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. google_ad_client = "pub-8872632675285158"; Upon learning that the Spaniards did not intend to provide food, clothing, and other gifts, the Calusa rebelled, tenaciously holding to their own beliefs and practices. Now, there is a lot of garbage and misinformation on the Internet no matter what . Fish stored in the watercourts likely fed the workers who built the massive palace. The Calusa Indians, a poorly understood group of bygone Native Americans D Donna Jean Calusa Indians European Explorers University Of South Florida Gulf Coast Florida Spirit World Mexica South Florida People & Environments: The Calusa Domain: Calusa beliefs included a trinity of governing spirits. They arrived in seven vessels and climbed to the peak of Mound Key, a 30-foot-high, human-made island of shells and sand, to greet the king. The Calusa believed that their cacique was not only the leader of their tribe, but also their spiritual leader. The archaeologists recovered seeds, wood, palm-fiber cordage that likely came from Calusa fishing nets and even fish scales from the waterlogged levels. This article is good but it does not provide any data related to the status of the Calusa people at the first arrival of Spaniards in 1513 leaded by Juan Ponce de Leon, its "discoverer". They are a tribe. While the Calusa managed to survive that encounter, the 250 years that followed brought intermittent contact with other conquistadors, Christians missionaries, and in later years, English and French explorer-traders who vied for the territory, often with the help of native allies. [Online]Available at: https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/sflarch/research/calusa-domain/, floridahistory.org, 2016. Calusa influence may have also extended to the Ais tribe on the central east coast of Florida. What was the Calusa religion? Office: Old St. Luke's Hospital. Among most tribes in Florida for which there is documentation, the women wore skirts made of what was later called Spanish moss. Seeing the work of the Calusa in these materials first-hand were really exciting moments for us.. In 1521 Ponce de Len returned to southwest Florida to plant a colony, but the Calusa drove the Spanish out, mortally wounding Ponce de Len. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings. People commonly occupied both fresh and saltwater wetlands. It has also been stated that the Spanish were brought into a large temple, where they saw carved and painted wooden masks covering its walls. Philadelphia, PA 19104 Photo source: Moving to Tampa, Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, 2002. Detailed analysis and AMS dates led us to the realization that the structure went through at least three phases of building activity over several centuries, the earliest phase dating to around A.D. 1000.. The chief also married women from subject towns and allied tribes. Judging from the email I get, there are a lot of people out there trying to learn about traditional Native American religion and spirituality these days. As for the southern region, my focus was on the Calusa Indians from the south-western Florida peninsula area. Radiocarbon dating of carbonized wood, a deer bone and a shell verified the forts mid-16th-century date. By the early 19th century, Anglo-Americans in the area used the term Calusa for the people. 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 chief's house was described as having two big windows, suggesting that it had walls. Typical Women's Work. 9). The Calusa (/klus/ k-LOO-s) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. 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. The Penn Museum respectfully acknowledges that it is situated on Lenapehoking, the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Unami Lenape. It has been proposed that as fishing was a less time-consuming means of obtaining food than hunting and gathering, the Calusa were able to devote more time to other pursuits, such as the establishment of a system of government. These small fish were supplemented by larger bony fish, sharks and rays, mollusks, crustaceans, ducks, sea turtles and land turtles, and land animals. In 1513 Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon sailed northwest from the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) with a three-year royal contract to discover rich lands thought to lie in that direction. The Calusa resisted physical encroachment and spiritual conversion by the Spanish and their missionaries for almost 200 years. 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. From the time of European contact until their ultimate demise from conflict and illness around 1770, the Calusa successfully resisted, albeit with considerable bloodshed, intermittent efforts by Spanish missionaries to convert them to Christianity. ln 2017, funded by the National Science Foundation, the research team began a systematic investigation of these structures, the largest of which is about 36,000 square feet, with a surrounding berm of shell and sediment that stood about three feet high. Archaeologists have been able to take a closer look at one of the United Kingdoms most famous shipwrecks. According to the documents, the brushwood and lumber fort encompassed some 36 structures. The Carolinan colonists supplied firearms to the Creek and Yemasee, but the Calusa, who had isolated themselves from Europeans, had none. Was this German silver mine really defended by two Roman forts and a line of "spike defenses? Milanich, Jerald. (2004). Unlike other Indian tribes, the Calusa did not make many. When the Spanish arrived in Florida in the early 16 th century, the Calusa were already in possession of a complex centralized government. They had a reputation from being a fierce, war-like people, especially among European explorers and smaller tribes. [20][21], A few vocabulary examples from Granberry's work are listed below:[22]. Native American tattoos In the winter of 1896, Frank Hamilton Cushing began archaeological excavations in southwest Florida. The ancestors of the Calusa are said to have survived by hunting prehistoric animals such as woolly mammoths and giant tortoises, and collecting fruits and other edible plants. The missionaries recognized that having a Calusa man cut his hair upon converting to Christianity (and European style) would be a great sacrifice. Menndez married Carlos' sister, who took the baptismal name Doa Antonia at conversion. In April of that year he made landfall and, calling this new territory La Florida, claimed it for the Spanish Crown. It seems a sad demise for such a powerful . Honestly, we have explored a very small sample of Mound Key and other nearby island sites., ln the next couple of years, Thompson added, Id like to return to Mound Key to look more closely at the fort and its structures to really delve into Calusa-Spanish interactions.. The Calusa: "The Shell Indians". The plaques and other objects were often painted. The men and boys of the tribe made nets from palm tree webbing to catch mullet, pinfish, pigfish, and catfish. The Calusa was a powerful, complex society who lived on the shores of the southwest Florida coast. Calusa Religion Birdseye View of Calusa The sun deity appears to have been a universal creator. google_ad_width = 728; However, they would suffer the same fate as many of the other Native American tribes. Wiki User. At the time of European contact in the 16th and 17th centuries, the historic Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture. [3] Some Archaic artifacts have been found in the region later occupied by the Calusa, including one site classified as early Archaic, and dated prior to 5000 BC. The Calusa and their legacy: South Florida people and their environments. The Spanish reported that the chief was expected to take his sister as one of his wives. [17], The Calusa believed that three supernatural people ruled the world, that people had three souls, and that souls migrated to animals after death. 215.898.4000. While estimates vary, their population probably numbered between 4,000 and 10,000. Soon after the discoveries, Donald funded archaeological mapping of . The research team uncovered a network of post holes and foundation trenches that indicate a large structure measuring about 80 feet long and 65 feet wide covered the summit of the islands highest hill. 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 painted their bodies on a regular basis, but there was no report of tattooing among them. They were a very innovative and prosperous tribe, and had a number of traditions that set them apart from other tribes in the area. THE CALUSA INDIANS OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. Are there any Calusa people left? The architectural remains of the kings house were relatively easy to find, but difficult to interpret at first, Marquardt said. . The fact that the Calusa were fishers, not farmers, created tension between them and the Spaniards, who arrived in Florida when the Calusa kingdom was at its zenith, Thompson said. The Calusa battle Spain over conversion. American Archaeology cover, featuring Florida Museum illustration by Merald Clark. The capital of the Calusa, and where the rulers administered from, was Mound Key, near present day Estero, Florida. Copy. The Calusa people's diet consisted mainly of fish and shellfish from the Gulf of Mexico and its many waterways. The watercolors illustrate the blue, black, gray, and brownish-red pigments found on many of the wooden specimens. One example of a shell mound can be found at a site known as Mound Key at Estero Bay in Lee County. At Mound Key, the Spaniards used primitive tabby as a mortar to stabilize the posts in the walls of their wooden structures. Circumstantial evidence, primarily from Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, suggests that all of the peoples of southern Florida and the Tampa Bay area, including the Tequesta, Mayaimi, and Tocobaga, as well as the Calusa, spoke dialects of a common language. [2], 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. Study guides. The Tequesta lived in the southeastern parts of present-day Florida. This article first appeared in the magazines fall 2020 issue. He was aware, however, of the magnitude of his findings: the remains of a highly organized maritime society whose members performed elaborate rituals and whose artists possessed remarkable abilities in wood carving. The Calusa (said to mean fierce people ) are a Native American tribe that once inhabited the southwestern coast of Florida. Escampaba may be related to a place named Stapaba, which was identified in the area on an early 16th-century map. It is why we were ashamed of Bernie Madoff. Their language was never recorded. They are attacked by Spain, which in 1566 had established St. Augustine in the north. 01 Mar 2023 , 3260 South Street Tribute was offered in the form of prestige goods, such as feathers, mats, deerskins, food, and metals and captives recovered from Spanish shipwrecks (Hudson 1976). This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 15:27. 10 Innovative Medieval Weapons: You Would Not Want To Be At The Sharp End Of These! Widmer cites George Murdock's estimate that only some 20 percent of the Calusa diet consisted of wild plants that they gathered. The next day 80 "shielded" canoes attacked the Spanish ships, but the battle was inconclusive. This language was distinct from the languages of the Apalachee, Timucua, Mayaca, and Ais people in central and northern Florida. Calusa Protective Spell-Tampa This piece of folklore came from my co-worker, who grew up in Tampa, Florida. Penn Museum, 1991 Web. Many people lived in large villages with purpose-built earthwork mounds, such as those at Horr's Island. 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). 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. Furthermore, new diseases such as smallpox and measles were introduced into the area by European explorers. Like the Calusa, the Tequesta were devastated by European diseases. The Calusa leader, Calus (called Carlos II by the Spaniards), agrees to accept a Jesuit missionary among his people, but the Calusa refuse to . They also claimed authority over the tribes of the east coast, north to about Cape Canaveral. Eventually, in the 18th century, slave raids by English from the north, aided by Creek Indians, destroyed what was left of the already declining Calusa population. The Calusa have long fascinated archaeologists because they were a fisher-gatherer-hunter society that attained unusual social complexity, said William Marquardt, curator emeritus of South Florida Archaeology and Ethnography at the Florida Museum of Natural History. 2013-09-27 21:18:35. 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 researchers used ground penetrating radar and LiDAR to locate and map the forts structures, which they then partially excavated. Although many others survived the shipwreck, only Fontaneda was spared by the tribe in whose territory they landed. Florida Museum of Natural History Florida and Georgia archaeologists have discovered the location of Fort San Antn de Carlos, home of one of the first Jesuit missions in North America. [15], The Calusa wore little clothing. They were descendants of Paleo-Indians who inhabited Southwest Florida approximately 12,000 years ago. The chief organized warfare and possessed special and traditional religious knowledge. Hence, the Calusa are sometimes called the Shell People / Indians. One of the causes of this was the raids conducted by rival tribes from Georgia and South Carolina. 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. Senquene succeeded his brother (name unknown), and was in turn succeeded by his son Carlos. The Calusa also used spears, hooks, and throat gorges to catch fish. The men wore deerskin breechcloths. In. They were a fierce, independent tribe that lived in southwest Florida as early as 2,000 years ago. Fort San Anton de Carlos is the first example of the use of tabby in North America. Apart from that, shells are said to have been used by the Calusa to make all sorts of things, including tools, jewelry, utensils, and even spearheads for fishing and hunting. By interceding with these spirits, it was believed that the chief was ensuring that his people would be well-supplied by the land. The Calusa were a Native American tribe that inhabited the southwest coast of Florida. "They had an established religion. Although the Calusa came to an end, some remains of their achievements can still be seen today. google_ad_slot = "7815442998"; The leaders included the paramount chief, or "king"; a military leader (capitn general in Spanish); and a chief priest. Native Americans enjoyed a wide variety of entertainment in the form of sports, games, music, dance, and festivals. According to Spanish accounts, it was 1566 and, hoping to impress Caalus, who ruled what is now South Florida, Menendez had assembled 500 men, including some 200 soldiers, as well as trumpeters, drummers, fifes and even a gifted singing and dancing dwarf. Calusa ceremonies included processions of priests and singing women. The Calusa men were tall and well built with long hair. The fishing nets they used to catch food were made from palm tree fibers. Carlos was succeeded by his cousin (and brother-in-law) Felipe, who was in turn succeeded by another cousin of Carlos, Pedro. For more than 200 years, South Florida's Indians resisted Spanish domination. Many Calusa are said to have been captured and sold as slaves. An anonymous account mentions an autumn ceremony in which dancers wore animal masks (Coggin and Sturtevant 1964). 4 . The Calusa king Caalus, perched high on his throne in his grand house, watched as Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the first governor of La Florida, arrived with his entourage. Excavation of the watercourts yielded artifacts like cordage that are not normally preserved at archaeological sites. In his second voyage, Ponce de Leon received a poisoned arrow that hounded his tight and he died in Cuba the same year in 1521.His decease is attributed to Calusa people. Engineering the courts required an intimate understanding of daily and seasonal tides, hydrology and the biology of various fish species, said Thompson. 3). The process of shaping the boat was achieved by burning the middle and subsequently chopping and removing the charred center, using robust shell tools. The Untersberg is a great mountain straddling the Austro-German border opposite Salzburg. The Calusa Indians did not farm like the other Indian tribes in Florida. Archaeological and historical documentation reveal that Calusa society was highly structured, with individuals living in fixed settlements surrounding a large central town. But the Spanish not only refused to fight Caalus rivals, they also wanted to convert his people to Catholicism, which eventually led to conflict between the Spanish and the Calusa. This change may have resulted from the people's migration from the interior to the coastal region, or may reflect trade and cultural influences. [Online]Available at: http://www.calusalandtrust.org/who_were_the_calusa/who_were_the_calusa.htm, Ripley, K., 2016. [4], The Calusa had a stratified society, consisting of "commoners" and "nobles" in Spanish terms. The surrounding villages had local headmen who answered to the chief. The Calusa used the canals to travel by canoe from their villages and ceremonial centers to coastal trading posts. Though eschewing agriculture once. Granberry has provided an inventory of phonemes to the sounds of the Calusa language.[22][21]. Would you like to help support our organization's work with endangered American Indian languages? It is likely there are descendants of the Calusa living among the Native American people of Florida and in Cuba today., In terms of Mound Key, much more can be learned about the Spanish fort and mission, the relations between the Calusa and the Spaniards and the earlier, pre-contact occupations of the island, Marquardt said. The men were responsible for work away from the home, like hunting and raiding. Historically located in northwest Florida, the Apalachee were allied with the Spanish, but maintained their autonomy through political and social traditions. Different tribes and regions had their own games and traditions. [Online]Available at: http://www.funandsun.com/1tocf/inf/nativepeoples/calusa.html, www.sanibelhistory.org, 2016. One illustration of the sophistication of the Calusa can be found in eyewitness accounts of an event in 1566. [Online]Available at: http://floridahistory.org/indians.htm, Marquardt, W. H., 2014. 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 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. 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). Marquardt, W. H. (2014). From the time of European contact until their ultimate demise from conflict and illness around 1770, the Calusa successfully resisted, albeit with considerable bloodshed, intermittent efforts by Spanish missionaries to convert them to Christianity. The site of the excavation appears to be linked with Calusa ceremonialism and was one location at which wooden carvings, probably used in ritual, were housed. He struck an uneasy peace with their leader Caluus, or Carlos. The Calusa were a tribe of Native Americans known as the "Shell Indians" and some of the first Floridians. Rituals were believed to link the Calusa to their spirit world (Art by Merald Clark.) 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. May have also extended to the Creek and Yemasee, but maintained autonomy... 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