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Timucua Indians
In the sixteenth
century the Timucua inhabited the northern
and middle portion of the peninsula of
Florida, and although their exact limits to
the north are unknown, they held a portion
of Florida bordering on Georgia, and some of
the coast islands in the Atlantic Ocean, as
Guale (then the name of Amelia) and others.
The more populous settlements of these
Indians lay on the eastern coast of Florida,
along the St. John's river and its
tributaries, and in the northeastern angle
of the Gulf of Mexico. Their southernmost
villages known to us were Hirrihigua, near
Tampa Bay, and Tucururu, near Cape
Canaveral, on the Atlantic Coast.
The people received its
name from one of their villages called
Timagoa, Thimagoua1,
situated on one of the western tributaries
of St. John’s River, and having some
political importance. The name means lord,
ruler, master [atimuca "waited upon (muca)
by servants (ati)];" and the people's name
is written Atimuca early in the eighteenth
century. We first become acquainted with
their numerous tribes through the memoir of
Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, the three
chroniclers of de Soto’s expedition, and
more fully through Réné de Laudonniere
(1564). Two missionaries of the Franciscan
order, Francisco Pareja (1612 sqq.) and
Gregorio de Mouilla (1635), have composed
devotional books in their vocalic language.
De Bry’s Brevis Narratio, Frankfort a. M.,
1591, contains a map of their country, and
engravings representing their dwellings,
fights, dances and mode of living.
A few words of their
language (lengua timuquana in Spanish) show
affinity with Maskoki, others with Carib.
From 1595 A. D. they gradually became
converted to Christianity, revolted in 1687
against their Spanish oppressors, and early
in the eighteenth century (1706) were so
reduced in number that they yielded easily
to the attacks of the Yamassi Indians, who,
instigated by English colonists, made
incursions upon their villages from the
North. Their last remnants withdrew to the
Mosquito Lagoon, in Volusia County, Florida,
where the name of the Tomoco River still
recalls their tribal name.
In 1564, Rene de
Laudonniere heard of five head chiefs (paracusi)
of confederacies in the Timucua country, and
from Pareja we can infer that seven or more
dialects were spoken in its circumference.
The five head chiefs, Saturiwa, Holata Utina,
Potanu, Onethcaqua and Hostaqua are only
tribal names (in the second, Utina is the
tribal appellation), and the dialects, as
far as known, were those of Timagoa, Potanu,
Itafi, the Fresh-Water district, Tucururu,
Santa Lucia de Acuera, and Mocama ("on the
coast"). The last but one probably coincided
with that of Aïs.
The Aïs Indians, who
held the coast from Cape Canaveral, where
the Spaniards had the post Santa Lucia, to a
lagoon once called Aïsahatcha (viz., Aïs
River), were considered as a people distinct
from the Timucua. They worshiped the sun in
the shape of a stuffed deer raised upon the
end of a high beam planted in the ground;
this gave, probably, origin to their name
Aïs, for B. Romans interprets Aïsa hatcha by
Deer River (itchi, itche deer, in Creek and
Seminole). Their territory formed the
northern part of the "province" of Tequesta.2
3
Footnotes:
- Timoga on De Bry’s map
- Cf. B. Romans, East and West Florida
(New York, 1775), pp. 2. 260. 273. 281.
- Herrera,
Dec. IV, 4, 7. Barcia, Ensayo, p. 118.
Back to:
Southern Families of Indians
Notes About Book:
Source: Gatschet, Albert S., A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians.
Pub.
D.G. Brinton, Philadelphia, 1884.
Notes about Online Publication: This manuscript has been ocr'd and heavily
edited. Many of the Native American words have been reproduced as clearly as
online publication will allow us, but not all are exactly the way they were in
the original work. The structure of this manuscript has been changed to allow
better online presentation.
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