Osceola (1804-1838, Asi-yahola in Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. Of mixed parentage, including Creek, Scottish, African American, & English, he was considered born to his mother's people in the Creek matrilineal kinship system. He was reared by her in the Creek tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people.
In 1836, Osceola led a small group of warriors in the Seminole resistance during the Second Seminole War, when the United States tried to remove the tribe from their lands in Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. He became an adviser to Micanopy, the principal chief of the Seminole from 1825 to 1849. Osceola led the Seminole resistance to removal until he was captured on October 21, 1837, by deception, under a flag of truce, when he went to a site near Fort Peyton for peace talks.The United States first imprisoned him at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, then transported him to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina. He died there a few months later of causes reported as an internal infection or malaria. Because of his renown, Osceola attracted visitors in prison, including renowned artist George Catlin, who painted perhaps the most well-known portrait of the Seminole leader.
Osceola was named Billy Powell at birth in 1804 in the Creek village of Talisi, now known as Tallassee, Alabama, in current Elmore County. The inhabitants of the town of Tallassee were an admixture of Native American, English, Irish, & Scottish ethnicity, while some were African-American blacks. The Creek were among the Southeastern Native Americans who held slaves. Powell was believed to have ancestors from all of these groups. His mother was Polly Coppinger, a mixed-race Creek woman, & his father was most likely William Powell, a Scottish trader.
Polly was also of Creek & European ancestry, as the daughter of Ann McQueen & Jose Coppinger. Because the Creek had a matri-lineal kinship system, Polly & Ann's children were all considered to be born into their mother's clan; they were reared by their mothers & their maternal male relatives as traditional Creek & gained their social status from their mother's people. Ann McQueen was also mixed-race Creek; her father, James McQueen, was Scottish. Ann was probably the sister or aunt of Peter McQueen, a prominent Creek leader & warrior. Like his mother, Billy Powell was raised in the Creek tribe.
Billy Powell's maternal grandfather, James McQueen, was a ship-jumping Scottish sailor who in 1716 became the first recorded white to trade with the Creek tribe in Alabama. He stayed in the area as a fur trader & married into the Creek tribe, becoming closely involved with this people. He was buried in 1811 at the Indian cemetery in Franklin, Alabama, near a Methodist Missionary Church for the Creek.
In 1814, after the Red Stick Creek were defeated by United States forces, Polly took Osceola & moved with other Creek refugees from Alabama to Florida, where they joined the Seminole. In adulthood, as part of the Seminole, Powell was given his name Osceola. This is an anglicized form of the Creek Asi-yahola; the combination of asi, the ceremonial black drink made from the yaupon holly, & yahola, meaning "shout" or "shouter."
In 1821, the United States acquired Florida from Spain, & more European-American settlers started moving in, encroaching on the Seminoles' territory. After early military skirmishes & the signing of the 1823 Treaty of Moultrie Creek, by which the US seized the northern Seminole lands, Osceola & his family moved with the Seminole deeper into the un-populated wilds of central & southern Florida.
As an adult, Osceola took 2 wives, as did some other high-ranking Creek & Seminole leaders. With them, he had at least 5 children. One of his wives was African American, & Osceola fiercely opposed the enslavement of free people.
Through the 1820s & the turn of the decade, American settlers kept up pressure on the US government to remove the Seminole from Florida to make way for their desired agricultural development. In 1832, a few Seminole chiefs signed the Treaty of Payne's Landing, by which they agreed to give up their Florida lands in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory. According to legend, Osceola stabbed the treaty with his knife, although there are no contemporary reports of this. Donald L. Fixico, an American Indian historian, says he made a research trip to the National Archives to see the original Treaty of Fort Gibson (also known as the Treaty of Payne's Landing), & that upon close inspection, he observed that it had "a small triangular hole shaped like the point of a knife blade."
Five of the most important Seminole chiefs, including Micanopy of the Alachua Seminole, did not agree to removal. In retaliation, the US Indian agent, Wiley Thompson, declared that those chiefs were deposed from their positions. As US relations with the Seminole deteriorated, Thompson forbade the sale of guns & ammunition to them. Osceola, a young warrior rising to prominence, resented this ban. He felt it equated the Seminole with slaves, who were forbidden by law to carry arms.
Thompson considered Osceola to be a friend & gave him a rifle. Osceola had a habit of barging into Thompson's office & shouting complaints at him. On one occasion Osceola quarreled with Thompson, who had the warrior locked up at Fort King for two nights until he agreed to be more respectful. In order to secure his release, Osceola agreed to sign the Treaty of Payne's Landing & to bring his followers into the fort. After his humiliating imprisonment, Osceola secretly prepared vengeance against Thompson.
On December 28, 1835, Osceola, with the same rifle Thompson gave him, killed the Indian agent. Osceola & his followers shot six others outside Fort King, while another group of Seminole ambushed & killed a column of US Army, more than 100 troops, who were marching from Fort Brooke to Fort King. Americans called this event the Dade Massacre. These nearly simultaneous attacks catalyzed the Second Seminole War with the United States.
On October 21, 1837, Osceola & 81 of his followers were captured by General Joseph Hernández on the orders of General Thomas Jesup, under a white flag of truce, when they went for peace talks to Fort Peyton near St. Augustine. He was initially imprisoned at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, before being transferred to Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island, outside Charleston, South Carolina. Osceola's capture by deceit caused a national uproar. General Jesup's treacherous act & the administration were condemned by many congressional leaders & vilified by international press. Jesup suffered a loss of reputation that lasted for the rest of his life; his betrayal of the truce flag has been described as "one of the most disgraceful acts in American military history."
