The Seminole Nation in the State of Oklahoma is the largest of the three recognized Seminole governments in the United States. Its people are descendants of the 3,000 Seminoles who were forcibly removed from Florida in the middle 1800s after the three Seminole Wars. They were among nearly 60,000 Native Americans from five tribes in southeastern states who were forced to walk the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma in 1858, and an estimated 12,000 died along the way. In Oklahoma, the first tribal leader was Chief Micanopy, the principal chief who led the Seminole struggle to gain an independent reservation for the tribe after the forced move from Florida to the Oklahoma Territory. The federal government initially placed the Seminoles under the Creek Indian Territory, and Micanopy was chief from 1825 until his death in 1849. As they had in Florida, the Seminoles strongly discouraged intermarriage with whites or adoption of European-American ways, which the federal government had expected. In modern times, there are nearly 19,000 enrolled tribal members, with nearly 14,000 living within the State of Oklahoma. Today the tribal jurisdiction covers Seminole County, and the tribe is headquartered in the town of Wewoka.