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Abiaka

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Abiaka
The only depiction of Abiaka during his lifetime in 1839
Seminole-Miccosukee leader
In office
1837–1866
Preceded byMicanopy
Principal Chief of the Florida Seminoles
Personal details
Bornc. 1781
Near Flint River, Georgia, United States
Diedc. 1866 (aged 84-85)
Big Cypress Swamp, Florida, United States
ChildrenAt least 4
Known forFought in the Seminole Wars, resulting in the continued existence of the Seminole tribe in Florida.
Mother tongueMikasuki
NicknameSam Jones
Military service
Battles/wars

Abiaka, also known as Sam Jones,[1] (c. 1781 – c. 1866) was a Seminole-Miccosukee chief, warrior, and shaman who fought against the United States during the Seminole Wars. He was born among the Miccosukee[2] people of Georgia, who would migrate south into Florida and become part of the Seminole tribe. He initially rose to prominence among the Seminoles as a powerful shaman. Abiaka became the principal chief of the Seminoles in 1837 during the Seminole Wars.[3] He was a guerrilla warfare tactician and he led the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee, the largest battle of the conflict. Abiaka successfully resisted the United States and its policy of Indian Removal, and his leadership resulted in the continued presence of the Seminole people in Florida.

Name

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The phonetic spelling of his native name varies to include: Aripeka,[4][5][6] Aripeika,[7] Opoica,[8] Arpeika,[9] Abiaka,[10] Apiaka,[11] Apeiaka,[11] Appiaca,[11] Appiacca,[12] Apayaka Hadjo (Crazy Rattlesnake),[13] and Ar-pi-uck-i.[1] The name is derivative of the Muscogee word, Abihka, the name of an ancient Muscogee town near the upper Coosa River, meaning "pile at the base" or "heap at the root." The name was conferred on the town because "in the contest for supremacy its warriors heaped up a pile of scalps, covering the base of the war-pole."[11]

The nickname Sam Jones was the name he was most commonly known by to White people. The origin of the nickname is from before the Second Seminole War, when Abiaka would visit Fort Brooke to sell trout fish. Because he sold fish so often, the U.S. soldiers at the fort nicknamed him Sam Jones after a popular song at the time called "Sam Jones the Fisherman" (Which was a parody of the French song "Dunois the Young and Brave").[14]

Early life

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Abiaka was born in 1781[3] among the Miccosukee people, who at the time lived in Georgia around the Flint River.[15][16] He was born into the Panther Clan through his mother's lineage. Abiaka's ancestors lived under the Capachequi Chiefdom of the Mississippian culture. Shortly after the end of the U.S. War of Independence, the Miccosukees migrated south into Florida where they joined the Seminole tribe. The Miccosukees built a large village near the eponymously named Lake Miccosukee, where Abiaka would live during his youth.[3] After the First Seminole War many of the Miccosukees migrated further south into Central Florida. During this time in Abiaka's life the Miccosukee band of Seminoles were led by Chief Kinache, who was sometimes called "The King of the Miccosukees".

Abiaka was first written about in the 1820s, when Florida historian John Lee Williams wrote that Abiaka was residing at the village of Oakhumke in Lake County, Florida.[3] John Lee Williams also wrote that at this time Abiaka had become a chief and that he was "a popular warrior among the Seminoles". In his adulthood Abiaka was described as being physically: "of slight elastic frame, six feet high, a mild benevolent countenance, very small feet, long bony hands".[17] Abiaka was inspired by the ideology of Tecumseh,[18] and he later copied Tecumseh's use of a prophet (Tenskwatawa) by appointing his own prophet named Otulkee Thlocco during the Second Seminole War.[3]

Prelude to Second Seminole War

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In 1830, U.S. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act with the goal of ethnically cleansing the Seminole people from Florida. The U.S. Government tried to make the Seminoles acquiesce to their removal from Florida by making them sign treaties that supported the Indian Removal policy. Abiaka was one of the Seminole chiefs that signed both the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832[19] and the Treaty of Fort Gibson in 1833,[20] both of which stated that the Seminoles must leave Florida. However most of the Seminole chiefs later claimed that they were coerced through threats of force to sign these treaties, and that they never agreed to the terms of these treaties. President Andrew Jackson later appointed former Congressman Wiley Thompson to oversee the removal of the Seminoles from Florida.

Abiaka and Osceola were both the most outspoken opponents among the Seminoles against the Indian Removal policy. In March 1835, Abiaka and the other Seminole chiefs attended a meeting at Fort King with U.S. official Wiley Thompson and General Duncan Clinch. Abiaka hated both Wiley Thompson and General Clinch, and during the meeting he showed his disapproval of the Indian Removal policy by angrily stomping his feet on the wooden platform that the meeting was being held at. Abiaka's angry stomping eventually broke the wooden platform, causing Wiley Thompson, General Clinch, and the Seminole chiefs to all fall to the ground.[21]

Seminole Wars

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Battle of Lake Okeechobee – Col. Zachary Taylor led 1032 troops against the Creek and Miccosukee, December 25, 1837, near the mouth of Taylor Creek and Lake Okeechobee and suffered a defeat. Taylor lost 26 killed and 112 wounded. Abiaka was the leading war chief for the Miccosukee[22] and he carefully formulated and executed his battle plan wisely—entrenched on dry, treed ground, pressing the attack, and losing only 8 (11) and 14 wounded. Then he and his men retired into the swamp. Taylor chose to charge across open water. After the battle Col. Zachary Taylor and the U.S. claimed victory and then fell back a considerable distance towards Tampa.[23] The Battle of Lake Okeechobee was Florida's most significant and bloody battle of the Second Seminole war and a major victory for the Seminoles.

The battlefield was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in the 1960s, later became a National Historic Landmark,[24] and is recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation[25] as one of the top endangered historical sites in the U.S.

Battle of Jupiter Inlet – On January 15, 1838, Lt. Levin M. Powell of the U. S. Navy was sent by General Jesup to explore the southwest fork of the Loxahatchee River. Powell's force of fifty-five sailors and twenty-five soldiers engaged Abiaka and his band at Jupiter Inlet. Powell lost five men killed and twenty-two wounded.

Battle of Pine Island Ridge – During the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) in the Battle of Pine Island Ridge, March 22, 1838, Abiaka led an unknown number of Seminoles against 223 Tennessee Volunteer Militia and 38 U.S. regular troops led by Major William Lauderdale. The Battle of Pine Island Ridge, in which the soldiers were forced to attack the Pine Island Ridge hammock through waist deep water while being fired upon from the cover of the island,[26] was a victory for the Seminoles. This battle was U.S. retaliation for the Cooley Massacre of January 6, 1836, in which approximately twenty Seminoles attacked the home of William Cooley in the trading settlement on the New River, which was eight miles distant from the Pine Island Ridge hammock,[27] killing Mrs. Cooley, the Cooley children, and another New River resident Joseph Flinton, the children's tutor. The Seminoles then looted and burned the Cooley farm, but did not attack other New River residents.[28]

In 1841, the year before the close of the Seminole War, Abiaka occupied the region near the mouth of the Kissimmee River and the eastern border of Lake Okeechobee.

Final years and death

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The first report about Abiaka after the end of the Seminole Wars was in 1859, when Abiaka and his people looted the shipwreck of a slave ship at Jupiter Inlet.[29] In 1860, Abiaka married a 20-year old Seminole woman of the Otter Clan, who would later give birth to Abiaka's daughter and last child in 1864.[3]

He died in Florida.[13]

Legacy

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  • James Ryder Randall wrote a poem praising Abiaka in 1859 called "The Unbought Seminole". In the poem Abiaka is referred to as "Arpeik."[30][31]
  • The town of Aripeka in Pasco County, Florida is named after Abiaka.[32]
  • A statue depicting Abiaka leading Seminole women and children to safety during the Battle of Pine Island Ridge was built in Davie, Florida at Tree Tops Park. A copy of this statue is also at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum at Big Cypress Reservation.
  • The Ah-Tha-Thi-Ki ("to learn") Museum on the Seminole Big Cypress Reservation is located near where Abiaka is believed to be buried.
  • A bronze statue of Abiaka which includes Abiaka alongside various animals that symbolize the animal clans of the Seminole tribe is located at the Seminole Big Cypress Reservation. This group statue monument is one of the largest bronze statues in the southeastern U.S.
  • A rock outcrop area on Mars was named "Seminole" by NASA. The two targets on this outcrop named "Abiaka" and "Osceola" were probed and studied during the Thanksgiving weekend, 2005, by the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit[33][34]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Treaty With The Seminole, May 9, 1832. | 7 Stat., 368. |Proclamation, April 12, 1834.Indian Affairs: Laws And Treaties Vol. II, Treaties, compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904. page images: 344, 345". Archived from the original on October 5, 2006. Retrieved October 27, 2006.
  2. ^ archaic: Mikasuki, Mickasooke
  3. ^ a b c d e f West, Patsy (2022-05-05). "Abiaka, or Sam Jones, in Context: The Mikasuki Ethnogenesis through the Third Seminole War". Florida Historical Quarterly. 94 (3).
  4. ^ The Exiles of Florida by Joshua R. Giddings, 1858
  5. ^ Florida Place-Names of Indian Origin and Seminole Personal Names by William A. Read, Louisiana State University Press, 1934
  6. ^ The Story of Florida's Seminole Indians by Wilfred T. Neill, Seaside Press, 1956
  7. ^ Florida Facts, Cultural & Historical Programs, Florida Department of State, website Archived September 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 9, No. 4, December, 1931, REPORT OF CHEROKEE DEPUTATION INTO FLORIDA, Grant Foreman, Page 423 Archived September 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ The Seminole Indians of the State of Florida, Paintiff, v The United States of America, Defendant, Docket No. 73-A, 25 Ind. C1. Comm 25, Before the Indians Claims Commission, Decided March 24, 1971, pdf/Adobe Acrobat format Archived September 3, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ as recognized by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, History, Where We Came From, Osceola and Abiaka, The Seminole Tribe of Florida website Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ a b c d Read, 1934
  12. ^ 25th CONGRESS, 2d Session. (SENATE.) (507) MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING A report from Major General Jesup of his operations whilst commanding the army in Florida, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant. JULY 7, 1838, Digital Library of Georgia at the University of Georgia Libraries[permanent dead link‍]
  13. ^ a b Barrett and Markowitz, pdf/Acrobat Adobe format, page 16 Archived October 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ McCall, George Archibald; McCall, George (2009-09-03). Letters from the Frontiers. Applewood Books. ISBN 978-1-4290-2158-6.
  15. ^ McReynolds, Edwin C. (1957). The Seminoles. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-1255-8.
  16. ^ American Indian Biographies, Revised Edition, Edited by Carole Barrett, University of Mary, and Harvey Markowitz, Washington and Lee University, Project Editor R. Kent Rasmussen, SALEM PRESS, INC., Pasadena, California, and Hackensack, New Jersey, 2005, pdf/Acrobat Adobe format, page 16 Archived October 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Extra Globe. F.P. Blair. 1839.
  18. ^ Monaco, C. S. (2018-03-15). The Second Seminole War and the Limits of American Aggression. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-2481-1.
  19. ^ "Kappler, page images 344, 345". Archived from the original on 2006-10-05. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  20. ^ Treaty With The Seminole, 1833. March 28, 1833. | 7 Stat., 423. |Proclamation, April 12, 1834, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, Treaties, Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904, page images: 394, 395 Archived October 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Agostini, Randal J. (2021-08-04). An Englishman in the Seminole War: A Memoir Based Upon the Letters of John Bemrose. Florida Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-9817337-9-1.
  22. ^ FLORIDA. From the Augusta (Ga.) Constitutionalist, January12., The New Yorker, editor Horace Greeley January 13, 1838
  23. ^ Picolata, January 9, 1838, The New Yorker, editor Horace Greeley January 13, 1838
  24. ^ "Okeechobee Battlefield, National Historic Landmark website". Archived from the original on 2009-05-02. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  25. ^ Okeechobee Battlefield, National Trust for Historic Preservation website Archived September 28, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ elevation 29 feet above sea. Pine Island Ridge is the highest natural elevation in Broward County, Florida.
  27. ^ a primary village of the Miccosukee
  28. ^ A Jewel in the Wilderness, Fort Lauderdale From Early Times to 1911. Broward County, Comprehensive Survey Phase VIII, by George, Paul S. Historic Broward County Preservation Board. 1988
  29. ^ Taylor, Robert (2022-03-01). "Unforgotten Threat: Florida Seminoles in the Civil War". Florida Historical Quarterly. 69 (3).
  30. ^ Randall, James Ryder (1908). Maryland, My Maryland, and Other Poems. J. Murphy Company.
  31. ^ History of Pasco County, Origins of Place Names, website
  32. ^ The United States Post-Office Guide for 1904, p. 366, spells the name of this town Arbeka
  33. ^ Mars Exploration Rover - Spirit - Update Thread - Pt. 2, Missions and Launches, Discussion Boards, Uplink, Imaginova website[permanent dead link‍]
  34. ^ "Mars Exploration Rovers Update, Spirit Descends Husband Hill as Opportunity Works at a Standstill on Olympia, By A.J.S. Rayl, December 30, 2005, Planetary News: Mars (2005), The Planetary Society website". Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2006.
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