- Alligator, faced with dwindling amounts
of warriors and supplies, resisted as long as
possible, but he too finally abandoned the
struggle. On March 24, 1838, he and his fol-
lowers strolled into the camp of Gen. Thomas
S. Jesup and surrendered.
Alligator and his band were dutifully
packed off and relocated to new homes in the
Arkansas Territory, where they coexisted un-
easily on land also occupied by the Chero-
kees. Living conditions there were deplorable
and a direct violation of treaty terms. Alliga-
tor underscored his discontent in the spring
of 1842 when he wrote the War Department,
declaring, “I have no guns to kill squirrels and
birds with to feed my children, no ax to cut
my firewood, no plow or hoes with which to
till our soil for bread.” Seminole misery was
so pervasive that in 1844 Alligator and Wildcat
journeyed to Washington, D.C., to demand re-
dress and their own allotment of tribal land.
This land grant was not finally approved until
August 1856, and until then Seminoles en-
dured misery at the hands of their hostile
Cherokee and newly arrived Creek neighbors.
Alligator faded from the scene until 1861,
when the U.S. Civil War commenced. Despite
the neglect his people had suffered at the
hands of the Indian Department, he remained
loyal to the government and opposed Confed-
erate sympathizers within the Seminole na-
tion. Assisted by another noted warrior, Billy
Bowlegs, he led several families and war
bands north into Kansas to reach Union terri-
tory. En route they were intercepted by Semi-
noles supporting the Southern cause, and Alli-
gator was killed at Shoal Creek, Kansas, on
December 26, 1861. Thus one of the greatest
warriors in Seminole history died at the hands
of his own kinsmen.See also
OsceolaBibliography
Covington, James. The Seminoles of Florida.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993; Lan-
caster, Jane F. Removal Aftershock: The Seminoles’
Struggle to Survive in the West, 1836–1866.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994;
Largent, Floyd B. “The Florida Quagmire.” American
History34, no. 4 (1999): 40–46; Laumer, Frank.
Dade’s Last Command.Gainesville: University of
Florida Press, 1995; Mahon, John K. The History of
the Second Seminole War.Gainesville: University of
Florida Press, 1967; McReynolds, Edwin C. The
Seminoles.Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1967; Walton, George. Fearless and Free: The Semi-
nole Indian War, 1835–1842.Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill, 1977; Weisman, Brent R. Unconquered Peo-
ple: Florida’s Seminole and Miccosukee Indians.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999;
Wright, J. Leitch. Creeks and Seminoles: The De-
struction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge Peo-
ple.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.AMERICANHORSE
American Horse
(ca. 1830–September 9, 1876)
Sioux War Chief
A
merican Horse was a noted Sioux par-
ticipant in various plains wars of the
1860s and 1870s. He fought victori-
ously at Little Bighorn and was also among
the first victims of retaliation to follow that
surprising Indian victory.
American Horse (also known among his
people as Iron Shield) was born probably into