TAMPA, Fla. — A strategic barrier island at the mouth of Tampa Bay has a darker history of war unseen. Egmont Key was host to what historians call a concentration camp for the Seminole Indians of Florida.

What You Need To Know

  •  Seminole Indians of Florida survived three war and never signed a peace treaty with the U.S. government

  •  In the 1850s, soldiers held captured Seminoles in what historians call a concentration camp

  •  Egmont Key has shrunk by about half since a land survey in the 1870s, risking loss of history and habitat

  • Tribal members are organizing trips to the island for fellow Seminoles to learn about thier ancestor's survival 

The U.S. government launched three wars to remove Seminoles from Florida in the 1800’s. One before and two after the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

And in the 1850s, soldiers held Native American prisoners there, awaiting boats bound for New Orleans and west of the Mississippi River.  In 2017, the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation highlighted the plight of Egmont Key.

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we traveled to the Big Cypress Reservation we traveled to learn more about the Tampa Bay area’s place in Seminole history.

“Tribal members were probably murdered on the island because of the U.S. Government,” said Quenton Cypress, Community Engagement Manager for the Seminole Tribe of Florida Cypress is helping tell this story of Seminole survival on an island, that itself may not. Egmont has eroded to about half its size since the 1870s.

“We’re not gonna make any efforts to save the island, we want to save the history of the island," he said.

 Cypress says the goal now is to bring the tribe to the site.

“I think we have only some 80 tribal members to go out there,” said Cypress, “and as a tribe, we are 4,200 strong. And so we are hoping to get at least half of that number out there, or the majority of that number to get them educated.”

He wants to educate the public as well. To that end they’ve created a book that tells the story of Egmont Key.

“The more you don’t talk about history, the more it’s likely to repeat itself,” said Cypress.

And in the book, a story about a woman named Polly Parker, who changed the fate of her people.

“She is what saved a lot of our tribal members She is the reason we have a lot of tribal members.” 

Parker was forced onto a boat at Egmont key in 1858. But she escaped with a small group of women when the boat stopped at St. Marks near Tallahassee. It was under the guise of gathering medicinal plants. She gave a signal and everyone ran. 

“As they took off the soldiers opened fire on them, but of course back then, they just had to worry about one volley of shots and knew they could get away,” said Cypress.

The women would walk more than 300 miles home near Okeechobee. Polly Parker lived until 1921. A century later her remarkable survival story lives on at Big Cypress Reservation and beyond, as the island that once held her and her people, continues to diminish.

“We’re unconquered- we call ourselves the unconquered Seminoles,” said Cypress. “That story alone shows how unconquered we really are.”

In order to preserve as much history as possible, the Seminoles partnered with several departments at the University of South Florida to make a 3-D digital map of the island. 

There are also advocacy and support groups hoping for more restoration of Egmont—for historical and ecological reasons—the key holds a bird sanctuary (last but certainly not least). 

We’ll keep telling the story about Egmont’s future and everyone’s efforts.