page_title: Osceola
hierarchical_section_title: Osceola
caption_attribution_description: Seminole Chief Osceola (1804–1838)
context_page_description: Osceola, named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Creek, and his "great-grandfather was the redoubtable Scotsman, James McQueen.". He was reared by his mother in the Creek tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees, "led by a half-breed relative, Peter McQueen", after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people.
  In 1836, Osceola led a small group of warriors in the Seminole resistance during the Second Seminole War, when the United States tried to remove the tribe from their lands in Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. He became an adviser to Micanopy, the principal chief of the Seminole from 1825 to 1849. Osceola led the Seminole resistance to removal until he was captured on October 21, 1837, by deception, under a flag of truce, when he went to a site near Fort Peyton for peace talks. The United States first imprisoned him at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, then transported him to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina.
context_section_description: Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Creek, and his "great-grandfather was the redoubtable Scotsman, James McQueen.". He was reared by his mother in the Creek tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees, "led by a half-breed relative, Peter McQueen", after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people.
  In 1836, Osceola led a small group of warriors in the Seminole resistance during the Second Seminole War, when the United States tried to remove the tribe from their lands in Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. He became an adviser to Micanopy, the principal chief of the Seminole from 1825 to 1849. Osceola led the Seminole resistance to removal until he was captured on October 21, 1837, by deception, under a flag of truce, when he went to a site near Fort Peyton for peace talks. The United States first  imprisoned him at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, then transported him to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina. He died there a few months later of causes reported as an internal infection or malaria. Because of his renown, Osceola attracted visitors in prison, including renowned artist George Catlin, who painted perhaps the most well-known portrait of the Seminole leader.
caption: Osceola by George Catlin
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