Seminole Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Hillis Hadjo. (hilis 'medicine', hadsho 'crazy', an official at the busk, q. v.). A noted Seminole leader in the early part of the 19th century, usually known among the whites as Francis the Prophet, and whose name is also recorded as Hidlis Hadjo, Hillishago, Hillishager, etc. He took an active part in the Seminole war, and is accused of having been one of the chief instigators of the second uprising. He seems to have come into public notice as early as 1814, as on Apr. 18 of that year Gen. Jackson wrote from his camp at the junction of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, Ala., that "Hillishagee, their [the Seminole's] great prophet, has absconded." Led by some abandoned English traders to believe that the treaty of Ghent in 1814 provided for the restoration of the Seminole country, and in the hope of obtaining aid for his tribe against the Americans, he went to England, where he received much attention. An English journal thus mentions his arrival: "The sound of trumpets announced he approach of the patriot Francis, who fought so gloriously in our cause in America during the late war. Being dressed in a most splendid suit of red and gold, and wearing a tomahawk set with gold, gave him a highly imposing appearance." His mission led to no practical result. Near the close of 1817 an American named McKrimmon, who had been captured by a Seminole party, was taken to Mikasuki, where dwelt Hillis Hadjo, who ordered him to be burned to death, but at the last moment his life was saved by the entreaties of Milly, the chief's daughter, who, when her father wavered, showed her determination to perish with him. Francis shortly thereafter fell into the Bands of the Americans and was hanged. His wife and several daughters afterward surrendered to the Americans at St Marks, Fla., where Milly received much attention from the whites, but refused McKrimmon's offer of marriage until assured that it was not because of his obligation to her for saving his life.

Holatamico, popularly known as Billy Bowlegs. The last Seminole chief of prominence to leave Florida and remove with his people to the W. He was born about 1808, and after the first Seminole removal became the recognized chief of the remnant in 1842, and was the leader of hostilities in 1855 to 1858. Although but 25 years of age, and not then a chief, he was one of the signers of the treaty of Payne's Landing, May 9, 1832, by which the Seminole agreed to remove to Indian Ter., but it was not until May, 1858, that he and his band, numbering 164 persons, departed. See Bowlegs. (C. T.)

Hornotlimed. A Seminole chief who came into notice chiefly through a single incident of the Seminole war of 1817-18. He resided at the Fowl Town, in N. w. Florida, at the beginning of hostilities, but was forced to flee to Mikasuki. On Nov. 30, 1817, three vessels arrived at the mouth of Apalachicola r. with supplies for the garrison farther up the stream, but on account of contrary winds were unable to ascend. Lieut. Scott was sent to their assistance with a boat and 40 men, who, on their return from the vessels, were ambushed by Hornotlimed and a band of warriors, all being killed except 6 soldiers, who jumped overboard and swam to the opposite shore. Twenty soldiers who had been left to aid the vessels, and an equal number of women and sick who were with them, fell into the hands of Hornotlimed and his warriors and were slain and scalped. The scalps were carried to Mikasuki and displayed on red sticks as tokens of the victory. Mikasuki was soon afterward visited by American troops and, although most of the Indians escaped, Hornotlimed was captured and immediately hanged. Gen. Jackson called him "Homattlemico, the old Red-stick," the latter name being applied because he was a chief of the Mikasuki band, known also as Red sticks, because they erected red-painted poles in their village. (C. T.)
 

Osceola Osceola (also spelled Oseola, Asseola, Asseheholar, properly Asi-yaholo, 'Blackdrink halloer,' from asi, the 'black drink', yaholo, the long drawn-out cry sung by the attendant while each man in turn is drinking). A noted Seminole leader to whom the name Powell was sometimes applied from the fact that after the death of his father his mother married a white man of that name. He was born on Tallapoosa river, in the Creek country, about 1803

his paternal grandfather was a Scotchman, and it is said the Caucasian strain was noticeable in his features and complexion. He was not a chief by descent, nor, so far as is known, by formal election, but took his place as leader and acknowledged chieftain by reason of his abilities as a warrior and commander during the memorable struggle of his people with the United States in the Seminole war of 1835. Secreting the women, children, and old men of his tribe in the depths of a great swamp, where the white troops were for a long time unable to find them, Osceola turned his energy to the work of harassing the Government forces. Maj. Dade and his detachment, the first to attack him, were cut off, only two or three wounded men escaping. Beginning with Gen. Gaines, one after another officer was placed in charge of the army sent against this intrepid warrior and his followers. These were successively baffled, owing largely to the physical difficulties to be overcome on account of the nature of the Seminole country, until Gen. Jesup, maddened by the public cry for more energetic action, seized Osceola and his attendants while holding a conference under a flag of truce, an act condemned as inexcusable treachery by the same public that had urged him on. The loss of freedom, and brooding over the manner in which he had been betrayed, broke the spirit of the youthful chief, who died a prisoner in Ft Moultrie, Fla., in Jan. 1838. In physique Osceola was described as tall, slender, and straight, with a countenance pleasing, though of somewhat melancholy cast.      See Sketch of the Seminole War, by a Lieutenant, 1836; Barr, Narr. Ind.- Wars in Fla., 1836; McKenney and Hall, Ind. Tribes, 1854; Potter, The War in Florida, 1836; Ellis, Indian Wars of the United States, 1892.

Mikanopy Mikanopy (`head chief'). A Seminole chief. On May 9, 1832, a treaty was signed purporting to cede the country of the Seminole to the United States in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi. The Seminole had already relinquished their desirable lands near the coast and retired to the pine barrens and swamps of the interior. Mikanopy, the hereditary chief, who possessed large herds of cattle and horses and a hundred Negro slaves, stood by young

Osceola and the majority of the tribe in the determination to remain. Neither of them signed the agreement to emigrate given on behalf of the tribe by certain pretended chiefs on Apr. 23, 1835. In the summer of that year the Indians made preparations to resist if the Government attempted to remove them. When the agent notified them on Dec. 1 to deliver their horses and cattle and assemble for the long journey they sent their women and children into the interior, while the warriors were seen going about in armed parties. The white people had contented the Seminole as a degenerate tribe, enervated through long contact with the whites. Although Mikanopy, who was advanced in years, was the direct successor of King Payne, the chief who united the tribe, the agent said he would no longer recognize him as a chief when he absented himself from the council where the treaty was signed. When the whites saw that the Seminole intended to fight, they abandoned their plantations on the border, which the Indians sacked and burned. Troops were then ordered to the Seminole country, and a seven-years' war began. In the massacre of Dade's command, Dec. 28, 1836, it is said that Mikanopy shot the commander with his own hand. He took no further active part in the hostilities. He was short and gross in person, indolent, and self-indulgent in his habits, having none of the qualities of a leader. McKenney and Hall, Ind. Tribes, it, 271, 1858.

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Handbook of American Indians, 1906