"The Calusa: A Stratified, Nonagricultural Society (With Notes on Sibling Marriage)." It shows the re-creation of the Calusa settlement on Pine Island. Artifacts related to fishing changed slowly over this period, with no obvious breaks in tradition that might indicate a replacement of the population. 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. Europeans attempted fighting them beginning in the 1500's, but the Calusas proved to be mighty warriors. Senquene succeeded his brother (name unknown), and was in turn succeeded by his son Carlos. [14], Little is known of the language of the Calusa. Among the most famous artifacts discovered was a statue of a panther or cat discovered in 1896 by archeologist Frank Hamilton Cushing. Tequesta & Keys The Tequesta occupied southeastern Florida from near present day Boca Raton southward to the Florida Keys. 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. By 880, a complex society had developed with high population densities. In 1517 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba landed in southwest Florida on his return voyage from discovering the Yucatán. (In 1954 a dugout canoe was found during excavation for a middle school in Marathon, Florida. The Calusa resisted physical encroachment and spiritual conversion by the Spanish and their missionaries for almost 200 years. 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. Many battles between them ensued. According to some authorities their territory also extended inland as far as Lake Okeechobee.Their linguistic affiliation is not certain. The men wore their hair long. No Zamia pollen has been found at any site associated with the Calusas, nor does Zamia grow in the wetlands that made up most of the Calusa environment. A new tribe that entered Florida either from the islands or the north at the start of the Christian Era, the Calusa dominated South Florida with their statute, skills, and brutality. Since its discovery in1896, the Key Marco Cat has been the favorite local mascot of Marco Island. The Calusas utilized shells as tools, weapons, art, and jewelry. THE CALUSA INDIANS OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. There are shell museums, shell craft shops, and even one enormous property known as Shell World. 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. This ability to travel on water was generally considered a great military advantage for them, helping the tribe dominate southern Florida for many years. Photograph by … Dominican missionaries reached the Calusa domain in 1549 but withdrew because of the hostility of the tribe. More serious scholars can dig into a thick new resource from the University Press of Florida. In 1711, the Spanish helped evacuate 270 Indians, including many Calusa, from the Florida Keys to Cuba (where almost 200 soon died). The find is being linked to a powerful Native American people, the Calusa that have fascinated historians and anthropologists for centuries. The Calusa (said to mean fierce people ) are a Native American tribe that once inhabited the southwestern coast of Florida.The Calusa are said to have been a socially complex and politically powerful tribe, and most of southern Florida was controlled by them. There are few written remnants of tribal culture, and what we have primarily are tools, jewelry and a few archaeological sites. Although many others survived the shipwreck, only Fontaneda was spared by the tribe in whose territory they landed. 92 likes. 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. Marquardt quotes 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). The Calusa Indians built 15-foot (4.5-meter) canoes out of cypress, and they used them to travel in the ocean and to move up and down the Calooshahatchee River, which was their primary waterway. Archeologists have uncovered tools like hammers and picks made from shells. [9][8] Artifacts of wood that have been found include bowls, ear ornaments, masks, plaques, "ornamental standards," and a finely carved deer head. These were followed by the development of canals and embankments. The population of this tribe may have reached as many as 50,000 people. … A team has uncovered the foundations of a large dwelling and this is allowing them to reconstruct the house. [19], 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. The Calusa wove nets from palm-fiber cord. Despite the physical absence of the Calusas, their heritage lives on in the remains of the mound cities they created and in the artifacts archeologists have discovered along Florida's Southwestern coastline. Widmer cites George Murdock's estimate that only some 20 percent of the Calusa diet consisted of wild plants that they gathered. By the early 19th century, Anglo-Americans in the area used the term Calusa for the people. Their society was somewhat closed to other cultures. Calusa ceremonies included processions of priests and singing women. The Calusa's language indicated possible travel to Florida from the outlying islands. Fontaneda lived with various tribes in southern Florida for the next seventeen years before being found by the Menendez de Avilés expedition. They were believed to have reached Cuba and maybe even Mexico in these vessels. 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. Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida.The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States, and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River.An average of one million people visit the park each year. Cultivated gourds were used as net floats, and sinkers and net weights were made from mollusk shells. According to eyewitness accounts, in 1566 over 4,000 people gathered to witness ceremonies in which the Calusa king made an alliance with Spanish governor Menéndez de Avilés. After suffering decimation by disease, the tribe was destroyed by Creek and Yamasee raiders early in the 18th century. "Chapter 10. These Indians controlled most of south Florida. Caloosahatchee means "River of the Calusa". [7][8], Mollusk shells and wood were used to make hammering and pounding tools. The Chumash are Native Americans who originally lived along the coast of southern California. Hunting these animals and gathering roots and fruit that grew on trees was a mainstay until they discovered the waters contained a wealth of fish. While a few Calusa individuals may have stayed behind and been absorbed into the Seminole, no documentation supports that. Quigley, a native Floridian, used Calusa artifacts and based his painting of a Calusa village layout on the results of actual archeological investigations. They were descendants of Paleo-Indians who inhabited Southwest Florida approximately 12,000 years ago. When Spain ceded Florida to the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1763, the Spanish evacuated the last remnants of the tribes of south Florida to Cuba. “The story of the Calusa during the Spanish occupation of La Florida is a complicated one,” said Thompson. It's shorelines were home to an abundance of game. Kimberly Ripley is a freelance writer from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 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. Replicas of their tools are available as well. The tribe was organized as a Chiefdom and was composed of many small villages, each containing a chief. Sacred Rain Calusa. A dozen words for which translations were recorded and 50 or 60 place names form the entire known corpus of the language. My research led to my amazement of how creatively the Calusas capitalized on these shells. However, no evidence of plant food was found at the Wightman site. Th. When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés visited in 1566, the Calusa served only fish and oysters to the Spanish. Granberry has provided an inventory of phonemes to the sounds of the Calusa language.[18][17]. They were responsible for the death of the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon who traveled with Christopher Columbus on his second trip to America. The priests wore carved masks, which were at other times hung on the walls inside a temple. These small fish were supplemented by larger bony fish, sharks and rays, mollusks, crustaceans, ducks, sea turtles and land turtles, and land animals. The National Geographic has reported that archaeologists have discovered an ancient Native American king’s house in Florida. The leaders included the paramount chief, or "king"; a military leader (capitán general in Spanish); and a chief priest. [6], Some authors have argued that the Calusa cultivated maize and Zamia integrifolia (coontie) for food. The Calusa Heritage Trail helps visitors imagine the tribe that once flourished on the Gulf Coast. Casts made from molds of those carvings are hand-treated with a proprietary combination of paints and stains to reproduce the original finish The Mound House, built in 1906, sits on the mound and provides a beautiful view that overlooks Estero Bay. The missionaries recognized that having a Calusa man cut his hair upon converting to Christianity (and European style) would be a great sacrifice. The Calusa also used spears, hooks, and throat gorges to catch fish. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years. Well-preserved nets, net floats, and hooks were found at Key Marco, in the territory of the neighboring Muspa tribe. After ten days a man who spoke Spanish approached Ponce de León's ships with a request to wait for the arrival of the Calusa chief. Archaeologists excavate on Mound Key in Florida, the location of the long-lost Calusa king's house and a nearby Spanish fort. It is based on the Creek and Mikasuki (languages of the present-day Seminole and Miccosukee nations) ethnonym for the people who had lived around the Caloosahatchee River (also from the Creek language). [22], For more than a century after the Avilés adventure, there was little contact between the Spanish and Calusa. This proved to be a bit more of a challenge. The Spanish departed and returned to Puerto Rico. The Calusa kingdom was eventually devastated by European diseases as well as slave raids by enemy tribes. People began creating fired pottery in Florida by 2000 BC.[3]. My next efforts were to identify more intimate characteristics of the Calusas, not as hunters or builders, but simply as people. 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