The Seminole's are such a fixture of modern South Florida that it is easy to forget that several times their existence was quite precarious.

Of course the first instance was during the decades-long Seminole Wars. At the end of those conflicts, in the 1850s, the number of Seminoles remaining in Florida numbered in the low hundreds.

But almost one hundred years later, in 1953, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution proposing termination of Seminole Tribe as a recognized governing unit. In 1957, the Seminoles were able to gain federal status as the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

In 1962, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida secured similar federal recognition.