(In 1842, Coacoochee, known as "Wildcat" by his English-speaking enemies, was taken a prisoner by American troops in Florida and forced to negotiate the removal of his tribe to a western reservation.  During these negotiations, he made the following speech in an effort to gain release from his captors so he could personally persuade his people to accept removal.)

I was once a boy, then I saw the white man afar off. I hunted in these woods, first with a bow and arrow; then with a rifle. I saw the white man, and was told he was my enemy.  I could not shoot him as I would a wolf or a bear; yet like these he came upon me; horses, cattle, and fields, he took from me.  He said he was my friend; he abused our women and children, and told us to go from the land.  Still he gave me his hand in friendship; we took it; whilst taking it, he had a snake in the other; his tongue was forked; he lied, and stung us.  I asked but for a small piece of these lands, enough to plant and to live upon, far south, a spot where I could place the ashes of my kindred, a spot only sufficient upon which I could lay my wife and child. This was not granted me.  I was put in prison; I escaped. I have been again taken; you have brought me back; I am here; I feel the irons in my heart. I have listened to your talk; you and your officers have taken us by the hand in friendship. I thank you for bringing me back; I can now see my warriors, my women and children; the Great Spirit thanks you; the heart of the poor Indian thanks you.  We know but little; we have no books which tell all things; but we have the Great Spirit, moon, and stars; these told me, last night, you would be our friend. I gave you my word; it is the word of a warrior, a chief, a brave, it is the word of Coacoochee. It is true I have fought like a man, so have my warriors; but the whites are too strong for us. I wish now to have my band around me and go to Arkansas. You say I must end the war! Look at these irons! Can I go to my warriors? Coacoochee chained! No; do not ask me to see them. I never wish to tread upon my land unless I am free. If I can go to them unchained, they will follow me in; but I fear they will not obey me when I talk to them in irons. They will say my heart is weak, I am afraid. Could I go free, they will surrender and emigrate. [The Americans still refused to release Coacoochee, instead offering to allow a handful of his fellow prisoners to carry the following message to the members of his tribe still surviving in the Florida wilderness.] Has not Coacooche sat with you by the council-fire at midnight, when the wolf and white man were around us? Have I not led the war dance, and sung the song of the Seminole? Did not the spirits of our mothers, our wives, and our children stand around us? Has not my scalping-knife been red with blood, and the scalps of our enemy been drying in our camps? Have I not made the warpath red with blood, and has not the Seminole always found a home in my camp? Then, will the warriors of Coacooche desert him? No! If your hearts are bad, let me see them now; take them in your hands, and let me know they are dark with bad blood; but do not, like a dog, bite me, so soon as you turn your backs. If Coacoochee is to die, he can die like a man. It is not my heart that shakes; no, it never trembles; but I feel for those now in the woods, pursued night and day by the soldiers; for those who fought with us, until we were weak. The sun shines bright to day, the day is clear; so let your hearts be: the Great Spirit will guide you. At night, when you camp, take these pipes and tobacco, build a fire when the moon is up and bright, dance around it, then let the fire go out, and just before the break of day, when the deer sleeps, and the moon whispers to the dead, you will hear the voices of those who have gone to the Great Spirit; they will give you strong hearts and head to carry the talk of Coacoochee. Say to my band that my feet are chained. I cannot walk, yet I send them my word as true from the heart, as if I as on the warpath or in the deer-hunt. I am not a boy; Coacoochee can die, not with a shivering hand, but as when grasping the rifle with my warriors around me. My feet are chained, but the head and heart of Coacoochee reaches you. The great white chief Po-car-ger will be kind to us. He Says, when my band comes in I shall again walk my land free, with my band around me. He has given you forty days to do this business in; if you want more, say so; I will ask for more; if not, be true to the time. Take these sticks; here are thirty-nine, one for each day; this, much larger than the rest, with blood upon it, is the fortieth. When the others are thrown away, and this only remains, say to my people, that with the setting sun Coacoochee hangs like a dog, with none but the white men to hear his last words. Come then; come by the stars, as I have led you to battle! Come, for the voice of Coacoochee speaks to you! Say this to my wife and child -- [The chief then shook the hand of each of his chosen messengers. To the last one, he handed a silk handkerchief and a breast-pin and concluded his lamentations.] Give these to my wife and child.
 

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Coacoochee (Wild Cat) - c. 1810-1857), Seminole war chief, was born around 1810 to a sister of Micanopy, chief of the Seminole Nation, and King Philip (Emathla), chief of a Mikasuki band, in Mosquito County, Florida.  He was captured with Osceola on October 21, 1837, under a white flag of truce and imprisoned in Fort Marion but escaped and became the war chief most respected by the United States Army after Osceola's death.  From 1837 to 1840 he was effective in fighting and remaining free in the swamps of Florida.  But Lt. Col. William S. Harneyqv captured Coacoochee's daughter and mother, whom Col. William Jenkins Worthqv used to induce Coacoochee to come for negotiations.  Coacoochee agreed to bring in the remainder of his band but took extensive advantage of his freedom and was captured by Maj. Thomas Childs and placed in irons.  In October 1841 Colonel Worth finally sent Coacoochee to the Indian reservation in Arkansas Territory. In December 1845 Indian agents took him to Texas on a peace mission to the Comanches, after which he devised a scheme for the confederation of tribes. Coacoochee spent four years traveling in Texas and Mexico promoting his scheme among various hostile Indian groups.  In 1848 Maj. Robert S. Neighbors,qv Texas superintendent of the Indian agency, accused Wild Cat of inciting the hostile Indians and thus hindering negotiations to move them to a Texas reservation. Coacoochee continued his promotional trips from the Arkansas reservation until December 1849. He had failed to obtain appointment as chief of the Seminole Nation, so with his following of Seminoles and blacks he went to the Brazos valley for the winter and for another attempt at recruiting.  He managed to recruit some southern Kickapoo warriors, whom he led with the deserters from the reservation through Eagle Pass to Mexico. He and his followers were welcomed by the state of Coahuila, where they were placed on military reservations with supplies to defend the area against the forays of other hostile Indians.  Coacoochee and his warriors were successful in this venture. They also fought against José M. J. Carbajalqv in the so-called Carbajal's war and against Callahan's invasion of 1855.  The Black Seminole Indians and their sons became the Black Seminole Scoutsqv at forts Duncan and Clark in the 1870s.  In January 1857 Coacoochee contracted smallpox and died at Alto, Coahuila, Mexico.