Chakaika

Chakaika's Spanish Indians enter war

Colonel Harney, who had been surprised and humiliated by Chakaika's band in the Battle of Caloosahatchee, organized an expedition in December 1840 into the Everglades in search of Chakaika. He was guided by John, a former slave who said he had been captured by Chakaika when his master Henry Crews was killed in 1836 at Charlotte Harbor. John had surrendered to the Army at Fort Dallas in early 1840. He reported that Chakaika was planning to attack Indian Key, but he was not deemed credible, and was held as a prisoner. Navy Lieutenant John McLaughlin, leader of a force of sailors and marines who had searched the Everglades for Indians, tried to have John released to him as a guide to Chakaika's island, but was refused by the Army. He later complained that if he had been allowed to use John as a guide, the attack on Indian Key might have been prevented.