whites along the Georgia border precipitated
the First Seminole War of 1817–1818, in which
Jackson again invaded Indian territory,
burned villages, and briefly captured Osceola
and his mother. In 1819, Florida was acquired
by the United States, and to prevent further
bloodshed the surviving Seminoles were sent
to a reservation deep in the hinterland. By the
terms of the 1823 Treaty of Fort Moultrie, they
were to be left undisturbed for no less than 20
years. It was during this period that Osceola
matured into a fine hunter who exuded a com-
manding presence. By 1832, he had been
elected a tustenuggee,or war chief, and be-
came an outspoken critic of white miscon-
duct. Two years previously, Congress had en-
acted the Removal Bill of 1830, which
accelerated the deportation of Native Ameri-
cans to lands west of the Mississippi, by force
if necessary. Jackson, now president, began
applying pressure on the Seminoles to cede
their ancestral homelands in exchange for a
reservation in Arkansas. This was in clear vio-
lation of the 1823 treaty, which had nine years
yet to run. However, in 1832 the government
forced several chiefs to sign the Treaty of
Payne’s Landing, which mandated their re-
moval to Arkansas. It also stipulated that fugi-
tive African Americans, who had settled into
the Seminole nation and intermarried, were to
be handed over to the whites as slaves. Appar-
ently, one of Osceola’s two wives was a mu-
latto, and he refused to comply. In 1833, In-
dian agent Wiley Thompson was dispatched
by the government to negotiate the Treaty of
Fort Gibson, which would enforce the earlier
treaty. During one council meeting, when
Thompson demanded his compliance, Osce-
ola allegedly responded by drawing his knife
and stabbing the treaty. This led to his imme-
diate arrest, and Thompson held the proud
chief in shackles for several days. Eventually,
Osceola feigned a change of heart, signed the
treaty, and was released. Smarting over this
mistreatment, he had no sooner returned to
his village than he made preparations for war.
Osceola’s first deed was to arrange the
murder of Chief Charlie Emathala, who was
sympathetic toward removal. Shortly after,
on December 28, 1835, he led an attack
against the Indian agency at Fort King and
killed Thompson, an army lieutenant, and
four employees. That same day, a party of
300 Seminoles under Micanopy, Tiger Tail,
and Wildcatambushed the 110-man detach-
ment of Maj. Francis L. Dade near Wahoo
Swamp and annihilated it. This act precipi-
tated the Second Seminole War, which
dragged on inconclusively until 1842. Osce-
ola was an active participant during the first
two years of fighting only, but he established
himself as a peerless and hard-hitting guer-
rilla leader. His men attacked settlements,
ambushed patrols, and drove off livestock
before returning to the relative safety of the
Everglades. Osceola repulsed Gen. Duncan
L. Clinch at Withlacoochee on December 31,
1835, and his subsequent maneuvers con-
founded a succession of army leaders, in-
cluding Edmund P. Gaines, Winfield Scott,
and Thomas S. Jesup. However, Jesup, un-
able to subdue the wily Seminole chief by
force, resorted to treachery. By 1837, the In-
dians were weary of fighting, and Osceola,
hit with malaria, declared that he was ready
to talk peace. On October 21, Jesup freed
and dispatched Chief Wildcat to invite him to
camp under a flag of truce. When Osceola
and several other chiefs complied, they were
immediately seized by militiamen under Gen.
J. M. Hernandez and detained at Fort Marion
in St. Augustine. Shortly after, the chief, still
debilitated by disease, was transported to
Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina.
There he languished but refused to yield.
Public outcry over the means of his capture
was intense, but neither the army nor Jack-
son consented to his release. Osceola, mean-
while, had became something of a public
celebrity. Although slowly dying, he was in-
terviewed by the artist George Catlin, who
painted a portrait of Osceola wearing full
battle array.
Death claimed Osceola on January 30,
1838, and he was accorded burial with full
military honors. It was an empty gesture, con-OSCEOLA