Yustaga Tribe. Meaning unknown.
Yustaga Connections. No words of the Yustaga language have been preserved but circumstantial evidence indicates they belonged to the Timucuan branch of the Muskhogean linguistic stock, although occasionally the provinces of Timucua and Yustaga are spoken of as if distinct.
Yustaga Location. Approximately between Aucilla and Suwannee Rivers, somewhat toward the coast.
Yustaga Villages. The Yustaga villages cannot be satisfactorily identified though the missions of Asile, San Marcos, Machaba, and San Pedro seem to have belonged to it.
Yustaga History. The Yustaga are first mentioned by Biedma (in Bourne, 1904), one of the chroniclers of De Soto, who gives the title to a “province” through which the Spaniards marched just before coming to Apalachee. While the French Huguenots were on St. Johns River, some of them visited this tribe, and later it is again mentioned by the Spaniards but no mission bears the name. Its history is soon merged in that of the Timucuan peoples generally. The last mention of the name appears to be in 1659. It is of particular interest as the province from which the Osocbi Indians who settled among the Lower Creeks probably emigrated in 1656 or shortly afterward.
Yustaga Population. In 1675, 40 Indians were reported in the mission of Asile and 300 in each of the others, giving a total very close to Mooney’s (1928) estimate of 1,000 as of the year 1600.