Asin Yahola

Asin Yahola was a Seminole war leader in the 1830s. He was known as Billy Powell, allegedly the son of a Scottish trader named William Powell, and the nephew of Talmucase Hadjo / Peter McQueen, a prominent Red Stick leader in the Creek War. "Asin Yahola" means "Black Drink Singer," a religious title stemming from a ritual performance during the Green Corn Ceremony.

As a Tallassee refugee, Asin Yahola was an outsider in Seminole society, but rose to prominence as Tustenuggee Thlocco, Big War Leader, responsible for enforcing the rules and customs of the nation. He was an early leader of the resistance against the manipulative tactics of Seminole Indian Agent Wiley Thompson, and his arrest by Thompson was the incident that caused the outbreak of hostilities in the "Second Seminole War" of 1835.

Asin Yahola was a popular figure in the American press at the time. The Seminole Wars were unpopular, and he was a romantic folkloric figure. Subsequently, he has been popular with hutke historians. He's easy to read as white and is supposed to have had a black wife, lending him a smooth "post-racial" appeal. He was tragic, captured halfway through the war and dying in jail, which renders him safe.

“As-se-se-he-ho-lar, or Powell, at-the breaking out of hostilities was thirty-two years of age. In stature, he was about five feet eight inches, with a manly, frank, and open countenance. From boyhood he was noted for his independence and self-possession, and always treated the whites with great dignity, almost amounting to insolence. In all dances, ball-plays, and games, he was distinguished. In council, the old chiefs looked with surprise at his bold opposition to the treaty of Payne's Landing. What he said and did was the result of a momentary feeling without previous consultations or understandings, which caused the experienced counsellors of the nation to treat him with great respect.

"He threw aside the ridiculous mummery of sages and prophets, their forms and superstitions, and openly declared his views and opinions, regardless of consequences, and the diplomacy and cunning of Jumper and the negro Abraham. Feeling conscientiously right himself, he infused the same spirit into others, who with renewed resolution adhered to their opposition to the treaty. From his youth he had lived with the Seminoles, and he felt that their fortunes were his own. His wife , whose name was Che-cho-ter, ( the Morning Dew,) was a Creek; by her he had four children. To them he was kind and affectionate. In advising the warriors, when starting upon a war-party, he always enjoined them to spare the women and children. “It is not upon them,” said he, “that we make war and draw the scalping-knife, it is upon men; let us act like men.”

Sprague, John Titcomb (1848). The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War. Library Reprints, Incorporated. p.101. ISBN 978-0-7222-0196-1