The Seminoles, relatives of the Creeks, and originally called the Oconee tribe, were first called Seminoles by British agent John Stuart in Florida in about 1762. They had been a part of the Creek Nation, which in fact was a confederacy. Oconee was only one faction of that confederacy. The Seminoles moved south and severed all connections with the Creek tribes in Georgia and Alabama. They became a separate tribe with its own government and its own leaders. By the early nineteenth century, they even had separate ruling powers. Florida was under the rule of Spain, while Alabama and Georgia were in the United States. Both had previously been ruled by England.

The fifteen years or so between the end of the major Indian removals to the West and the outbreak of the Civil War have been called by some the “Golden Years” of Indian Territory. During these years, the Five Civilized Tribes rested from the onslaught of white poachers onto their lands, and they recovered from their suffering and losses along the Trail of Tears. They resumed their business activities, supplementing their farming incomes at first with the produce from hunting and fishing on their new tribal lands.

THE RECONSTRUCTION TREATIES with the Five Civilized Tribes reduced the land of those tribes to about half its previous size. They divided what had once been Indian Territory into two distinct parts. The southeastern Indians were located in the eastern half, along with several small tribes from the Old Northwest Territory and a few tribes from other areas.

RANGE CATTLE INDUSTRY. After their removal to Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes raised livestock. This greatly enhanced their economic recovery from losses incurred during removal. The war virtually wiped out the herds that had grazed territorial pasture lands, along with the prosperity of the cattlemen. Before the war, herds of 10,000 cattle were common on Seminole ranches, and a few were as large as 20,000 head. In 1869, there were only 4,000 head of cattle in the Seminole Nation. The Indian ranchers didn’t have the funds necessary to rebuild their herds.

ELIAS C. BOUDINOT. Not all Indians in the Territory opposed land allotment and white settlement. Like Choctaw Chief Jackson McCurtain, many believed that individual Indian land ownership and white settlement would bring economic opportunities for Indians. Elias C. Boudinot, son of Elias Boudinot, encouraged the abandonment of old tribal customs concerning property ownership. He felt that progress and the Indian economy would be served by opening the Territory to white settlement. In 1878, Boudinot published a letter in the Chicago Times. It announced that, because the 1866 treaties provided for government purchase of unoccupied Indian lands, those lands were public domain and, therefore, were available to homesteaders. MK&T attorney T.C. Sears also published a similar letter. Public interest was greatly aroused, and colonies were organized to settle the Unassigned Lands. Soldiers were sent to the border to keep out the colonists and anyone else who wanted to enter Indian Territory illegally.