Abstract
If a group of informed Americans were asked to name a Seminole chief, it is likely that most of them would reply “Osceola.” If asked to recall a second Florida Indian, at least a majority of those responding would name “Billy Bowlegs.” The second choice would be more accurate, for Osceola was a Seminole only by adoption - being by birth a Red Stick Creek from Georgia or Alabama who came to Florida at about the age of ten. He was not a chief by hereditary right, whereas Billy Bowlegs, to use his common white-man’s nickname, was what an army surgeon described as “a 'bona fide Seminole, of old King Payne’s tribe.”
Recommended Citation
Porter, Kenneth W.
(1966)
"Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) in the Seminole Wars (Part I),"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 45:
No.
3, Article 3.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol45/iss3/3
