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{{short description|Seminole leader (1804–1838)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox Native American leader
|image           = George Catlin - Os-ce-o-lá, The Black Drink, a Warrior of Great Distinction - 1985.66.301 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg
|caption         = Portrait by [[George Catlin]], 1838
|tribe           = [[Seminole]]
|birth_date      = {{Birth year|1804}}
|birth_place     = [[Tallassee, Alabama|Talisi]], [[Mississippi Territory]], US {{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}}
|death_date      = {{Death date and age|1838|01|30|1804||}}
|death_place     = [[Fort Moultrie]], South Carolina, US
|predecessor     =
|successor       =
|native_name     = Vsse Yvholv
|native_name_lang = mus
|nicknames       = Billy Powell
|known_for       =
|resting_place   = [[Fort Moultrie]], [[South Carolina]], US
|rp_coordinates  =
|spouse          =
|children        =at least five
|parents         =Polly Coppinger and William Powell{{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}}
|footnotes       =
}}

'''Osceola''' (1804&nbsp;– January 30, 1838, '''Vsse Yvholv''' in [[Muscogee language|Creek]], also spelled '''Asi-yahola'''), named '''Billy Powell''' at birth,{{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}} was an influential leader of the [[Seminole]] people in Florida. His mother was [[Muscogee]], and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman, [[Clan Macqueen|James McQueen]].{{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}} He was reared by his mother in the Creek (Muscogee) tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other [[Red Stick]] refugees, led by a relative, [[Peter McQueen]],<ref name="Mahon1991">{{cite book|author=John K. Mahon|title=History of the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842|url=https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00061387/00001|year=1991|publisher=University Presses of Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-1097-7|page=91|quote=At the time of the Creek War, after the Battle of Tohopeka, his mother took him with her when she migrated to Florida, accompanying a Red Stick band led by a half-breed relative, Peter McQueen.}}</ref> 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 [[Indian removal|remove]] the tribe from their lands in [[Florida Territory|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.<ref name=myths>[http://tfn.net/~cdk901/osceola.htm "Osceola, the Man and the Myths"], retrieved January 11, 2007 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061202105713/http://tfn.net/~cdk901/osceola.htm |date=December 2, 2006 }}</ref> Osceola led the Seminole resistance to removal until he was captured on October 21, 1837, by deception, under a flag of [[truce]],<ref>Mahon, John K. (1985) ''History of the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842'', 2nd ed. Gainesville: University of Florida. {{ISBN|0813010977}}. p. 214: "General Jessup now reached the decision which was to make him more infamous than famous in the eyes of many generations. He decided to persist in his new policy of ignoring flags of truce."</ref> when he went to a site near [[Fort Peyton]] for peace talks.<ref name=Wickman>{{cite book | last=Wickman| first=Patricia Riles| title=Osceola's Legacy| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5N_-gr9us8C&pg=PA135| date=2006| publisher=University of Alabama Press| isbn=978-0-8173-5332-2}}</ref>{{rp|135}} The United States first imprisoned him at [[Fort Marion]] in [[St. Augustine, Florida|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.<ref name="Mahon1991" />{{rp|217–218}} <ref name=Wickman />{{rp|115–116}}

== Early life ==
[[File:2021-03-12_Tallassee,_AL_-_Osceola_Historical_Marker_002.jpg|thumb|left|Historical monument honoring Osceola near his birthplace in [[Tallassee, Alabama]].]]

Osceola was named Billy Powell at his birth{{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}} in 1804 in the Upper Creek village of Talisi,{{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}} which means "Old Town". The village site, now the city of [[Tallassee, Alabama]], was located on the banks of the [[Tallapoosa River]] about {{convert|20|mi}} upstream from [[Fort Toulouse]] where the Tallapoosa and the [[Coosa River|Coosa]] rivers meet to form the [[Alabama River]]. The residents of the original Talisi village and of the current city of Tallassee were a mixture of several ethnicities. The [[Muscogee]] Creek were among the [[Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands]], and some of them held enslaved black people. Powell was believed to have ancestors from all of these groups.<ref name="Shapiro2000">{{cite web |first=Phyllis |last=Shapiro |title=Myths and Dreams: Exploring the Cultural Legacies of Florida and the Caribbean |url=http://www.kislakfoundation.org/millennium-exhibit/profiles6.htm |website=kislakfoundation.org |publisher=Jay I. Kislak Foundation |location=Miami, Florida |access-date=May 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804022735/http://www.kislakfoundation.org/millennium-exhibit/profiles6.htm |archive-date=August 4, 2017 |date=2000 |quote=The people in the town of Tallassee, where Billy Powell (later named Osceola) was born, were mixed-blood Native American/English/Irish/Scottish, and some were black. Billy was all of these.}}</ref> His mother was Polly Coppinger,{{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}} a mixed-race Creek woman, and his father was most likely William Powell,{{Dubious|Birthplace, early life, and family|date=April 2025}} a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] trader.<ref name="Tucker2013">{{cite book |first=Spencer |last=Tucker |title=Almanac of American Military History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TO2mx314ST0C&pg=PA620 |year=2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-530-3 |page=620}}</ref>

Polly was also of Muscogee and European ancestry, as the daughter of Ann McQueen and Jose Coppinger. Because the Muscogee had a [[matrilineal]] kinship system, Polly and Ann's children were all born into their mother's [[clan]]. They were reared by their mothers and their maternal male relatives following Muscogee cultural practices, and they gained their social status from their mother's people. Ann McQueen was also mixed-race Muscogee Creek; her father, James McQueen, was Scottish. Ann was probably the sister or aunt of [[Peter McQueen]], a prominent Muscogee leader and warrior. Like his mother, Billy Powell was raised in the Muscogee Creek confederacy.<ref name="Hatch 2012">{{cite book |first=Thom |last=Hatch |title=Osceola and the Great Seminole War: A Struggle for Justice and Freedom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YuN0E_vUPrYC&pg=PA19 |date=2012 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-35591-3 |page=19}}</ref>

Billy Powell's maternal grandfather, James McQueen, was a ship-jumping Scottish sailor who in 1716 became the first recorded white person to trade with the Muscogee Creek Confederacy in Alabama. He stayed in the area as a [[fur trader]] and married into a Muscogee family, becoming closely involved with these people. He was buried in 1811 at the Indian cemetery in [[Franklin, Alabama]], near a [[Methodism|Methodist]] missionary church for the Muscogee.<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|8}}

In 1814, after the Red Stick Muscogee Creeks were defeated by United States forces, Polly took Osceola and moved with other Muscogee refugees from Alabama to Florida, where they joined the Seminole.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Strang |first1=Cameron B. |title=Violence, Ethnicity, and Human Remains during the Second Seminole War |journal=The Journal of American History |date=2014 |volume=100 |issue=4 |pages=973–994 |doi=10.1093/jahist/jau002 |jstor=44307855 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44307855 |access-date=5 April 2023 |issn=0021-8723|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In adulthood, as part of the Seminole, Powell was given his name ''Osceola'' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ɒ|s|iː|ˈ|oʊ|l|ə}} or {{IPAc-en|ˌ|oʊ|s|eɪ|ˈ|oʊ|l|ə}}). This is an anglicized form of the [[Creek language|Creek]] ''Vsse Yvholv'' (pronounced {{IPA|mus|asːi jahoːla|}}), a combination of ''vsse'', the ceremonial [[black drink]] made from the [[yaupon holly]], and ''yvholv'', often translated "shouter" but referring specifically to the one who performs a special whoop at the Green Corn Ceremony or archaically to a tribal town officer responsible for offering the black drink.<ref>Bright, William (2004), ''Native American Placenames of the United States'', University of Oklahoma Press. p. 185 {{ISBN|978-0-8061-3598-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Jack B. |title=A Dicitonary of Creek/Muskogee |last2=Mauldin |first2=Margaret McKane |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-8032-8302-4 |pages=153, 178}}</ref>

In April 1818, during the [[Seminole Wars|First Seminole War]], Osceola and his mother where living in Peter McQueen's village near the [[Econfina River]], when it was attacked and destroyed by the Lower Creek allies of U.S. General [[Andrew Jackson]] that were led by [[William McIntosh]]. Many surviving Red Stick warriors and their families, including McQueen, retreated south into the Florida peninsula.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Canter |title=Florida's Peace River Frontier |publisher=University of Central Florida Press, Orlando, FL |year=1991 |isbn=0-8130-1037-3 |pages=14}}</ref>

In 1821, the United States acquired Florida from Spain (see the [[Adams–Onís Treaty|Adams-Onis Treaty]]), and more European-American settlers started moving in, encroaching on the Seminoles' territory. After early military skirmishes and the signing of the 1823 [[Treaty of Moultrie Creek]], by which the U.S. seized the northern Seminole lands, Osceola and his family moved with the Seminole deeper into the unpopulated wilds of central and southern Florida.<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|55–58}}
{{multiple image
| footer    =
| align     = right
| image1    = The Wife and Child of Oscela from Holden's Dollar Magazine 1850.jpg
| width1    = 190
| caption1  = "The Wife and Child of Osceola" from ''Holden's Dollar Magazine'', volume 6, no. 4 (October 1850): 591–592.
| image2    = Sedgeford portrait.jpg
| width2    = 180
| caption2  = The [[Sedgeford Hall Portrait]], once believed to represent Matoaka and her son, has been re-identified as being Pe-o-ka (wife of Osceola) and their son.
}}

As an adult, Osceola took two wives, as did some other high-ranking Muscogee and Seminole leaders. With them, he had at least five children. One of his wives was black, and Osceola fiercely opposed the enslavement of free people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Giddings |first=Joshua R. |title=The Exiles of Florida |year=1858 |publisher=Follet, Foster and Company |location=Columbus, OH |page=97 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41316/41316-h/41316-h.htm#CHAPTER_VII}}</ref> Lt. John T. Sprague mentions in his 1848 history ''The Florida War'' that Osceola had a wife named "Che-cho-ter" (Morning Dew), who bore him four children.<ref name="Sprague1848">{{cite book |first=John Titcomb |last=Sprague |title=The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zI9PAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA101 |year=1848 |publisher=Library Reprints, Inc. |page=101 |isbn=978-0-7222-0196-1}}</ref><ref name=Wickman />{{rp|58}}

== 1830s resistance and war leader ==
[[File:OsceolaOcala.JPG|thumb|right|150px|Osceola stabbing the [[Treaty of Payne's Landing|treaty]] with his [[dagger]]. Statue in [[Silver Springs, Florida]]]]

Through the 1820s and 1830s American settlers continued pressuring the US government to [[Indian removal|remove]] the Seminole from Florida to make way for their desired agricultural development. In 1832, a few Seminole chiefs signed the [[Treaty of Payne's Landing]], by which they agreed to give up their Florida lands in exchange for lands west of the [[Mississippi River]] in [[Indian Territory]]. According to legend, Osceola stabbed the treaty with his knife, although there are no contemporary reports of this.<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|87–89}} Donald L. Fixico, an American Indian historian, says he made a research trip to the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] to see the original Treaty of Fort Gibson (also known as the Treaty of Payne's Landing), and that upon close inspection, he observed that it had "a small triangular hole shaped like the point of a knife blade."<ref name="Fixico2017">{{cite book |first=Donald L. |last=Fixico |title='That's What They Used to Say': Reflections on American Indian Oral Traditions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYc3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |date=2017 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-5928-7 |page=79}}</ref>

Five of the most important Seminole chiefs, including [[Micanopy]] of the Alachua Seminole, did not agree to removal. In retaliation, the US Indian agent, [[Wiley Thompson]], declared that those chiefs were deposed from their positions. As US relations with the Seminole deteriorated, Thompson forbade the sale of guns and ammunition to them. Osceola, a young warrior rising to prominence, resented this ban. He felt it equated the Seminole with [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]], who were forbidden by law to carry arms.<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|82–85}}

Thompson considered Osceola to be a friend and gave him a rifle. Osceola had a habit of barging into Thompson's office and shouting complaints at him. On one occasion Osceola quarreled with Thompson, who had the warrior locked up at [[Fort King]] for two nights until he agreed to be more respectful. In order to secure his release, Osceola agreed to sign the Treaty of Payne's Landing and to bring his followers into the fort. After his humiliating imprisonment, Osceola secretly prepared vengeance against Thompson.<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|90}}

On December 28, 1835, Osceola, with the same rifle Thompson gave him, killed the Indian agent. Osceola and his followers shot six others outside Fort King, while another group of Seminole ambushed and killed a column of US Army, more than 100 troops, who were marching from [[Fort Brooke]] to Fort King. Americans called this event the [[Dade Massacre]]. These nearly simultaneous attacks catalyzed the [[Second Seminole War]] with the United States.<ref>Mishall, John and Mary Lou Mishall (2004). ''The Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict''. University Press of Florida. {{ISBN|0-8130-2715-2}}. pp. 90–91, 95–97.</ref><ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|102–8}}

In April 1836, Osceola led a band of warriors in an attempt to expel U.S. forces from [[Fort Cooper State Park|Fort Cooper]]. The fortification was built on the west bank of Lake Holathikaha as an outpost for actions against the local Seminole population.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Messersmith |first1=Jeanne |title=Fort Cooper Days Coming Up |url=https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/local/fort-cooper-days-coming-up/article_94d659e6-f8eb-53cc-8ec0-29639eeb67d3.html |access-date=15 March 2023 |work=Chronicle Online |language=en}}</ref> Despite running low on food, the U.S. garrison had enough gunpowder and ammunition to keep the Seminoles from taking the fort before reinforcements arrived.<ref>{{cite web |title=More About History |url=https://thefriendsoffortcooper.com/?page_id=1305 |publisher=Friends of Fort Cooper |access-date=15 March 2023}}</ref>

== Capture and death ==
[[File:Osceola of Florida, Drawn on Stone by Geo. Catlin, from his Original Portrait WDL180.png|thumb|left|200px|Osceola of  Florida, Drawn on Stone by Geo. Catlin, from his Original Portrait]]

[[File:Fort Moultrie National Monument - 5.jpeg|thumb|left|200px|Osceola's grave at [[Fort Moultrie]]]]

On October 21, 1837, Osceola and 81 of his followers were captured by General [[Joseph Marion Hernández|Joseph Hernández]] on the orders of General [[Thomas Jesup]], under a [[white flag of truce]], when they went for peace talks to [[Fort Peyton]] near [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]].<ref name="House">{{cite book |author=United States Congress. House |title=House Documents, Otherwise Publ. as Executive Documents: 13th Congress, 2d Session-49th Congress, 1st Session |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4IkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA15-PA6 |page=6}}</ref><ref name=Wickman />{{rp|25}} <ref name="Reilly2011">{{cite book |first=Edward J. |last=Reilly |title=Legends of American Indian Resistance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DSHm09UebwC&pg=PA104 |year=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-35209-6 |page=104}}</ref> He was initially imprisoned at [[Fort Marion]] in St. Augustine, before being transferred to [[Fort Moultrie]] on [[Sullivans Island]], outside [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. Osceola's capture by deceit caused a national uproar. General Jesup's treacherous act and the administration were condemned by many congressional leaders and vilified by international press. Jesup suffered a loss of reputation that lasted for the rest of his life; his betrayal of the truce flag has been described as "one of the most disgraceful acts in American military history."<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|221, 218}}

That December, Osceola and other Seminole prisoners were moved to Fort Moultrie. They were visited by various townspeople.<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|213–215}} The portraitists [[George Catlin]], W. M. Laning, and Robert John Curtis, the three artists known to have painted Osceola from life, persuaded the Seminole leader to allow his portrait to be painted despite his being gravely ill.<ref name="Mahon1991" />{{rp|217–218}} <ref name=Wickman />{{rp|115–116}} Osceola and Curtis developed a close friendship, conversing at length during the painting sessions; Curtis painted two oil portraits of Osceola, one of which remains in the [[Charleston Museum]].<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|231}} These paintings have inspired numerous widely distributed prints and engravings, and [[Cigar store Indian|cigar store figures]] were also based on them.

Osceola, having suffered from chronic malaria since 1836, and having acute [[tonsillitis]] as well, developed an [[abscess]].<ref name="Hatch 2012" />{{rp|233}} When he was close to death, as his last wish he asked the attending doctor, [[Frederick Weedon]], that his body be returned to Florida, his home, so that he might rest in peace.<ref name="Unworthy Republic">{{cite book |author=Claudio Saunt |title=Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory |date=2020 |publisher=National Geographic Books |isbn=978-0393609844 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDNkxQEACAAJ}}</ref> He died of [[Peritonsillar abscess|quinsy]]<ref name=Wickman />{{rp|144}} on January 30, 1838, three months after his capture.<ref name="Shapiro2000" /><ref name="Bates2015">{{cite book |first=Christopher G. |last=Bates |title=The Early Republic and Antebellum America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWLxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA777 |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-45740-4 |page=777}}</ref> Rather than honoring his last wish, Weedon cut off Osceola's head and buried his decapitated body, displaying the Seminole leader's head in his drug store. During the time Weedon had the head in his possession, he would often place it in the bedroom of his three sons as punishment for misbehavior.<ref name="stars.library.ucf.edu">{{Cite web| title=The Disappearance of the Head of Osceola | url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2544&context=fhq | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111031702/https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2544&context=fhq | archive-date=2022-11-11}}</ref> Weedon would later give the head to his son-in-law, Dr. Daniel Whitehurst, who gifted the head to [[Valentine Mott]] in 1843. Mott placed it in his Surgical and Pathological Museum, where it was presumed destroyed in a fire in 1866.<ref name="Unworthy Republic" /><ref name="stars.library.ucf.edu"/>

== Legacy and honors ==
* Numerous landmarks and geographic locations have been named in his honor, such as counties in [[Osceola County, Florida|Florida]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Publications of the Florida Historical Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZQ-AAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA33 |year=1908 |publisher=Florida Historical Society |page=33}}</ref> [[Osceola County, Iowa|Iowa]],<ref>{{cite book |author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company |title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA163 |year=1908 |page=163}}</ref> and [[Osceola County, Michigan|Michigan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/AccessMaterials/Bibliographies/MichiganLocalHistory/Pages/osceola.aspx |publisher=[[Clarke Historical Library]], [[Central Michigan University]] |title=Bibliography on Osceola County |access-date=January 29, 2013}}</ref>
* The town of [[Osceola, New York]], is named for him. The name was selected by Anna Maria Jay, the granddaughter of [[John Jay]].<ref>''Journal and Republican'' and ''Lowville Times'', Thursday, May 27, 1909</ref>
* [[Osceola, Arkansas]], one of two county seats in Mississippi County
* [[Osceola, Indiana]], a town
* [[Osceola, Iowa]], county seat of Clarke County
* [[Osceola, Missouri]], county seat of St. Clair County<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofosceolamo.com/local-history.html | title=Local History |date=2013 |website=City of Osceola, MO |language=en |access-date=September 3, 2024 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
* [[Osceola, Nebraska]], county seat of Polk County
* [[Osceola, Wisconsin]], a village
* [[Osceola Township, Renville County, Minnesota]]
* Florida's [[Osceola National Forest]] was named for him.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-seminole-warrior-cloaked-in-defiance-60004300/ |title=A Seminole Warrior Cloaked in Defiance |last=Edwards |first=Owen |date=October 2010 |website=Smithsonian |language=en |access-date=December 25, 2018 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[Mount Osceola]], located in the [[White Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains]] of [[New Hampshire]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkKBhQVyid8C&q=%2522mount%2520osceola%2522%2520seminole%2520chief&pg=PP174 |title=Place Names of the White Mountains |last1=Julyan |first1=Robert Hixson |last2=Julyan |first2=Mary |publisher=University Press of New England |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-87451-638-8 |language=en}}</ref>
* Two lakes in Florida named Osceola, one located [[Lake Osceola (Coral Gables)|on the University of Miami campus]] in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Goodman |first1=Allison |title=The depths of Lake Osceola |url=http://www.themiamihurricane.com/2011/10/16/the-depths-of-lake-osceola/ |website=The Miami Hurricane |date=October 16, 2011 |access-date=December 5, 2017}}</ref> and [[Lake Osceola|another in Winter Park]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Guide to Historic Winter Park, Florida |last1=Rajtar |first1=Steve |last2=Rajtar |first2=Gayle Prince |publisher=History Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59629-436-3 |page=11 |language=en}}</ref>
* Battery Osceola at [[Fort Taylor]], [[Key West, Florida]], is named after him.<ref>[http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Taylor_(2) Fort Taylor, Key West at FortWiki.com]</ref>
* Osceola Hall, a dormitory at [[Florida State University]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nT3fAAAAQBAJ&q=%2522osceola%2520hall%2522%2520florida%2520state%2520university%2520seminole%2520chief&pg=PA60 |title=Florida: A History |last=Jahoda |first=Gloria |year=1984 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-24367-3 |pages=59–60 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Ocilla, Georgia|Ocilla]], a small town in southern [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], may have been named after him.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article39641307.html |title=She seemed to vanish without a trace, and her disappearance baffled a nation |last=Kovac Jr. |first=Joe |date=October 17, 2015 |work=[[The Telegraph (Macon)|The Telegraph]] |access-date=December 26, 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
* The [[World War II]] [[Liberty Ship]] {{SS|Chief Osceola}} was named in his honor.
* The U.S. Navy has named [[USS Osceola (YT-129)|three vessels]] for him.
* Osceola is a [[Osceola and Renegade|symbol]] for Florida State University athletic teams.

== Descendants ==
* Chairman [[Joe Dan Osceola]] (1936–2019), ambassador of the Seminole Tribe, was Osceola's great-great-great grandson.

== Relics ==
According to the oral tradition of his descendants, Dr. [[Frederick Weedon]] was alone with the body and cut off Osceola's head, placing it in the coffin with the scarf that Osceola had customarily worn being wrapped around the neck, and immediately before the funeral ceremony removed the head and shut the coffin's lid.<ref name=Wickman />{{rp|172}} Weedon kept the head for himself, as well as other objects belonging to Osceola, including a brass pipe and a silver [[concho (ornament)|concho]].<ref name="Milanich2004">Milanich, Jerald T. (January/February 2004) [http://archive.archaeology.org/0401/abstracts/osceola.html "Osceola's Head"], ''Archaeology''</ref><ref name=Wickman />{{rp|212}} Capt. Pitcairn Morrison, the U.S. Army officer in charge of the Seminole prisoners who had been transported with Osceola, made a last-minute decision to take other items belonging to Osceola. The historical evidence suggests that it was Morrison who decided that a [[death mask]] should be made,<ref name=Wickman />{{rp|174}} a European-American custom at the time for prominent persons, but it was done without the permission of Osceola's people. An acquaintance of Morrison, Dr. Benjamin Strobel, a native of Charleston, made a plaster cast of Osceola's face and upper torso. The process of "pulling" the first mold, which was soon displayed in the window of a Charleston drugstore, destroyed the original cast.<ref name=Wickman />{{rp|178}} Weedon apparently preserved Osceola's head in a large jar of alcohol and took it to St. Augustine,<ref name=Wickman />{{rp|181}} where he exhibited it in the family drugstore.<ref name=Wickman />{{rp|187}}

Captain Pitcairn Morrison sent the death mask and some other objects collected by Weedon to an army officer in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]. By 1885, the death mask and some of Osceola's belongings were being held in the [[anthropology]] collection of the [[Smithsonian Institution]]. The death mask is currently housed in the Luce collection of the [[New-York Historical Society]].<!--"New-York" with a hyphen is how it is spelled on the New-York Historical Society's website, as was the practice when the society was established.--><ref name="NYHS2016">{{cite web |title=Seminole Chief Osceola (1804–1838) |url=http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/seminole-chief-osceola-1804-1838 |website=www.nyhistory.org |publisher=New-York Historical Society |access-date=May 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603192119/http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/seminole-chief-osceola-1804-1838 |archive-date=June 3, 2016 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1966, [[Miami]] businessman Otis W. Shriver claimed he had dug up Osceola's grave and put his bones into a bank vault to rebury them at a tourist site at the [[Rainbow Springs]] in [[Marion County, Florida|Marion County]]. Shriver traveled around the state in 1967 to gather support for his project. [[Archaeologist]]s later proved that Shriver had dug up animal remains; Osceola's body was still in its coffin.

In 1979, the [[Seminole Nation of Oklahoma]] bought Osceola's [[bandolier]] and other personal items from a [[Sotheby's]] auction. Because of the chief's significance, over time some people have created forgeries of Osceola's belongings. Rumors persist that his embalmed head has been found in various locations.

[[File:WILLIAMS(1837) Florida - OSEOLA (Osceola).jpg|thumb|right|Osceola (1836 lithograph)]]
[[File:Osceola Kenney and Hall.jpeg|thumb|right|Osceola (1838 lithograph)]]

== Related media ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=December 2018}}
{{in popular culture|date=January 2020}}

=== Literature ===
* ''Osceola'' (1858) by [[Thomas Mayne Reid]]
* ''In the Wilds of Florida: A Tale of Warfare and Hunting'' (1880) by William Henry G. Kingston
* "Osceola" (1889), a poem by [[Walt Whitman]], featured in ''[[Leaves of Grass]]''.<ref>Whitman, Walt (1889 or 1890) [http://www.whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/transcriptions/yal.00037.html Osceola]. whitmanarchive.org</ref>
* "Osceola" was an early pen name used by Danish author [[Karen Blixen]] (1885–1962), known primarily for her novels and stories set in Kenya during the colonial period. She also published as Isak Dinesen.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000042420,00.html |title=Isak Dinesen |work=Penguin Classics Authors |publisher=Penguin Classics |access-date=2012-01-05 |archive-date=March 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306050356/http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000042420,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''War Chief of the Seminoles'' (1954), a children's book by May McNeer, is part of the Landmark Books series.
* ''Osceola, Häuptling der Seminole-Indianer'' (1963) by Ernie Hearting, is a German novel featuring Osceola and based on historical sources.
* In the alternate history novel ''[[The Probability Broach]]'' (1979), part of the [[North American Confederacy]] Series by [[L. Neil Smith]], the [[United States]] becomes a [[Libertarianism|Libertarian State]] after a successful [[Whiskey Rebellion]] and execution of [[George Washington]]. The figure of Osceola is featured as the ninth President of the [[North American Confederacy]], serving from 1842 to 1848.
* ''[[Tourist Season]]'' (1986) and ''[[Nature Girl (novel)|Nature Girl]]'' (2006), mystery novels by [[Carl Hiaasen]], each give an abbreviated history of Osceola's capture and imprisonment, as well as that of his contemporary, [[Thlocklo Tustenuggee]].
* ''[[Light a Distant Fire]]'' (1988) by [[Lucia St. Clair Robson]]
* ''Captive'' (1996), a historical-fiction book by [[Heather Graham Pozzessere|Heather Graham]], features Osceola as one of the protagonists.
* ''Freedom Land: A Novel'' (2003) by Martin L. Marcus. In this version, Osceola was the son of a respected British officer and his Creek consort.

=== Films ===
* In the mid-1930s [[Nathanael West]] wrote a 17-page film treatment entitled ''Osceola'' but failed to sell it to a studio.
* ''[[Seminole (film)|Seminole]]'' (1953), highly fictionalized American western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring [[Anthony Quinn]] as Osceola.
* ''[[Naked in the Sun]]'' (1957), the life of Osceola and the Second Seminole War, starring [[James Craig (actor)|James Craig]] as Osceola.
* ''Osceola&nbsp;– Die rechte Hand der Vergeltung'' (1971) by Konrad Petzold, an East German western with [[Gojko Mitić]] as the Native American leader.

=== Television, music, sports, and art ===
* The [[Sedgeford Hall Portrait]] (c. 1830), once thought to be of [[Pocahontas]] and her mixed-race son, Thomas Rolfe, is now believed to be of Pe-o-ka (a wife of Osceola) and their son.<ref>Navab, Valorie. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160301184742/http://content.yudu.com/A2702l/Summer2013/resources/40.htm American Indian Summer 2013], Smithsonian Institution.</ref>
* 1957 ''Jim Bowie'' TV-series episode "Osceola." When the army attempts to remove the Seminole Indians from their own lands to a less desirable tract, [[James Bowie|Bowie]] steps in on their behalf.
* The song "[[Seminole Wind (song)|Seminole Wind]]", the title track of the album by the same name by [[John Anderson (musician)|John Anderson]], refers to hearing the ghost of Osceola. The song has been covered by [[James Taylor]] and Gravemist.
* [[Osceola and Renegade]] are mascots of the [[Florida State Seminoles]] football team.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wieberg |first=Steve |url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2005-08-23-fsu-mascot-approved_x.htm |title=NCAA allowing Florida State to use its Seminole mascot |work=USA Today |access-date=October 11, 2011 |date=August 23, 2005 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120411065609/https://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2005-08-23-fsu-mascot-approved_x.htm |archive-date= April 11, 2012}}</ref> The use of Osceola and Renegade as a symbol was approved by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.<ref>{{cite web |title=Resolution by the Tribal Council of the Seminole Tribe of Florida |url=https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/diginole/FSU_HPUA2014_034_B03_F01 |website=FSU Digital Repository |publisher=Florida State University |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}
<ref>{{cite web |title=Resolution by the Tribal Council of the Seminole Tribe of Florida |url=https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/diginole/FSU_HPUA2014_034_B03_F01 |website=FSU Digital Repository |publisher=Florida State University |access-date=9 November 2025}}</ref>
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Osceola}}
* {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Osceola|short=x}}
* {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Osceola|year=1900|short=x|notaref=x}}

{{Muscogee}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1804 births]]
[[Category:1838 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from malaria]]
[[Category:Native American leaders]]
[[Category:19th-century Seminole people]]
[[Category:Native Americans of the Seminole Wars]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in South Carolina]]
[[Category:Deaths from peritonsillar abscess]]
[[Category:American people who died in prison custody]]
[[Category:Prisoners who died in United States military detention]]
[[Category:Native Americans imprisoned at Fort Marion]]
[[Category:Muscogee people]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:Native American people from Florida]]