WEBVTT - Ep. 270: Death of a Seminole War Leader 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:09.400 You think, doctor Wickman, that you have spent more time 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.520 looking for his head than anyone in history. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.360 I would be willing to bet you that's the case. 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.599 Oh, you did it like a pro. This is not 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:20.280 a hobby. 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:20.919 Oh No. 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.880 In this episode, we're talking about the tragic death of 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.960 the Seminole War leader Osceola and the bizarre and gruesome 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:35.199 treatment of his corpse after his death. Doctor Patricia Wickman 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:39.160 will masterfully tell the story and the details of her 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.760 personal search for Osiola's head. Our first episode in this 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.520 series was about Osiola's childhood, the second one was about 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.199 his years in the Seminole Wars, and this one is 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.640 about his death, though he still lives vividly in the 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:59.600 American consciousness, and that's really what I'm interested in, trying 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.480 to under stand. Why why are we still talking about 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.280 this guy? And for the record, I do not take 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:11.560 lightly talking about a man's death, no matter how long 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:16.080 ago it was. My intent is not to sensationalize this story, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.560 but rather just understand it the best I can, and 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:24.880 to learn about Ostiola and really maybe learn something about ourselves. 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:28.119 I really doubt that you're going to want to miss 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:29.880 this one. 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.759 From there, most of the people, and there were two 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.399 hundred and thirty seven Indians who had been gathered at 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:41.760 Saint Augustine. From there they were to be taken straight 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:45.800 to Indian Territory in the West. They would be put 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:57.600 on ships, but Ostiola would never leave Fort Moultrie. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.120 My name is Klay Nukem and this is the Bear 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:08.160 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.880 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:16.079 story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:22.440 Presented by FHF gear, American made purpose built hunting and 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:26.280 fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the place. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:39.520 As we explore, The Seminole War roared from eighteen seventeen 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.799 to eighteen fifty eight. That's over forty years. The US 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.120 government was trying to remove all Indians from the newly 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:52.400 acquired Florida territory. This would be America's most expensive Indian War, 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:57.080 costing over fifty million dollars, with over two thousand American 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.040 soldiers losing their lives. And remember to start, there were 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.920 only four to five thousand Seminoles in Florida by eighteen 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.320 thirty nine, more than half of them had been relocated 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.919 to Oklahoma. So at most a couple thousand people staved 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:19.800 off the US army for almost two decades. That's some 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:26.799 serious resistance. And to jump into our story about Osceola, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:32.320 we will start now in late October eighteen thirty seven, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.240 and Ostiola has been captured dishonorably under a flag of 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:41.160 truce near Fort Peyton, seven miles south of Saint Augustine, Florida, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.400 by US military General Thomas Jessop. Who'd pay for the 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.280 mistake of treacherously capturing Ostola the way he did with 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.760 the scrutiny and ire of the American public, who phariseically 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:57.640 rooted for the Seminole leader in this David versus Goliath 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:02.480 battle against the United States. Osceola was the face of 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:07.240 the resistance, a cunning military strategist and assassin known as 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.840 a master of guerrilla warfare in the swamps. To fail 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:15.680 meant certain death or being exiled to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.320 over one thousand miles to the west. The year prior, 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.760 in eighteen thirty six, the first Seminoles were forcibly removed 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:28.400 from Florida to Oklahoma under the legislative power of Andrew 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.960 Jackson's Indian Removal Act of eighteen thirty, which erased all 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.760 the previous treaties and erased the reservation that they had 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.880 made for the Seminoles in Florida. The world of all 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:47.280 the tribes in the East was crumbling. Doctor Patricia Whickman 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.400 of Tallahassee, Florida will now catch us up. Right after 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.800 the capture of Ostiola, you guys remember, but she was 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.720 the state historian of Florida. She lived and worked on 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:01.520 a Seminole reservation in Florida from many years. Though she 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.479 is not a Seminole, she loves them dearly and is 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.599 an expert on their recorded history. I can't say enough 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.480 about this lady. Here we go. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.039 We are seven miles south of Saint Augustine at a 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:21.400 tiny little stockade called Fort Payton, and now they're prisoners. 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.800 The Indians are prisoners, and they're being marched all seven 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:30.000 miles up to Saint Augustine to be put inside the 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.919 Custigo Fort Marion in Saint Augustine. And while they are there, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.760 they're going to be held there. This is late, almost 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.200 the end of October. They're going to be held there 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:45.520 in November and in December, and while they're there, several 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.919 things happen. There is a post surgeon who's attached to 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.840 the army, and he's a local doctor, and his name 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:57.800 is Frederic Whedon. And Frederick Whedon gets to know Osceola. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.599 I certainly couldn't say they become friends, but they become friendly, 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.760 all right. And doctor Whedon and his wife, Mary Wheden 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.880 go over to the fort frequently and take gifts of 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.719 food to Assiola. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.359 Doctor Frederick Wheden is the name that you'll remember, because 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.599 I promise you he's going to be living rent free 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.600 in your head. His father fought in the American Revolution, 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.800 and doctor Whedon himself fought in the War of eighteen twelve. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.520 He became a contract surgeon for the US military after 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.880 his time as an enlisted man. Later we'll discuss if 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.560 he was a man of science or a villain. 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:45.400 In the meantime, the Indians are in very sad circumstances. 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.400 There are people from the town who are going in 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.400 to see them. They want to see the Indians. Unfortunately, 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:58.640 they begin to have problems with measles and it kills 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:03.000 well thirteen fourteen people. Ociola does not get it. He 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.400 doesn't seem to be bothered by measles. But I'm going 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.480 to find out later on that he is bothered by 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.040 one other thing, which is a very serious problem, and 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:17.200 that is lice, all right. And lice, I have learned, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.440 do not occur if you're living in the open, in 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:24.800 the wild. They occur when you're in close confined quarters 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:30.200 with other unsanitary people, in unsanitary concisions as a prisoner 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:35.800 inside a fort. And so Aciola knows that he's defeated, 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.560 and he does not want to go to the West, 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.360 and he says several times that he knows that that 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.160 Charlie Imotola's people are already out there, they've already been 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.520 sent to the West, and they'll have the right to 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:52.120 take revenge on him. 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.240 This is the seminole that he killed, Yes, absolutely, for 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.320 wanting to go out there to emigrate, right, And that's 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.160 the trajectory, like when he gets capped. Sure, the trajectory 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:02.960 is Oklahoma. 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:04.640 Oh, yes, absolutely. 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.000 Conditions in the Florida prison in eighteen thirty seven were rough. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.080 Ocola feared the retribution of members of his own tribe. 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.040 He'd killed a seminole leader because that guy had planned 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.400 to go and take some people to Oklahoma. He was 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.200 burning bridges Osiola was he didn't have a backup plan 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.480 and he had no plans to go to Oklahoma. 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.240 So he knows that there are people who are talking 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:36.480 about escaping, and indeed, while they are there, there is 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:41.559 an escape. And the soldiers themselves report that people from 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.600 the among the Indians had been allowed to go outside 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.560 the fort for four days in order to gather medicine 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.840 or to gather plants. That they're very specific plants that 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.480 these Indians are going after, and the plants are what 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.679 they needed to make medicine, because there is a story 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.160 that circulated among the Indians that they told that they 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:07.679 made medicine inside the fort and they watched the ants, 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.840 and the ants were curling in and out through a 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.240 crack in a wall that was thirteen feet thick at 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.439 the base, and they made themselves with this medicine. They 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.520 made themselves small enough to go out through the crack 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.640 in the wall. Another story that they tell is that 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:30.160 they made medicine to make the water standing in puddles 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:35.200 in the quadrangle rise up as steam, and it made 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.000 it impossible for the soldiers who were guarding the Sallyport 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.680 to see them, and they just literally marched right by 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.319 them and ride out the Sallyport. 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:51.679 I'm fascinated by stories of supernatural activity. I'm not suggesting 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.000 that I believe the Indians shrunk to the size of 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.920 ants and crawled through the crack in the wall, or 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.680 that they had power over the fog, but I can't 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.360 say for sure that they didn't. You know, there's a 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.359 supernatural prison break story in the Bible where an earthquake 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.000 shook loose the doors of the prison where Paul was stayed. 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.920 As I understand it, belief in the supernatural is the 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.720 key to unlocking any potential of its power. Point being 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.920 your bias will be confirmed. If you believe in the supernatural, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.400 there's a high probability that you'll see it. If you don't, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.240 there's a high probability that you never will. It's like 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.720 a self fulfilling prophecy. Most of humanity that has lived 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.560 on planet Earth has had a more robust interaction with 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:45.680 the spirit world than today's average American. For me to 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.160 think that I fully understand all the power, structures and 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.720 laws of the universe with my eyes and my rational 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:56.760 thought is absurd. Science has a lot of great answers. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.680 I am a man of science, but science does not 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:06.599 answer all the questions that we have. But sometimes supernatural 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:12.120 acts play out before us inside the predictable laws of physics. 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:18.120 Now, my personal feeling, after I've read all of this, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.600 I read the US Army report. On this military report, 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:27.160 my feeling is that the soldiers who were on guard 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.680 duty that night, and there really should have been only 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:33.600 two or three. I believe that those soldiers were either 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:38.480 drunk or asleep, or they were partisans who felt sorry 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.320 for the Indians, and I think they let them walk out. 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.720 Captain Pittkiren Morrison was in charge of the guard of 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.239 the Indians at the fort, and he made a decision 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.440 that in order to put them in a more healthy place, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.800 he said, more healthy place, and in order to put 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.840 them someplace where it would be harder for them to escape, 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:13.199 he determined and got permission to take them from Saint Augustine, Florida, 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:18.520 to Charleston. And Charleston Harbor has Fort Moultrie sitting out 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:23.160 in the harbor, and as a consequence, they set out 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:29.040 on the steamer point set and on January first, eighteen 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:34.360 thirty eight, they hit land at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.360 From there most of the people and there were two 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:45.000 hundred and thirty seven Indians who had been gathered at 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:49.360 Saint Augustine. From there they were to be taken straight 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.400 to Indian Territory in the West. They would be put 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:58.760 on ships, but Osciola would never leave Fort Moultrie. 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.360 And the other two hundred and thirty six seminoles settled 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.960 into prison life in South Carolina while waiting to be 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:15.559 shipped to Oklahoma. The next story is one of the 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.320 most bizarre things that you'll hear in this series. When 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.679 I read it, I reread it to confirm what I 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.880 thought that understood. It has to do with what the 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:31.199 generals at Fort Moultrie allowed the prisoners to do while incarcerated. 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.800 There was a play while the Indians were held prisoners 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.800 in Fort Moultrie in eighteen thirty eight. They were taken 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.080 one night to the Dock Street Theater to watch a play. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:46.840 And there was a big deal made out of that, 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.480 and the whole town turned out. 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:49.720 A lot of the town turned out. 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.200 It sounded like normal prison, does it no? Her incarceration, 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.280 Oh no, It took them to a play. That's downtown Charleston. 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.199 That's for Oscola into. 0:13:57.920 --> 0:13:59.320 A play everybody wanted. 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.559 Think it was January sixth I read it just today 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:04.800 January sixth, eighteen thirty eight. 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:06.840 Eighteen thirty eight, that's absolutely right. 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:08.320 Weeks before he died. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:14.040 I went to New York to the Theater Arts Archive 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.800 at Lincoln Center in New York and found a copy 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:20.560 of the play and. 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:22.440 At any Moon the Honeymoon. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.560 They wouldn't allow me to copy it, but I sat 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.520 there and copied the whole thing out, the whole play 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.000 out all right. And I found a theater company in 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.400 Charleston that was willing to put on the play, to 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.040 do a reading of it for us, And I took 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.600 the Indians, the Seminoles to the dock Street Theater and 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:42.880 we had a reading. 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:43.680 Of the Honeymoon. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:44.680 Wow. 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:47.360 I am a. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.640 Florist there very close to Fort Moultrie sent over buckets 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:54.600 of white carnations for. 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.680 The Seminoles as a gift to them, which I thought 0:14:58.720 --> 0:14:59.880 was a very sweet thing to do. 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.840 That is hard to understand. It said that the people 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.720 in the audience gave Ostiola a standing ovation when he 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:14.200 walked into the play. Isn't that wild? And hey, I've 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.360 told you before that doctor Patricia Whitman is next level 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.080 when it comes to her devotion and expertise to her 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.080 area of focus. But I got to say, I have 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.760 never met anyone with any more passion, knowledge and the 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.120 ability to articulate her area of studying more than her. 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:37.600 Here is another interesting thing that happened while Ostiola was 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:38.160 in prison. 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:55.080 He became sicker, and at the same time he was 0:15:55.240 --> 0:16:00.320 besieged by artists who wanted to take his likeness. The 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:05.080 US government contracted with George Catlan, who was the famous 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:09.400 Indian painter, very famous, and sent him down to Fort Moultrie. 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.840 And Robert John Curtis, who was a Charleston artist, were 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.160 the two that I'm sure of who were there. And 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.960 they set up in one of the casemates at either 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.680 end of the room, and Osiola was between them, and 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.960 he dressed himself properly. He dressed as a full warrior 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:34.880 with all his regalia, and he had some effect effectations 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:39.760 that were different than all the other Indians. For instance, 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.600 the black and white Ostrich plumes that he wore in 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.880 his turban. Everybody else wore one or two on the front. 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.040 He wore four or five on the back. He had 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.240 a silver concho. He had a silver pen. He had 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:57.040 a silver mirror, a silver looking glass. 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.880 If you remember our series on Daniel un starting at 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:05.840 episode fourteen, and our episode series on David Crockett starting 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:10.200 at episode one ten, you'll remember that I'm always intrigued 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:15.280 by what the portrait painters said about people. Before photography, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.199 this was the medium of the day that translated the 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.679 character in essence of a human to the world. In 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:25.400 these portrait sessions, people would sit for hours with these artists. 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:30.440 Catlin wrote about his time with Osceola, I want to 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:35.320 read what he said. Commonly called Powell, he is generally 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.800 supposed to be a half breed, the son of a 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.120 white man and a Creek woman. I have painted him 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.280 precisely in the costume in which he stood for his picture, 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.359 even to a string and a trinket. He wore three 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.840 ostrich feathers in his head and a turban made of 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.840 a very colored cotton shawl, and his dress was chiefly 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:01.399 of calicos, with a handsome beadsat or belt around his 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.640 waist and his rifle in his hand. This young man 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:10.040 is no doubt an extraordinary character. He has been for 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.560 some years reputed and doubtlessly looked upon by the Seminoles 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:19.000 as the master's spirit and leader of the tribe. Although 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.240 he is not a chief in stature, he is about 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:27.600 at mediocrity, with an elastic and graceful movement in his face. 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.840 He is good looking, with rather an effeminate smile, but 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.000 of so peculiar a character that the world may be 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:40.280 ransacked over without finding another just like it. In his manners, 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:44.680 and all his movements in company is polite and gentlemanly, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.320 though all his conversation is entirely in his own tongue, 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.879 and his general appearance and actions those of a full 0:18:54.000 --> 0:19:00.199 blooded wild Indian. End of quote. We haven't mentioned it, 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.320 but Ostiola didn't speak much English. Some say that he 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:08.080 spoke some, some said that he spoke none, But we 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.159 don't really know. I don't know what it is, but 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.960 these descriptions by these painters always seemed to get to me. 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.320 With Boone and Ostiola. Their portrait painters were some of 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.159 the last ones to see these guys. Boone died in 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.680 obscurity in Zuri, just months after the only portrait of 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.159 him was ever painted. No Catlan was just one of 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:35.240 many many artists who flocked to Fort Moultrie to paint Ostiola. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.119 The war leader, would only live three days after this 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:45.359 painting was complete. To be noted, if someone comes to 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.840 paint your portrait, you better be ready to meet your maker. 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.880 And so he sat there for them in the heat, 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.160 and then walked out into the cold, and then back 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:03.000 into the heat, and does a consequence, he contracted what 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.560 I think was called quinsy, and today we would call 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.879 it strep throat. And one of the Indians who was 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.919 with them, who was a medicine man, or as the 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.760 whites called him, a prophet, told him that he must 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.960 have nothing to do with white medicine, that they would 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.959 kill him, that this was white man's medicine. And he 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:31.560 even said at one point Dr Whedon that he would 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.200 have let doctor Whedon attend him because he liked him. 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.119 But he knew that he couldn't afford to get the 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.120 ill will of all the other Indians if they saw 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:47.320 him letting a white doctor attend to him. And so 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:52.720 at the end of January eighteen thirty eight, he was 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:56.359 very very ill. At night the doctor went to see him. 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.879 Doctor brus This is just days after Catlin finished his 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.359 very famous painting, the Bassola. I think Catlin finished on 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:06.760 like January twenty sixth or twenty seventh. 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:09.840 It was only four or five days, yes, And Robert 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.760 John Curtis, who's also has a very famous portrait that 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:16.840 I used on the front of my book, all right. 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.560 And he became much much worse Aciola did. And so 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:24.520 the doctor went into him at six o'clock in the 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:29.960 morning and found him almost totally unable to speak. He 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.480 couldn't eat. Both of his wives were there with him, 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:38.240 one on either side, and one of them had his 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:40.000 head laying. 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:41.040 In her lap. 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.479 Slightly after six am, after the second time the doctor 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:52.120 attended him, Osciola died in Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor. 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:06.240 At precisely six point twenty on January thirtieth, eighteen thirty eight, 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:12.840 the Seminole War leader Osceola died. Death is such an interesting, 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:17.359 sacred and bleak moment in a person's life. Riches nor 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:21.399 poverty can separate you from its sting. We do not 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:25.399 know what lies on the other side of death, but 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:31.840 we know there's something. I know there's something. Archaeological evidence 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:35.680 of human burial rituals show us that man has always 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:39.880 struggled with death, and the mysterious exit of the human spirit, 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:45.160 leaving behind an empty cadaver like a locust shedding its exoskeleton, 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:51.240 makes it clear that what was there a human is 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:55.200 no longer there. But in the case of this story, 0:22:55.760 --> 0:23:00.000 Ostiola's death is really just the beginning of the whole news. 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:14.200 Now it would be almost twelve hours before he would 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.199 be buried, and he is buried at Fort Moultrie. That 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:20.680 decision was made, but there are several things that had 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:24.480 to happen during that time. In the first place, there 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:31.280 was only a very small skeleton staff of soldiers stationed 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:34.000 at Fort Moultrie at that moment. Then one of them 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:37.080 had to be sent across the bay to find a 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.720 carpenter in Charleston, so they had to get the coffin 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:45.719 and take it back. Doctor Wheden also put out a 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:50.080 call for doctor Staro, who was a teacher of anatomy 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:54.280 in Charleston, and between them they were able to take 0:23:54.440 --> 0:24:00.360 a plaster cast of Osceola's face and torso. In order 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:03.600 to do that, they had to remove his clothes and 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:06.680 rigor was still setting was setting. 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:08.160 In called the death mask. 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:09.720 Well, I'm going to. 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:11.959 Show you his death mask in a minute, because I 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:14.040 have it. I have one, I'll show you. 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:19.600 Wait a minute. You have a replica of the death 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:25.399 mask of Osceola in your office? Yes, she does, Doctor 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:29.120 Wickman would later take me there to see it. It's 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:33.240 a white plaster cast of the chest, shoulders and face 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:37.480 of the Seminole War leader. The features look strikingly similar 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:43.359 to Catlan's painting, with cheekbones, smooth and almost feminine. I 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:47.359 chose not to record any audio of our conversation while 0:24:47.400 --> 0:24:51.960 looking at it, or taking any photos. As fascinating as 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:55.119 this is, it just didn't feel right to record it, 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:59.480 so I didn't. But I'll never forget it. The original 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:04.240 death masks is now at the Smithsonian. We're leading up 0:25:04.320 --> 0:25:10.439 to the hours before his burial at Fort Moultrie. 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:13.399 And then at the last second, or very nearly the 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:17.240 last second, Captain Morrison sent to them and said that 0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:21.520 he wanted all of Osiola's possessions to be taken from 0:25:21.600 --> 0:25:26.399 him and delivered to Captain Morrison. And this is the 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:31.680 moment at which doctor Whedon decided to take the most 0:25:31.720 --> 0:25:36.600 important specimen that he could possibly take from this famous 0:25:37.119 --> 0:25:40.400 or notorious Indian, depending on what your point of view 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:43.760 about him was he decided to take his head. 0:25:52.240 --> 0:25:54.639 Remember when I told you doctor Whedon's name would be 0:25:54.720 --> 0:25:57.920 living in your head rent free for a while. This 0:25:57.960 --> 0:26:02.920 is why, without permission, hastily done in secret, before they 0:26:03.040 --> 0:26:07.560 nailed the lid on the pine coffin, doctor Whedon amputated 0:26:07.640 --> 0:26:12.719 Ostiola's head. And we're still trying to understand why. 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:16.399 This was not a new idea. As a matter of fact, 0:26:16.520 --> 0:26:19.720 there was a pseudo science that was prevalent in the 0:26:19.800 --> 0:26:24.399 late eighteenth century and the mid nineteenth century called phrenology, 0:26:25.160 --> 0:26:28.360 and it was a pseudo science that believed that by 0:26:28.400 --> 0:26:32.680 studying the bumps on a person's head, you could tell 0:26:32.720 --> 0:26:36.320 what their propensities were. You could tell if they were 0:26:36.760 --> 0:26:42.080 criminals or violent, or romantic, or anything else about them. 0:26:42.480 --> 0:26:45.320 And there were books written about this, showing you how 0:26:45.400 --> 0:26:49.560 to look at ahead, all right, And we know that 0:26:49.720 --> 0:26:52.959 in at least one and possibly two other instances in 0:26:53.000 --> 0:26:57.879 Florida there were officers who had taken heads. So this 0:26:58.160 --> 0:27:01.919 was not new, and there were a lot of people 0:27:01.960 --> 0:27:04.520 who when word finally got out, and it took a 0:27:04.560 --> 0:27:07.719 while to get out on the United States, when they 0:27:07.760 --> 0:27:11.400 found out that doctor Whedon had taken his head. They 0:27:11.400 --> 0:27:13.760 were very unhappy about it. They thought that it was 0:27:13.800 --> 0:27:17.280 a desecration. The Indians had to be kept out and 0:27:17.400 --> 0:27:20.160 kept away from the whole entire thing, because they never 0:27:20.600 --> 0:27:24.280 never would have allowed that. Never, they wouldn't even have 0:27:24.320 --> 0:27:27.800 allowed his clothing to be taken off, because it was 0:27:27.880 --> 0:27:31.560 important in their tradition that a warrior should be buried 0:27:31.600 --> 0:27:35.080 with all of his accouterments, everything that was his should 0:27:35.119 --> 0:27:37.120 go with him. 0:27:37.480 --> 0:27:40.800 Doctor Whedon would take his head, and he and General 0:27:40.840 --> 0:27:44.240