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Native American Tribes: The Seminole

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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MY ARTISTIC JOURNEY After finishing two years at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and...

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During this time, the Tampa Bay area was rich with animals such as deer, rabbits, armadillo, and squirrels. As a result, the Tocobaga became great hunters. They also gathered a variety of berries, nuts, and fruit to supplement their diet. Interestingly, the Tocobaga Indians had corn, an unusual find in the Tampa Bay area.

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Safety Harbor Tocobaga Indian Temple Mound

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This is one of several video clips I am doing for my travel blog -- this particular episode is the Indian mounds in the Tampa Bay area. The Tocobaga Indians are now extinct but we have a good picture of their daily life from the middens, the piles of shells and trash they left behind, as well as the more elaborate mounds they made for their temples, chiefs and shamans.

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Fish Tale Marina 7225 Estero Blvd. Fort Myers Beach, FL. 33931 (941) 418-5941 Calusa Coast Outfitters Alton Martin P.O. Box 391 Tyrone, GA. 30290 www.artifactsetc.com The Shell Factory North Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41) North Fort Myers, FL. 33903 (888) 4-SHELLS The Mound House (941) 765-6472

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Link to Calusa Art

Mounds...of what?

Shell mounds, called midden, can still be found today in many parts of southern Florida. Environmentalists and conservation groups protect many of these remaining shell mounds. One shell mound site is Mound Key at Estero Bay in Lee County. Its construction is made entirely of shells and clay. This site is believed to be the chief town of the Calusa, where the leader of the tribe, Chief Carlos lived.

In Palm Beach County the most famous midden mound is found near the Jupiter Lighthouse. The Dubois home on the Loxahatchee River is built on an old Indian mound.

Archaeologists have excavated many of these mounds to learn more about these extinct people. Artifacts such as shell tools, weapons, and ornaments are on display in many Florida history museums.

Here's
Teacher's Resource
page.

Shell Indians (with attitude)
For thousands of years, Southwest Florida's Calusa Indians paddled the rivers and back bays of this area. These earliest residents were well adapted to their land and fierce warriors (Calusa means "the fierce people"). But the 16 th century brought the Spanish, Ponce de Leon among them, and the Calusas' way of life was changed forever. This would be a recurring theme.

By the mid-18 th century, through a combination of war, disease, and dissemination, the Calusa were lost to history. A culture went extinct.

The Calusa Indians, believed by many to be descendants of the Mayans, lived on the sandy shores of the southwest coast of Florida. These Indians controlled most of south Florida. The population of this tribe has been estimated at 10,000 to as many as 50,000 people. The Calusa men were tall and well built with long hair. Calusa means "fierce people," and they were described as a fierce, war-like people. Many smaller tribes were constantly watching for these marauding warriors. The first Spanish explorers found that these Indians were not very friendly. The explorers soon became the targets of the Calusa attacks. This tribe was the first one that the Spanish explorers wrote home about in 1513. That would turn out to ultimately be a very bad stroke of luck.

They were a big and powerful lot!
They were powerfully built men, often four inches taller than their European counterparts. In the warm Florida sun, they let their hair grow hip length and wore only tanned breech clouts of deerskin fastened with fancy belts indicative of one's position in the tribe. The women dressed in garments of woven Spanish moss and palmetto leaves.

The Calusa were great sailors. Their large canoes of hallowed out cypress logs were capable of reaching Cuba, perhaps Mexico. Their language indicated they may have traveled to Florida from the islands. They did little farming, but were outstanding hunters and fishermen. Due to their warrior reputation, the Calusa also gained tributes of food from smaller tribes. They were the bully on the block, so to speak.

The Calusa lived on the coast and along the inner waterways. By looking at the remnants of Calusa villages it was discovered that they built their homes on stilts and wove Palmetto leaves to fashion roofs, but they didn't construct any walls.

The Calusa Indians did not farm like the other Indian tribes in Florida. Instead, they fished for food on the coast, bays, rivers, and waterways. The men and boys of the tribe made nets from palm tree webbing to catch mullet, pinfish, pigfish, and catfish. They used spears to catch eels and turtles. They made fish bone arrowheads to hunt for animals such as deer. The women and children learned to catch shellfish like conchs, crabs, clams, lobsters, and oysters.

The most prominent aspect of the island and the highest elevation is a 32-foot shell mound, thought to be the location of the cacique's, or ruler's, house. Such a mound was found in the middle of Mound Key (pictured here.)

Some forty coastal villages spread along the Florida Gulf Coast, with Mound Key near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River the largest village. Despite the lack of domesticated animals and heavy tools, the Calusa built huge mounds of shell and deep moats to protect their villages of raised huts. Burial mounds and a temple mound for ceremonies encircled the village.

The Calusa's reputation was well established. The hereditary chief and the dolman or priest ran the villages. They practiced sacrificial worship and demanded obedience from all villagers. The Calusa had a rather closed society and the Spanish would discover little interest in missionary activity from the Calusa.

The Caloosahatchee River ("River of the Calusa") was the main highway of the Calusa into the interior. Its banks teamed with small game and its waters were abundant with fish and shellfish. Calusa canoes could circumvent Lake Okeechobee and travel up the Kissimmee River into other tribal areas.

The Calusa as Shell Indians
The Calusa are considered to be the first "shell collectors." Shells were discarded into huge heaps. Unlike other Indian tribes, the Calusa did not make many pottery items. They used the shells for tools, utensils, jewelry, and ornaments for their shrines. Shell spears were made for fishing and hunting.

The Calusa as Sailors
Living and surviving on the coast caused the tribesmen to become great sailors. They defended their land against other smaller tribes and European explorers that were traveling by water. The Calooshahatchee River, (which, you'll remember, means "River of the Calusa,") was their main waterway.

They traveled by dugout canoes, which were made from hollowed-out cypress logs approximately 15 feet long. They used these canoes to travel as far as Cuba. Explorers reported that the Calusa attacked their ships that were anchored close to shore. The Calusa were also known to sail up and down the west coast salvaging the wealth from shipwrecks.

What Happened to the Calusa?
What happened to these fierce sailing Indians? The Calusa tribe died out in the late 1700s. Enemy Indian tribes from Georgia and South Carolina began raiding the Calusa territory. Many Calusa were captured and sold as slaves.

In addition, diseases such as smallpox and measles were brought into the area from the Spanish and French explorers and these diseases wiped out entire villages. It is believed that the few remaining Calusa Indians left for Cuba when the Spanish turned Florida over to the British in 1763. This truly is a history mystery.

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Link to Calusa Art Mounds...of what? Shell mounds , called midden, can still be found today in many parts of southern Florida. Environmentalists and conservation groups protect many of these remaining shell mounds. One shell mound site is Mound Key at Estero Bay in Lee County.

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Book Review:

Hernando De Soto among the Apalachee: The Archaeology of the First Winter Encampment
By Charles R. Ewen and John H. Hann

This is a chronicle of the discovery and excavation of the only known campsite, located in downtown Tallahassee, of Hernando de Soto's 10-state odyssey during the 16th century.

Book Review:

Apalachee
By Joyce Rockwood Hudson

Set in eighteenth-century Florida, this powerful novel tells the story of Hinachuba Lucia, a Native American wise woman whose people are caught in a brutal colonial contest between Spain and Britain. With drama and historical accuracy, Apalachee portrays the decimation brought upon the Indians of the Deep South by war, disease, zealous missionaries, and intertribal slaving.

The Lake Jackson Mounds State Archaeological Site, on Lake Jackson, is also owned by the State of Florida. It was the Apalachees' prehistoric capital and originally consisted of at least six platform mounds and a village. It is one of Florida's most important archaeological sites and is open for visitors to hike and explore.

The Teacher Resource Page

The Apalachees of Northwest Florida

This is a story that starts out in the capital of Florida. "Tallahassee" is an Apalachee Indian word meaning "old town" or "abandoned fields". The Apalachee Indians lived throughout the panhandle of Florida from 500 through the 1600s. In 1539, Hernando de Soto spent the first Christmas in the New World in the woods near the present State Capitol. As more Spanish colonists entered the panhandle, disease and fighting reduced their population. The Apalachee Indians left and the area became an abandoned village, thus it was called "Tallahassee".

From at least A.D. 1000, a group of farming Indians was living in northwest Florida. They were called the Apalachees. Other Florida Indians regarded them as being wealthy and fierce. Some think the Apalachee language was related to Hitchiti of the Muskhogean language family. The Apalachee had a reputation among Spanish explorers as fierce warriors who zealously defended their lands, bounded by the Aucilla River to the east and the Ochochonee River to the west, and from what is now the Georgia state line to the Gulf of Mexico.

How They Lived
Prior to European contact, there were probably at least 50,000-60,000 Apalachees. Because the land they held was the most conducive to agriculture, they were able to support a larger population, in larger and more numerous villages. They were a strong and powerful chiefdom living in widely dispersed villages. Their leaders organized their work, and much of their social, ritual and political life as well. Other tribes respected the Apalachees because they belonged to an advanced Indian civilization, they were prosperous, and they were fierce warriors. As with other Native Americans, they attacked their enemies in small raids and ambushes, and scalped their enemies.

For food, they grew corn, beans and squash. Men prepared the fields and women tended the crops. Men also hunted bear, deer and small game, while women gathered nuts and berries.

Traditionally the men wore deerskin loincloths and women wore Spanish moss skirts. When preparing for battle, the men painted their bodies with red ochre and put feathers in their hair.

The Apalachees played a ball game that was a religious exercise as well as a sport. One village would challenge another to a match, and the two teams would have up to 100 players each. They used a hard clay ball (about the size of a golf ball) covered with buckskin. Players propelled the ball with their feet toward the goal post which was a pole topped with a stuffed eagle in a nest. They played the ball game in the spring and summer, and dedicated it to the gods of rain and thunder to ensure rain for their crops.

One characteristic of pre-Columbian Apalachee society was their large ceremonial mounds. Some of the mounds had structures on top, and it is generally believed that the largest mound within a complex was the site of the chief's house. Lake Jackson was the Apalachees' capital and preeminent mound center in late prehistoric times.

The Spanish Explorers Arrive
An expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez (read the sidebar story) in 1528 was the first group of European explorers to make contact with the Apalachees. Narváez came to the Tallahassee area searching for gold on the advice of Indians in the Tampa Bay area where he landed.

More than a decade later, in 1539, Hernando de Soto wintered in Apalachee Province. His expedition members stayed in the sixteenth century Apalachee capital village called Anhaica. Both groups of Spanish intruders received a hostile reception and were under almost constant attack from the Apalachees. The European presence eventually took its toll on the Apalachees from continual skirmishes and, eventually, contagious diseases that were introduced by the explorers.

Apalachee rulers requested Spanish friars as early as 1607 when epidemics and the threat of foreign attacks brought about a loss of faith in the traditional customs and leadership. Between 1633 and 1635, as least 5,000 Apalachees converted to Catholicism.

The de Soto-era capital, Anhaica, became one of the first missions established in Apalachee Province around 1633, and was eventually relocated and renamed San Luis de Talimali. Between 1656 and 1704, San Luis was a principal village of the Apalachee Indians and the Spaniards' westernmost military, religious, and administrative capital. More than 1,500 Apalachee Indians and Spaniards lived at the mission.

What Happened To Them?
Following a series of devastating attacks on Spanish Florida by the British and their Creek Indian allies, Mission San Luis was burned and abandoned by its residents on July 31, 1704. Some Apalachees, who were not killed outright or enslaved, migrated north in to Creek territory. Others moved east to St. Augustine with the Spaniards or temporarily relocated in Timucua Province before eventually resettling in St. Augustine.

Most of the Apalachees from Mission San Luis moved westward in 1704, accepting an offer to live in French-controlled Mobile. In 1763, most of these Apalachees relocated to Rapides Parish in Louisiana. Today, 250 to 300 of their descendants still live there. They are the only documented descendants of any of Florida's prehistoric native populations.

An early twentieth-century photograph records members of the Talimali Band of the Apalachee Indians living in Louisiana. Their current chief, Gilmer Bennett, is the son of Francis Vallery, standing far right. (Courtesy Talimali Band, The Apalachee Indians of Louisiana)

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Book Review: Hernando De Soto among the Apalachee: The Archaeology of the First Winter Encampment By Charles R. Ewen and John H. Hann This is a chronicle of the discovery and excavation of the only known campsite, located in downtown Tallahassee, of Hernando de Soto's 10-state odyssey during the 16th century.

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How to pronounce
Timucua (tee-MOO-qua)

Teacher's Resources for the Timucua

The Timucua: Tearing Down the Myth.

Several modem myths surround the Timucua. They did not stand over seven feet tall, they were not the ancestors of the modem Seminoles, they were not cannibals, and they did not drink a tea that made them vomit (although they did perform rituals that involved vomiting). No one knows for sure what they called themselves. The term "Timucuan" was derived from a name originally recorded by the French. It was the name one group of native people gave to an inland group found around present day Orange Park Florida. It is thought the name came from the Timucua word "thimogona", meaning "my enemy".

The area that makes up modern-day central and northern Florida and southern Georgia was inhabited by the Timucuan people for more than four thousand years before the arrival of the first Europeans. It is believed that the Timucua may have been the first Native Americans to see the Spanish explorers when they landed in Florida. Early explorers often used the language of the Timucua to communicate with other tribes.

In 1591,the artists Jacques Le Moyne and Theodore de Bry pictured Timucuan Indians searching for gold in Florida. Native Americans were the first to endure forced labor in the New World.

The Timucua were never a single political unit. Instead the people we refer to as the Timucua were made up of 25-30 (or even more) individual chiefdoms, each consisting of at least 510 villages. The chief of a chiefdom's main town served as overall leader. Sometimes chiefdoms formed alliances with one another for offensive or defensive military purposes.

Life in the Villages
In Timucuan villages, there were usually two kinds of houses. One type of home, referred to as a long house, was built using poles for the frame, bark for the walls, and branches from palmetto palm trees for the roof. The other type of home was round and covered with leaves of palm trees.

The Timucua were known to have more permanent villages than the other tribes. Each family had their own home but the cooking took place in the village and meals were held daily in a central location. They wore clothing made from deerskin and woven cloth. The men wore their hair long with a topknot.

Timucua liked to hold ceremonies for planting, harvesting, and honoring leaders who died. A shaman, the religious leader of the tribe, conducted the ceremonies.

The Timucua would have been very much in vogue today! Important Timucua leaders loved to wear tattoos. They'd scratch holes and streaks all over their bodies and rub them with charcoal and berry juice. Then if they didn't die from all the infection over the next couple of months, they'd have a festooned body to strut.

Hunting and Fishing
The Timucua, like other Native Americans, were skilled hunters and fishermen. The men made tools for hunting and fishing. They used spears, clubs, bows and arrows, and blowguns, to kill their game. Some of the game that they used for food included bears, deer, wild turkey, and alligators. They smoked the meat over open fires. The women would clean and prepare the animal hides and use them for clothing.

The men also caught fish, clams, and oysters for food. They used a fishing trap called a weir. This trap was a wood fence that stretched across a stream or river to catch fish. Once the fish swam over the fence in high tide, the weir caught them as the tide went out.

Farming was another important means of obtaining food for the Timucua. The main crops that they harvested were maize (corn), beans, squash, pumpkins, and melons. The women cooked the meals and gathered roots, nuts and wild berries to eat. The women also made pottery to use for cooking.

Fighting War and Disease
While the various tribes spoke from the same mother tongue, a language that oddly came from South America, they spoke so many dialects they couldn't even communicate with each other. So they did what many do who can't communicate. They fought. During the time period from 1649 through 1656, the population of the Timucua began to diminish.

The Timucua had certain fighting habits that seem a little short on compassion. After they slayed an enemy warrior they would cut off his scalp, dry it, and tie it to their bow. As if that were not enough, they'd hack off his arms and legs and tie them to trophy poles. Wait, there is more. Then they'd shove an arrow up his rectum deep into his body. Oooo! I don't even want to think about it. When Timucua warriors marched into battle, the chief was completely surrounded by blocks of warriors making it near impossible for the enemy to get to him. But if a chief should be killed, he was buried in a mound with his Black Drink shell cup placed on top. Dozens of mourning women cut off their hair, and the chief's house and belongings were burned to the ground. Thereafter, his wife had the favor of riding piggy back on the back of a warrior wherever she went.

The war with the English and other Indians decreased their numbers. In addition, a series of epidemics struck them, the major one being smallpox. As the tribe died out, it is believed that those who survived the disease may have later joined the Seminoles.

Phalanxes of archers and warriors, led by Timucuan Chief Outina, Florida, 1565.
Engraving by Theodore de Bry, after watercolour by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues.
From the book by Theodore de Bry,Americae, Part 2, 1591.

The Student Exercise for The Timucua: Tearing Down the Myth.

At left is one page from neat little pack that features a bunch of laminated pages, one culture to a page, that can be purchased at all the local museums (here in Florida.)

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How to pronounce Timucua (tee-MOO-qua) Teacher's Resources for the Timucua The Timucua: Tearing Down the Myth. Several modem myths surround the Timucua. They did not stand over seven feet tall, they were not the ancestors of the modem Seminoles, they were not cannibals, and they did not drink a tea that made them vomit (although they did perform rituals that involved vomiting).

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Introduction | Forever Changed: La Florida 1513-1821. A Bibliography for Young Readers | Museum of Florida History

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The books in this bibliography, geared to K-12 readers, relate to Forever Changed: La Florida, 1513-1821, a permanent exhibit of the Museum of Florida History. Themes interpreted in three exhibit galleries-Land of Many Cultures, Spanish Exploration, and Meeting of the Cultures-are explored in the following selection of books.

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Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown.

Although other European navigators may have sighted the Florida peninsula before, Ponce de Leon is credited with the first recorded landing and the first detailed exploration of the Florida coast. The Spanish explorer was searching for the "Fountain of Youth," a fabled water source that was said to bring eternal youth. Ponce de Leon named the peninsula he believed to be an island "La Florida" because his discovery came during the time of the Easter feast, or Pascua Florida.

In 1521, he returned to Florida in an effort to establish a Spanish colony on the island. However, hostile Native Americans attacked his expedition soon after landing, and the party retreated to Cuba, where Ponce de Leon died from a mortal wound suffered during the battle. Successful Spanish colonization of the peninsula finally began at St. Augustine in 1565, and in 1819 the territory passed into U.S. control under the terms of the Florida Purchase Treaty between Spain and the United States.

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Ponce de Leon discovers Florida - Apr 02, 1513 - HISTORY.com

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Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown. Although other European navigators may have sighted the Florida peninsula before, Ponce de Leon is credited with the first recorded landing and the first detailed exploration of the Florida coast.

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The Florida Department of State manages our state's elections, corporations, historical and cultural resources and our libraries.

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This teacher's guide is designed to accompany the Florida History Online website. Materials are intended to be age appropriate by grade level, for elementary, middle school, and high school students. Student activities are directed to help students develop analytical skills at all grade levels.

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European Exploration and Colonization - Florida Department of State

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The Florida Department of State manages our state's elections, corporations, historical and cultural resources and our libraries.

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thinkFlorida.org was created by the Florida Humanities Council to provide Florida teachers, life-long learners, and anyone interested in learning about Florida's history and heritage. Each scholar-written article can include related resources like maps, photographs, historic letters, teacher lesson plans, and audio and video programs illustrating specific article subjects.

Known as "the smallest tadpole in the dirty pool of secession," Florida was the third state to secede from the United States during the American Civil War. Among the Confederate states, Florida possessed the lowest population yet provided critical resources in the form of beef and salt. Florida's economy during Reconstruction was depressed, and African Americans struggled for access to education and political office.

In the colonial period, Florida, although a Spanish colony, played a major role in shaping attitudes and events in the southernmost British colonies. Moreover, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Florida was a battleground for many of the "big" issues in American history, including the struggle of Native Americans to protect themselves and their lands, the struggle of Africans and African Americans to free themselves from bond slavery, and questions about the limits of United States expansion.

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thinkFlorida.org was created by the Florida Humanities Council to provide Florida teachers, life-long learners, and anyone interested in learning about Florida's history and heritage. Each scholar-written article can include related resources like maps, photographs, historic letters, teacher lesson plans, and audio and video programs illustrating specific article subjects.

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Students Grades K-5 / Learn / Home - Viva Florida

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Florida's 1350 miles of coastline with its lighthouses played a critical role in the exploration, settlement and development of Florida's history. Ponce de Leon Inlet lighthouse was built in 1887 and is the only Florida lighthouse listed as a National Historic Landmark and is the second tallest brick tower in the United States.

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Florida Then & Now is a set of reproducible readings, questions, and activity sheets for an upper elementary study of Florida History.