Chief Old Billy
Bowlegs was the War Chief for King Phillip of Eufaula Town in the Creek Nation in Alabamaon. He was born in 1795 and died in 1858
In the early war against the United State he was made War Chief over all the Clans and Bands in Alabama.
Before this time they had been fighting among themselves. Billy Powell
(Osceola) came from the same parts of Alabama,
from the Chattahoochee River(Black Waters) over to the Black Warriors River. Osceola means Black Waters
or Dark Waters. Billy Powell (Osceola) was never a Chief in Alabama,
but his mother was the child of a Chief. When Old Billy Bowlegs was forced to
move his people into Florida his
name was changed to Chief Alligator, and Lake City,
Florida was called Alligator before it
became known as Lake City.
Chief Old Billy Bowlegs always tried to
get along with the white people in Alabama,
but as time went by, the whites made it very hard to get along with them. There
was a run in that took place at Fort Mitchell, Alabama,
parts of the old fort are still there today and the National Creek Indian Park and Cemetery, the Block House at the fort. When Old Chief Billy Bowleg s became
War Chief over all the Clans he made the Indian Creek Band the keeper of the
history and rear guard over the old, the women and children. Indian Creek was
found running off the Big Sandy Creek about fifty (50) miles west of Fort
Mitchell, Alabama. Pole Cat
Spring’s is found in Choctaw County in west Alabama and Indian
Spring’s is found just west of Indian Creek Village.
People have always mixed up Chief Holato
Micco (young Chief Billy Bowlegs), born 1810
a Seminole Indian in Florida and died 1864 in Oklahoma, who was known for the
Chief Billy Bowlegs War in Florida.
It is true that our Chief Billy Bowlegs from Alabama changed his name to Chief Alligator when he went to Florida to join the fight alongside of the Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs.
Here is a picture of the two War Chiefs.
Florida and Creek Chief Billy Bowlegs - AlabamaSeminole Chief Billy Bowlegs
The only picture of Halpatter Micco is not
really a picture, it was an oil painting done by a man named Carton. He
oil paintings of Native Americans in the early 1800, and many were done of
Seminole Indians. Halpatter Micco and, and Osceola were not Seminoles,
came from Alabama, just like most of the others. Some came from Georgia, North
Carolina, Tennessee and many other states.
Seminole came out of the Creek and
the Chickamauga, and the Chickamauga being made up of the Shawnee,
Choctaws, Creeks and Chickamauga Cherokee and some other tribes. The
war started in 1756 against the United State, and the fight that
started for the home lands of our people .
word Seminole means (renegade), they were
not before, and came together as one from all the others that make up
Chickamauga Cherokee under Dragging Canoe that in the end moved into
kept fighting for our home lands.
Click here to purchase this can cooler and support our tribe.
The ending of the Creek Indian Wars
and falling of The Red Lance Warriors at Horseshoe Bend, Chief Billy Bow Legs
wishes to make sure that history and lifestyle of the Creek Indians would not
disappear from the face of Mother Earth. So he and other chiefs from the
Southern Wolf Clans of the Creek Chickamaugan Indians formed a special band of
Indians that would live only to save and teach the history of the people.
For over 190 years now, the Southern
Wolf Clan of the Chickamaugan Creek Indians and our counterparts, the
Chickamauga Cherokee Indians, have carried on thehistory and lifestyle of our forefathers.