t Indian Territory, gradually reduced in area by
the successive formation of States and Territories. The Seminoles of
Florida naturally objected to removal from the land of their ancestors to
a far-distant region, and under the leadership of a brave and skillful
chief named Osceola they resisted the troops sent to coerce them into
obedience. The most memorable event of the war was the massacre of Major
Dade and about one hundred soldiers in an ambuscade, December 28, 1835.
On the same day Osceola with a small party of followers killed and
scalped General Wiley Thomson, of the United States army and five of
Thomson's friends. Before the opening of hostilities Thomson had put
Osceola in irons on account of his refractory attitude, and the Indian
chief long planned the act of vengeance which he thus signally executed.
The war lasted almost seven years, and was attended with a distressing
loss of life and property. Not less than 9000 United States troops were
in the Seminole territory in the latter part of 1837, and while the
Indians were more than once severely chastised when brought to an
engagement, it was almost impossible to pursue them in their native
everglades. Osceola was taken prisoner when in conference, under a flag
of truce, with General Jesup, of the United States army, but the
Seminoles maintained the struggle under other leaders, and it was not
until 1842 that peace was established, and the Indians driven to
surrender. Osceola did not live to see the defeat of the cause for which
he had fought so resolutely. He died of fever at Fort Moultrie on the
last day of 1839.

* * *

The Black Hawk War in the Northwest was, as usual with Indian wars, a
struggle on the part of the red men to retain the lands of their fathers.
Black Hawk was a noted chief of the Sacs and Foxes, and he claimed that
the original treaty by which his tribe sold all their lands in Illinois
to the United States was made by only four chiefs, and that they were
drunk when they signed it. Assuming this charge to be true it remains
that the provisions of the first treaty were confirmed by two subsequent
treaties, the last in 1830, when the principal chief, Keokuk, made the
final cession to the United States of all the country owned by the Sacs
and Foxes east of the Mississippi River. This was done without the
knowledge of Black Hawk, whose indignation was greatly aroused upon
hearing of the negotiation.