Indigenous peoples of Florida

The Indigenous peoples of Florida lived in what is now known as Florida for more than 12,000 years before the time of first contact with Europeans. However, the indigenous Floridians living east of the Apalachicola River had largely died out by the early 18th century. Some Apalachees migrated to Louisiana, where their descendants now live; some were taken to Cuba and Mexico by the Spanish in the 18th century, and a few may have been absorbed into the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.

Paleoindians

The first people arrived in Florida before the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. Human remains and/or artifacts have been found in association with the remains of Pleistocene animals at a number of Florida locations. A carved bone depicting a mammoth found near the site of Vero man has been dated to 13,000 to 20,000 years ago. Artifacts recovered at the Page-Ladson site date to 12,500 to 14,500 years ago. Evidence that a giant tortoise was cooked in its shell at Little Salt Spring dates to between 12,000 and 13,500 years ago. Human remains and artifacts have also been found in association with remains of Pleistocene animals at Devil's Den, Melbourne, Warm Mineral Springs, and the Cutler Fossil Site. A Bison antiquus skull with an embedded projectile point has been found in the Wacissa River. Other important Paleoindian sites in Florida include Harney Flats in Hillsborough County, the Nalcrest site, and Silver Springs.
Florida's environment at the end of the Pleistocene was very different from that of today. Because of the enormous amount of water frozen in ice sheets during the last glacial period, sea level was at least lower than now. Florida had about twice the land area. Its water table was much lower and the climate was cooler and much drier. There were few running rivers or springs in what is today's Florida. The few water sources in the interior of Florida were rain-fed lakes and water holes over relatively impervious deposits of marl, or deep sinkholes partially filled by springs.
With water available only at scattered locations, animals and humans would have congregated at the water holes to drink. The concentration of animals would have attracted hunters. Many Paleoindian artifacts and animal bones showing butchering marks have been found in Florida rivers, where deep sinkholes in the river bed would have provided access to water. Sites with Paleoindian artifacts also have been found in flooded river valleys as much as under the Gulf of Mexico, and suspected sites have been identified up to offshore under of water. Half of the Paleoindian sites in Florida may now be under water in the Gulf of Mexico. Materials deposited in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene in sinkholes in the beds of rivers were covered by silt and sealed in place before the water table rose high enough to create running rivers, and those layers remained undisturbed until excavated by archaeologists. These deposits preserved organic materials, including bone, ivory, wood, and other plant remains.
Archaeologists have found direct evidence that Paleoindians in Florida hunted mammoths, mastodons, Bison antiquus, and giant tortoises. The bones of other large and small animals, including ground sloths, tapirs, horses, camelids, deer, fish, turtles, shellfish, snakes, raccoons, opossums, and muskrats are associated with Paleoindian sites.

Stone tools

Organic materials are not well preserved in the warm, wet climate and often acidic soils of Florida. Organic materials that can be dated through radiocarbon dating are rare at Paleoindian sites in Florida, usually found only where the material has remained under water continuously since the Paleoindian period. Stone tools are therefore often the only clues to dating prehistoric sites without ceramics in Florida.
Projectile points have distinctive forms that can be fairly reliably assigned to specific time periods. Based on stone artifacts, Bullen divided pre-Archaic Florida into four periods, Early Paleo-Indian, Late Paleo-Indian, Dalton Early, and Dalton Late. Purdy defined a simpler sequence, Paleo Indian and Late Paleo. Later discoveries have pushed the beginning of the Paleoindian period in Florida to an earlier date. The earliest well-dated material from the Paleoindian period in Florida is from the Page-Ladson site, where points resembling pre-Clovis points found at Cactus Hill have been recovered from deposits dated to 14,588 to 14,245 calibrated calendar years BP, about 1,500 years before the appearance of the Clovis culture. Milanich places the end of the Paleoindian period at about 7500 BCE. During the early Paleoindian period in Florida, before 10,000 years ago, projectile points used in Florida included Beaver Lake, Clovis, Folsom-like, Simpson, Suwannee, Tallahassee, and Santa Fe points. Simpson and Suwannee points are the most common early Paleoindian points found in Florida. In the late Paleoindian period, 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, Bolen, Greenbriar, Hardaway Side-Notched, Nuckolls Dalton and Marianna points were in use, with the Bolen point being the most commonly found.
Most projectile points associated with early Paleoindians have been found in rivers. Projectile points of the late Paleoindian period, particularly Bolen points, are often found on dry land sites, as well as in rivers.
Paleoindians in Florida used a large variety of stone tools besides projectile points. These tools include blades, scrapers of various kinds, spokeshaves, gravers, gouges, and bola stones. Some of the tools, such as the Hendrix scraper of the early Paleoindian period, and the Edgefield scraper of the late Paleoindian period, are distinctive enough to aid in dating deposits.

Other tools

A few underwater sites in Florida have yielded Paleoindian artifacts of ivory, bone, antler, shell, and wood. A type of artifact found in rivers in northern Florida is the ivory foreshaft. One end of a foreshaft was attached to a projectile point with pitch and sinew. The other end was pointed, and pressure-fitted into a wood shaft. The foreshafts were made from mammoth ivory, or possibly, in some cases, from mastodon ivory. A shell "trigger" may be from an atlatl. Other tools include an eyed needle made from bone, double pointed bone pins, part of a mortar carved from an oak log, and a non-returning boomerang or throwing stick made from oak.

Archaic period

The Archaic period in Florida lasted from 7500 or 7000 BCE until about 500 BCE. Bullen divided this period into the Dalton Late, Early Pre-ceramic Archaic, Middle Pre-ceramic Archaic, Late Pre-ceramic Archaic, Orange and Florida Transitional periods. Purdy divided it into a Preceramic Archaic period and an Early Ceramic period. Milanich refers to Early, Middle and Late Archaic periods in Florida.
Several cultures become distinguishable in Florida in the middle to late Archaic period. In northeast Florida, the pre-ceramic Mount Taylor period was followed by the ceramic Orange culture. The Norwood culture in the Apalachee region of Florida, was contemporary with the very similar Orange culture. The late Archaic Elliott's Point complex, found in the Florida panhandle from the delta of the Apalachicola River westward, may have been related to the Poverty Point culture. The area around Tampa Bay and southwest Florida each had as yet unnamed late Archaic regional cultures using ceramics.

Post-Archaic period

Pre-historic sites and cultures in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada that followed the Archaic period are generally placed in the Woodland period or the later Mississippian culture period. The Woodland period is defined by the development of technology, including the introduction of ceramics and the bow and arrow, the adoption of agriculture, mound-building, and increased sedentism. These characteristics developed and spread separately. Sedentism and mound building appeared along the southwest coast of Florida and in the lower Mississippi River Valley well before the end of the Archaic period. Ceramics appeared along the coast of the southeastern United States soon after. Agriculture spread and intensified across the Woodland area throughout the Woodland and Mississippian culture periods but appeared in north central and northeastern Florida only after about 700 and had not penetrated the middle and lower Florida peninsula at the time of first contact with Europeans.

Post-Archaic cultures in Florida

Early modern period

European colonists encountered numerous groups of indigenous peoples in Florida. Recorded information on various groups ranges from numerous detailed reports to the mere mention of a name. Some of the indigenous peoples were taken into the system of Spanish missions in Florida, others had sporadic contact with the Spanish without being brought into the mission system, but many of the peoples are known only from mention of their names in historical accounts. All of these peoples were essentially extinct in Florida by the end of the 18th century.
Most died from exposure to Eurasian infectious diseases, such as smallpox and measles, to which they had no immunity; others died from conflict with European colonists in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. During the initial period of Spanish colonization, groups of conquistadors came into conflict with Florida Indians, which combined with Spanish-introduced diseases devastated their population. In the 17th and 18th centuries, English colonists from the Province of Carolina and the Indian allies carried out several raids against the Spanish mission system, further devastating the indigenous population of Florida. The few survivors migrated out of Florida, mainly to Cuba and New Spain with the Spanish when they ceded Florida to Great Britain in 1763 following the Seven Years' War, although a few Apalachee reached Louisiana, where their descendants still live.

Indigenous peoples encountered by Europeans

This section includes the names of tribes, chiefdoms and towns encountered by Europeans in what is now the state of Florida and adjacent parts of Alabama and Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries:

Ais people – They lived along the Indian River Lagoon in the 17th century and maintained contact with the Spanish in St. Augustine.
Alafay – Closely related to or part of Pohoy.
Amacano – When first reported by the Spanish in the 1620s, they lived along the Big Bend coast of Florida, west from the mouth of the Suwannee River along the coast of Apalachee Bay, and spoke the same language as the Chatato, Chine and Capara/Pacara. The Amacano battled with the Pohoys of Tampa Bay in the 1620s, with the Spanish brokering a peace between the two peoples in 1628 or 1629. The Amacano requested a missionary when missions were first established in Apalachee Province in 1633. A mission may have been established among the Amacano at that time, but there is no certain record of it. Spanish records mention the Amacano in 1638, in connection with an incident in which Apalachees and Timucuas had retaliated against the Chatato and Apalachicoli, who had killed some Christians in those provinces, although Hann states it is not clear how the Amacano were involved. The Amacano do not appear in Spanish records again until 1674, when some were living, along with some Capara/Pacara, in the Chine village of Chaccabi, which was served by the mission of San Luis "on the seacoast". The Amacano are last mentioned by the Spanish in 1704, when the Apalachee Province was overrun and destroyed by the Province of Carolina and its native allies.
Apalachee – A major chiefdom of people who spoke Apalachee, a Muskogean language, and the western anchor of the Spanish mission system. After raids by English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their Indian allies devastated Apalachee Province the survivors scattered, sometimes seeking shelter near the Spanish settlements of St. Augustine, San Marcos, and Pensacola. Some were taken to Cuba and Mexico when the Spanish withdrew from Florida in 1763. A small group migrated to Louisiana, where their descendants live.
Apalachicola band – The Apalachicola band was a group of towns along the Apalachicola River in Florida early in the 19th century. The towns were assigned several small reservations along the Apalachicola River in the 1823 Treaty of Moultrie Creek but were forced to move west in the 1830s.
Boca Ratones – Known only from records of the 1743 mission attempt on Biscayne Bay.
Bomto – known only from the middle of the 18th century as relations of the Mayaca and Jororo and enemies of the Pohoy.
Calusa – A major tribe centered on the Caloosahatchee River, politically dominant over other tribes in southern Florida. The Spanish maintained contact with them but did not succeed in missionary attempts.
Caparaz – An alternate form of Pacara, occurring once in Spanish records.
Chatot people – Located in the upper Apalachicola and Chipola river basins. Related in some way to the Pensacola. The Spanish established three missions to this tribe near the upper part of the Apalachicola River.
Chine – The Chine lived to the south of the Apalachee in the later part of the 17th century. The Chine first appeared in Spanish records with the founding of the mission of St. Peter the Apostle in the village of Chaccabi in 1674. The village of Chaccabi may have been located on the Rio Chachave, now known as Spring Creek on the coast west of St. Marks. They are believed to have spoken the same language as the Amacano and Capara/Pacara. The Spanish mission of San Luís "on the seacoast" served three towns that included members of the Amacano, Caparaz and Chine tribes. Also said to be a branch of the Chatato.
Chisca - The Chisca lived in eastern Tennessee in the 16th century, then appeared throughout much of Spanish Florida in the 17th century. In the 18th century they became known as the Euchee or Yuchi.
Costas – Name applied at different times to Ais, Alafaes, Keys Indians and Pojoy, and to otherwise unidentified refugees near St. Augustine.
Guacata – Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda implied that the Guacata were part of the Ais and that the Guacata spoke the same language as the Ais and Jaega.
Guazoco or Guacozo – Town near the upper reaches of the Withlacoochee River passed through by the de Soto expedition. This was the farthest south that the Spanish found maize being cultivated.
Guale – Originally living along the central Georgia coast; the survivors of the raids by English colonists and their Indian allies moved from Georgia into Florida.
Jaega – Living along the Florida Atlantic coast south of the Ais, this group was subject to, and possibly a junior branch of, the Ais.
Jobe – A Jaega town.
Jororo – A small tribe in the upper St. Johns River watershed, related to the Mayacas, and taken into the Spanish mission system late in the 17th century.
Keys Indians – Name given by the Spanish to Indians living in the Florida Keys in the middle of the 18th century, probably consisted of Calusa and refugees from other tribes to the north.
Luca – Town near the Withlacoochee River north of Guazoco, passed through by the de Soto expedition.
Macapiras or Amacapiras – Known only as refugees at St. Augustine in the mid-17th century, in the company of Jororo and Pojoy peoples.
Mayaca people – A small tribe in the upper St. Johns River watershed, related to the Jororos, and taken into the Spanish mission system in the 17th century.
Mayaimi – Lived around what is now called Lake Okeechobee, very limited contact with Europeans.
Mayajuaca – Mentioned by Fontaneda in association with the Mayaca.
Mocoso – Chiefdom on the east side of Tampa Bay at the time of the de Soto expedition, had disappeared by the 1560s.
Muklasa – Town affiliated with either Alabama people or Koasati, said to have moved to Florida after the Creek War.
Muspa – Town on or near Marco Island subject to the Calusa, name later applied to people living around Charlotte Harbor.
Pacara – First mentioned in 1675 as residing, together with the Amacano and the Chine, at the mission Assumpcíon ''del Puerto or de Nuestra Señora'' in the town of Chaccabi near Apalachee Bay south of Apalachee Province. The Pacara probably spoke the same language, or a closely related language, as the Chatatos, Amacanos and Chines, and were probably descendants of people of the Fort Walton culture who had migrated into Apalachee Province in the early 1670s. The Pacara are mentioned a few times in Spanish records in connection with missions in Apalachee Province, the last time in 1702, when they are described as "heathens".
Pawokti – Town associated with Tawasa, the people may have relocated to Florida panhandle.
Pensacola – Lived in the Florida panhandle. May have spoken the same language as the Chatato.
Pohoy – Chiefdom on Tampa Bay in the 17th century, refugees from Uchise raids in various places in Florida in the early 18th century.
Sabacola - A town of the Apalachicola. A dependent town, called Sabacola el Menor, was located in Florida for a few years in the 17th century, when it hosted a Spanish mission, Santa Cruz de Sabacola.
Santa Luces – People briefly mentioned in Spanish records from the middle of the 18th century. Santa Lucía was the name of a Spanish fort established in 1565 and abandoned four months later. The name was later applied to people living in the area.
Surruque – Tribe that lived north of the Ais, possibly related to either Ais or the Jororos and Mayacas.
Tequesta – Lived in southeastern Florida. Spanish made two short-lived attempts to establish a mission with them.
Timucua – Major group of peoples in northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia speaking a common language. Many of the Timucua-speaker were brought into the mission system. Other peoples speaking Timucua are only poorly known. Known to be part of this large, loosely associated group are the following:
*Acuera – Lived around the Oklawaha River, part of the mission system.
*Agua Fresca – Lived along the middle St. Johns River, part of the mission system.
*Arapaha – May have lived in southern Georgia.
*Ibi – Lived in southern Georgia, part of the mission system.
*Itafi – Lived in southeastern Georgia, part of the mission system. Survivors of the raids by English colonists and their Indian allies may have relocated to Florida.
*Mocama – Lived along the coast in northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia, part of the mission system.
**Saturiwa – Chiefdom on the lower St. Johns River, part of the mission system,
**Tacatacuru – Chiefdom on Cumberland Island, Georgia. Survivors of the raids by English colonists and their Indian allies may have relocated to Florida.
*Northern Utina – Lived in north-central Florida, part of the mission system,
*Ocale – Lived in north-central Florida, part of the mission system.
*Oconi – Lived in southeastern Georgia.
*Onatheagua – Lived in north-central Florida, perhaps identifiable as Northern Utina
*Potano – Chiefdom in north-central Florida, part of the mission system.
*Tucururu – A subdivision of or associated with the Acuera.
*Utina – Lived along the middle St. Johns River.
*Utinahica - Town on the Altamaha River in Georgia.
*Yufera – Lived in southeastern Georgia, part of the mission system. Survivors of the raids by English colonists and their Indian allies may have relocated to Florida.
*Yustaga – Lived in north-central Florida, part of the mission system.
Tocaste – Town near Lake Tsala Apopka, passed through by the de Soto expedition.
Tocobaga – Chiefdom on Tampa Bay. Spanish made one unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission.
Uzita – Chiefdom on the south side of Tampa Bay at the time the de Soto expedition, disappeared by the 1560s.
Vicela – Town near the Withlacoochee River north of Luca, passed through by the de Soto expedition.
Viscaynos – Name given by the Spanish to Indians living in the vicinity of Key Biscayne in the 17th century.