# Micanopy > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Micanopy > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Micanopy.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micanopy > Source revision: 1356823877 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Seminole chief}} {{for|the town|Micanopy, Florida}} [[Image:Micancopy.jpg|frame|right|Micanopy by [Charles Bird King](/source/Charles_Bird_King), 1825 painting]] '''Micanopy''' (c. 1780 – December 1848 or January 1849),{{cite book|author=Kevin Mulroy|title=Freedom on the Border: The Seminole Maroons in Florida, the Indian Territory, Coahuila, and Texas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBnQTogPOfsC&pg=PA47|date=September 2003|publisher=Texas Tech University Press|isbn=978-0-89672-516-4|pages=47}}{{cite book|author=Edwin C. McReynolds|title=The Seminoles|url=https://archive.org/details/seminoles00mcre|url-access=registration|year=1957|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-1255-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/seminoles00mcre/page/260 260]}} also known as '''Mick-e-no-páh''', '''Micco-Nuppe''', '''Michenopah''', '''Miccanopa''', and '''Mico-an-opa''', and '''Sint-chakkee''' ("pond frequenter", as he was known before being selected as chief),{{cite book|last=Simpson|first=J. Clarence|editor=Mark F. Boyd|title=Florida Place-Names of Indian Derivation|publisher=Florida Geological Survey|year=1956|location=Tallahassee, Florida}} was the leading [chief](/source/Tribal_chief) of the Seminole during the [Second Seminole War](/source/Second_Seminole_War). ==Biography== His name was derived from the [Hitchiti](/source/Hitchiti) terms ''miko'' (chief) and ''naba'' (above), consequently meaning "high chief" or the like. Micanopy was also known as ''Hulbutta Hajo'', (or "Crazy Alligator"). Little is known of his early life other than that Micanopy was born near present-day [St. Augustine, Florida](/source/St._Augustine%2C_Florida), sometime around 1780. He succeeded [Bolek](/source/Bolek) as hereditary principal chief of the [Seminole](/source/Seminole) following the latter's death in 1819. The people had a [matrilineal kinship](/source/matrilineal_kinship) system: property and position were passed through the maternal line. Nearly 40 years old when he became chief, Micanopy soon began acquiring large amounts of land and cattle. As was common practice among elite Seminole, he hired more than 100 fugitive slaves{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} to work his estates during the early nineteenth century. He encouraged intermarriage between the Seminole and blacks. This had been the Seminole tradition since they considered blacks to be human equals, unlike the view of whites at the time. Some of their mixed-race descendants gained influence as an elite among tribal councils (including several war chiefs).{{Cite book|title= Osceola and the Great Seminole War|last=Hatch|first=Thom|publisher=St. Martin’s Press|year=2012|location=New York|pages=30–35}} thumb|left|Map of Florida {{circa|1823}} showing Micanopy's town at the Alachua Savanna (David Rumsey 2589.037) Following the American purchase of Florida from [Spain](/source/Spain) in 1819 through the [Adams–Onís Treaty](/source/Adams%E2%80%93On%C3%ADs_Treaty) and the subsequent appointment of [Andrew Jackson](/source/Andrew_Jackson) as territorial governor in 1821, large numbers of American settlers began colonizing northern Florida during the next decade. Micanopy opposed further American settlement of the region. As conflicts arose more frequently between the Seminole and settlers, the Seminole were driven away from the Florida coast and into the extensive wetlands of the interior. By the [Treaty of Moultrie Creek](/source/Treaty_of_Moultrie_Creek) in 1823, the Americans seized 24 million acres of Seminole land in northern Florida. The Seminoles moved to central and southern territory.{{Cite book|title= Osceola and the Great Seminole War|last=Hatch|first=Thom|publisher=St. Martin’s Press|year=2012|location=New York|pages=184}} Enslavers from Florida and neighboring states demanded that the Seminole capture and return formerly enslaved people who had taken refuge with them. American development of large [cotton plantations](/source/plantations_in_the_American_South) in Florida resulted in planters enslaving more people as workers, and some continued to escape the harsh regime. Pressure continued against the tribe, and Americans pressed for removal following the passage of the [Indian Removal Act](/source/Indian_Removal_Act) in 1830. A group of Seminole chiefs eventually agreed to the [Treaty of Payne's Landing](/source/Treaty_of_Payne's_Landing) in 1832; on May 9, 1832, they ceded more Seminole lands in exchange for a reservation in the [Indian Territory](/source/Indian_Territory) (present-day Oklahoma). While working to negotiate a peaceful resolution between the Seminole and local authorities, Micanopy refused to sign the treaty. He joined younger chiefs, such as [Osceola](/source/Osceola), [Alligator](/source/Alligator_(Seminole)), and [Wild Cat](/source/Wild_Cat_(Seminole)) (a nephew of his), in opposing the treaty. They began to organize resistance among the Seminole warriors. Following Osceola's murder of US Indian agent General [Wiley Thompson](/source/Wiley_Thompson), in December 1835, Micanopy (with Osceola) attacked US forces under Major [Francis Langhorne Dade](/source/Francis_Langhorne_Dade) and General [Duncan Lamont Clinch](/source/Duncan_Lamont_Clinch). Only three soldiers survived what the Americans called [Dade's Massacre](/source/Dade's_Massacre). Settlers made repeated demands for US military action against the Seminole, and the Second Seminole War began. [[File:George Catlin - Mick-e-no-páh, Chief of the Tribe - 1985.66.300 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|thumb|408x408px|'''Mick-e-no-pah''' Chief of the Tribe by [George Catlin](/source/George_Catlin) 1838 painting]] The Seminole had early success, but the elderly Micanopy became convinced of the futility of war as he realized the large number of American soldiers who could be sent against the Seminole. He surrendered in June 1837 and began negotiating to move his tribe to the Indian Territory, but Osceola kidnapped him. In December 1838, Micanopy was captured by General [Thomas S. Jesup](/source/Thomas_S._Jesup)'s forces under a flag of truce when he had already agreed to sign a peace treaty. This breach of honor by the United States was outrageous to much of the public, increasing their sympathy toward the Seminole. Imprisoned at [Charlestown, South Carolina](/source/Charlestown%2C_South_Carolina), Micanopy was eventually released and sent with around 200 other Seminoles to Indian Territory. Although the people had long been independent, they were initially under [Creek Nation](/source/Creek_Nation) authority. Although Micanopy attempted to reestablish the Seminole as independent, he never regained his previous power. In 1845, he was one of the signatories of a treaty with the US, which gave the Seminole of western Florida semi-independence from the [Creek Nation](/source/Creek_Nation) in Indian Territory. The treaty provided for complete Seminole independence in 1855. Micanopy died at [Fort Gibson](/source/Fort_Gibson) on January 2, 1849. As the Seminole had a [matrilineal kinship](/source/matrilineal_kinship) system, his sister's son, Jim Jumper, succeeded Micanopy as principal chief. The Seminole gradually reestablished their ''italwa'' and traditional organizations in Indian Territory. Jim Jumper was succeeded after his death four years later by his brother, [John Jumper](/source/John_Jumper_(Seminole_chief)), who led the tribe until after the American Civil War. At that time, the United States required tribes that supported the Confederacy to make new treaties, providing for the emancipation of all enslaved people and granting those who wanted to stay with the Seminole equal rights as citizens. ==Legacy and honors== European Americans named [Micanopy, Florida](/source/Micanopy%2C_Florida) after the chief.{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=C7hPAAAAIBAJ&pg=2347%2C3456475 | title=Indian heritage runs deep throughout Central Florida | work=Ocala Star-Banner | date=Feb 21, 1988 | accessdate=6 June 2015 | author=Frisaro, Freida Ratliff | pages=63}} It was founded at the site of the chief's capital town, ''Cuscowilla.'' ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * Johansen, Bruce E. and Donald A. Grinde, Jr., ''The Encyclopedia of Native American Biography'', New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997. * Markowitz, Harvey., ed., ''Magill's Choice American Indian Biographies'', California: Salem Press Inc., 1999. * [https://books.google.com/books?id=3JH-TPFjLk4C&pg=PA454 Sattler, Richard A. "The Seminole in the West", ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast''], Vol. 14, ed. William Sturtevant, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004 ==External links== * {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Micconopy|year=1900 |short=x |notaref=x}} {{s-start}} {{succession box| before=[Bolek](/source/Bolek)| title=[Leading chief of the Seminoles](/source/Leading_chief_of_the_Seminoles)| after=?| years=1819–1849}} {{s-end}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Micanopy}} Category:1780s births Category:1840s deaths Category:People from St. Johns County, Florida Category:Pre-statehood history of Florida Category:Chiefs of the Seminole Category:18th-century Seminole people Category:18th-century Native American leaders Category:19th-century Seminole people Category:Native Americans of the Seminole Wars Category:Native American slave owners Category:Slave owners from Florida --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Micanopy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micanopy) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micanopy?action=history)). 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