While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Timucuan Family. A group of cognate
tribes formerly occupying the greater part of North Florida, extending
along the east coast from about lat. 28°, below Cape Canaveral, to above
the mouth of St John river, and along the west coast probably from Tampa
bay northward to about Ocilla river, where they met the Apalachee, of
Muskhogean stock. The Hichiti
and Yamasee, also
Muskhogean, appear to have
occupied their north frontier nearly on the present state boundary but the
Timucua held both banks of St Marys river and Cumberland island south of
lat. 28° the west coast was held by the Calusa, and the east coast by the
Ais and Tequesta, rude and fierce tribes, of whose language nothing is
known, but who seem to have had no relation with the Timucuan tribes. The
family designation is derived from the name of one of the principal
tribes, the Timucua, Timagoa, Tornoco, or Atimuca, whose territory was
about St Augustine and on middle St John river. The name may possibly
signify 'lord' or 'ruler.' Other principal tribes were Saturiba on the
lower St John; Yustaga, or II ostaqua, about the upper Suwannee; Potano,
west of St John river, between the heads of the Withlacoochee and
Suwannee; Tocobaga, between Withlacoochee river and Tampa bay; Mayaca, on
the north east coast; Marracou, 40 leagues from the mouth of St John
river. Several other tribes can not be so definitely located, and all
identification is rendered difficult owing to the confusion existing in
the minds of the first explorers between chief names, tribe or village
names, and titles. The statement, often repeated, that the chief had the
same name as his "province" or tribe was due to misunderstanding. In
person the Timucuan people are described as tall and well made. They went
almost entirely naked except for the breechcloth, but covered their bodies
with an elaborate tattooing. They were agricultural, though apparently not
to the same extent as the Muskhogean tribes, depending more on game, fish,
oysters, wild fruits, and bread from the nourishing coonti root. Their
larger towns were compactly built and stockaded, their houses being
circular structures of poles thatched with palmetto leaves, with a large
"townhouse" for tribal gatherings in the center of the public square. From
misunderstanding of the description, Brinton and others following him have
incorrectly described this townhouse as a communal dwelling. Society was
based on the clan system, and Pareja (1612) gives an interesting account
of the intricate system of kinship relations. The clans were grouped into
phratries, usually bearing animal names, and certain chiefships or
functions seem to have been hereditary in certain clans. In his time the
system was retained even by the mission converts. In military organization
and authority of the chiefs they seem to have surpassed the more northern
tribes. Scalping and mutilation of the dead were universally practiced,
and human sacrifice was a regular part of their religious ritual, the
victims, as among the Natchez, being sometimes infants belonging to the
tribe. There is evidence also of occasional cannibalism. The narrative and
descriptive illustrations of Le Moyne, the French Huguenot (1564), shed
much light on the home life, war customs, and ceremonies, while from
Pareja's confessional a good idea of their beliefs and religious practices
is gained. All the dialects of the family seem to have been so closely
related as to be mutually intelligible. Pareja names 7, viz: Freshwater
District (probably on the interior lakes) , Itafi, Mocama (a coast
dialect), Potano, Santa Lucia de Acuera (s. from C. Canaveral) Timacua,
and Tucurnru (on the Atlantic coast). Besides these there were probably
others in the interior and on the west coast. The language was vocalic and
musical, with a very complex grammar.
The history of the Timucuan tribes be-gins with the
landing of Ponce de Leon near the site of the present St Augustine in
1513. In 1528 Narvaez led his small army from Tampa bay northward to
explore the country of the Apalachee and beyond. In 1539 De Soto went over
nearly the same route, his historians mentioning some 20 tribal or local
names within the region, including Yustaga and Potano. In 1562-64 the
French Huguenots under Ribault and Laudonnière
attempted settlements at the mouth of St John river, explored the middle
course of the stream and the adjacent interior, and became acquainted with
the tribes of Saturiba (Satouiroua) and Timucua (Thimagoa), as well as
with the Potano (Potanou) and Yustaga (Hostaqua) already visited by De
Soto. In 1565 the Spaniards under Menendez destroyed the French posts,
killing all their defenders; they then founded St Augustine and began the
permanent colonization of the country. Within a few years garrisons were
established and missions founded, first under the Jesuits and later under
the Francis-cans. (See San Juan, San Mateo, San Pedro.) The principal
center of mission enterprise was in the neighborhood of St Augustine among
the Timucua proper. The most noted of these missionaries was Father
Francisco Pareja, who arrived in 1594 and after 16 years of successful
work retired to the City of Mexico, where he wrote a Timucua grammar,
dictionary, and several devotional works, from which, and from the French
narrative, is derived practically all that we know of the language,
customs, beliefs, and organization of the Timucuan tribes. Pareja died in
1628. In spite of one or two revolts by which several missionaries lost
their lives, the Timucuan tribes in general, particularly along the E.
coast, accepted Christianity and civilization and became the allies of the
Spaniards. In 1699 the Quaker Dickenson visited several of their mission
settlements and noted the great contrast between the Christian Indians and
the savage tribes of the southern peninsula among whom he had been a
captive. A few years later, about 1703, began the series of invasions by
the English of Carolina and their savage Indian allies,
Creek,
Catawba, and
Yuchi, by which the missions were
destroyed, hundreds of their people killed, and hundreds, possibly
thousands, of others, men, women, and children, carried off into slavery,
while the remnant took refuge close under the walls of St Augustine. The
prosperous Apalachee,
missions shared the same fate. With the decline of the Spanish power and
the incessant inroads of the Creeks and
Seminole, the native Indians
rapidly dwindled until on the transfer of the territory to the United
States in 1821 only a handful remained, and these apparently belonging
mostly to the uncivilized tribes of the southern end. It is possible that
the remnant of the mission tribes had been later shipped to Cuba by the
Spaniards, as had been the case with the Calusa in 1763.
