Cowkeeper

Ahaya Secoffee
Mikasuki leader
Succeeded by	King Payne
Personal details
Born	ca. 1710
Died	1783
Relations	Sons, Payne and Bowlegs
Known for	Fighting the Spanish. First recorded chief of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe
Nickname(s)	Cowkeeper

Ahaya Secoffee (Mikasuki) (ca. 1710 – 1783) was the first recorded chief of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe. European-Americans called him Cowkeeper, as he held a very large herd of cattle.

Ahaya (Secoffee) was born to the Muskogean-speaking Oconee, who were originally from central Georgia. His people settled along the Chattahoochee River in North Florida when he was a small boy. They were among the Native Americans who left Georgia and Alabama to escape encroachment by English colonists.

By his mid-twenties, Ahaya had been chosen as a chief of his village. He developed a hatred of the Spaniards who ruled over Florida, as they tried to force the Seminole into serving them as militia and workers. When James Oglethorpe, the governor of Georgia, launched an English raid against the Spanish capital at St. Augustine in 1740, Ahaya and his 45 warriors were willing allies.

About the year 1750, Ahaya led his people south to what is now Paynes Prairie, possibly near the ruins of the Timucua village of Potano. They found abundant game and fish, as well as many wild cows. His people collected the cattle to form a vast herd, earning their chief his English byname "Cowkeeper." By 1757, Ahaya's people had a thriving village of their own called Cuscowilla, on the northwest shore of Lake Tuscawilla, where the modern town of Micanopy now stands. That year, the chief visited the Governor of Georgia and expressed his hatred both for the Spanish and for any Indian tribes allied with them. He explained that he had a vision that he would not find peace in the afterlife unless he killed 100 Spaniards.

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Wikipedia