102 - Billie Bowlegs III - Ortona, Florida, USA
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BoomersOTR
N 26° 49.028 W 081° 18.141
17R E 469953 N 2966217
Grave of Billie Bowlegs III, Seminole Elder and Historian of the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
Waymark Code: WMZNHD
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 12/08/2018
Views: 2
Billie Bowlegs III was a mixed race Seminole whose father was of African American decent and known as a "Black Seminole." His mother was a Seminole of the Snake Clan and a daughter of Osceola making Billie his grandson. He was given the name Billie Fewell by his father and was also known as Cofehapkee from the Seminole.
As an adult, he renamed himself after Billy Bowlegs II also known as Holata Micco, the famous Seminole chief who fought in the Second and Third Seminole wars and later was sent to the Oklahoma Indian Territory. A Tampa Tribune news article dated September 17, 1961 stated that Billy Bowlegs I was his great-grand uncle.
In the late 1800's Billie met James Mallory and Minnie Moore Wilson who were instrumental in the development of the Indian Reservations in Florida for the Seminole. It was Billie's teachings of the Seminole culture and history that enabled Mallory and Wilson to gain approval in 1913 by the Florida state legislature for a 100,000 acre reservation in the Everglades. Later in 1917 Mallory and Wilson testified in hearings on the Seminole's behalf to the federal government. In each case it was Billie's sharing of Seminole history and culture that enabled them to represent the Seminole so accurately. After the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation was established near Lake Okeechobee in Glades County he moved there until his death at the age of 102. He was buried in the Ortona Cemetery in Glades County just 3 days before his 103rd birthday.
Location of Headstone: Ortona Cemetery, Block R, Southeast corner.
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