User:Donald Albury/Chakaika

Chakaika, chief the "Spanish Indians", was a prominent leader in the attack on the trading post and army camp on the Calooshatchee River on July 22, 1839, known as the Battle of Caloosahatchee.

Fishing ranchos in southwest Florida from beginning of Second Spanish Period, if not sooner. User Indian helpers, cured fish for Havana market, small-scale farming. In 1831 four ranchos in vivinity of Charlotte Harbor with up to 300 residents.

In 1836, the "old" ranchos in vicinity of Sanibel Island were reported to be deserted and mostly destroyed.

Chakaika, leader of "Spanish Indians", led attack on Caloosahatchee on Harney's men on July 23, 1839, on Indian Key on August 7, 1840, killed by Harney December 10, 1840. Sturtevant interviewed Mikasuki speakers about Seminole topic in 1952-1953. Calusa had largely disappeared by time Seminoles reached southern Florida in late 18th-early 19th century, documents from that period refer to "Spanish Indians living in region.

Calusa left Florida for Havana in 1763, per Bernard Romans. Romans used "Spanish Indian" guide at St. Lucie River in 1769. Romans said in 1775 that coast between Cape Sable and Cape Romano was the last retreat of the Calusa, when driven off the continent by the Creeks. William Bartram reported that in 1774 an old "Creek" told him about a town called "Calusahatche" on the Bay of Carlos (Charlotte Harbor), occupied by Calosulges ("Calos people") which included ancient residents of Florida called "Painted people" and "Bat necks". Hawkins mentioned the town of Caloosahatchee as being Seminole in 1778-1779, but did not specify its location.

From 1814 until 1820 several groups from the "coast of Tampa" were reported by the Spanish to have visited Havana. Sturtevant notes that most of the names of chiefs and towns recorded by the Spanish appear to be Creek, while the remaining names may be Calusa, but may Creek names distorted by poor transcription and copying errors.

Population of southern Florida was given as 30 in 1821, in five families. An 1822 report said Caloosas were extinct.

In 1823, it was reported that there were Seminoles, as well as remnants of Creeks, Alabamas, Choctaws, and other tribes living near Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor, some in Cape Sable region, and "not more than 50" on east coast near Cape Florida.

Spanish fishing ranchos established on coast from Tampa Bay Charlotte Harbor since late 18th century. Total population in 1831 was given as 65 Spanish men, 65 Indian men, 30 Indian women, and 50 to 100 children.

An 1837 report stated that Indians living on the coast south of Charlotte Harbor never went to the reservation agency, but traded produce, skins, and small live animals at the Spanish ranchos for guns, ammunition, and clothing. They may have also sometimes worked at the ranchos. Some bands were also in contact with Bahamian wreckers. They had not been represented at the treaty conferences with the U.S., and never agreed to leave Florida. There is evidence that at least some of the Indians spoke Creek.

An 1837 Army excursion from the Caloosahatchee River to Cape Sable captured 243 prisoners. In 1838, 80 Spaniards were reported to be among captives being sent to the Indian Territory from Florida. Seven Spaniards were allowed to stay in New Orleans when they promised not to return to Florida. A newspaper in Arkansas reported that one group of captives being taken to the Indian Territory included 150 Spanish Indians and Spaniards who had married Seminoles.

In 1839, Sprague reported that a band of Spanish Indians under Chekika, with about 100 warriers, lived south of Lake Okeechobee. Hospetarke, a Seminole chief, whose wife was Spanish, and some of his followers, also lived in the area. Holartoochee, a Seminole banished for adultery, lived with Chekika's band until the outbreak of the Second Seminole War, when he rejoined his band. Chekika's band was said to speak their own language, a mixture of "Indian" and Spanish. While Sturtevant allows that the language may have been Calusa, he found no evidence to support that, and points to the apparent close relations between Chakiaka's band and Seminoles.

In May 1839, General Alexander Macomb arranged a [Second Seminole War#Macomb's peace and the Battle of Caloosahatchee|truce] with the Seminoles. The Seminoles regarded the truce as permanent, while American officials regarded it as a pause that would ultimately make it easier to removed the Seminoles west. Macomb thought he had reached agreement with the principal leaders of the Seminoles in south Florida, but the men he met with apparently represented only one of four independent bands in the area, the one led by [Arpeika]. (The other bands were led by Hospetarke, Otalke-Thlocko, and Chakaika).

Macomb thought he had reached agreement with the principal leaders of the Seminoles in south Florida, but the men he met with apparently represented only one of four independent bands in the area, the one led by [Arpeika]. (The other bands were led by Hospetarke, Otalke-Thlocko, and Chakaika). Only Chitto Tustenuggee (war chief under Sam Jones) had met with General Macomb.

As part of the truce agreement, a trading post was established on the Caloosahatchee River, guarded by 25 soldiers under Colonel Harney. In the meantime, the Seminoles learned that American officials still intended to remove them from Florida, a breach of the Seminoles' understanding of the agreement. On the morning of July 23, 1839 about 160 Indians attacked the trading post and Army camp. Colonel Harney escaped in his nightclothes, but half of the soldiers were killed, either immediately or after being captured. The attack on the army camp was led by Chakaika, while Hospetarke led the attack on the trading post. [Billy Bowlegs|Holatter Micco] (war-chief of Arpeika's band) and Shonockhadjo (war-chief of Otalke-Thlocko's band) were other leaders in the attack.

Spanish Indians attacked Indian Key on August 7, 1840. Chakaika's sister later told her American captors that three Spaniards had supplied the Spanish Indians with salt and ammunition, and that one of the Spaniards had advised the Spanish Indians to attack Indian Key. It is believed that the Indians understood Henry Perrine when he spoke to them in Spanish during the attack. The attackers were also heard speaking English. Goods from the store in Indian Key were found at the Spanish Indian camp later that year.

Harney led expedition into Everglades seeking Chakaika and Spanish Indians. Found camp on December 10, 1840, killing Chakaika and several other men.

Spanish Indians unknown after 1840. Some Seminole families in Oklahoma claimed Spanish ancestry in 1932, unclear whether they derived from Chakaika's band or from rancho Indians.

Claims of Florida Choctaws with Oklahoma Seminoles. Choctaws who traveled to Oklahoma in company of Seminoles late in war were from a band that had moved from Mississippi to Florida.

In 1950s, Florida Mikasukis denied any Choctaws were in Florida. Remembered yathâmpa:Lî ("bad people") and kalasa:Lî (Calusa), but did not remember "Bat Necks", "Painted People", or "Muspa". Kalasa:Lî generally seen as Spanish. In Mikasuki oral history, the yathâmpa:Lî were found by the Spanish living south of present-day Ocala. The Spanish traded with and intermarried with the yathâmpa:Lî. At first, Seminoles also traded and intermarried with the yathâmpa:Lî. The Spanish incited the yathâmpa:Lî to attack the Seminoles. The Seminoles defeated the yathâmpa:Lî and Spanish in a multiple-day battle. (Sturtevant notes the similarities of the story of this battle with the 1702 [Battle of Flint River].)

In Mikasuki oral history, the surviving yathâmpa:Lî fled south, crossing the Peace River and settling at [Tony's Mound], south of [Clewiston, Florida]. The Seminole captured some of the yathâmpa:Lî and sold them as slaves. Some migrated to Cuba. Others returned northward where they were absorbed by whites (presumably Spanish). Some Mikasuki in 1952 thought there were still yathâmpa:Lî in the Everglades, either invisible, or looking like deer.

[Frances Densmore] recorded 17 songs from a Cow Creek Seminole in 1932 that were said to be Calusa. The Seminole and Calusa had lived peaceably near each other for a while, and learned songs from each other. The two peoples later fought, and the Seminoles defeated the Calusa.

The Mikesuki Seminole in 1952 stated that Chakaika and his band were neither yathâmpa:Lî nor kalasa:Lî (Calusa), but were Seminole and spoke Mikasuki. They stated that they believed that Chakaika's band and the Mikasuki Seminiole had once been one people, but Chakaika's band had migrated down the east coast of the Florida peninsula, while their own people had migrated down the west coast. They claimed that the two groups were not in contact until after Chakaika's death. Chakaika lived with two wives on a tree island that the Seminoles called yatcásáskî (hanging person).

In 1952, the Seminole identified a hammock in the Everglades to Sturtevant as Chakaika's island. The hammock, south of the Tamiami Trail in the Shark River slough, has been given the archaeological site identifier of 8DA69.

Sturtevant concludes several different Indian groups in Southwest florida in early 19th century: Seminoles, persons of mixed Indian and Spanish ancestry, Choctaws (probably), Calusa (probably), Spanish Indians (possibly Choctaw, Calusa, or Seminole). Seminole tradition of non-Seminoles ("Bad People", Yuchi, possible Koasati. Various Indians bands at first very loosely associated, later amalgamated into Seminoles. Possible Spanish Indians were Mikasuki speakers in Florida earlier than other predecessors of Seminoles, cloasely associated with Spanish.

Judge [William Marvin] blamed Chakaika for leading the attack on the settlements in the area of the Miami River in January 1836 and for an attack on Charlotte Harbor in April 1836 in which Henry Crews, customs collector for Charlotte Harbor, had been killed.

John, who said he had been captured by Chakaika when his master Henry Crews was killed in 1836, surrendered to the Army at [Fort Dallas] in early 1840. He reported that Chakaika was planning to attack Indian Key, but he was not deemed credible, and was held as a prisoner. Navy Lieutenant John McLaughlin, leader of a force of sailors and marines who had searched the Everglades for Indians, tried to have John released to him as a guide to Chakaika's island, but was refused by the Army. He later complained that if he had been allowed to use John as a guide, the attack on Indian Key might have been prevented. After the attack on Indian Key, Harney used John as a guide to Chakaika's island.

Chakaika's sister stated that three Spaniards had provided details about Indian Key to Chakaika.

Beleiving that his island's location deep in the Everglades was secure, Chakaika had not posted sentinels. Harney's force attacked at dawn, suprising the Indians. Chahaika and several other Indians were killed. Harney hung Chakaikas body, and hung captives beside his body.

Chakaika was large (tall?), said by one source to be the "biggest Indian in Florida".

Some Spanish Indians reported to have attended a great council meeting (Sam Jones, Hospetarke, and the Prophet) in the Big Cypress Swamp in April 1841.

Four bands in southwest Florida in May 1839; one led by Sam Jones with war chiefs Chitto Tustenuggee and Holata Mico (Billy Bowlegs), one led by Hospetarke with Passacka as war chief, one led by Otalke Thlocco (the Prophet), and the Spanish Indians led by Chakaika. Only Chitto Tustenuggee had met with General Macomb.

Chakaika and Chakaika and Spanish Indians had not taken part in war before attack on trading post. Hospetarke led attack on trading post on Caloosahatchee. They had not participated in the agreement for the reservation, and may not have felt bound by it.

Harney's men disquised as Indians, attacked Chakaika's island shortly after sunrise. No guards because Chakaika believed his islands was beyond the reach of the Army. Chakaika was chopping wood, started to run when attack started, then stopped, turned, and offered his hand to pursuing soldier, who shot him. Chakaika was "almost a giant". Chakaika's corpse hung beside two of his men who were hanged by Harney.

Chakaika's wife, mother, and sister captured. Four of Spanish Indians killed in battle and five more hanged. Though some men escaped, the band was wiped out.

[Wiley Thompson], agent at Fort King, wrote to [William Pope Duval] at the beginning of 1834 about a settlement of "negroes, Indians, and Spaniards", southeast of [Charlotte Harbor], "a lawless, motley crew".

John Winslett was a white attorney working for the Creek nation. Winslett was in Florida in 1833, tracking slaves who had escaped from Creek owners. He stated in an affidavit that he had been advised that it was unsafe to travel south of Tampa Bay in pursuit of runaway slaves because there were bands of "desperadoes, runaways, murderers, and thieves" between there and Charlotte Harbor, composed of Indians and Black, most of the latter being runaway slaves.

Wiley Thompson wrote in 1835 of unauthorized settlements of Blacks, Indians, and Spaniards in peninsular Florida, and stated that the Indians were descended from Seminoles. He also stated that there were "roving bands of Seminole Indians on and about the Everglades".

Many "Spanish Indians" working at Spanish fishing stations around from Jupiter Inlet south on the east coast and from Tampa Bay south on the west coast, and some had intermarried with Spaniards. [Augustus Steele] wrote to Wiley Thompson in 1835 concerning the legal status of those Spanish Indians. Steele declared that while the Indians and half-bloods were descended from Seminoles, they did not claim affiliation with the Seminoles, and were not claimed by the Seminoles. He also stated that they spoke Spanish, and that some had been baptised in Havana, and described them as "Spanish fishermen under the Spanish government", and "incapable of supporting themselves by ordinary Indian means".

Steele indicated in a letter to Thompson that the Seminoles did not claim the Spanish Indians as members becasue they did not want to share the annuities they received from the government.

Thompson's reply to Steele ruled that the Spanish Indians were bound by communication and family relationships to the Seminoles, and had to join the Seminoles on the reservation.

In 1838, 21 men who had been rounded up from Charlotte Harbor ranchos to be shipped to Indian Territory petitioned to be released on the grouds that they were Spanish, not Indians. Two of the men complained that their wives had been claimed by Holata Emathla as part of his band being sent to Indian Territory. Remaining Spanish Indians in Florida, under Chakaika, entered war against U.S. in 1839. Editor of St. Augustine Herald denied that there were Spanish Indians in 1839, saying that there were only Florida Indians who had not joined the war until then. In 1825, Seminole Indians at Charlotte Harber were reported to be either leaving for or returning from Havana, trading with the Cubans.

Per Sturtevant, a 20th century Mikasukee was named "Chakaikee". One of the Seminoles, presumed to have been a Mikasuki-speaker, involved in an [Second Seminole War#Kanapaha incident|incident] in 1835 that helped precipitate the Second Seminole War was named "Chokikee", possibly an alternate form of "Chakaika".

Neill collected a story from a Cow Creek Seminole informant, relating how a people called imá:la, who were big and ferocious, fought with the ko:ico:bî (Mikasuki for Florida panther, possibly meaning the Panther or Tiger clan of the Mikasuki). The imá:la were driven away. A few returned after the Seminole War and took refuge with the Mikasuki.

Neill notes that imá:la resembles "Emola", the name of a presumed Timucuan town given by [René Goulaine de Laudonnière].

Neill states it is possible that a few Calusa/Muspa remained in Florida after the Spanish left and amalgamated with the Seminoles.

Several man from Chakaika's band attended Mikasuki green corn dance in 1841. Botanist John C. Gifford found a village on the Shark River in 1904 that he thought were not typical Seminole, but perhaps a mixture of Calusa and Seminole.

The Spanish recorded visits to Havana of Indians from the "Tampa coast" in 1814, 1820, and 1824, including the names of the chiefs. Most of the names recorded for the chiefs appear to Muskogee, and the remaining names may also be Muscogee, if allowances are made for mistakes in transliteration and copying of the names by the Spanish.

Seminoles, Musgokee or Mikasuki-speaking, generally known by war titles, which are always Muscogee.

Until Sturtevant 1953, Spanish Indians generally considered to be Calusa. Romans 1775 said last of Calusas, 80 families, went to Havana in 1763, "driven off the continent" by Seminoles. [Jedidiah Morse] 1822 said Calusa were extinct.

No primary source identifies Spanish Indians as Calusa. Some Oklahoma Seminole claim Spanish ancestry. Spanish Indians were Mikasuki Seminoles settled around Charlotte Harbor, worked for and intermarried with Spanish Cuban fishermen, lived in palmetto thatched huts, raised food in mainland farms, traded with Havana, and were in communication with other Seminole bands, but did not enter Second Seminole War until it reached them.

Spamish Indians predominantly Seminole, maybe some Calusa, no contact with English-speakers, spoke Spanish, dealt only with Spanish-Cuban fishermen. Chekika's base almost due west of Miami in western Everglades. After raid on Indian Key, returned across Florida Bay to Chatham River or Marco River, but avoided going around Cape Sable/Fort Poinsett.

Calusa and others, with possible exception of "Spanish Indians", were gone by 1800. Whites in south Florida by 1820 referred only to Seminoles. Aboriginals left almost no place names south of Caloosahatchee River, and -hatchee is Muskogean.

[William Grafton Delaney Worthington], secretary and actiong governor of East Florida, reported to the U.S. secretary of state that several fishing smacks operated by Americans under Spanish license were fishing off Cape Sable for the Havana market, and that the Spaniards were suspected of maintaining close ties to Seminoles.

Indians in south Florida were believed to be buying guns and powder from Spanish fishermen.

[Thomas Lawson (military physician)|Thomas Lawson], then [Surgeon General of the United States Army], led an expedition along the southwest coast of Florida in 1838, looking for Indian settlements. He found cleared fields and abandoned village sites, but no Indians. He reported that, aside from islands along the coast, the inland country was uninhabitable. He established Fort Poinsett on Cape Sable.

Fishing stations on southwest coast still called "ranches" or "ranchos" in the mid-20th century.

24 surviving woemn and children from Chakaika's band sent to Indian Territory by 1841.

Scholarship split on "Spanish Indians" being Seminoles associated with Spanish Cuban fishing "ranchos" and Calusas, long associated with Spanish. 1838 petition by Spanish fishermen and sailors claimed that Indian and part-Indiand wives and children had "unjustly" removed, that they were an entirely seperate group that had intermarried with Spaniards for decades, and were not part of the Seminole nation. Spanish Indians were neither Seminole nor Calusas, but a creole community that emrged in the 18th and early 19th centuries Spanish Cuban fishermen and people predominantly descended from Muskogean-speaking people who were present in southwest Florida decades before the Seminoles.

Chakaika part of the Spanish Indians, baptized as Antonio, working in fishing and sailing to Cuba. His entry into the war was a response to the destruction of the Spanish rancho system by the US Army in 1836–1839. Spanish Indians mixed blood offspring of Spanish fishermen and early Muscogean and Yemassee immigrants to southwest Florida coast.

About 100 Spanish Indian warriors, in communication with the Spanish, and led by Chakaika, were said to be living in the southernmost part of Florida, and to have not entered the war until 1839. A letter sent to [William Worth] in 1841 identified Chakaika as "Antonio Nikeka", a former fisherman and sailor with the Spanish. Chakaika was described as more than 6 ft. tall and weighing more than 200 pounds. He might have had a Spanish father or grandfather. Hid mother, sister, and wife were captured.

Spanish fishing vessels from Cuba fishing on southwest Florida coast by 1680s with permission of Calusas. Most surviving Calusas evacuated to Florida Keys from 1704 to 1711 because of slace raids by Yemassee and Creek Indians.

By 1740s, Cuban fishermen employed guides and fishermen from remaining indigenous people in Keys. Continued raiding by Creeks pushed last Calusas and others to Key West. The last 60 Calusas in Key West were evacuated to Cuba in 1760. Creeks attacked Spanish fishing vewssels during Seven Year's War, including a Spanish ship from they seized passangers at Key West in 1762.

Spanish fishing along the Florida coast continued through the British period in Florida, 1763 until 1783, and the British had no effective control over the area. Emmisaries from the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy (whom the Spanish called the Province of Coweta, or the Uchise), are known to have travelled by fishing boat to Havana as early as 1766. In 1769 the British withdrew from the old Spanish fort at St. Marks, which was then seized by Tunape (who had been born in Coweta), chief of the Tallahassa Taloofa, a Muscogee Confederacy (and Muscogee speaking) town located at San Luis Talimali (Tallahassee). Tunape proposed an arrangement with the Spanish, in which his tribe would hold St. Marks and all of the Florida coast between St. Augustine and Pensacola against the British in exchange for trade with Cuba, including guns and powder. Tunape also tols the Spanish that another faction of the Muscogee Confederacy in Florida, the Cimarrones (i.e., [Ahaya#Seminole|Seminoles], who were primarily Hitchiti speaking), had sided with the British against the American revolutionaries. The Spanish began supplying arms to the Muscogee Tallahassee in 1779, after Spain entered the war against Britain. By the last quarter of the 18th century, the Muscogee-speaking towns in northern Florida and down the west ocast of Florida, which were affiliated with the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy, and the Hitchiti spealing towns of the interior of Florida, were going seperate ways. Traffic between the west coast of Florida and Cuba grew until hundreds of Indians were visiting Cuba every year, transported in fishing boats.

Spanish records include lists of names of Florida Indians that visited Cuba for most years between 1771 and 1823. The names can often be identified as Muscogee or Hitchiti in origin. The Cuban fishing fleet consisted of ten or twelve sailing vessels based in [Regla], across Havana Bay from downtown Havana. The fishing season along the Florioda coast was late fall and winter, October or November until February or March. The primary fishing area was the "Coast of Tampa", including "Port of Tampa" and "Port of Sanibel", i.e. Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor. Fishing also occurred in the Florida Keys and along the lower Atlantic coast of Florida. Mullet and other fish were salted. Vessels would return to Cuba in time for the Lenten season, when fish was in particular demand. In the off-season, the fishing vessels would carry salt from the salt pans at Cay Sal and [Hicacos Peninsula|Punta de Hicacos]. By the beginning of the 19th century, year-round fishing ranchos were established along the Florida coast between Tampa Bay and Estero Bay, and musch of the fishing community resided there year-round. José María Caldez claimed in 1833 that he had lived at his rancho on Useppa Island for 45 years.

Caldez also claimed to have visited Useppa Island since before the American Revolution. Spanish records show Caldez as the captain of vessels carrying Indians to Cuba starting in 1805. Some of the heads of fishing ranchos applied for land grants in 1828, based on their occupation of their ranchos since before the transfer of Florida to the US.

Baptismal records at a church in Regla between 1807 and 1827 include 20 children born to Spanish fathers and their Indian wives, 5 born to Indian women with no recorded father, and 3 with Indian parents.

William Whitehead, customs inspector in Key West, wrote in 1831 that the women at the fishing ranchos were all Indians, and that the color of their children's skins indicated that many were fathered by the Spaniards. William Bunce, who owned a fishing rancho in Tampa Bay, stated in 1838 that he had 10 Spaniards and 20 Spanish Indians working for him, and that most of the Spanish Indians had been born at the rancho, spoke Spanish, and "had never been in the country ten miles in their lives". He said that they work for the Cuban fishers from Auugust until March, cultivate small plots and fish in the off-season, but do not hunt. He also said that of the Spaniards working for had Indian wives, and several had children and grand-children. Many of theb Spanish Indians had wives from the [Seminole] Nation. Some Seminoles also worked during the season and and left during the off-season. Auugustus Steele stated that there were ranchos from Jupiter on the east coast around to Tampa Bay on the west coast. By early 19th century, Spanish Indians were a creole society, an ethnic and cultural blend of Creek and Spanish.

Some evidence of African presence. There are records of baptisms of two children of enlaved Africans owned by Caldez, and the baptism and manumission of the son of a free part-black and a part-black slave of Caldez, the letter described as a native of Useppa Island.

About 100 Spanish Indian warriors, in communication with the Spanish, and led by Chakaika, were said to be living in the southernmost part of Florida, and to have not entered the war until 1839. A letter sent to [William Worth] in 1841 identified Chakaika as "Antonio Nikeka", a former fisherman and sailor with the Spanish. Chakaika was described as more than 6 ft. tall and weighing more than 200 pounds. He might have had a Spanish father or grandfather. Hid mother, sister, and wife were captured.

Chakaika part of the Spanish Indians, baptized as Antonio, working in fishing and sailing to Cuba. His entry into the war was a response to the destruction of the Spanish rancho system by the US Army in 1836–1839. Spanish Indians mixed blood offspring of Spanish fishermen and early Muscogean and Yemassee immigrants to southwest Florida coast.