocating to the reservation, and provide rations for a year, until the Seminoles could plant and harvest new crops. The government was also supposed to pay

961-437: Was taken back; and the U.S. government forced them to be relocated to the Indian Territory in present-day Arkansas (see also the Treaty of Fort Gibson ). The implementation of these two new treaties led to the Second Seminole War . Fort Brooke 27°56′28″N 82°27′18″W  /  27.941147°N 82.454887°W  / 27.941147; -82.454887 Fort Brooke was a historical military post established at

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