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77-463: The name "Tocobaga" is often applied to all of the native peoples of the immediate Tampa Bay area during the first Spanish colonial period (1513–1763). While they were culturally very similar, most of the villages on the eastern and southern shores of Tampa Bay were likely affiliated with other chiefdoms, such as the Pohoy , Uzita , and Mocoso . Study of archaeological artifacts has provided insight into

154-521: A Spanish source, the priest was the chief's father, and the military leader was his cousin. The Spanish documented four cases of known succession to the position of paramount chief, recording most names in Spanish form. Senquene succeeded his brother (name unknown), and was in turn succeeded by his son Carlos . Carlos was succeeded by his cousin (and brother-in-law) Felipe, who was in turn succeeded by another cousin of Carlos, Pedro. The Spanish reported that

231-725: A dugout canoe was found during excavation for a middle school in Marathon, Florida . Not conserved and in poor shape, the canoe is now displayed at the Crane Point Museum and Nature Center in Marathon and is tentatively attributed to the Calusa. The Calusa lived in large, communal houses which were two stories high. When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés visited the capital in 1566, he described the chief's house as large enough to hold 2,000 without crowding, indicating it also served as

308-410: A finely carved deer head. The plaques and other objects were often painted. To date, no one has found a Calusa dugout canoe , but it is speculated that such vessels would have been constructed from cypress or pine, as used by other Florida tribes. The process of shaping the boat was achieved by burning the middle and subsequently chopping and removing the charred center, using robust shell tools. In 1954,

385-414: A garrison of 30 men at Tocobaga ( to encourage the people of the town to convert to Christianity), he returned Carlos and the other Calusa to their town. In January 1568, Spanish boats taking supplies to the garrison at Tocobaga found the town deserted, and all the Spanish soldiers dead. In 1608 an alliance of Pohoy and Tocobaga may have threatened Potano people who had converted to Christianity. In 1611

462-468: A man who spoke Spanish approached Ponce de León's ships with a request to wait for the arrival of the Calusa chief. Soon 20 war canoes attacked the Spanish, who drove off the Calusa, killing or capturing several of them. The next day, 80 "shielded" canoes attacked the Spanish ships, but the battle was inconclusive. The Spanish departed and returned to Puerto Rico . In 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba landed in southwest Florida on his return voyage from

539-607: A mission to the Calusa but left after a few months. After the outbreak of war between Spain and England in 1702, slaving raids by Uchise Creek and Yamasee Indians allied with the Province of Carolina began reaching far down the Florida peninsula. The Carolinan colonists supplied firearms to the Creek and Yemasee, but the Calusa, who had isolated themselves from Europeans, had none. Ravaged by new infectious diseases introduced to

616-582: A raiding party from the two chiefdoms killed several Christianized Natives carrying supplies to the Spanish mission (Cofa) at the mouth of the Suwannee River . In 1612, the Spanish launched a punitive expedition down the Suwannee River and along the Gulf coast, attacking Tocobaga and Pohoy, and killing many of their people, including both chiefs. The Tocobaga were weakened by the Spanish attack, and

693-454: A regular basis, but did not tattoo themselves. The men wore their hair long. The missionaries recognized that having a Calusa man cut his hair upon converting to Christianity (and European style) would be a great sacrifice. Little was recorded of jewelry or other ornamentation among the Calusa. During Menéndez de Avilés's visit in 1566, the chief's wife was described as wearing pearls, precious stones, and gold beads around her neck. The heir of

770-512: A shipwreck survivor who lived with the Natives of southern Florida from 1549–1566 and was rescued from the Calusa by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés , described Tocobaga, Abalachi ( Apalachee ) and Mogoso (Mocoço) as "separate kingdoms" from the Calusa. Ucita and Mocoço at the time of de Soto's visit were subject to a chief named Urriparacoxi or Paracoxi (also given as Urribarracuxi). De Soto marched to

847-442: A standard mesh size; nets with different mesh sizes were used seasonally to catch the most abundant and useful fish available. The Calusa made bone and shell gauges that they used in net weaving. Cultivated gourds were used as net floats, and sinkers and net weights were made from mollusk shells. The Calusa also used spears, hooks , and throat gorges to catch fish. Well-preserved nets, net floats, and hooks were found at Key Marco , in

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924-760: A statement from the 1570s that "the Bay of Carlos ... in the Indian language is called Escampaba, for the cacique of this town, who afterward called himself Carlos in devotion to the Emperor" ( Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor ). Escampaba may be related to a place named Stapaba, which was identified in the area on an early 16th-century map. Paleo-Indians entered what is now Florida at least 12,000 years ago. By around 5000 BC, people started living in villages near wetlands. Favored sites were likely occupied for multiple generations. Florida's climate had reached current conditions and

1001-487: A village near the Spanish colonial town of St. Augustine . Alafae people were also recorded as living with other refugee groups here by 1717. Between 1718 and 1723, 162 Alafae were baptized there. In 1718 Pohoy people attacked a village of Tocobago at the mouth of the Wacissa River in the Province of Apalachee . In the 1720s and 1730s, Pojoy Indians were living together with Jororo , Amacapira (possibly related to

1078-569: A while. By 1634 Pohoy was allied with or subject to the Calusa chiefdom. (That year the Spanish referred to the "province of Carlos, Posoy, and Matecumbe", i.e., Calusa, Pohoy, and the Florida Keys.) Pohoy and Calusa were described as hostile to the Spanish in 1675. At that time the town of Pohoy was said to be on a river six leagues from Tocobago, perhaps on the Hillsborough River or Alafia River. A Spanish expedition down

1155-551: The Withlacoochee River . It noted the inland towns of Guacozo, Luca, Vicela, Tocaste, all of which may have been Safety Harbor culture settlements. The de Soto expedition is not known to have entered Capaloey territory. The Utiza and Mocoso chiefdoms disappeared within 35 years after the encounter with the de Soto expedition, and Tocobago dominated Tampa Bay when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés visited there in 1567. The name Pohoy first appears in historical accounts early in

1232-552: The Yucatán . He was also attacked by the Calusa. In 1521, Ponce de León returned to southwest Florida to plant a colony, but the Calusa drove the Spanish out, mortally wounding Ponce de León. The Pánfilo de Narváez expedition of 1528 and the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1539 both landed in the vicinity of Tampa Bay , north of the Calusa domain. Dominican missionaries reached the Calusa domain in 1549 but withdrew because of

1309-581: The 16th and 17th centuries, the historic Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture . They developed a complex culture based on estuarine fisheries rather than agriculture. Calusa territory reached from Charlotte Harbor to Cape Sable , all of present-day Charlotte , Lee , and Collier counties, and may have included the Florida Keys at times. They had the highest population density of South Florida ; estimates of total population at

1386-667: The 17th century, due mostly to the spread of infectious diseases brought by the Europeans, to which the native people had little resistance, as they had no acquired immunity. In addition, all of the Florida tribes lost population due to the raids by the Creek and Yamasee around the end of the 17th century. Remnants of the Calusa, who lived to the south of the Tocobaga, were forced into extreme southern Florida. As Florida transitioned to British rule in 1763 following its defeat of France in

1463-468: The Americas by European contact and by the slaving raids, the surviving Calusa retreated south and east. In 1711, the Spanish helped evacuate 270 Indians, including many Calusa, from the Florida Keys to Cuba (where almost 200 soon died). They left 1,700 behind. The Spanish founded a mission on Biscayne Bay in 1743 to serve survivors from several tribes, including the Calusa, who had gathered there and in

1540-528: The Bomto) disappeared from history after that. Calusa The Calusa ( / k ə ˈ l uː s ə / kə- LOO -sə , Calusa : *ka(ra)luš(i) ) were a Native American people of Florida 's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years. At the time of European contact in

1617-692: The Calusa and Europeans was in 1513, when Juan Ponce de León landed on the west coast of Florida in May, probably at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River , after his earlier discovery of Florida in April. The Calusa knew of the Spanish before this landing, however, as they had taken in Native American refugees from the Spanish subjugation of Cuba . The Spanish careened one of their ships, and Calusas offered to trade with them. After ten days,

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1694-507: The Calusa buried their departed in mounds. After death, a body was placed in a charnel house to let the flesh fall away naturally or, in some cases, a medicine man with long fingernails would scrape the flesh from bone. Afterwards, the bones would be gathered up, placed in a basket, and buried in a mound. These mounds were both for burials as well as religious ceremonies, as the Calusa would gather atop them on "Holy Days to sacrifice aromatic plants and honey". The first recorded contact between

1771-536: The Calusa served only fish and oysters to the Spanish. An analysis of faunal remains at one coastal habitation site, the Wightman site (on Sanibel Island ), showed that more than 93 percent of the energy from animals in the diet came from fish and shellfish, less than 6 percent of the energy came from mammals, and less than 1 percent came from birds and reptiles. By contrast, at an inland site, Platt Island , mammals (primarily deer ) accounted for more than 60 percent of

1848-537: The Calusas, nor does Zamia grow in the wetlands that made up most of the Calusa environment. Marquardt notes that the Calusa turned down the offer of agricultural tools from the Spanish, saying that they had no need for them. The Calusa gathered a variety of wild berries, fruits, nuts, roots, and other plant parts. Widmer cites George Murdock 's estimate that only some 20 percent of the Calusa diet consisted of wild plants that they gathered. While no evidence of plant food

1925-539: The Florida Keys. The mission was closed after only a few months. After Spain ceded Florida to the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1763, the remaining tribes of South Florida were relocated to Cuba by the Spanish, completing their removal from the region. While a few Calusa individuals may have stayed behind and been absorbed into the Seminole , no documentation supports that. Cuban fishing camps ( ranchos ) operated along

2002-750: The Indians would help protect St. Augustine and Florida from encroachment by British colonists in the Southern Colonies . Warfare broke out in 1738 among several of the native groups. In the 1730s the Pohoy held a number of Jororo slaves, and were being paid tribute by the Bomto or Bonito, who had ties to the Mayaca and Jororo. In 1739 the Bomto attacked a camp of the Pohoy and Amacapira, killing more than 20 people. Only one Pohoy man escaped. The Bomto spared

2079-607: The Jororo slaves in the camp. The Pohoy were still allies or subjects of the Calusa , and the Calusa retaliated for the attack on the Pohoy by attacking the Bomto-allied Mayaca people living near Lake Okeechobee . The Spanish received reports that more than 300 people died in that battle. Surviving Pohoy ambushed a Bomto party headed to St. Augustine, killing several. Several of those Pohoy were in turn killed or carried off by Uchise warriors. The Pohoy and Amacapira (and

2156-635: The Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy (called Uchise by the Spanish and "Lower Creeks" by the English) at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the surviving Pohoy people lived in several locations in peninsular Florida. The Pohoy disappeared from historical accounts after 1739. The Spanish variously recorded the name of the chiefdom and people as Pohoy, Pojoy , Pojoi , Pooy , Posoy , and Pujoy . Jerald Milanich states that

2233-608: The Pohoy became the dominant power in Tampa Bay for a while. In 1677 a Spanish official inspecting the missions in Apalachee Province visited a village of Tocobaga people living on the Wacissa River one league from the mission of San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco. There is no record of when the Tocobaga settled on the Wacissa River, but they appear to have been there for a while. When the Spanish official criticized

2310-471: The Pohoy) and later, Alafae people, in villages south of St. Augustine. Many Native American people were reported to have died in an epidemic in 1727, with the survivors leaving the area. A new village of Pohoy, Alfaya and Amacapira, and a neighboring village of Jororo, had been established by 1731. Most of the Pohoy, Alafae, Amacapira, and Jororo Indians moved away again in 1734, in response to an attempt by

2387-499: The Safety Harbor site. Menéndez had contacted the Calusa and reached an accommodation with Carlos , the Calusa king. Menéndez married Carlos's sister. As Carlos was anxious to gain an advantage over his enemy Tocobaga, Menéndez took Carlos and 20 of his warriors to Tocobaga by ship. Menéndez persuaded Tocobaga and Carlos to make peace. He recovered several Europeans and a dozen Calusa being held as slaves by Tocobaga. Leaving

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2464-557: The Seven Years' War, the Calusa emigrated with the evacuating Spanish, resettling with them in Cuba , possibly along with the remnants of the Tocobaga. In any case, the Tocobaga disappeared from historical records in the early 18th century. Pohoy Pohoy was a chiefdom on the shores of Tampa Bay in present-day Florida in the late sixteenth century and all of the seventeenth century. Following slave-taking raids by people from

2541-399: The Spanish and Calusa. Re-entering the area in 1614, Spanish forces attacked the Calusa as part of a war between the Calusa and Spanish-allied tribes around Tampa Bay. A Spanish expedition to ransom some captives held by the Calusa in 1680 was forced to turn back; neighboring tribes refused to guide the Spanish, for fear of retaliation by the Calusa. In 1697 Franciscan missionaries established

2618-427: The Tampa Bay area to be largely deserted. While the Spanish were told that there were many people in villages in the area, they did not see them. The expedition's report mentioned Pohoy several times, but the Spanish apparently did not visit the town. The Alafay people (also known as Alafaes, Alafaia, and Elafay) were associated with the Pohoy, probably as a sub-group. In the seventeenth century Pohoy territory included

2695-493: The Tocobaga and their neighbors. The missionary expedition of Father Luis de Cancer visited the Tampa Bay area in 1549 to attempt to peacefully convert the locals to Christianity. He intended to build a relationship between the Spanish and indigenous Floridians in the aftermath of earlier visits by aggressive conquistadors. Despite being cautioned to avoid the Gulf Coast, Father Cancer's expedition came ashore just south of

2772-462: The Tocobaga for having lived in a Christian province "for many years" without having converted, they replied that no one had come to teach them about Christianity, but that some twenty of their people had converted on their death beds and been buried at the mission in Ivitachuco. The Tocobaga were engaged in transporting produce from Apalachee Province to St. Augustine , carrying it in canoes along

2849-467: The Wacissa River. The Spanish commander persuaded the Tocobaga to move to the mouth of the St. Marks River under the protection of a battery . In August that year 25 to 30 Pohoy attacked the Tocobaga settlement, killing eight and taking three away as captives. A small number of Tocobaga continued to live in the vicinity of San Marcos through the 1720s and 1730s. The population of Tocobaga declined severely in

2926-624: The area along the Alafia River. The Spanish expedition of 1680 reported that Elafay was the next town beyond Pohoy, with 300 people in Pohoy, and 40 in Elafay. The 1699 Spanish expedition reported having passed through an abandoned village named Elafay near Tampa Bay. In 1734 Don Antonio Pojoi was identified as the leader of the Alafaias Costas nation. Early in the eighteenth century, Pohoy and Tocobago Indians were living together in

3003-407: The area for at least 1,000 years prior to European contact, and possibly for much longer than that. The Calusa had a stratified society, consisting of "commoners" and "nobles" in Spanish terms. While there is no evidence that the Calusa had institutionalized slavery, studies show they would use captives for work or even sacrifice. A few leaders governed the tribe. They were supported by the labor of

3080-459: The baptismal name Doña Antonia at conversion. Menéndez left a garrison of soldiers and a Jesuit mission, San Antón de Carlos, at the Calusa capital. Hostilities erupted, and the Spanish soldiers killed Carlos, his successor Felipe, and several of the "nobles" before they abandoned their fort and mission in 1569. For more than a century after the Avilés adventure, there was little contact between

3157-604: The beginning of the Caloosahatchee culture . This lasted until about 1750, and included the historic Calusa people. By 880, a complex society had developed with high population densities. Later periods in the Caloosahatchee culture are defined in the archaeological record by the appearance of pottery from other traditions. The Caloosahatchee culture inhabited the Florida west coast from Estero Bay to Charlotte Harbor and inland about halfway to Lake Okeechobee, approximately covering what are now Charlotte and Lee counties. At

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3234-425: The belief system; they were intermediaries between the gods and the people. Conversion would have destroyed the source of their authority and legitimacy. The Calusa resisted physical encroachment and spiritual conversion by the Spanish and their missionaries for almost 200 years. After suffering decimation by disease, the tribe was destroyed by Creek and Yamasee raiders early in the 18th century. Evidence shows that

3311-409: The body after death, and the Calusa would consult with that soul at the graveside. The other two souls left the body after death and entered into an animal. If a Calusa killed such an animal, the soul would migrate to a lesser animal and eventually be reduced to nothing. Calusa ceremonies included processions of priests and singing women. The priests wore carved masks, which were at other times hung on

3388-422: The chief towns. Chief towns were occasionally abandoned and new towns built. There are fifteen or more Safety Harbor chief town sites known, most of which are located on a shoreline. When the Spanish reached Tampa Bay early in the sixteenth century, they found four chiefdoms on the shores of the bay. The town of Tocobago was at the northern end of Old Tampa Bay (the northwest arm of Tampa Bay). Uzita controlled

3465-493: The chief was expected to take his sister as one of his wives. The contemporary archeologists MacMahon and Marquardt suggest this statement may have been a misunderstanding of a requirement to marry a "clan-sister". The chief also married women from subject towns and allied tribes. This use of marriages to secure alliances was demonstrated when Carlos offered his sister Antonia in marriage to the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1566. The Calusa diet at settlements along

3542-408: The chief wore gold in an ornament on his forehead and beads on his legs. Ceremonial or other artistic masks have been discovered and were previously described by the Spanish who first encountered the Calusa. Some of these masks had moving parts that used pull strings and hinges so that a person could alter the look of a mask while wearing it. The Calusa believed that three supernatural beings ruled

3619-414: The coast and estuaries consisted primarily of fish, in particular pinfish ( Lagodon rhomboides ), pigfish (redmouth grunt), ( Orthopristis chrysoptera ) and hardhead catfish ( Ariopsis felis ). These small fish were supplemented by larger bony fish , sharks and rays , mollusks , crustaceans , ducks, sea turtles and land turtles, and land animals. When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés visited in 1566,

3696-488: The coast and up the Suwannee River and, probably, the Santa Fe River . Other people carried it overland the rest of the way to St. Augustine. The village was listed again in 1683, but it is not clear what happened when Apalachee Province was overrun by English Carolinian colonists and their Native allies in 1704. When the Spanish returned to San Marcos de Apalachee in 1718, they found a few Tocobaga living along

3773-446: The coast from the mouth of the Suwannee River in 1680 sought to reach the Calusa domain. The Spanish were warned by the Pohoy chief to turn back. Due to increasingly strident warnings in the next few villages on the way to Calusa, the Spanish did retreat. This expedition described the Pohoy, but not the Calusa, as "docile". A Spanish expedition in 1699 that traveled overland from San Francisco de Potano (near present-day Gainesville ) found

3850-449: The council house. When the chief formally received Menéndez in his house, the chief sat on a raised seat surrounded by 500 of his principal men, while his sister-wife sat on another raised seat surrounded by 500 women. The chief's house was described as having two big windows, suggesting that it had walls. Five friars who stayed in the chief's house in 1697 complained that the roof let in the rain, sun and dew. The chief's house, and possibly

3927-594: The energy from animal meat, while fish provided just under 20 percent. Some authors have argued that the Calusa cultivated maize and Zamia integrifolia (coontie) for food. But Widmer argues that the evidence for maize cultivation by the Calusa depends on the proposition that the Narváez and de Soto expeditions landed in Charlotte Harbor rather than Tampa Bay , which is now generally discounted. No Zamia pollen has been found at any site associated with

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4004-466: The everyday life of the Safety Harbor culture. Little is known about the political organization of the early peoples of the Tampa Bay area. The scant historical records come exclusively from the journals and other documents made by members of several Spanish expeditions that traversed the area in the 1500s. The Tocobaga and their neighbors disappeared from the historical record by the early 1700s, as endemic diseases carried by European explorers decimated

4081-466: The hostility of the tribe. Salvaged goods and survivors from wrecked Spanish ships reached the Calusa during the 1540s and 1550s. The best information about the Calusa comes from the Memoir of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda , one of these survivors. Fontaneda was shipwrecked on the east coast of Florida, likely in the Florida Keys , about 1550, when he was thirteen years old. Although many others survived

4158-511: The indigenous population, probably at the principal town of the Tocobaga at the Safety Harbor site . Several years later, the Hernando de Soto Expedition likely landed on the southern shore of Tampa Bay in 1539, and passed through the eastern part of Safety Harbor territory after occupying the village of Uzita . Garcilaso de la Vega (known as el Inca ), in his history of de Soto's expedition, relates that Narváez had ordered that

4235-442: The local population. They had no medical acquired immunity to these new diseases. Survivors were displaced by the raids and incursions of other indigenous groups from the north. The Tampa Bay area was virtually uninhabited for over a century. The Tampa Bay area was visited by Spanish explorers during Florida's early Spanish period . In 1528, an expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez landed near Tampa Bay and soon skirmished with

4312-480: The majority of the Calusa. The leaders included the paramount chief, or "king"; a military leader ( capitán general in Spanish); and a chief priest. The capital of the Calusa, and where the rulers administered from, was Mound Key , near present day Estero, Florida . There is an eyewitness account from 1566 of a "king's house" on Mound Key that was large enough for "2,000 people to stand inside." In 1564, according to

4389-465: The mouth of Bahia Espiritu Santo (Tampa Bay) in May 1549. There they encountered apparently peaceful and receptive Natives who told them of the many populous villages around Tampa Bay. Father Cancer decided to continue north to visit these towns and was met with violent resistance. Most members of the expedition were killed or captured, and Father Cancer was clubbed to death soon after reaching modern day Pinellas County. Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda ,

4466-450: The name "Pohoy" is a form of Capaloey , the name of a chiefdom on Tampa Bay in the first half of the sixteenth century.. Tampa Bay was the heart of the Safety Harbor culture area. People in the Safety Harbor culture lived in chiefdoms, consisting of a chief town and several outlying communities, controlling about 15 miles (24 km) of shoreline and extending 20 miles (32 km) or so inland. Ceremonial earthwork mounds were built in

4543-402: The native people, including both chiefs. The Spanish of that expedition referred to Tampa Bay as the "Bay of Espiritu Santo and Pojoy", Espiritu Santo being the name Hernando de Soto gave it in 1539. "Bay of Pohoy" or "Bay of Pooy" apparently was applied to the southern part of Tampa Bay. The Tocobago were weakened by the Spanish attack, and the Pohoy became the dominant power in Tampa Bay for

4620-523: The new governor of Florida to re-settle Indians in villages closer to St. Augustine and extract unpaid labor from them. By the early eighteenth century, all of the indigenous groups in peninsular Florida were working with and looking to the Spanish authorities for protection from Uchise raiders. (The Uchise were the Muscogee people known as "Lower Creeks" by the British colonists.) The Spanish hoped that

4697-546: The nose of the chief of Uzita be cut off, indicating that the two explorers had passed through the same area. Another town near Uzita encountered by de Soto was Mocoso , but evidence suggests that, while Mocoso was in the Safety Harbor culture area together with Uzita and Tocobaga, the Mocoso people spoke a different language, possibly Timucua . Neither Narvaez nor de Soto remained in the area for long, as they each traveled north in search of gold after several violent encounters with

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4774-436: The other houses at Calos, were built on top of earthen mounds. In a report from 1697, the Spanish noted 16 houses in the Calusa capital of Calos , which had 1,000 residents. The Calusa wore minimal clothing. The men wore deerskin breechcloths . The Spanish left less description about Calusa women's attire. At the time, most Indigenous women of Florida wore skirts made from Spanish moss . The Calusa painted their bodies on

4851-417: The people who had lived around the Caloosahatchee River (also from the Creek language). Juan Rogel , a Jesuit missionary to the Calusa in the late 1560s, noted the chief's name as Carlos , but wrote that the name of the kingdom was Escampaba, with an alternate spelling of Escampaha . Rogel also stated that the chief's name was Caalus, and that the Spanish had changed it to Carlos. Marquardt quotes

4928-462: The region later occupied by the Calusa, including one site classified as early Archaic, and dated before 5000 BC. There is evidence that the people intensively exploited Charlotte Harbor aquatic resources before 3500 BC. Undecorated pottery belonging to the early Glades culture appeared in the region around 500 BC. Pottery distinct from the Glades tradition developed in the region around AD 500, marking

5005-608: The sea had risen close to its present level by about 3000 BC. People commonly occupied both fresh and saltwater wetlands. Because they relied on shellfish, they accumulated large shell middens during this period. Many people lived in large villages with ceremonial earthwork mounds , such as those at Horr's Island . People began firing pottery in Florida by 2000 BC. By about 500 BC, the Archaic culture , which had been fairly uniform across Florida, shifted into more distinct regional cultures. Some Archaic artifacts have been found in

5082-464: The seventeenth century. In 1608, an alliance of Pohoy and Tocobago may have threatened those Potano who had been converted to Christianity. In 1611 a raiding party from the two chiefdoms killed several Christianized Indians carrying supplies to the Spanish mission (Cofa) at the mouth of the Suwannee River . In 1612, the Spanish launched a punitive expedition down the Suwannee River and along the Gulf coast, attacking Tocobago and Pohoy; they killed many of

5159-521: The shipwreck, only Fontaneda was spared by the tribe in whose territory they landed. Warriors killed all the adult men. Fontaneda lived with various tribes in southern Florida for the next seventeen years before being found by the Menendez de Avilés expedition. In 1566 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés , founder of St. Augustine , made contact with the Calusa. He struck an uneasy peace with their leader Caluus, or Carlos. Menéndez married Carlos' sister, who took

5236-756: The south shore of Tampa Bay, from the Little Manatee River to Sarasota Bay . Mocoso was on the east side of Tampa Bay, on the Alafia River and, possibly, the Hillsborough River . Capaloey, was on Hillsborough Bay (the northeast arm of Tampa Bay), which may have included the Hillsborough River. Historian Jerald Milanich states that the name Pohoy is a form of Capaloey. The de Soto expedition landed in Uzita territory in 1539. It passed through Mocoso territory, and further north along

5313-616: The territory of the neighboring Muspa tribe. Mollusk shells and wood were used to make hammering and pounding tools. Mollusk shells and shark teeth were used for grating, cutting, carving, and engraving. The Calusa wove nets from palm-fiber cord. Cord was also made from cabbage palm leaves, saw palmetto trunks, Spanish moss , false sisal ( Agave decipiens ) and the bark of cypress and willow trees. The Calusa also made fish traps , weirs , and fish corrals from wood and cord. Artifacts of wood that have been found include bowls, ear ornaments, masks, plaques, "ornamental standards", and

5390-686: The time of European contact range from 10,000 to several times that, but these are speculative. Calusa political influence and control also extended over other tribes in southern Florida, including the Mayaimi around Lake Okeechobee , and the Tequesta and Jaega on the southeast coast of the peninsula. Calusa influence may have also extended to the Ais tribe on the central east coast of Florida. European contact caused their extinction, through disease and violence. Early Spanish and French sources referred to

5467-411: The time of first European contact, the Caloosahatchee culture region formed the core of the Calusa domain. Artifacts related to fishing changed slowly over this period, with no obvious breaks in tradition that might indicate a replacement of the population. Between 500 and 1000, the undecorated, sand- tempered pottery that had been common in the area was replaced by " Belle Glade Plain" pottery. This

5544-406: The town of Paracoxi, which appears to have been inland from Tampa Bay, where he found maize being cultivated. (By contrast, the Safety Harbor people made little or no use of maize, and instead gathered most of their food and resources from the bountiful coastal waters.) The name "Tocobaga" first appears in Spanish documents in 1567, when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés visited what was almost certainly

5621-519: The tribe, its chief town, and its chief as Calos , Calus , Caalus , and Carlos . Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda , a Spaniard held captive by the Calusa in the 16th century, recorded that Calusa meant "fierce people" in their language. By the early 19th century, Anglo-Americans in the area used the term Calusa for the people. It is based on the Mvskoke and Mikasuki (languages of the present-day Seminole and Miccosukee nations) ethnonym for

5698-464: The walls inside a temple. Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda , an early chronicler of the Calusa, described "sorcerers in the shape of the devil, with some horns on their heads," who ran through the town yelling like animals for four months at a time. The Calusa remained committed to their belief system despite Spanish attempts to convert them to Catholicism . The "nobles" resisted conversion in part because their power and position were intimately tied to

5775-399: The world, that people had three souls, and that souls migrated to animals after death. The most powerful ruler governed the physical world, the second most powerful ruled human governments, and the last helped in wars, choosing which side would win. The Calusa believed that the three souls were the pupil of a person's eye, his shadow, and his reflection . The soul in the eye's pupil stayed with

5852-516: Was found at the Wightman site, archeological digs on Sanibel Island and Useppa Island revealed evidence that the Calusa did in fact consume wild plants such as cabbage palm , prickly pear , hog plum , acorns , wild papaya , and chili peppers . There is also evidence that as early as 2,000 years ago, the Calusa cultivated a gourd of the species Cucurbita pepo and the bottle gourd , which were used for net floats and dippers. The Calusa caught most of their fish with nets. Nets were woven with

5929-408: Was made with clay containing spicules from freshwater sponges ( Spongilla ), and it first appeared inland in sites around Lake Okeechobee. This change may have resulted from the people's migration from the interior to the coastal region, or may reflect trade and cultural influences. There was little change in the pottery tradition after this. The Calusa were descended from people who had lived in

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