Editing Lake Panasoffkee, Florida (section)

===Second Seminole War===
Generally, the Sitakey's Village area was untouched during the Second Seminole War,<ref name="Trade Networks"/> allowing black Seminole families to use the area as a refuge from the war.<ref name="LP Archaeology"/>  The United States Army, however, did search the village twice.  Looking for Seminole warriors, the Second and Eighth Infantry divisions, led by Colonel [[Bennet Riley]] and Colonel W. J. Worth, traveled from [[Coleman, Florida|Fort McClure]] to the Lake Panasoffkee area on June 10, 1840. On the morning of June 11, the troops found an empty village.<ref name="Coleman and LP"/>

After the [[battle of Wahoo Swamp]], [[Osceola]], possibly suffering from the effects of [[malaria]] that he contracted during the Seminole occupation of [[Fort Drane]] moved to the Panasoffkee Swamp to live with the black Seminoles who regarded him with devotion.<ref name="Hatch 2012">{{cite book |first=Thom |last=Hatch |title=Osceola and the Great Seminole War: A Struggle for Justice and Freedom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YuN0E_vUPrYC |date=2012 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-35591-3 |pages=163, 176}}</ref>

On January 10, 1837, General Thomas Sidney Jesup, looking for Osceola, raided the village. Osceola and three warriors fled. Jesup captured 16 black Seminoles while the rest of the village escaped.  In all, Osceola, 50 warriors, and their families left for the headwaters of the [[Ocklawaha River]]. Twelve days later, Jesup led his troops from [[Dade Battlefield State Historic Site|Fort Armstrong]] to the Ocklawaha River.{{sfn |Hatch|2012|p=180–181}}