Coacoochee's Bones: A Seminole Saga (review)

Coacoochee's Bones is a significant work on several levels. First, it is an ethnohistory of the Seminole people by way of a biography of one of the most prominent and ultimately heroic Seminole leaders and thus marks an important departure from the usual formula for Native nation histories. The book also has a great deal to say about colonialism in general, American expansionism in particular, and Seminole resilience and resistance to the assault on their existence as a people. Ultimately, colonialism is a trespass on an indigenous people's territoriality, ceremonial cycle, language (colloquial and liturgical), and sacred history, because all of these aspects of being a people are interlocked and inseparable. The intent of colonial rule is the disappearance of distinct indigenous peoples either through assimilation and cultural destruction or by genocide. Historically, many colonizers saw the assimilation of indigenous groups as the most desirable method of clearing the way for further expansion and colonial exploitation of natural resources. But even in the most benign colonial situations where assimilation is the goal, colonialism deprives the colonized of the ability to experience change on their own terms. The Seminoles resisted this deprivation of experience and Susan Miller demonstrates that Coacoochee was compelled for numerous cultural and political reasons to lead Seminole resistance even to the point of seeking a new homeland outside the boundaries of the United States.

Seminole resistance is most evident, as Miller's work indicates, in statehood, governance, and leadership. An old political science jingle, "war makes states and states make war" is an appropriate phrase to apply to Seminole political development since the European invasion. R. Brian Ferguson and Neil L. Whitehead's collection of essays entitled War in the Tribal Zone correctly points out that expanding, intrusive states tend to raise violence above a certain level, militarize indigenous peoples, and, as a result of the intensification of war, create entirely new political groups. In a number of cases, very important Native groups formed where they were not present at the time the colonial state trespassed on Native soil.

Miller's detailed history indicates that the people that became the Seminoles followed this pattern almost exactly. First, as a result of the intensification of warfare, the Seminole italwas, or tribal towns, separated from the larger Muscogee confederation of tribes. The Seminoles then were subjected to even more intense violence and, in turn, became a highly militarized society. At that point the Seminoles, which had hitherto been organized at the base level of the tribal town, began to form a larger Seminole nation-state to resist further white encroachment. Coacoochee emerged as a military leader and then advanced, as a result of his clan connections and lineage as well as his own abilities, to national leadership. The second Seminole war and the removal of those Seminoles captured to the Indian Territory, where ostensibly they were to fall under the Muscogee government, broke up the Seminole chieftaincy-state. Coacoochee and his followers fled to Texas and then to Mexico, where the Seminoles entered into protectorate status for a time. After Coacoochee's death, the remnant Seminoles returned to the Indian Territory and were once again caught up in the holocaust of the American Civil War.

The final chapter of Coacoochee's Bones is essentially an appraisal of the history of the Seminole people since the Civil War. Miller's assessment of the last 150 years of Seminole history contends that colonization did not end; it merely entered a new phase. Like the other Native republics of the Indian Territory, the Seminole Nation's lands were allotted, and the attempt was made to dissolve the Seminole state. Once again, outside forces have embroiled the Seminole people in political turmoil.

Miller's book is an exceptionally fine example of meticulous research and a shows a unique understanding of Seminole culture change through time. At the same time, Miller is a solid writer with a keen sense of where to place pertinent questions and how to absorb the reader in the...