Learn about Florida’s astounding Second Seminole War. Few people know it was the longest and costliest Indian war in the history of the United States. The story begins with groups of indigenous people from Alabama and Georgia relocating to colonial Florida in the 18th century. Eventually the newcomers collectively were known as the Seminoles. After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, White settlers insisted that the Seminoles be moved onto a reservation south of what is now Ocala. When the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, the U.S. sought to forcefully remove the Seminoles from Florida. The Seminole people had two choices: relocation from their rightful lands or armed resistance. War broke out and there were brutal massacres on both sides. The U.S. government perpetrated fierce aggression, trickery, bribery, and unethical warfare tactics including the capture of Seminole War leader Osceola under a white flag of truce. The campaigns of four U.S. Army generals all failed to force the Seminoles to surrender. Finally, in 1842, Colonel William Jenkins Worth declared the Second Seminole War to be over even though there was no peace treaty or surrender agreement. The result was that most of the Seminoles were forced out of Florida to a reservation in present-day Oklahoma; only about 300 remained in Florida.