essay

Remnants, renegades, and runaways: Seminole ethnogenesis reconsidered

history, power, and identity : ethnogenesis in the americas,1492-1992 • Iowa City • Published In 1996 • Pages: 36-69

By: Sattler, Richard A..

Abstract

Sattler reexamines the history and ethnogenesis of the Seminole, focussing on sociopolitical organization. He discusses the disintegration of the Muskogean chiefdoms in the Colonial Period and their replacement by less powerful polities. The Seminole emerged from the Lower Creek Kawita chiefdom, a multiethnic polity under Kawita suzerainty. Proto-Seminiole groups under Kawita sovereignty settled in northern Florida in the early 18th century. They eventually broke with the Kawita during the American Revolution when they sided with the British, contravening Creek neutrality. Refugees from the War of 1812 and 1814 Creek War swelled their ranks. The Seminole at this time formed three independent chiefdoms, which became most closely aligned during the Seminole Wars. Sattler argues that the Muskegean mode of socioplotical organization based on matrilineally inherited sacred power (HILISWA) among elite lineages allowed for the constitution and reconstitution of multiethnic polities.

HRAF PubDate

2003

Region

North America

Sub Region

Eastern Woodlands

Document Type

essay

Evaluation

Creator Type

Historian

Document Rating

4: Excellent Secondary Data

Analyst

Ian Skoggard ; 2001

Field Date

Not Specified

Coverage Date

1500-1840

Coverage Place

southeastern United States

Notes

Richard A. Sattler

Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-265)

LCCN

95052415

LCSH

Seminole Indians