OSCEOLA - A BIRD OF SUPERSTITION
The Hunt for the Osceola Ends
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: Osceola - the very word rings with defiance. The
man who bore this name and blazed it into the history
of this nation was one of the greatest Indian chieftains
who ever lived. He led his Seminole people into battle
against one of America's finest generals, Andrew Jackson,
and handed Jackson his only defeat in the great Indian
wars of the 1800s. So powerful was the Seminole nation
that they never signed a peace treaty with the American
government but chose instead to retreat to the swamps
of Georgia and Florida. Chief Osceola was a guerilla
fighter who effectively used hit-and-run tactics to
defeat Jackson's army. Because Osceola and his men would
appear and just as quickly disappear, many soldiers
under Jackson attributed supernatural powers to Osceola.
Even today the turkey that bear his name, Meleagris
gallopavo osceola, also known as the Florida turkey,
the only place where it's found, is believed by many
of the Seminole nation to be spirit-possessed.
 Boom!
The sound echoed throughout the swamp as the gobbler
dropped in his tracks. Because my legs had gone to sleep,
I was slower getting to the bird than Jenkins and Osceola.
But when I arrived at a small wash, Jenkins was holding
up a magnificent turkey and congratulating Osceola.
Deep hues of burnt bronze and black reflected a green
tint when the sun danced off the downed tom's feathers.
With an 8-inch-long beard, this Florida gobbler was
a fine trophy for Marcelous Osceola. "Hunting like
this must be the most exciting way in the world to take
a turkey," Osceola said with a big smile as he
experienced the sheer joy that comes from outsmarting
a gobbler and bagging it the old way. "This is
the first time I've ever shot a tom when he was looking
at me. Usually I take them at 100 to 150 yards with
my rifle. I've never had a turkey come that close to
me. I really don't see how anyone can miss when a bird's
that close. This is a great way to hunt."
Then Osceola asked Jenkins, "Do you think you
can teach me to call like you do?" "Sure,
I can," Jenkins told him. "Learning to call
won't take  long,
and you'll have a lot of fun with a caller." "Well,
I want to learn to hunt like this, which is much more
fun and more exciting than taking the bird with a rifle,"
Osceola commented.
As Jenkins, Osceola and I headed back to camp, we discussed
the future of the reservation's turkeys. "Marcelous,
if you and your friends want to have a plenty of turkeys
to hunt," Jenkins mentioned, "then don't take
any hens for a year or two. Don't shoot the young gobblers.
Hunt only the longbeards. The reservation has plenty
of food and habitat for the turkeys. If y'all begin
to protect the turkeys and take only the longbeards
in the spring, then in just a year or two, you'll have
more gobblers to hunt than you've ever had. Every morning
in the spring when you get up to go turkey hunting,
you'll have a longbeard to call." "That's
what I want," Osceola explained. "I'm going
to learn to use this call and teach my brother how to
use it. Then we'll start hunting the way you fellows
do. Calling and hunting with a shotgun is a much-more-interesting
way to take turkeys than shooting them at 100 yards
with a high-powered rifle."
 That
night at camp, Osceola treated us to a Seminole feast.
We ate fried alligator tail from an animal he'd just
taken the day before. The meat was delicious, and the
conversation around the campfire was even better. We
talked about the ways of the Seminoles, their past,
present and future. We discussed the Osceola turkey
and its future on the reservation. We talked more about
the legends, myths and religion of the Seminoles. The
turkey the Seminoles hunt is shrouded in legend and
history. The opportunity to hunt the spirit gobblers
of the Florida Everglades with a descendant of the man
they have been named for is a memory I'll treasure as
long as I'm able to tell of the spirit gobbler of Big
Cypress Swamp.
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