Selina Iglesias: Greene Publishing, Inc.
Miccosukee Native American chief, John Hicks, also known as Tuckose Emathla, was a prominent Indian leader during the First and Second Seminole Wars, from 1818-1835.
Following the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain, slave owners from America came to Florida in search of runaway African-American slaves and Native Americans. These Native Americans, known as the Seminoles, and the slaves traded weapons with the British throughout the early 1800's and supported Britain during the War of 1812.
From 1817 to 1818, America invaded Spanish Florida and fought against the Seminoles and African Americans. These battles became known as the First Seminole War.
John Hicks, also known as Tuckose Emathla, was a prominent Native American leader in the First and Second Seminole Wars, from 1818-1835 and established Hickstown in Madison County in 1818.
In the Second Seminole War, Northern settlers invaded Tallahassee, a Seminole settlement and clashed with the Native Americans often. In an effort to resolve the conflicts, the government asked the Native Americans to move, but they refused. In 1823, the governor offered the Seminoles a treaty, which was called the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. This treaty required the Seminoles to give up their land and move south. It also made them agree to discontinue hiding runaway slaves. The Seminoles were given four million acres of land in the area south of present-day Ocala.
This area was called a reservation. This reservation, however, did not suit the needs of the Seminoles. Their former home in Tallahassee, became the new capital of the territory.
In 1829, Andrew Jackson became President of the United States. He worked to have the Indian Removal Act passed by Congress. It became a law in 1830. The purpose of this act was to move all of the Native Americans west of the Mississippi River. The Seminoles did not want to leave their Florida home, but agreed to send some chiefs to look at their new location.
While they were viewing the proposed land, the chiefs were persuaded to sign a treaty agreeing to move. When they returned back to Florida, however, they claimed they had been tricked. They refused to leave.
It is believed that after that, Jackson destroyed the Miccosukee towns to the west of Madison. In the 1818 campaign against the Seminoles, Hicks relocated his village near U.S. 90.
This village, Hickstown, was evacuated by the Native Americans by 1826, as Seminoles were removed to a central Florida reservation.
Hicks died in the winter of 1833-1834 after a decade as a major spokesman for his people in treaty councils in which important decisions about the future of the Seminoles were made. White settlers occupied the site in the late 1820's, and in 1830, the Hickstown Post Office was established.
By the late 1830's, the village had disappeared as a center of population due to the Second Seminole War and the creation of an official Madison County seat at San Pedro.