History of Nokomis, Florida
Saturday, 30 June 2007 19:00
Welcome to Nokomis, Florida a small historic town with a population of 3,334 located between Sarasota and Venice near the Gulf of Mexico. Nokomis Beach is Sarasota County’s oldest public beach comprising 22 acres with 1,700 feet running alongside the Gulf of Mexico and 3,200 feet along the Intercoastal Waterway. This area is known for its stunning white sand beaches.
The history of Nokomis begins in 1868 with the Jessie and Rebecca Knight family, who came to homestead property in Nokomis. They brought 15 children in 8 covered wagons with 300 cows. They built a rough home and a thatched roof church/school building. There is a historic marker where the church stood, which was called Knight’s Chapel.
The community of Nokomis was named after the grandmother of Hiawatha, immortalized in Longfellow’s poem. Hiawatha who lived around 1550, was variously a leader of the Onondaga and Mohawk nations of Native Americans. Hiawatha was a follower of the Great Peacemaker, a prophet and spiritual leader who was credited as the founder of the Iroquois confederacy, (referred to as Haudenosaunee by the people). If the Great Peacemaker was the man of ideas, Hiawatha was the politician who actually put the plan into practice. Hiawatha was a skilled and charismatic orator, and was instrumental in persuading the Iroquois peoples, the Senecas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Mohawks, a group of Native Americans who shared similar languages, to accept the Great Peachmaker’s vision and band together to become the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. (Later, in 1721, the Tuscarora nation joined the Iroquois confederacy, and they became the Six Nations).
was credited as the founder of the Iroquois confederacy, (referred to as Haudenosaunee by the people). If the Great Peacemaker was the man of ideas, Hiawatha was the politician who actually put the plan into practice. Hiawatha was a skilled and charismatic orator, and was instrumental in persuading the Iroquois peoples, the Senecas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Mohawks, a group of Native Americans who shared similar languages, to accept the Great Peachmaker’s vision and band together to become the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. (Later, in 1721, the Tuscarora nation joined the Iroquois confederacy, and they became the Six Nations).
