Ya-ha Hadjo

Ya-ha Hadjo
Portrait of Ya-ha Hadjo in History of the Indian Tribes of North America
Born	Georgia
Died	(1836-03-29)March 29, 1836 Florida
Other names	Mad Wolf
Occupation	Creek Nation chief

Ya-ha Hadjo (Mad Wolf) (died 1836) was a prominent Muscogee chief in Florida before and early in the Second Seminole War.

Name

"Yaha" is Muscogee for "Wolf". ^[1] Hadjo was a Muscogee war title which may be translated as "fearless person" ^[2] or "so brave as to seem crazy". ^[3] He was thus sometimes called "Mad Wolf". ^[4]

Life

Ya-ha avoided forced relocation to Indian Territory with his band by moving south to the Florida Territory where he joined with the Seminole and retained his position as chief. In 1826, while still in Georgia, Mad Wolf visited Washington, D.C. as part of a Creek delegation.^{[ citation needed ]}

Ya-ha Hadjo was one of the Seminole leaders whose name and mark were placed on the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832. He was one of seven Seminole chiefs sent the Indian Territory to inspect the land to which the United States was proposing to move the Seminoles from Florida. In 1834, Ya-ha's name and his mark were placed, along with those of the other six chiefs, on a statement, sometimes called the Treaty of Fort Gibson, that stated that the chiefs agreed for the Seminoles to be moved to the Indian Territory. ^{[5] [6]}

Ya-ha Hadjo was reportedly killed on March 29, 1836 in a skirmish at a village near the Oklawaha River. ^[7] M. Cohen, who served in the Army unit which killed Ya-ha, and who reported that he had personally inspected Ya-ha's body, described him as chief of the "Oklawaha tribe", whom Cohen claimed were descended from the Yamasee. ^[8] There was another individual named Ya-ha Hadjo who was married to one of Osceola'a sisters. It's possible the reported death in 1836 may have been a case of mistaken identity. ^[9]

References

1. Wickman 2006, p. 75.
2. Fixico, Donald L. (2025-04-22). Chitto Harjo: Native Patriotism and the Medicine Way. Yale University Press. p. 73. ISBN   978-0-300-28132-3 – via Google Books.
3. "Joy Harjo Reflects on the Spirit of Poetry". PBS Online News Hour. August 23, 2007. Archived from the original on July 17, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2009.
4. Cohen 1836, p. 65.
5. Sprague, John T. (1848). The Origin, Progress, and Conclusions of the Florida War. New York: D. Appleton & Company. pp. 75, 78 – via Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.
6. Lancaster, Jane F. (1994). Removal Aftershock: The Seminoles' Struggles to Survive in the West, 1836–1866. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. p. 11. ISBN   0-87049-845-2 – via Google Books.
7. Cohen 1836, pp. 167–168.
8. Cohen 1836, p. 169.
9. Wickman 2006, p. 61.

Sources

• Cohen, M. M. (1836). Notices of Florida and the Campaigns. Charleson, South Carolina: Burges & Honour – via Google Books.
• Wickman, Patricia R. (2006). Osceola's Legacy. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press. ISBN   978-0-8173-5332-2 – via Google Books.