Great Leader: Abiaka of the Miccosuke-Seminole

I'm never a fan of theme weeks on blogs, but I'm out of town for the next two weeks, so there's a first time for everything.  We've often focused on secular leaders and warriors of tribes but there's another vital component of tribal leadership.  Natives are democratic but also intensely spiritual.  Not only did the women of the tribe need to be on board during a war effort, so did the spiritual leaders, sometimes called medicine men, shamans or medicine chiefs.  These men made sure the omens were favorable for battles, but they also provided spiritual shepherding, humanitarian aid, medical care and served as guardians of their culture.  One man who embodied all these qualities was Abiaka, sometimes called Sam Jones (1760-1866).  No, that's not a misprint.  He lived a very long, adventurous life.


Abiaka was born in a village in Georgia from where he took his name.  Though he's most often thought of as a Seminole leader, he was actually Miccosuke, a closely-related Muscogean people who were also displaced in the aftermath of the First Seminole War.  He settled first in Tennessee, where his only surviving daughter Rebecca was born in 1817, then he and his wife settled their family in Florida, where his services as a healer and medicine man were much in demand.  Like many other Seminole and Miccosukee leaders, he was forced to sign his assent to the Treaties of Payne's Landing and Fort Gibson, but he disavowed them and refused to sign another treaty with the White men.

Spiritual leaders almost always worked in concert with leading war leaders, who looked to them for guidance and morale.  Osceola quickly formed a bond with the older man, so much so that they are sometimes mentioned in the same phrase.  See the Seminole Tribe's website for just one example.  Another case in point was during the launch of the Mars Rovers in 2005, where one of the machines examined an outcrop of Martian landscape named Seminole, with two lookout points, Osceola and Abiaka respectively.  While Osceola, Coacochee and other warriors led their men in strikes against the Whites, it was Abiaka who guarded the home front, moving the women and children deeper into hiding. 

Like many spiritual leaders, he could also serve on the front lines when needed.  He led the Seminole and Miccosuke forces at the Battle of Okeechobee in 1837, weeks after Osceola's capture.  He led his people again at the Battle of Jupiter Inlet (1838) and Pine Island Ridge (1838), and he was one of the cadre of Native leaders still in Florida in 1842 when the US finally gave up trying to displace the Seminoles. 

He would take a behind he scenes role again during the Third Seminole War (1856-58), fading deeper into the big Cypress Swamp with less than 200 of his people.  He died in his homeland, a rare accomplishment for a Native leader in those days, over 100 years old.  A statue showing Abiaka surrounded by the symbols of the Seminole clans stands at Big Cypress Reservation.