Places: Fort King, Ocala, Florida

Perhaps the most well-known site of the Second Seminole War, Fort King or Camp King was built in 1827 and named in honor of Col. William King, the first American governor of West Florida.  The fort was a log stockade, but did have some stone buildings.  It was a military fort and the seat of the Indian Agent appointed to the Seminole, meant to serve as a staging area for their eventual removal from Florida.  It was also a trading post and a young Muscogee Creek man by the name of Billy Powell was well-known in the Native community which grew up near the fort.  During these days, Osceola was a young married father, Tustenugge or leading warrior under Chief Micanopy.  He came to the fort frequently to trade.  Mean did the trading and thus the shopping for the family. 

He would also come to plead with whatever Indian Agent was in residence on behalf of Seminole men caught hunting off the bounds of the reservation.  Generally, the desperate men had shot cattle belonging to a local settler, who would come to Fort King demanding that the offender be punished in the fullest extent of the law, lashes for trespassing and hanging for cattle rustling.  Osceola would offer to take the men into custody and turn them over to Chief Micanopy for whatever punishment he deemed fit, usually a stern warning.  The Agent would compensate the settler with money and turn the offender over to Osceola along with the man's weapon, vital for feeding his family.  Osceola would often round up offenders and bring them in, hoping to keep both sides happy.

His willingness to accommodate only went so far.  When Wiley Thompson was appointed in 1835, he determined to enforce the letter of the law.  He became suspicious of the amount of ammo Osceola purchased and refused to sell him any more.  The two men had words and angry accusations and threats went back and forth.  Fed up, Thompson clapped Osceola into the guardhouse and Abiaka had to intercede for him.  Both biographers dispel the notion that the argument had to do with Osceola's wife being part black and taken into custody by slave catchers.  Native women generally did not come around the fort, and thus Osceola's wife wouldn't have been known to the Agent. 

Wiley Thompson was outside the walls of Fort King, on a nightly stroll on December 28, 1835 when he and Osceola met for the last time and Thompson was killed.  The fort fell into disuse throughout 1836-37 after it was partially destroyed by a Seminole raid.  The stone buildings remained functional and served as the town courthouse until they were finally abandoned in 1842.

Eventually the stone and wood making up the fort were repurposed and the site abandoned as vacant land.  Today, a plaque commemorates the site of the post cemetery. 

Special Edition: Chief Osceola versus the Unconquered

On December 30, Florida State University will take on Michigan State in the Orange Bowl and, to the delight of fans and of Michigan's coach, will perform the Tradition of Tribute.  A student rider in full Seminole regalia on an Appaloosa gelding will gallop to the fifty yard line and throw down a flaming spear.  He's called Chief Osceola and the tradition is meant to honor Osceola and his people, one of the few tribes to remain unconquered by United States forces, but how do tradition and legend blend with reality?  And how does Chief Osceola stack up to the Tallassee Warrior himself.

First, let's dispense with the issue of Native symbols and mascots.  I'll leave that to each reader to decide.  The Seminole Tribe of  Florida has given approval to the use of its symbols and the name of its arguably most famous war leader.  And, it's a moving and quite intimidating way to start a ball game.  Watching the ritual go down, it's clear where the regalia, the horse and the whole idea of a flaming spear came from. 

As we've said time out of mind, Osceola (aka William "Billy" Powell) was not a chief.  He was Tustenugge or leading warrior, of Micanopy's band of Seminole.  Both of his biographers make a case that he ranked as a Tustenugge Thlocco, or Great Warrior, based on his skill and renown.  Osceola himself preferred the title he'd been given during his first Green Corn Ceremony, the Black Drink Crier, someone who performed the ritual songs used during the passing of the sacred beverage made of the Yaupon Holly.  He never referred to himself as Tustenugge, or used any of the other honorifics of Seminole warriors, such as Harjo or Fixico and the like.  Maybe he chose not to.  Maybe they weren't his to use yet, who knows.  What comes through in his portraits, though, was a love of fancy dress.  Nor was he alone.  Coacoochee and Billy Bowlegs also loved fine regalia. 

So, how close is the tribute rider's regalia to that worn by Osceola.  The full-length engraving by Catlin shows it's pretty close to what Osceola wore, the turban with plumes, three-decker gorget breast-piece, necklaces, a Calico hunting shirt, beaded hand-woven sash and garters, leather leggings and moccasins.  The tribute rider wears boots, something adopted by later Seminole leaders and definitely more practical than mocs while riding a horse or anywhere near a football field.  Pictures of two men who used the name Billy Bowlegs show the overall look. 

The Seminole were known to possess horses, though the Appaloosa appeared during the 19th century with the Nez Perce, a Plains tribe.  Further, Patricia Wickman, in her biography which interviewed people who had received stories of Osceola passed down orally through the generations indicated that he did not own horses and was not known for riding them.  In fact, the one single life event that connects Osceola with a horse was after his capture in October 1837, where he was given a horse to ride back to St. Augustine.  Likewise, the spear, more properly a lance, is a Plains weapon.  But the antecedent to the flaming spear tradition is obvious, the one legend of Osceola that almost anyone knows, the knife-through-the-treaty.  That episode has now been writ large as a nearly 25-lb flaming spear through the fifty yard line. 

The Chief Osceola tradition began in 1978, as FSU sought a more respectful rendition of the Seminole mascot.  The school has sought the continued approval of the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the NCAA to use the symbols.  So be it.  If the Tradition of Tribute does anything, it keeps the knowledge of Osceola, the Seminoles and their fight to survive in public view.  FSU offers classes in Seminole history which are reportedly well-attended each semester, students of all ethnic backgrounds taking pride in being Seminoles by extension.  A little tradition and respect for the past goes a long way.   

Places: the Tallapoosa River

Few small rivers are as full of history as this one, which rises in what is now Paulding County, Georgia at the base of the Appalachian Mountains and flows 265 miles into Alabama for an eventual junction with the Coosa River.  The name of the River means Grandmother Town in Muscogee and the branch of the Creek Nation which settled here is deemed to be the oldest in the tribe. 

The Tallapoosa River was in the heart of Muscogee/Creek Country.  Earlier, during Mississippian times, it was under the jurisdiction of Tuscaloosa/Tuskaloosa.  De Soto visited the area in 1540, demanded supplies from the leader of the town of Talisi before proceeding to his meeting with Tuscaloosa and the ill-fated battle of Mabila.  Later, several important Creek towns were located along the river, including Tallisi/Tallassee, which was the hometown of many important Red Stick leaders such as Opothleyahola, Peter McQueen, and of course, Osceola, who was born Creek but became famous leading bands of Seminole, Miccosuke and Black warriors into battle to maintain their newfound home in Florida.

The Battle of Horseshoe Bend was fought on a bend in the Tallapoosa River in March, 1814, and the site is now preserved by the National Park Service.  After the Creeks were removed from the area in the 1830's, White settlers moved into the area.  Towns such as Tallassee became mill towns.  Eventually, several hydro-electric and water reclamation damns were placed on the River, one of them forming Lake Martin, not far from the Horseshoe Bend battle site.  The river provides a place for fishing, kayaking and other recreational activities today.

Fort Marion and the Case of the Wrong Ghost

The other day as I was flipping through channels, I saw a ghost-hunting special on Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida.  In addition to the tragic souls of two star-crossed lovers of the Spanish era, the ghost-busters were seeking the spirit of Osceola, who had died at the fort after being beheaded on order of the fort's commandant (implicitly a la Mary Queen of Scots or Anne Boleyn, as he was being made out as one of the most tragic figures in history, etc.).  Huh! Wait! What? No!  Osceola died at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina of a throat infection, not in Florida from a Tudor-style beheading, but let's examine the Fort Marion story a little more closely.

With Osceola when he was captured in October 1837 were a number of Seminole leaders and warriors, including King Phillip and his son Coacoochee, John Horse, a close friend of Osceola's known as Coa Harjo and some others.  Among them were several Yuchi.  The Yuchi were a tribe from the Tennessee River Valley area who had been displaced and many of whom sought refuge in Florida with the Seminole.  Among the Yuchi were several relatives or siblings, Yuchi John, Yuchi Bob and Yuchi Billy, among others.  As the captives made their way along the road to St. Augustine, an army doctor traveling with the group noticed that Osceola was unwell.  He had been struggling with malaria on an off for the past several months and may even have had the beginnings of the tonsillitis that killed him. 

The quarters at the old Castillo de San Marcos (renamed Fort Marion by the Americans) were tight, damp and not too clean.  The doctor who had noted Osceola's illness was soon dispatched to other duty and a more senior army physician, Dr. Frederick Weedon, was assigned to care for the captives, visiting them twice a day.  In the overcrowded, unhygienic conditions, the prisoners developed rashes and head lice.  More seriously, in December, 1837, a chicken pox epidemic broke out.  Many of the Natives had no immunity to this routine childhood disease and Weedon recorded that Yuchi Billy was among those who succumbed to the illness and died.  Osceola did not get chicken pox.  Either he'd gotten it as a child or was not in direct contact with Yuchi Billy. 

It was then that a strange side of Frederick Weedon's personality manifested itself.  Upon Yuchi Billy's death, Weedon amputated the head of the corpse, removed the flesh and kept the skull as a souvenir.  In January, 1830, when Osceola finally succumbed to quinsy as part of his tonsillitis while at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, Weedon would remove his head after death and preserve it in alcohol.  So it's easy to see how the beheading theme got going.  Both Yuchi Billy and (Billy Powell) Osceola were beheaded by this same doctor, but only after death and in two separate locations.  Osceola's biographer, Patricia Wickman, is at great pains to excuse Weedon's conduct on the basis of routine 19th century medical practice.  And, probably because Weedon's descendants cooperated with her book and provided access to artifacts and information concerning Osceola.  I'll let anyone who's interested read the book for more info. 

The fact remains that the bodies of these two men, at Fort Marion and Fort Moultrie, were not treated in accord with their own expressed wishes and cultural beliefs.  Most anyone who has had any exposure to Natives, as Weedon claimed, would know that death and the body of a deceased, particularly a deceased warrior or leader, was to be treated carefully and respectfully after death.  Osceola specifically asked Weedon to see to it that his body was returned to Florida for burial and he made personal preparation for death by dressing in his finest regalia.  Weedon was present at the death, saw how Osceola wished to die and the fact that he had relatives and colleagues present who mourned his passing.  Weedon claimed sympathy for Osceola and friendship with him, yet used his body as a medical specimen, insuring that Osceola lies at the gates of Fort Moultrie a naked, headless corpse whose coffin was dropped or tipped at some point so that the body slid to the left and decayed into a pile of jumbled bones.  Some respect for a friend with whom one sympathizes!  (Off soapbox now). 

Legends proliferated at both Fort Marion and Fort Moultrie that Osceola haunts both places, seeking vengeance on the Whites who took his land and disrespected his body.  Whether people believe in ghosts or ghost stories I'll leave to each reader to decide.  However, Osceola did not die at Fort Marion.  The Native warrior whose remains were mishandled and disrespected there was Yuchi Billy, not Osceola.  If anyone has a right to be aggrieved about whatever happened at Fort Marion, it is this Yuchi leader, not Osceola.