The Florida Tribe of Cherokee Indians represents the present day assemblage of Florida’s Cherokee peoples – many of whom come are descended from Cherokees who fled oppression and forced removal by the United States government.  For many Cherokee, Florida was a safe haven and offered the promise of a new start on life.  However, the state was not without its dangers.  The Jim Crow laws of the day, as well as other laws of similar ilk, made it a crime, punishable by even death, to simply be an American Indian living in Florida.  For this reason, many Cherokee families chose to hide their culture until a new era could be born where Cherokees could be free to speak their own language and openly practice their traditional customs.

From 1690 to 1740, the Cherokee suffered the “Great Death” where half of the tribe died due to war and disease brought by the European invaders.  Much of the culture died off during this time.  Those that survived had to take up trade with the Europeans in order to survive and acquire goods.  Deer hides became the currency of the day as Cherokees were forced to assimilate into the invading European culture. 

At one time, the 1716 Fur Trade Exchange Rates for Charleston, South Carolina reflect that  a single deer hide allowed a Cherokee trapper to obtain a knife, a box of 30 bullets, scissors, 12 flints, a steel to strike the flint, or two strings of beads.  If a Cherokee trapper wanted a shirt, an axe, or a broad hoe then he would have to bring in five deer hides.  A calico petticoat for his wife would cost 14 deer hides.  A pistol was worth 20 deer hides and a rifle was worth 35 deer hides.  Thus, in short time, deer herds in America was decimated by the fur trade and poor exchange rates that the Europeans imposed on the Cherokee.  As game became scarce, the Cherokee had to venture out further and further to get the valuable deer skins needed to exist in this new and alien culture.  For many, Florida was a source of valuable pelts.  Finding fairer trade in Florida, some Cherokees chose to move to Florida to make new lives for themselves and their families.

Over time, Cherokees were able to sell goods and such and took up commerce.  Due to the deist movement of the day, many Cherokee were allowed to go to White schools and colleges.  It was not uncommon for the best boatwrights, carpenters, masons, and lawyers of the day to be Cherokee.  Some even chose to work for the government as soldiers.  Later, when Jackson came along, scores of Cherokee were employed as both enlisted men and as officers in the military.  Unfortunately, Jackson had a nasty habit of trying to kill men that disagreed with him.  So, many Cherokees had to flee the service and come into Florida for safe haven.

Over the years, it had become common knowledge among many of the Cherokee that they could safely enter Florida, by way of the Apalachicola River, and travel along two well known paths.  These paths are now known today as the US Highway 90 and I-75 corridors.  At this time, Florida was divided up into two sections – East and West Florida.  East Florida was mostly owned by wealthy plantation owners from Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas.  West Florida was mostly inhabited by poor people who were down on their luck and needed a new break on life.  For West Florida, logging was the industry of choice.  So, when entering into Florida, Cherokees had a choice of either working on plantations as sharecroppers or working in the rather lawless logging industry hoping to make one’s fortune.  Whatever the choice, along these paths, immigrant Cherokee cities sprung up.  In West Florida, sufficient numbers of Cherokee pioneers made it necessary for Escambia County to cede over all lands east of the Escambia River.  These lands presently make up Santa Rosa County and a portion of Okaloosa County.  The leader of this cession party was a Cherokee by the name of William Johnson.  Johnson was an immigrant to the area that was taken in by well off Cherokee families that had come to the area earlier.  Over time, he owned multiple mills, ferries, and even a toll bridge and pottery kiln.  The parcel of land for the first courthouse for Santa Rosa County was donated by Johnson as a gift to the people.  Many of the Cherokee citizens, in the Florida Tribe of Cherokee Indians, are direct descendants of William Johnson – including our Principal Chief.  As for the area, Santa Rosa was given its name because of the sacred, pink roses that grew along the Blackwater River.  Already know for being a mill town, the county seat of Santa Rosa was named Milton. 

In the 1930s, a tribe of Cherokees was found living in Bay Springs, Florida in present day Escambia County.  The discoverer of this lost tribe was a traveling nurse by the last name of Greenwell.  The discovery caused such a stir that the Pensacola News Journal’s archives show where a Mr. Ashcroft wrote a piece about it.  In the article, both Nurse Greenwell  and members of the lost tribe were interviewed.  One elderly lady was quoted as remembering her life as a camp-like existence – quite unlike what the Cherokees were depicted as living like.  She said that bows and arrows and such had already been abandoned years before she was ever born.  She recounted how her brother and father owned a grist mill.  In the article, it also talked about how the people still spoke Cherokee and how a one HawkFeather was having to leave the area to find a better living.  Records of the neighboring cemetery reflect how earthen vessels were placed on the graves with strange non-English writing on them.  It is believed by many that these were Cherokee monuments – reflective of a changed culture trying to marry the customs of old and the customs of the day.  Sadly, no pottery, or pictures of such, exist to verify this contention.  However, there are citizens today who claim direct ties to this lost tribe of Cherokees.

At one time, the State of Florida recognized tribes of American Indians at the state level.  Though the state only recognized Creek peoples, the change in political climate nevertheless caused many Cherokee to come out of hiding.  These Cherokee banded together in order to petition the state to start recognizing tribes other than Creeks.  However, in 2001, Governor Bush signed legislation that abolished the state recognition laws of Florida.  Thousands upon thousands of Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and other Native American peoples were hurt by this change in the law.  We no longer had protection of our burial sites, our artists could no longer call our artwork “American Indian Made,” our children lost out on financial aid for college, etc.  Most importantly, the tribes lost the ability to directly communicate with the state government about issues that were affecting American Indian peoples in the state. 

The instability of the state’s support of Native American peoples caused weaker tribes to fall away and merge into stronger tribes.  In areas where no strong tribe existed, entirely new tribes were formed.

The Florida Tribe of Cherokee Indians is only one of many non-federal treaty tribes of Cherokee operating in the State of Florida.  According to the Florida Governor’s Council on Indian Affairs, there are over 580 non-recognized tribes, bands, and clans operating in the State of Florida.  According the US Census Bureau, Florida is one of only 11 states that hold over 65% of the Native American population for the United States.  Survey results, from a survey of American Indian peoples in Florida, polled by the State Department of Health, indicates that 17% of the respondents came from Santa Rosa County.  The EscaRosa Workforce Region, as a whole, constituted 25.5% of all the Native American responses to the survey.  Sadly, according to TEAM Santa Rosa, Inc., in areas where American Indian populations are the greatest, the average income is under $20 thousand per year.  Many of these people, according to TEAM Santa Rosa, Inc. hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.  The cost of living is actually higher than in New York.

We are a people who face daunting challenges and who possess enormous potential.  We claim a proud legacy that binds our people to the environment as well as the arts, the language, and the culture of our Cherokee heritage.   Through our non-profit charitable arm, the Florida Tribe of Cherokee Indians, Inc., we are able to do great good in providing job placement assistance, displaced/homeless assistance, language conservation, environmental conservation, ethnobotanical conservation, and other worthy deeds.  If you can, please consider donating to the charity so that it may continue to help Florida’s most valuable natural resource – its Native American population.