Chief Osceola was arguably the most influential leader of the Seminole Indian tribe. He achieved notoriety by bravely and skillfully leading Seminole warriors in the fight against federal occupation during the Second Seminole War. 

Immorally, Osceola was captured at St. Augustine in 1837 in a controversial encounter: Army troops lured the Seminole leaders into their trap by deceptively using a flag of truce. After his capture, the chief was transferred to a prison cell on the grounds of Fort Moultrie at Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, where he is buried as a POW today.

The Great Chief Osceola is a hero not just to the Seminoles but to all the people of the Great State of Florida. He is honored and memorialized all over our state, notably Florida State University, Tallahassee, and his namesake, Osceola County. He should have never been taken as prisoner of war under a flag of truce. He did not deserve to die a prisoner and it is morally wrong to keep him to interred as one. Chief Osceola should be buried in Florida in a place of high honor.

I ask the National Park Service to return Chief Osceola to the Seminole Tribe of Florida so that he can be interred in Florida as the state hero he is.