Osceola

For other uses, see Osceola (disambiguation).

Osceola by George Catlin

Osceola (1804 – January 20, 1838) was a war chief of the Seminole in Florida. Osceola led a small band of warriors (never more than 100) in the Seminole resistance during the Second Seminole War when the United States tried to remove the Seminoles from their lands. He exercised a great deal of influence on Micanopy, the highest ranking chief of the Seminoles.

Birth and early life

Osceola was born in 1804 in the village of Tallassee, Alabama around current Macon County. His mother Polly Coppinger was daughter of Ann McQueen who was part Muscokgee. Many sources state that Osceola's father was an English trader, William Powell, but others claim that Osceola's father was a Creek who died soon after Osceola's birth, and that William Powell married Osceola's mother afterwards. As a result of the association with William Powell, some contemporary whites persisted in calling the young man Billy Powell. Osceola claimed to be a full-blood Muscogee. Genealogical testing of what is believed to be Osceola's hair suggests he was of mixed ancestry. It should be noted that Osceola's mixed white ancestry would have been an anomaly at the time because, as a rule, the Seminoles strictly forbade intermarriage with whites. Osceola's great grandfather James McQueen was the earliest white man to trade with the Creeks in Alabama in 1714 and remained there as trader and Native American leader the next 80+ years. James McQueen's daughter Ann married Jose Coppinger and their daughter Polly was the mother of Osceola.

In 1814 Osceola and his mother moved to Florida alongside other Creeks. In adulthood he received his name; Osceola (Template:PronEng or /ˌoʊseɪˈoʊlə/) is an anglicised form of the Creek asi-yahola (IPA: [asːi jahoːla]); the combination of asi, the ceremonial black drink made from the yaupon holly, and yahola, meaning cry or cryer.

Captured by deceit

On October 21 1837, on the orders of U.S. General Thomas Sidney Jesup, Osceola was captured when he arrived for supposed truce negotiations in Fort Payton. He was imprisoned at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida. Osceola's capture by deceit caused uproar even among the white population and General Jesup was publicly condemned. Opponents of the contemporary administration cited it as a black mark against the government. The next December, Osceola and other Seminole prisoners were moved to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. There painter George Catlin met him and persuaded him to pose for him for two paintings. Robert J. Curtis painted an oil portrait of him. These pictures inspired a number of other prints, engravings, and even cigar store figures. Afterwards numerous landmarks, including Osceola Counties in Florida, Iowa, and Michigan, have been named after him, along with Florida's Osceola National Forest. Osceola died of malaria on January 20 1838, less than three months after his capture, and was buried with military honors.

File:Osceola2.jpg

A tile painting of Osceola

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Relics of Osceola

After his death, army doctor Frederick Weedon removed Osceola's head and embalmed it. He also persuaded other Seminoles to allow him to make a death mask and kept a number of objects Osceola had given him. Captain Pitcairn Morrison took the mask alongside other objects that had belonged to Osceola and sent it to an army officer in Washington. By 1885, it ended up in the anthropology collection of the Smithsonian Institution, where it currently remains. Later, Weedon gave the head to his son-in-law Daniel Whitehurst who, in 1843, sent it to Valentine Mott, a New York physician. Mott placed it in his Surgical and Pathological Museum. It was presumably lost when a fire destroyed the museum in 1866.

In 1966, Miami businessman Otis W. Shriver claimed he had dug up Osceola's grave and put his bones in a bank vault in order to rebury them at a tourist trap in the Rainbow Springs. Shriver traveled around the state in 1967 to gather support for his project. Archaeologists later proved that Shriver had dug up animal remains - Osceola's body was still in its coffin. Some of Osceola's belongings still remain in the possession of the Weedon family, while others have disappeared. The Seminole Nation bought Osceola's bandolier and other personal items from a Sotheby's auction in 1979. There are also forged items and claims of an intact head.

Osceola. (1838 lithograph)

In literature

Osceola's story is told in a number of literary works:

• Freedom Land: A Novel by Martin L. Marcus. In Marcus's story, Osceola is born Billy Powell, the son of a respected British officer and his Creek consort. Accused of a murder he did not commit, he flees south into Seminole territory, where he joins a village of escaped slaves and Native Americans whose lives are threatened when American soldiers attempt to capture the escaped slaves and return them to their former owners. Driven by his love for the beautiful "Morning Dew", a black slave, Osceola takes up the cause of defending his new home and is catapulted into history.
• Osceola (1859) by Thomas Mayne Reid.
• Osceola - Die rechte Hand der Vergeltung by Konrad Petzold, an East German western with Gojko Mitić as the usual Native American hero(1971).
• Nature Girl, by novelist Carl Hiaasen gives an abbreviated history of Osceola's capture and imprisonment. The references included provide a main character, who is a Native American, with a proud history.
• The Patriot Chiefs (1993)A Chronicle of American Indian Resistance-page 177
• Captive by Heather Graham (1996) A historical fiction romance novel which features Osceola as one of the main protagonists. In it Osceola, with resplendent and honorable demeanor, often asks for one of the other main protagonists, known in Seminole as Running Bear, to assist in deliberations with US military to settle conflicts and translate, as Running Bear is part Seminole. It focuses on the period just before Osceola's death, with one segment of the manuscript having Osceola request the presence of Running Bear as Osceola lay dying.

In film

• Naked in the Sun is a 1957 film depicting the life of Osceola and the Second Seminole War.

Trivia

In the pilot episode of the short-lived science fiction television series Freakylinks, the characters investigate the purchase of Osceola's severed head on the black market. The head supposedly has supernatural powers, causing bad luck for whoever possesses it.

The song "Seminole Wind" by John Anderson makes mention of hearing the ghost of Osceola when he is in the Everglades.

References

• Marcus, Martin L. Freedom Land. Fiction, Forge Books (Tom Doherty Associates), 2003.
• Milanich, Jerald T. Osceola's Head (Archaeology magazine January/February 2004).
• Wickman, Patricia R. Osceola's Legacy. University of Alabama Press, 1991.