Northern Utina

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Not to be confused with Utina.
Northern Utina
Total population
Extinct as tribe
Regions with significant populations
Northern Florida east of the Suwannee River
Languages
Timucua language, Timucua proper dialect
Religion
Native
Related ethnic groups
Timucua
Reconstruction of Timucua paha (house) at the Marion County Historical Museum (formerly East Hall)

The Northern Utina, also known as the Timucua or simply Utina, were a

San Martín de Timucua
.

The Northern Utina had sporadic contact with the Europeans beginning in the first half of the 16th century. In 1539 Spanish

Timucua Province, and San Martín de Timucua and three other missions were established between 1608 and 1616. The profile of the Northern Utina increased considerably as smaller peripheral provinces were incorporated into the Timucua Province, which eventually included all of northern Florida between approximately the Aucilla and St. Johns Rivers
.

However, the tribe experienced significant demographic decline during the same period due to disease and other factors. They took the forefront in the Timucua Rebellion of 1665. This was put down by the Spanish, who razed their villages and relocated the populace to a series of new communities along the Camino Real or Royal Road running between the

Creek and Yamasee
, and suffered further from epidemics. They eventually moved closer to St. Augustine and mingled with other Timucua groups, losing their independent identity.

Name

The name "Northern Utina" for these people is a scholarly convention; it was never used by the people themselves or by their Spanish or Indian contemporaries.

Timucua Province. Their dialect was known as Timucua (now usually called "Timucua proper").[3] Over time smaller provinces were joined into the Timucua Province, and the name "Timucua" was applied to an increasingly wide area of northern Florida.[2]

In the 20th century, when the name Timucua came to designate all the groups who spoke the

Jerald Milanich and Ken Johnson have suggested classing the two groups as eastern Utina and Northern Utina, respectively.[2]

Area

The Northern Utina lived in a region spreading roughly from the

Florida Panhandle. To the south and southeast of the Northern Utina, on the other side of the Santa Fe River, were the Potano, another Timucua group. Other Timucua speakers lived to the north in Georgia, including the Arapaha.[8] Far to the east were the eastern Timucua groups, including the Saturiwa
and the (eastern) Utina.

The area occupied by the Northern Utina (and the Yustaga) at the time of European contact corresponds to the area of the Suwannee Valley culture. Suwannee Valley ceramics were displaced by Leon Jefferson ceramics during the Spanish mission period (the 17th century).[9]

Early history and European contact

Charles M. Hudson
's 1997 map
Jacques le Moyne of the Black drink ceremony
among the Timucua of Florida

The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. In the first millennium AD the region's inhabitants participated in the

Weedon Island culture, which spread across much of western Florida and beyond. From about 900 a derivative culture emerged in the Suwannee Valley area, known as the Suwannee Valley culture. This culture was common to all the Suwannee Valley peoples (the Northern Utina and the Yustaga), and as a Weedon Island derivative was closely related to the Alachua culture of the Potano. It is particularly distinguished by its ceramics.[10]

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Northern Utina lived in small community groups, perhaps representing localized chiefdoms, separated from each other by considerable distances. John E. Worth suggests that these may have been organized into a larger regional chiefdom that was continuous from at least the early days of European contact through the 17th century.[11] Early European accounts record certain chiefs as paramount over others, while during the 17th-century towns in the Timucua Province were missionized evidently based on their preeminence.[11] This may be evidence of a continuous regional chiefdom, but Worth notes it must have been much looser than more integrated Timucua chiefdoms such as the eastern Utina, the Saturiwa, or the Potano. Large-scale monuments such as platform mounds, often signs of integrated regional chiefdoms, have not been found in Northern Utina territory, and ceramic dating may vary from community to community, suggesting disunity.[12]

The Northern Utina probably encountered the survivors of the

Fig Springs archaeological site.[14] Aguacaleycuen was allied with (and possibly related to) another chief on the other side of the Suwannee River, Uzachile, whose chiefdom may correspond with the later Yustaga chiefdom. Upon reaching Aguacaleycuen's village De Soto captured the chief, as was his custom, intending to release him once his party had safely reached Uzachile. Subsequently some subordinate chiefs, asserting that Uzachile sought an alliance with De Soto, led the Spanish into an ambush. After a battle, De Soto executed Aguacaleycuen and other hostages and moved into Uzachile's territory, which he found already evacuated.[15]

In 1564 the French settlers of Fort Caroline heard of a powerful chief in this area named Onatheaqua. Though details are limited, this Onatheaqua may have ruled the Northern Utina chiefdom led earlier by Aguacaleycuen.[16] The French understood his chiefdom to be near that of Chief Houstaqua, whose name is probably a variant of "Yustaga", and to the east of the Apalachee. However, they believed he lived near high mountains (the Appalachian Mountains, which early Europeans believed extended to Apalachee territory).[16] The French believed Onatheaqua to be very wealthy and to have controlled access to the mountains and the strange and valuable things located there.[17]

Mission era

The Northern Utina received a number of Spanish emissaries following the 1565 establishment of

Santa Fé de Toloca, Santa Cruz de Tarihica, and San Juan de Guacara.[21]

The profile of the Northern Utina increased substantially as smaller provinces were merged into Timucua Province, and San Martín became the principal mission and town for an increasingly wide area. However, they suffered considerable demographic decline from the epidemics that spread through Florida through the 17th century.

Creek and Yamasee allied to the English colonies to the north. As a result surviving Northern Utina migrated closer to St. Augustine where they merged with other Timucua peoples, and were removed to Cuba in 1763.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Milanich, p. 54.
  2. ^ a b c d e Worth vol. I, pp. xxii–xxiv.
  3. ^ Granberry, p. 6.
  4. ^ Milanich, p. 46.
  5. ^ Granberry, p. 3.
  6. ^ Milanich, p. 55.
  7. ^ Granberry, p. 3, 7.
  8. ^ Milanich, pp. 55–56.
  9. ^ Worth 2012, p. 149
  10. ^ Worth vol. I, pp. 28–29.
  11. ^ a b Worth vol. I, p. 96.
  12. ^ Worth vol. I, pp. 29–30.
  13. ^ Worth vol. I, p. 30.
  14. ^ Worth vol. I, pp. 31–32.
  15. ^ Worth vol. I, p. 31.
  16. ^ a b Worth vol. I, p. 32.
  17. ISBN 0817311211
    . Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  18. ^ Worth vol I., p. 48.
  19. ^ Worth vol. I, pp. 48–50.
  20. ^ Worth vol. I, pp. 50; 67.
  21. ^ Worth vol. I, pp. 61, 67.
  22. ^ Swanton, p. 151.
  23. ^ a b Worth vol. II, p. 38.
  24. ^ Worth vol. II, p. 149; 156–157.

References

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