Chief Old Billy Bowlegs

Also Called

Chief Halpatter Tustenuggee Micco  or Chief Alligator

Born 1795 Alabama, Died 1858 Oklahoma

    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 Oklahoma. 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 - Alabama                  Seminole 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 did many oil paintings of Native Americans in the early 1800, and many were done of the Seminole Indians.  Halpatter Micco and, and Osceola were not Seminoles, they came from Alabama, just like most of the others.  Some came from Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and many other states.

      The Seminole came out of the Creek and the Chickamauga, and the Chickamauga being made up of the Shawnee, Chickasaw, Choctaws, Creeks and Chickamauga Cherokee  and some other tribes.  The war started in 1756 against the United State, and the fight that Dragging Canoe started for the  home lands of our people .

     The word Seminole means (renegade), they were not before, and came together as one from all the others that make up the Chickamauga Cherokee under Dragging Canoe that in the end moved into Florida and kept fighting for our home lands.

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Creek Indians

          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.