Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
 Dr. Mary Jo Watson, enrolled tribal member, former director of OU School of Art,
and art historian |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (18,800 enrolled members) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States ( Oklahoma) |
|
| Languages | |
| English, Mikasuki language | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, traditional tribal religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Seminole people and Muskogean peoples: Apalache, Apalachicola, Alabama, Coushatta, Miccosukee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Muscogee Creek |
The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the largest of the three federally recognized Seminole governments, which include the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Its members are descendants of the 3,000 Seminoles who were forcibly removed from Florida to Indian Territory, along with 800 Black Seminoles, after the Second Seminole War. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is headquartered in Wewoka within Seminole County, Oklahoma. Of 18,800 enrolled tribal members, 13,533 live within the state of Oklahoma. The tribe began to revive its government in 1936 under the Indian Reorganization Act. While its reservation was originally larger, today the tribal jurisdictional area covers Seminole County, Oklahoma, within which it has a variety of properties.
The few hundred Seminoles remaining in Florida fought against US forces in the Third Seminole war, and peace was made without their defeat. Today, descendants of those people have formed two federally recognized Seminole tribes. Together, the three tribes and unorganized Traditionals in Florida were awarded a land claims settlement valued in total at $16 million in 1976, for nearly 24 million acres of lands seized by the United States government in Florida in 1823.
The history of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma derives from the ethnogenesis of the tribe in Florida. The Seminole were composed of Native American peoples who migrated into Florida after most of the original indigenous tribes had declined or moved.
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Wikipedia