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Red Devil Or Tragic Hero? Osceola As Settler-Colonial Icon, C. S. Monaco

C. S. Monaco

This essay explores the meaning behind America's divergent response to Osceola, one of the most noted of native American war leaders, and the importance of political party affiliation in the construction of his media iconography. Moreover, Osceola's cultural and political significance is placed within the critical context of settler-colonialism. Previous work on this Native leader has bypassed the crucial role of Whig and Democratic political operatives as well as the emergent mass media in the manufacture of a self-serving and highly skewed celebrity image. Thus an essential perspective has been missing from the historiography, a lacuna that is particularly addressed …