Land area
Land of the Seminole in Florida, ceded 1832 (area 173)
- 1823
Set aside as a reservation
- 1832
Ceded to the United States
In the record
Set aside as the Florida tribes' district at Camp Moultrie in 1823, then given up when the Seminole relinquished their Florida lands at Payne's Landing in May 1832. The area covers about 6.2 million acres in what is now Florida.
The 1899 record names Seminole as the people of this land.
How it was taken: a treaty made under documented pressure. The Seminole Nation Museum says many chiefs denied committing to removal and some said they were pressured; the treaty ties removal to settling slave and property claims.
Today, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and Seminole Tribe of Florida carry the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 3
- Seminoleas named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Seminole Nation of Oklahomamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Seminole Tribe of Floridamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
Agreements recorded for this land 2
- Treaty of Moultrie Creek (Florida tribes), 18231823suggested
- Treaty of Payne's Landing with the Seminole, 18321832suggested
Located in 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1823-09-18primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1823-09-18primary record
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1832-05-09primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1832-05-09primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Florida (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 173
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1823-09-18; 1832-05-09
- Kind of instrument
- Treaty or agreement
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Seminole
- States
- FL
- Counties
- Citrus; Glades; Hardee; Hernando; Highlands; Hillsborough; Lake; Marion; Okeechobee; Orange; Osceola; Pasco; Polk
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- Florida
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium