Olotoraca

Olotoraca (also spelled Olotaraca, Olotacara, or Otocara; 1548 – 1573 near Fort San Mateo, Florida) was subchief of a Florida tribe.

Biography

He was the nephew of Satouriona, one of the three chiefs among whom Florida was divided at the time of Jean Ribaut's landing in 1562. At the time of the first expedition by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, in 1565, Olotoraca served as guide to the Spaniards, since the French had refused to lend assistance to Satouriona against his enemies, Outina and Potanou, the other two Florida chiefs. But the cruelties of the Spaniards soon estranged the Indians, and when Dominique de Gourgues came to revenge Jean Ribaut they were willing to assist him.

Olotoraca was instrumental in forming the alliance, and led Satouriona's 300 warriors against the Spanish. But for him Gourgues's expedition would have failed. He guided the French, went to reconnoitre the position of the enemy, and in the assault on the first fort was also the first to mount the glacis, driving his pike through the breast of a Spanish cannoneer. Menéndez returned a few months later, and, after rebuilding Fort San Mateo, re-established Spanish dominion in Florida. Olotoraca, who had succeeded Satouriona, fought to the end, murdered the Spanish missionaries, and several times burned and ruined the Spanish establishments. He was at last captured and hanged.

According to Gatschet, the proper form of his name is Hola‘taraca, hola‘ta being the title for a subchief in the Timucua language.

Notes

References

•  Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Olotoraca". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. 
•  Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Potanou". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. 
• Frederick Webb Hodge (1910). "Olotaraca". Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. N–Z. p. 119.