Great Leader: Micanopy of the Seminole

The life of this Native leader points up how little Whites understood Native ways of leadership.  Derided as a senile old man who needed Osceola and Abraham to do his thinking for him, Micanopy was instead an agile and energetic leader of his people until his death in exile in Oklahoma.

And here we go with naming confusion.  Micanopy (c 1780-1849) was either a title, as the word means high chief, or it was an accession name.  His primary name was Sintchakkee, which means "one who frequents (hangs around) ponds".  He was also called Hulbutta Hajo, or "Crazy Alligator".  This, too, may have been an honorific rather than a name since Hajo/Hadjo/Harjo, now a common surname among Seminoles, was once a war name given to warriors who were considered crazy, i.e., reckless in battle.  Micanopy was born near St. Augustine around 1780.  He was the nephew of Bolek, sometimes known as Billy Bowlegs I (and, again, NOT William Bowles), and became leading chief of the Seminoles in 1819.  In turn, Micanopy's nephews were Coacoochee and Billy Bowlegs II, whom we've already met.  Micanopy became a prosperous landowner.  He owned slaves and welcomed runaways to his employ and to live among his people.  He saw nothing wrong with intermarriage between Natives and Blacks or of giving freed Blacks equal status among his tribe.

In this he ran up against opposition by White slave owners in Georgia and Florida, who were upset that the Seminoles posed an enticement to their slaves to run away.  They accused the Seminoles of stealing slaves and raiding plantations to do so.  However, any raiding was generally done by desperate Seminole men confined to their reservation after the 1823 Treaty of Moultrie Creek, and who needed food to supplement the meager or non-existent rations.  Per the terms of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, the Seminoles were required to identify and return any escaped slaves.  They had no intention of doing anything of the kind.  As more Settlers moved into Florida, the demand to remove the Seminoles entirely became more incessant.  The Jackson Administration tried to force and enforce the Treaty of Payne's Landing, which required the Seminoles to give up Florida entirely and move to Oklahoma.  Micanopy refused to sign and the government agents blamed Osceola, meanwhile putting pressure on Abraham, who was owned by Micanopy but who had become a Native leader in his own right to urge Micanopy to sign.

Micanopy did agree to go to Oklahoma and inspect the land being offered to the Seminoles, which was in the area controlled by the Creeks.  He later said that his mark was forged on the Treaty of Fort Gibson and adamantly denied ever signing that treaty.  Whites brushed aside his protests as those of a doddering old fool who was afraid of Osceola.  Micanopy proved the opposite when he led the war party that culminated in the Dade Battle in December, 1835.  Without Osceola present, Micanopy fired the first shot of that battle, knocking Major Francis Dade (namesake of Dade County), right off his horse and dead.  Despite their early successes, the Seminoles were running out of men and resources.  Micanopy knew their time in Florida was running out and agreed to surrender in 1837.  As he and his people waited transport to Oklahoma, Osceola raided the American encampment and liberated all of them back into the forest.  But their freedom was short-lived.  In October, 1838, Micanopy was with Osceola when the latter arranged a meeting with Col. Thomas s. Jessup where they were all taken into custody.

Micanopy spent the winter at Fort Moultrie.  He initially refused the many painters who clamored for his portrait, but finally agreed to let George Catlin paint his likeness.  He was also present when his protégé and colleague Osceola died, and was among those standing on the ramparts of the fort as White soldiers carried Osceola to his grave.  Micanopy and his people were transported to Oklahoma and placed among the Creeks, where tensions escalated between the two now distinct tribes.  With little rations, no corn or farming implements, their clan and family structure broken up, the Seminoles had difficulty reconstituting their society.  Micanopy was old and his power was fading, but he did what he could.  In 1845, he was signatory to a Treaty which gave the Seminoles some autonomy from the Creek.  He died at Fort Gibson on January 2, 1849.  While his nephew Billy Bowlegs II continued the fight in Florida, and Coacoochee led a breakout of Seminoles headed for Mexico and hopefully freedom, another nephew, Jim Jumper, succeeded Micanopy as Principal Chief.