{{Short description|19th-century Seminole chief and military leader}} {{About|the Seminole chief of the 2nd and 3rd Seminole Wars |the Bowlegs from the 1st Seminole War|Bolek|the Civil War Billy Bowlegs|Sonuk Mikko|a later tribal elder|Billy Bowlegs III|other uses of the name Bowlegs|Bowlegs (disambiguation){{!}}Bowlegs}}{{Infobox officeholder | embed = | name = Billy Bowlegs | native_name = Holata Micco (Alligator Chief) | native_name_lang = | image = Billy Bowlegs in Washington D.C.png | image_size = | alt = | caption = Billy Bowlegs during his visit to Washington, D.C. in 1852 | nickname = | office = | term_start = | term_end = | predecessor = | successor = | birth_name = | birth_date = c. 1810 | birth_place = Paynes Prairie, Florida | death_date = c. 1859 (aged 48-49) | death_place = Oklahoma, United States | death_cause = | resting_place = | known_for = | battles = | office2 = | party = | education = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relations = | blank1 = Mother tongue | data1 = Muscogee | module = | signature = | footnotes = }} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
'''Holata Micco''' (a Muscogee name translated as '''Alligator Chief''', also spelled ''Halpatter-Micco'', ''Halbutta Micco'', ''Halpuda Mikko''; known in English as '''Chief Billy Bowlegs''' or '''Billy Bolek'''; {{circa|1810}} – 1859)<ref>[http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/bios/bowlegs.htm "Chief Billy Bowlegs"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207073510/http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/bios/bowlegs.htm |date=February 7, 2017 }}, ''Reclaiming the Everglades: Everglades Biographies'', Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials, Florida International University</ref><ref name="Drake1872">{{cite book|author=Francis Samuel Drake|title=Dictionary of American Biography, Including Men of the Time: Containing Nearly Ten Thousand Notices of Persons of Both Sexes, of Native and Foreign Birth, who Have Been Remarkable, Or Prominently Connected with the Arts, Sciences, Literature, Politics, Or History of the American Continent ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSwEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA111|access-date=November 16, 2012|year=1872|publisher=J.R. Osgood|pages=111–}}</ref> was a leader of the Seminoles in Florida during the Second Seminole War and was the remaining Seminole's most prominent chief during the Third Seminole War, when he led the Seminoles' last major resistance against the United States government (not to be confused with Halpatter Tustenuggee). With the possibilities of military victory dwindling, he finally agreed to relocate with his people to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) in 1858. As part of the settlement, he was paid $6,500 plus $1,000 each for the subchiefs and $100 each for the women and children who went with him.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5H_OC-xMTjgC&pg=PA353 |page=353 |title=My Life in the Old Army: The Reminiscences of Abner Doubleday : from the Collections of the New-York Historical Society |author=Abner Doubleday |publisher=TCU Press |year=1998|isbn=978-0-87565-185-9 }}</ref> Several sources claim that he is buried at the Fort Gibson National Cemetery, but it is disputed whether the grave marked "Captain Billy Bowlegs" is actually his or that of a different Billy Bowlegs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ruth |first=Kent |date=1984-07-29 |title=We'd Like to Find Out Where Billy Bowlegs Was Buried |url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1984/07/29/wed-like-to-find-out-where-billy-bowlegs-was-buried/62795489007/ |access-date=2024-09-27 |website=The Oklahoman |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Early life and Seminole Wars== left|thumb|Billy Bowlegs, 1858 Bowlegs was born into a family of hereditary chiefs descended from Cowkeeper of the Oconee tribe of the Seminole in the village of Cuscowilla on the Alachua savannah (present-day Payne's Prairie, near Micanopy, Florida). His father's name was Secoffee, while it is thought that the chief Micanopy was his uncle.<ref>Porter, K. W. (1967). Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) in the Seminole Wars (Part I). The Florida Historical Quarterly, 45(3), 219–242. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30140164, pg. 220</ref> The surname "Bowlegs" may be an alternate spelling of Bolek, a preceding Seminole chief. (A story that he had bowlegs from riding horses is unsubstantiated.)
Although Bowlegs signed the Treaty of Payne's Landing of 1832, he refused to leave Florida. He wasn't well-noted at the beginning of the Second Seminole War (roughly, 1835 to 1842).
On July 7, 1837, it is alleged that Bowlegs gave orders for the Wild's family of Ware County, Georgia to be massacred.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Savannah Morning News 28 Jan 1894, page 3 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/852567147/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> After the attack, he and his warriors returned to the Florida Territory after spending some time on Billy's Island,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The History of Billy's Island in Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia |url=https://traveltips.usatoday.com/history-billys-island-okefenokee-swamp-georgia-55056.html |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Travel Tips - USA Today |language=en}}</ref> in the Okefenokee Swamp, evading justice.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1896-12-16 |title=Waycross- what the Indians did after killing Wilde’s family. Billy Bowleggs Island and fate. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-waycross-what-the/24949478/ |access-date=2024-01-19 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |pages=8}}</ref>
After the capture (under a flag of truce offered by Gen. Thomas Jesup) and subsequent deaths of Osceola<ref>[http://www.semtribe.com/history/OsceolaandAbiaka.aspx Osceola and Abiaka] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905054913/http://www.semtribe.com/History/OsceolaandAbiaka.aspx |date=September 5, 2012 }}, Seminole Tribe</ref> and Micanopy, amidst the loss of other prominent Seminole chiefs, Bowlegs and his band of 200 warriors became some of the most prominent fighters surviving at the time hostilities ended on August 14, 1842. To impress and awe the Seminole chiefs, the US government brought Bowlegs to Washington, D.C. to underline the power of the United States.
Bowlegs and his band lived in relative peace until 1855 (see the crisis of 1849). A group of army engineers and surveyors were ordered into his territory in southwestern Florida, where they destroyed crops and other property in the course of building forts. Some historians have viewed these actions as intentional provocation to make Bowlegs react, so the settlers would have a reason to force the Seminole out. If so, the provocation worked: Bowlegs led his warriors in sporadic attacks against settlers for the next few years, in what is known as the Third Seminole War or the 'Billy Bowlegs War." The Army was unable to subdue his guerrilla warfare.
==Relocation== [[File:Karl Ferdinand Wimar - Chief Billy Bowlegs.jpg|thumb|''Chief Billy Bowlegs'' by Karl Ferdinand Wimar, 1861]] In early 1858, Chief Wild Cat of the Western Seminole tribe was brought back from Indian Territory to convince Bowlegs to relocate voluntarily. The US government offered Bowlegs $10,000 and each of his chiefs $1,000 if they did so. Warriors and non-warriors were offered less. They initially refused but later that year, the band of 123 agreed to relocation. Billy's Creek in Fort Myers, Florida is named after Bowlegs as this was the spot where he surrendered in 1858.<ref>McCarthy, K. (2012). ''Caloosahatchee River Guidebook''. Pineapple Press. pg. 83</ref>
In May, Bowlegs and his followers arrived in New Orleans, en route to Arkansas and their new home in the Indian Territory. A journalist described the chief as having "two wives, one son, five daughters, and a hundred thousand dollars in hard cash."<ref>''Harpers Weekly,'' June 12, 1858. [http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/Florida/docs/b/bowlegs.htm on-line version]</ref> After reaching Indian Territory, Bowlegs became a leading chief there. He and his daughters became prominent land holders.
==Other "Billy Bowlegs"== Sonuk Mikko, aka Billy Bowlegs, gained fame as a captain in the Union Army during the American Civil War.<ref>John D. Spencer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QhdBmtT5a7kC&dq=So-nuk-mek-ko&pg=PA46 ''The American Civil War in the Indian Territory'']{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Osprey Publishing, 2006, {{ISBN|1-84603-000-5}}, p. 46</ref> Some historical sources erred in conflating Holato Micco and the later Sonuk Mikko, who both were called Billy Bowlegs.<ref>Porter, Kenneth, [http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=fhq;idno=SN00154113_0045_004;sid=2ceaee55345672c1d41e93b0fe3700e0;rgn=div1;view=text;cc=fhq;a=45;node=SN00154113_0045_004%3A6 "Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) in the Civil War]{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}," ''Florida Historical Quarterly'', Volume XLV, No. 4, April 1967.</ref><ref>[http://www.npg.si.edu/col/native/bowlegs.htm Billy Bowlegs] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108092238/http://www.npg.si.edu/col/native/bowlegs.htm |date=November 8, 2005 }}, National Portrait Gallery</ref>thumb|Lithograph of Bowlegs
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Billy Bowlegs}} *[http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0921270.html "Billy Bowlegs"], infoplease.com *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110523222253/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v033/v033p512.pdf "Billy Bowlegs"], Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 33, 1955
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowlegs, Billy}} Category:1810s births Category:1859 deaths Category:People from Micanopy, Florida Category:19th-century Seminole people Category:Chiefs of the Seminole Category:Native Americans of the Seminole Wars Category:Native American tribal government officials in Indian Territory