The Calusa people based most of their diet on seafood. 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. The first Spanish explorers found that these Indians were not very friendly. Their gods were living all around them. The Tequesta Indians were a tribe of eastern Florida, closely connected with the Ais. They fished and hunted for their food and would catch things like: mullet, catfish, eels, turtles, deer, conchs, clams, oysters, and crabs. The Calusa tribe lived along the Gulf Coat and inner waterways; their homes were built on stilts with roofs made from Palmetto leaves; these homes had no walls. The soul in the eye's pupil stayed with the body after death, and the Calusa would consult with that soul at the graveside. Index of Indigenous languages These Indians were so unfriendly that this was one of the first tribes that Spanish explorers wrote home about in 1513. The Calusa used the canals to travel by canoe from their villages and ceremonial centers to coastal trading posts. [5] A few leaders governed the tribe. The men were responsible for work away from the home, like hunting and raiding. The Legend of the Calusa Many people believe that the Calusa made a trip to Cuba in their canoes and traded with the Mayans. Native American names Well-preserved nets, net floats, and hooks were found at Key Marco, in the territory of the neighboring Muspa tribe. The Southeast is one of 10 culture areas that scholars use to study the Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada. This class was supported by commoners, who provided them with food and other material goods. But Widmer argues that the evidence for maize cultivation by the Calusa depends on the proposition that the Narvez and de Soto expeditions landed in Charlotte Harbor rather than Tampa Bay, which is now generally discounted. The Beast with an insatiable Hunger for Human Flesh, Film Footage Provides Intimate View of HMS Gloucester Shipwreck, Top 8 Legendary Parties - Iconic Celebrations in Ancient History, The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth Behind the Black Legend (Part II), The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth behind the Dark Legend (Part I), Bloodthirsty Buddhists: The Sohei Warrior Monks of Feudal Japan, Caesars Savage Human Skewers Unearthed In German Fort, The Red Taj Mahal and the Dutch Hessings of India. The Calusa are said to have been the descendants of Palaeo-Indians who inhabited Southwest Florida about 12000 years ago. It was during this phase of research that the team located and documented the massive kings house, showing it was indeed every bit as impressive as Spanish accounts, which claimed it was large enough to accommodate some 2,000 people. The Carolinan colonists supplied firearms to the Creek and Yemasee, but the Calusa, who had isolated themselves from Europeans, had none. They determined that the enclosures, which were built on a foundation of oyster shells, walled off portions of the estuary, serving as traps and short-term holding pens for fish before they were eaten, smoked, or dried for later consumption. The Calusa Native Americans. [Online]Available at: http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/calusa/calusa1.htm, Florida Museum of Natural History, 2016. They believed that people had three souls-in a person's eye, shadow, and their reflection in the water. These deposits were carefully water-screened using a series of nested screens in order to capture even the finest organic materials. What formation processes resulted in the complex of mounds and other features there? And, although some of Cushings ideas about the Indians he had discovered and their relationship to tribes in the Caribbean and South America have not remained popular among scholars, his descriptive notes and insights are of unquestionable value. Map of Calusa territory in Florida. The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the French village of Carnac, in Brittany, consisting of more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany. Calusa beliefs included a trinity of governing spirits. The Calusas were one of the few North American Indian tribes who were ruled by a hereditary king. The Spanish left less description on what the Calusa women wore. (1964). The explorers soon became the targets of the Calusa attacks. According to the documents, the brushwood and lumber fort encompassed some 36 structures. [2] The Tequesta tribe had only a few survivors by . The rich and relatively stable coastal ecology of southwest Florida provided an abundance of marine lifenumerous kinds of fish, shellfish, and sea mammalsthat was capable of supporting a large human population. The lifestyle of the Calusa was leisurely, and they enjoyed numerous celebrations and feasts, many of which were connected to religious ceremonies at which lavish meals were prepared. One illustration of the sophistication of the Calusa can be found in eyewitness accounts of an event in 1566. They developed a complex culture based on estuarine fisheries rather than agriculture. Despite having no real agriculture, they developed a dense, sedentary, complex society, with all the good & bad that entails. The Calusa resisted physical encroachment and spiritual conversion by the Spanish and their missionaries for almost 200 years. The Penn Museum respectfully acknowledges that it is situated on Lenapehoking, the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Unami Lenape. Those excavations revealed rarely preserved objects of wood, such as masks, figureheads, bowls, and tools, which survived because of the wet environment. Rituals were believed to link the Calusa to their spirit world (Art by Merald Clark.) 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. The courtyard was drained and cleared, exposing house posts, fishing nets, shell tools, bowls and drinking vessels, weapons, canoes, pottery, and extraordinary wooden masks and animal figureheads (Fig. "Chapter 10. While thousands of Calusa people were enslaved, about 270 people, including Calusa nobles, escaped to the Keys where, after the last raid by the Creeks on May 17, 1760, the surviving 60-70. Darcie A. Macmahon and Dr. William H. Marquardt, an expert on the Calusa, have written a fascinating book that brings to life a group of people who disappeared from Florida in the 1700s. However, no evidence of plant food was found at the Wightman site. [20][21], A few vocabulary examples from Granberry's work are listed below:[22]. They believed in three superior beings, one controlled the weather, the others ruled the welfare of the tribe and warfare. Man in Peru Caught Out Drinking With an 800-year-old Mummy! The Calusa may have been the only ancient people in North America who established a kingdom without practicing agriculture. Calusa ceremonies included processions of priests and singing women. Marquardt, Thompson and other University of Georgia colleagues and students began fieldwork at Mound Key in 2013, funded by the National Geographic Society. Rogel also stated that the chief's name was Caalus, and that the Spanish had changed it to Carlos. In. (Cushing was an anthropologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology, and was well known for his pioneering work at Zuni Pueblo.) Their main waterway was the Calooshahatchee River, which means River of the Calusa. Although we cannot be sure what values the masks and animal figureheads held for the Calusa, they may have been markers of clan affiliation, and the animals represented most likely played important roles in Calusa mythology and religion. 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. Miccosukee. If a Calusa killed such an animal, the soul would migrate to a lesser animal and eventually be reduced to nothing.[18]. By the early 1600s the Calusa returned to Mound Key and reestablished their capital. The Calusa battle Spain over conversion. The chief's house, and possibly the other houses at Calos, were built on top of earthen mounds. [7] The contemporary archeologists MacMahon and Marquardt suggest this statement may have been a misunderstanding of a requirement to marry a "clan-sister". By interceding with these spirits, it was believed that the chief was ensuring that his people would be well-supplied by the land. The team conducted a geophysical survey of both large mounds at the site, known as Mounds 1 and 2, and then they partially excavated the areas where ground-penetrating radar had indicated the locations of features and structures. In the wake of conflict and European-borne disease, the Calusa were extinguished by the second half of the 18th century. According to Menendez, in 1566 the town of Calos contained a central mound where special masks were kept and where human sacrifices were made. An anonymous account mentions an autumn ceremony in which dancers wore animal masks (Coggin and Sturtevant 1964). [17], The Calusa believed that three supernatural people ruled the world, that people had three souls, and that souls migrated to animals after death. So, we needed information on large-scale architecture, the timing and tempo of shell midden mound formation and the timing of large-scale public architecture., Florida Museum illustration by Merald Clark. Reagan restored the Tribes to federal recognition by signing Public Law 98-481. [Online]Available at: http://www.sanibelhistory.org/calusa_history.htm, Wu Mingren (Dhwty) has a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient History and Archaeology. The Calusa lived from at least A.D. 1000 up to the middle of the 18th century in what are now southwest Floridas Lee, Charlotte, and Collier counties. Most spectacular are 9 carved and painted animal heads, some of which were probably worn as masks or headdresses on ceremonial occasions; others probably functioned as architectural elements. Pine tree legends The Horsemen of Oyo were legendary warriors who served the Oyo Empire of West Africa. Wiki User. One example of a shell mound can be found at a site known as Mound Key at Estero Bay in Lee County. [8], The Calusa caught most of their fish with nets. They recovered various types of Spanish artifacts such as majolica ceramics, hand-wrought nails and spikes, a bale seal and olive jar sherds, as well as native artifacts. Photo source: Moving to Tampa, Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, 2002. Large earthen mounds and ridges, accessed by canals, are believed to have been associated with Calusa ritual. Their language was never recorded. 4-8). The heir of the chief wore gold in an ornament on his forehead and beads on his legs. Fowler Williams, .Lucy"The Calusa Indians: Maritime Peoples of Florida in the Age of Columbus" Expedition Magazine 33.2 (1991): n. pag. They had three specific deities that they believed their cacique interpreted for. The Tribes' sovereignty was once again recognized and funding was restored for education, housing and health programs. It's also possible that a few were absorbed into the Seminole tribe. [Online]Available at: http://floridahistory.org/indians.htm, Marquardt, W. H., 2014. Some of the survivors were sent to Cuba by the Spanish, while others may have merged with other Floridian Indians and eventually joined the Seminole tribe. As for the southern region, my focus was on the Calusa Indians from the south-western Florida peninsula area. The Spanish were used to dealing with natives who farmed and who provided the Spanish with some of their food. The first phase of work included the creation of a detailed topographic map of the island using LiDAR, which gave archaeologists information about its structures and geography. Marquardt, William H. (2004). What language did the Calusa speak? Although the Calusa came to an end, some remains of their achievements can still be seen today. The University Museum has an exceptional collection of artifacts from the Calusa site at Key Marco, Florida. they did speacial dances. Calusa v. Iroquois: Religious Beliefs. Many of them are trying to do this on the Internet. Senquene succeeded his brother (name unknown), and was in turn succeeded by his son Carlos. The Calusa also believed that three supernatural beings ruled the universe. They were supported by the labor of the majority of the Calusa. They had the highest population density of South Florida; estimates of total population at the time of European contact range from 10,000 to several times that, but these are speculative. Their immune systems lacked antibodies to fight off European diseases. The Calusa (said to mean fierce people ) are a Native American tribe that once inhabited the southwestern coast of Florida. The walls were covered entirely with masks colored red, white, and black (Hann 1991). Calusa Protective Spell-Tampa This piece of folklore came from my co-worker, who grew up in Tampa, Florida. The Shell People. 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