SW072 Osceola‘s Treaty Rejection, Assassination of Indian Agent Gain Him Enduring Notoriety

After 71 episodes, this week we finally get to Osceola. It won't be the last time. 

Osceola, known sometimes by his American name Billy Powell, is many things in the American imagination. He was neither a chief nor a war chief but more of a sub-chief, with a small cadre of Indians under his command. He DID stab the treaty with his knife, no? Everybody said he did. Great Indian chiefs always stab their knives into unfair treaties, right? Some say that if he did not stab a treaty, then he should have. 

So, if he didn't stab the treaty, was there any other reason why was he influential? Why is he often the only Seminole a person-in-the-street can name? What did he do to gain such lasting notoriety? In short, what do we know as fact about Osceola? 

Jesse Marshall, historian and autodidact, returns to describe what we know about Osceola. He explains, in his view, why the Army and the U.S. Federal government merely sought to remove Osceola to the Oklahoma Territory rather than try him in court for the murder of Indian Agent Wiley Thompson. And he tells why Osceola was wary of being sent to Oklahoma Territory, but not because of his shooting of Thompson. Listen to find out why.

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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