Indigenous people of the Everglades region
The indigenous people of the Everglades region arrived in the
From the Archaic peoples, two major tribes emerged in the area: the Calusa and the Tequesta. The earliest written descriptions of these people come from Spanish explorers, who sought to convert and conquer them. Although they lived in complex societies, little evidence of their existence remains today. The Calusa were more powerful in number and political structure.
Their territory was centered on modern-day Ft. Myers, and extended as far north as Tampa, as far east as Lake Okeechobee, and as far south as the Keys. The Tequesta lived on the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula around what is today Biscayne Bay and the Miami River. Both societies were well adapted to live in the various ecosystems of the Everglades regions. Their people often traveled through the heart of the Everglades, though they rarely lived within it.
After more than 210 years of relations with the Spanish, both indigenous societies lost cohesiveness. Official records indicate that survivors of war and disease were transported to
They also were joined by free blacks and escaped slaves, who became known as
Prehistoric peoples
Period | Dates |
---|---|
Paleo-Indian | 10,000–7,000 BCE
|
Archaic: Early Middle Late |
7,000–5,000 BCE 5,000–3,000 BCE 3,000–1,500 BCE |
Transitional | 1,500–500 BCE |
Glades I | 500 BCE–800 CE
|
Glades II | 800–1200 |
Glades III | 1200–1566 |
Historic | 1566–1763 |
Humans first inhabited the peninsula of Florida approximately 14,000 to 15,000 years ago; it looked vastly different at that time and had a different climate.
The Paleo-Indians who survived are now known as the
Florida experienced a prolonged
During the Late Archaic period, the climate became wetter again and by approximately 3000 BCE, the rise of water tables allowed an increase in population. Cultural development also took place. Florida Indians formed into three similar but distinct cultures: Okeechobee, Caloosahatchee, and Glades, named for the bodies of water where they were centered.[10]
The Glades culture is divided into three periods based on evidence found in
Calusa
What is known of the inhabitants of Florida after 1566 was recorded by European explorers and settlers.
The Calusa were referred to as Carlos by the Spanish, which may have sounded like Calos, a variation of the
Fontaneda explained in his 1571 memoir that Carlos controlled fifty villages located on Florida's west coast, around
The Calusa, like their predecessors, were hunter-gatherers who existed on small game, fish, turtles, alligators, shellfish, and various plants.
Calusa villages often had more than 200 inhabitants, and their society was organized in a hierarchy. Apart from the cacique, other strata included priests and warriors. Family bonds promoted the hierarchy, and marriage between siblings was common among the elite. Fontaneda wrote, "These Indians have no gold, no silver, and less clothing. They go naked except for some breech cloths woven of palms, with which the men cover themselves; the women do the like with certain grass that grows on trees. This grass looks like wool, although it is different from it".[28] Only one instance of structures was described: Carlos met Menéndez in a large house with windows and room for over a thousand people.[29]
The Spanish found Carlos uncontrollable, as their priests and the Calusa fought almost constantly. Carlos was killed when a Spanish soldier shot him with a crossbow.[30] Following Carlos' death, leadership of the society passed to the war chief Felipe, who was also killed by the Spanish shortly after.[17] Estimated numbers of Calusa at the beginning of the occupation of the Spanish ranged from 4,000 to 7,000.[31] The society endured a decline of power and population after Carlos; by 1697 their number was estimated to be about 1,000.[27] In the early 18th century, the Calusa came under attack from the Yamasee to the north; many asked to be removed to Cuba, where almost 200 died of illness. Some of these later relocated to Florida,[32] and remnants may have been eventually assimilated into the Seminole culture, which developed during the 18th century.[33]
Tequesta
Second in power and number to the
The Spanish described the Tequesta as greatly feared by their sailors, who suspected the natives of torturing and killing survivors of shipwrecks. Spanish priests wrote that the Tequesta performed child sacrifices to mark the occasion of making peace with a tribe with whom they had been fighting. Like the Calusa, the Tequesta hunted small game, but depended more upon roots and less on shellfish in their diets. They did not practice cultivated agriculture. They were skilled
The first contact with Spanish explorers occurred in 1513 when Juan Ponce de León stopped at a bay he called Chequescha, or Biscayne Bay. Finding the Tequesta unwelcoming, he left to make contact with the Calusa. Menéndez met the Tequesta in 1565 and maintained a friendly relationship with them, building some houses and setting up a mission. He also took the chief's nephew to Havana to be educated, and the chief's brother to Spain. After Menéndez visited, there are few records of the Tequesta: a reference to them in 1673, and further Spanish contact to convert them.[37] The last reference to the Tequesta during their existence was written in 1743 by a Spanish priest named Father Alaña, who described their ongoing assault by another tribe. The survivors numbered only 30, and the Spanish transported them to Havana. In 1770 a British surveyor described multiple deserted villages in the region where the Tequesta had lived.[38] Archeologist John Goggin suggested that by the time European Americans settled the area in 1820, any remaining Tequesta were assimilated into the Seminole people.[34] Common descriptions of Native Americans in Florida by 1820 identified only the "Seminoles".[39]
Seminole / Miccosukee
Following the demise of the Calusa and Tequesta, Native Americans in southern Florida were referred to as "Spanish Indians" in the 1740s, probably due to their friendlier relations with Spain. Between the Spanish defeat in the
The mixing of cultures is evident in the language influences present among the Seminoles: various
Creeks, who were centered in modern-day
In 1817,
One group in southern Florida before and during the Second Seminole War were known as Spanish Indians. Long considered to consist primarily of Calusas that had remained in Florida, they are now regarded as being descended from Mucogean-speakers who had arrived in southern Florida early in the 18th century.[46][47]
The
Villages were not large, due to the limited size of hammocks, which on average measured between one and 10 acres (40,000 m2). In the center of the village was a cook-house, and the largest structure was reserved for eating. When the Seminoles lived in northern Florida, they wore animal-skin clothing similar to their Creek predecessors. The heat and humidity of the Everglades influenced their adapting a different style of dress. Seminoles replaced their heavier
The Seminole Wars increased the U.S. military presence in the Everglades, which resulted in the exploration and mapping of many regions that had not previously been recorded.
Modern times
Between the end of the Third Seminole War and 1930, a few hundred Seminoles continued to live in relative isolation in the Everglades area. Flood control and drainage projects in the area beginning in the early 20th century opened up much land for development and significantly altered the natural environment, inundating some areas while leaving former swamps dry and arable.
These projects, along with the completion of the
As metropolitan areas in South Florida began to grow, the
See also
Notes and references
- ^ McCally, p.32.
- ISBN 978-1-4685-0748-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8203-3071-6.
- ^ Gannon, p. 2.
- ^ McCally, p.34.
- ^ Morgan, Gary S. (2002). "Late Rancholabrean Mammals from Southernmost Florida, and the Neotropical Influence in Florida Pleistocene Faunas". In Emry, Robert J. (ed.). Cenozoic Mammals of Land and Sea: Tributes to the Career of Clayton E. Ray. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology. Vol. 93. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 15–38.
- ISBN 978-1-4020-8792-9.
- ^ McCally, p.35.
- ^ McCally, p.36.
- ^ McCally, p.37–39.
- ^ a b Goggin, John (October 1947). "A Preliminary Definition of Archaeological Areas and Periods in Florida", American Antiquity, 13 (2), p.114–127.
- ^ Griffin, p.163.
- ^ Griffin, p.161.
- ^ Hann, p.4–5.
- ^ Griffin, p.161–162.
- ^ Douglas, p.68.
- ^ a b Hann, John (October 1992). "Political Leadership Among the Natives of Spanish Florida", The Florida Historical Quarterly, 71 (2), p.188–208.
- ^ Griffin, p.162.
- ^ Griffin, p.316.
- ^ Hann, p.289–290.
- ^ McCally, p.40.
- ^ a b Griffin, p.164.
- ^ a b Worth, John (January 1995). "Fontaneda Revisited: Five Descriptions of Sixteenth-Century Florida", The Florida Historical Quarterly, 73 (3), p.339–352.
- ^ Cushing, Frank (December 1896). "Exploration of Ancient Key Dwellers' Remains on the Gulf Coast of Florida", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 35 (153), p.329–448.
- ^ Tebeau, p.38–41.
- ^ McCally, p.39.
- ^ a b Griffin, p.171.
- ^ Tebeau, p.42.
- ^ Griffin, p.165.
- ^ Douglas, p.171.
- ^ Griffin, p.170.
- ^ Griffin, p.173.
- ^ Milanich, p. 177
- ^ a b c Goggin, John (April 1940). "The Tekesta Indians of Southern Florida", The Florida Historical Quarterly, 18 (4), p.274–285.
- ^ United States Congress Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (2003). "Miami Circle/Biscayne National Park: report (to accompany S. 111)", United States Congress Senate Report 108-4.
- ^ Merzer, Martin (January 29, 2008). "Access to ancient site may come in near future", The Miami Herald (Florida), State and Regional News.
- ^ Griffin, p.174.
- ^ Tebeau, p.43.
- ^ Tebeau, p.45.
- ^ Griffin, p.176.
- ^ McReynolds, p.12.
- ^ Bateman, Rebecca (Winter, 1990). "Africans and Indians: A Comparative Study of the Black Carib and Black Seminole", Ethnohistory, 37 (1), p.1–24.
- ^ Tebeau, p.50.
- ^ a b Griffin, p.180.
- ^ Tebeau, p.50–51
- ^ Sturtevant, William C. (1953). "Chakaika and the "Spanish Indians"" (PDF). Tequesta. 13: 63–64. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2021-12-01 – via Digital Collections Florida International University.
- ^ Hammond, E. A. (1972). "The Spanish Fisheries of Charlotte Harbor". Florida Historical Quarterly. 51 (4): 355, 357, 359.
- ^ a b Skinner, Alanson (January–March 1913). "Notes on the Florida Seminole", American Anthropologist, 15 (1), p.63–77.
- ^ Blackard, David (2004). "Seminole Clothing: Colorful Patchwork". Seminole Tribe of Florida. Archived from the original on 2008-03-16. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
- ^ Tebeau, p.63–64.
- ^ Tebeau, p.70–71.
- ^ Tebeau, p.55–56.
- ^ "Tourism/Enterprises". Seminole Tribe of Florida. 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-02-03. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-912451-44-0
- Gannon, Michael, ed. (1996). The New History of Florida. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1415-8
- Griffin, John (2002). Archeology of the Everglades. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-2558-3
- Hann, John (ed.) (1991). Missions to the Calusa. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1966-4
- McCally, David (1999). The Everglades: An Environmental History. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-2302-5
- Milanich, Jerald (1998). Florida's Indians from Ancient Times to the Present. University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-1599-6
- Rodriguez, Tommy (2011). Visions of the Everglades: History Ecology Preservation. Author House. ISBN 978-1468507485
- Tebeau, Charlton(1968). Man in the Everglades: 2000 Years of Human History in the Everglades National Park. University of Miami Press.
External links