Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation of the

Seminole Tribe of Florida The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a federally recognized Seminole tribe based in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, it is one of three federally recognized ...

, located in northeast Glades County near the northwest shore of

Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee (), also known as Florida's Inland Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the tenth largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest natural freshwa ...

. It is one of six reservations held in trust by the federal government for this tribe. The reservation has a land area of approximately 146 square kilometers or 36,000 acres and a 2000 census resident population of 566 persons. Some residents of the reservation speak the Muscogee language (or Creek), which is different from the

Mikasuki language The Mikasuki, Hitchiti-Mikasuki, or Hitchiti language is a language or a pair of dialects or closely related languages that belong to the Muskogean languages family. Mikasuki was spoken by around 290 people in southern Florida. Along with the C ...

of other Seminoles and the

Miccosukee The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. They were part of the Seminole nation until the mid-20th century, when they organized as an independent tribe, receiving f ...

tribe. Fewer than 200 people on the reservation speak Muscogee, which is the largest number of speakers in Florida and outside of Oklahoma. Filter search with ''mus'' in ISO 639-3 code box. The Muscogee language is considered "definitely endangered" by UNESCO. The Florida guide referred to a "Seminole Village" in 1939, south of the town of Brighton, on a 35,660-acre reservation: To serve the Seminole cattle business, "The Red Barn" was built in 1941 with help from the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

Hurricane Wilma Hurricane Wilma was an extremely intense and destructive Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense storm of its kind and the second-most intense tropical cyclone recorded in the Western Hemisphere, after Hurricane Patricia in 2015. Part o ...

damaged the roof, which was replaced in 2005. The Seminole Tribe of Florida operates the Brighton Seminole Casino here, a 27,000-square-foot casino with 375-slot and gaming machines, a seven-table poker room, and high-stake bingo seats, with full-service restaurant and lounge. The reservation also is used for part of the tribe's cattle operations, the 12th-largest in the country.

Other reservations

The other five

reservations are: * Big Cypress Reservation, the largest territory, including 81.972 sq mi (212.306 km), in Broward and Hendry CountiesPritzker 392 * Hollywood Reservation (formerly called the Dania Reservation), acres,Daniel Chang, "Seminole Tribe to Close Park Near Hollywood"
''Miami Herald'', 14 September 2012 Broward County * Immokalee Reservation,

Collier County Collier County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 375,752; an increase of 16.9% since the 2010 United States Census. Its county seat is East Naples, where the county offices were moved from Ev ...

* Fort Pierce Reservation, a site in St. Lucie County, taken into trust for the tribe in 1995 by the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

* Tampa Reservation, located in Hillsborough County

Notes

References

*Mahon, John K.; Brent R. Weisman (1996). "Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee Peoples". In Gannon, Michael (Ed.). ''The New History of Florida'', pp. 183–206. University Press of Florida. . * Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. .

External links

Seminole Tribe of Florida
official website
Brighton Reservation, Florida
United States Census Bureau
Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation Cemetery
Glades County, Florida, US GenWeb __NOTOC__ {{authority control Seminole tribe American Indian reservations in Florida Geography of Glades County, Florida Unincorporated communities in Glades County, Florida Unincorporated communities in Florida Seminole Tribe of Florida