34 HL'NTIX(J AND FISHING IN FLORIDA. 



them the Everghides to Hve in forever, and they do not feel kindly 

 towards the white men who are gradually penetrating further and 

 further into what they consider to be their domain. 



The names of the following war chiefs, of whom I have given a 

 brief biography, are remembered by many of the present generation 

 of Florida Indians. 



OSCEOLA, war chief of the Seminole tribe. He was born about 

 the year 1803, and was the son of an English trader named Powell, 

 his mother being a daughter of a Seminole chief. He was also 

 called Assini Yahola and Powell, which was the surname of the 

 white man who married his mother. Osceola signifies the rising 

 sun. The grandfather of Osceola w^as a Scotchman who married a 

 Creek woman : his father, therefore, was a half-breed, but his 

 mother was a Creek woman of pure blood. He was born on the 

 Tallapoosa River between the years 1800 and 1806. He was noted 

 as a ball-player and hunter and for running and wrestling. At the 

 time of the Seminole War he was not as great a chief as Jumper, 

 Holata Mico, or Coa Hajo, or Holato Mico, or Red Stick, but rose 

 to prominence during the Indian hostilities. Osceola soon became 

 one of the leading chiefs on account of his activity and success in 

 the Indian War. He had two wives, both of them young. It is 

 claimed he was taken prisoner at last by treachery while holding a 

 conference under a flag of truce, and died of inflammation of the 

 throat in 1838, while confined at Sullivan's Island as a prisoner 

 of war. 



NEAMATHLA was by birth a Creek, and was at one time the 

 most distinguished chief in the Seminole tribe. Neamathla returned 

 to the Creeks about the 3'ear 1826, and sat in council with them in 

 1827. Poke Luste Hajo was at that time one of the principal 

 Florida chiefs. He was one of the seven who was appointed to 

 visit and explore the country offered to the Seminoles west of the 

 Mississippi. His associates were Holata Amathla, Jumper, Charlie 

 Amathla, Coa Hajo Arpiucki, and Yaha Hajo. He was friendly 

 to the whites, and in 1835, '^^ the declaration of war, he was warned 

 to leave the countrv bv the other Indians. Hola x\mathla, Otulke 



