This book gives a complete account of the Florida Seminoles from their entrance into the state almost 300 years ago, through the great chiefdoms of Micanopy, Osceola, and Billy Bowlegs, to the current political reality of democratic tribal elections. After moving into the peninsula from Georgia and Alabama, the Seminoles fought three wars against the Whites. By 1858, at the end of the final war, 90 percent of the tribe had been killed or forcibly removed to Oklahoma. Those who remained in the swampy grassland of south Florida comprised one of the last tribes in the country to retain cultural independence from Whites. With the drainage of the Everglades and extension of highways and railroads into the area, the land the Indians lived on without legal title became prime real estate, and the Seminoles were evicted by the new White owners. Education of the Seminoles was characterized by initial resistance in the 1920s, poor conditions, great distances for students to travel, and high teacher turnover. The book describes the beginning of Seminole relocation to reservations; their participation in World War II; the inroads of Christianity in the 1940s; and changes in tribal education, government, and agriculture and business ventures in recent decades. The book contains maps, photographs, drawings, the complete 1913 census, lists of government agents and tribal leaders, an index, and an extensive bibliography. (KS)