Abiaka, also known as Sam Jones,[1] (c. 1781 – c. 1866) was a Seminole-Miccosukee chief, warrior, and shaman who fought against the United States during the Seminole Wars.

Abiaka successfully resisted the United States and its policy of Indian Removal, and his leadership resulted in the continued presence of the Seminole people in Florida.

The phonetic spelling of his native name varies to include: Aripeka,[4][5][6] Aripeika,[7] Opoica,[8] Arpeika,[9] Abiaka,[10] Apiaka,[11] Apeiaka,[11] Appiaca,[11] Appiacca,[12] Apayaka Hadjo (Crazy Rattlesnake),[13] and Ar-pi-uck-i.

The name was conferred on the town because "in the contest for supremacy its warriors heaped up a pile of scalps, covering the base of the war-pole.

[3] In 1830, U.S. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act with the goal of ethnically cleansing the Seminole people from Florida.

In March 1835, Abiaka and the other Seminole chiefs attended a meeting at Fort King with U.S. official Wiley Thompson and General Duncan Clinch.

Abiaka's angry stomping eventually broke the wooden platform, causing Wiley Thompson, General Clinch, and the Seminole chiefs to all fall to the ground.

Abiaka was the leading war chief for the Miccosukee[22] and he carefully formulated and executed his battle plan wisely—entrenched on dry, treed ground, pressing the attack, and losing only 8 (11) and 14 wounded.

Battle of Pine Island Ridge – During the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) in the Battle of Pine Island Ridge, March 22, 1838, Abiaka led an unknown number of Seminoles against 223 Tennessee Volunteer Militia and 38 U.S. regular troops led by Major William Lauderdale.

[28] In 1841, the year before the close of the Seminole War, Abiaka occupied the region near the mouth of the Kissimmee River and the eastern border of Lake Okeechobee.