The United States has a dark history of oppressing the native North Americans and unlawfully seizing land in the name of manifest destiny. Numerous tribes were wiped out and many others remain in danger of fading away today. However, there is one tribe that takes pride in the face that they have never been conquered.
The Florida Seminole survived in the Florida swamplands to avoid being removed. The Everglades were a dangerous place for expanding settlers, which managed to deter the European-Americans from making their way into the Seminole territory. Isolated, the tribe managed to maintain their "clan-based matrilocal residence in scattered thatched-roof chickee camps." Hardly the Ritz Carlton.
Early in the 20th century the Florida Seminoles divided into two distinct groups: Those that wanted live strictly traditional and those that wanted to adapt to reservations. The ones that accepted reservation land were officially recognized by the federal government in 1957 as the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The traditional group finally gained federal recognition in 1962, granting them reservation lands and control of extensive wetlands.
