16th Century Settlements
| Hundreds of thousands of Indians already called
Florida home when Europeans first arrived in the early 16th century. But
it did not take long for the ensuing wars, slave trade and European diseases
to nearly wipe out the aboriginal population.
When European ships first landed on Florida in the 16th century,
the area was well populated. Indians of the Timucua, Apalachee, Ais, Tekesta
and Calusa were farming rich lands in the north -- growing corn, beans
and squash -- and fishing or hunting for most of their food in the south.
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| Locations near reliable food sources with fresh water, comfortable
microclimate and high, dry ground made good habitat for these Indians.
Fresh and brackish bodies of water supplied steady sources of fish and
shellfish, while fertile soils allowed farming to prosper. |
| Florida's aboriginal population of about 100,000 was nearly decimated
by exposure to deadly diseases that were brought to Florida by European
settlers. Smallpox, measles, influenza, even the common cold were deadly
to Indians.
Of course, wars with Spain and other Europeans contributed to the
near extinction of early Indians of Florida.
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| The slave trade -- Florida Indians were taken as slaves as early
as 1520 -- also helped kill off the aboriginal population. |
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The Apalachee
One of the most powerful and influential native groups
of Florida was the Apalachee. At the time Europeans began arriving in America,
the Apalachee controlled the fertile area near the Tallahassee hills between
the Ochlockonee and Aucilla rivers. The fertile clay and loam soils of
the hills supported the heaviest, most concentrated aboriginal population
in the state. |
| The first Spaniards to explore Florida extensively were drawn to
this same region. Panfilo de Narvaez journeyed there from Tampa Bay in
1528. Hernando de Soto wintered there from October 1539 until early March
1540.
Searching for gold, Narvaez and his expedition moved through swampy
unpopulated flatwoods until they reached the Apalachee area, near present-day
Tallahassee. The Apalachee "loomed big and naked, and from a distance
looked like giants. They were handsomely proportioned, lean, agile, and
strong," he wrote.
Eleven years later, one of de Soto's men remarked on the abundance
of corn and other food in all the Apalachee villages.
When the Europeans arrived, the Apalachee lived in somewhat permanent
villages, relying heavily on agriculture for their subsistence. Controlling
the territory between the Aucilla and land some distance west beyond the
Ochlockonee River, they were a distinct group, politically and culturally,
recognized as such both by themselves and other Indian groups far to the
south.
As a result of the fierce and determined hostility that the Apalachee
manifested toward the first Spanish intrusions into their territory in
the second quarter of the 16th century, Spain made no additional attempts
to contact them until early in the next century.
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Timucuan
Neighboring the Apalachee to the east were the Timucua,
composed of at least 15 separate tribes sharing a common language. More
is known about the Saturiwa than any other Timucuan group. They were encountered
by the French in 1562 and immortalized in the drawings of Jacques Le Moyne
de Morgues. Each Timuicuan village had its own leader who was under the
jurisdiction of a head chief who exacted tribute. |
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| The general name Timucuan was used by the
Spaniards for all the native peoples who occupied north Florida east of
the territory of the Apalachee. The Timucua were composed of a number of
autonomous provinces that were hostile to one another at time when the
first Europeans arrived. Among the important divisions in mission times
were the Saltwater Timucua (Saturiwa and Mocamo), Fresh Water, Potano,
Utina and Yustaga. The Saturiwa Indians used the name Timucua, spelled
thimogna, to designate specfically the Utina Indians living between the
St. Johns and the Suwannee rivers. In the early 17th century, Spaniards
also used the name in this restrictive sense. |
South Florida
Less is known about the early Indians of South Florida.
The best known group is the Calusa, whose vast domain was ruled by a single
chief. Although lacking agriculture, the Calusa developed elaborate political,
social and trade networks. They were also expert wood carvers, and the
many ceremonial items recovered from a Calusa site on Key Marco display
great artistic skill. The Calusa lived around Charlotte Harbor just north
of present-day Naples and around the mouth of the Caloosahatchie River
in South Florida.
Arguably the most complex precontact culture in South Florida existed
inland, in the Lake Okeechobee basin. These people not only had a sophisticated
political and social organization, but they also grew corn. Striking similarities
between their form of maize horticulture and that originating in the savannas
of northern South America. This has led some scholars to suggest that ancient
people of South American migrated north to South Florida through the Antilles
islands of the Caribbean.
Pictures from Florida State Archives
Map from Atlas of Florida
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