degree was that of the Muskogee, or Creek tribe. Both Semi-
noles and Creeks belong to the Muskhogean language group, as
do the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The residence of the Semi-
noles apart in Spanish Florida, however, and the gradual devel-
opment of interests that were not only distinct, but in some cases
positively hostile to those of the Creek Indians, render separate
treatment of the two tribes a necessity. In recent years the best
of the writers on the Creek tribe have not regarded the two as a
unit; and the determination of the Seminoles to establish a sepa-
rate tribal government was so strong that it defeated the plan
of the United States Indian Office to unite them with their rela-
tives in a single organization.

Relations of the Seminole tribe with the United States were
similar in many respects to the relations of other tribes removed
from eastern states to the territory of Louisiana. At the time of
removal, the Seminoles as a people understood less than the
other Civilized Tribes about the mysterious purposes and meth-
ods of white men. John Ross of the Cherokees was a man ac-
quainted with the processes of Georgia politics, and he knew
also important facts concerned with the business of buying and
selling cotton and other chattels, and highly significant principles
involved in the value of farm land, such as the effect of popula-
tion growth upon the demand for real estate. Coacoochee of the
Seminoles, who lived in the same period with Ross, was familiar
with the process of losing hostile white soldiers in the swamps,
and the effect of a night attack upon a sleeping enemy camp.
John Ross possessed qualities that would have made him a great
military leader if his tribe had been engaged in war, and very
possibly Coacoochee had personal traits that would have made
him useful in the conduct of business. Both men were able dip-
lomats and popular leaders who commanded the respect of their
people--but in widely different fashions.

Starting late in its struggle for adjustment to the laws and
customs of white people, the little Seminole tribe has not pro-
duced so many eminent men and women in politics, law, medi-
cine, or education as the number credited to the Cherokee, Choc-
taw, Chickasaw, or Creek tribes. Perhaps no group of three thou-

-viii-