Timucua

Plans for the Colonization and Defense of Apalache, 1675

Florida June 15, 1675 To His Majesty D. Pablo de Yta Salazar hereby renders account of the investigation made in regard to the most suitable places in these Provinces for settlement by Spanish families. All are agreed that the town of Apalache and the surrounding territory is best because of the great fertility of the soil. If the settlers be farmers the crops will be abundant on account of the richness of the land, as may be seen by the wheat which the friars sow for their sustenance. Pablo de Yta Salazar gives in detail the immense advantages of sending … Read more

Timucuan Burial Customs

Long before the Seminole reached central Florida the peninsula had been the home of other native tribes who have. left many mounds and other works to indicate the positions of their villages. The northern half of the peninsula, from the Ocilla River on the north to the vicinity of Tampa Bay on the south, and thence across to about Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic coast, was, when first visited by the Spaniards, the home of tribes belonging to the Timucuan family, of whom very little is known. They were encountered near the site of the present city of St. Augustine … Read more

The Social Organization of Timucua Indians

Family Organization of Timucuan People

Not much can be gathered from our French informants regarding the social organization of those people, but there is enough to show that they had a class of chiefs to whom great respect was paid, indicating resemblances to the oligarchic system of the Creeks. Ribault says: It is their manner to talk and bargain sitting; and the chief or king to be separated from the common people; with a show of great obedience to their kings, elders, and superiors. This impression is confirmed by Pareja, the Franciscan missionary, and in addition ho gives us some information regarding both the caste … Read more

Government of the Timucua Indians

The aristocratic nature of Timucua government is apparent from the statements of the French already referred to as well as from the information regarding their social organization recorded by Pareja. From Pareja’s Catechism it appears that chiefs were allowed to exact tribute and labor from their subjects, and that by way of punishment they sometimes had the arms of their laborers broken. From the same source We learn that just before assuming the chieftainship a man had a new fire lighted and maintained for six days in a small house or arbor which was closed up with laurels and “other … Read more

Burial Customs of Timucua Indians

The following regarding burial customs is from Laudonnière: When a king dieth, they bury him very solemnly, and, upon his grave they set the cup wherein he was wont to drink; and round about the said grave, they stick many arrows, and weep and fast three days together, without ceasing. All the kings which were his friends make the like mourning; and, in token of the love which they bear him, they cut off more than the one-half of their hair, as well men as women. During the space of six moons (so they reckon their months), there are certain … Read more

Ceremonies and Feasts of Timucua Indians

The skill displayed by these Indians in debate is testified to by Spark. Laudonnière and Le Moyne describe at considerable length their method of holding councils. Laudonnière says: They take no enterprise in hand, but first they assemble often times their council together, and they take very good advisement before they grow to a resolution. They meet together every morning in a great common house, whither their king repaireth, and setteth him down upon a seat, which is higher than the seats of the others; where all of them, one after another, come and salute him; and the most ancient … Read more

War Tactics of Florida Indians

The native institution with which the authorities which we depend upon had most to deal was, not unnaturally, war, and 10 of Le Moyne’s 42 sketches deal with it in one way or another. Some of these do not bring in native customs and need not be referred to, but the remainder give us our best information on the subject. Timucua weapons consisted of bows and arrows, darts, and clubs, the last of a type different from the Creek átåsa, if we may trust the illustrations. “A chief who declares war against his enemy,” says Le Moyne, “does not send … Read more

Timucua Religion

According to our French informants the sun and moon were the principal objects of adoration among these Indians, particularly the former. This probably means that their beliefs were substantially like those of the Creeks and Chickasaw. A side light on their cult is furnished in the following account of a ceremony by Le Moyne: The subjects of the Chief Outina were accustomed every year, a little before their spring – that is, in the end of February – to take the skin of the largest stag they could get, keeping the horns on it; to stuff it full of all … Read more

Timicua Indians Food

The Florida Indians lived partly upon the natural products of the earth, but depended principally upon the chase, fishing, and agriculture, Laudonnière says: They make the string of their bow of the gut of the stag, or of a stag’s skin, which they know how to dress as well as any man in France, and with as different sorts of colors. They head their arrows with the teeth of fishes, which they work very finely and handsomely. Ribault states that the shafts of their arrows were of reed. Spark is considerably more detailed: In their warres they vse bowes and … Read more

Timucua Indians Homes

There are not many special descriptions of Timucua houses. Ribault says, in speaking of the dwellings of those Indians whom he met at the mouth of the river which he called the Seine and which was probably what is now known as the St. Marys: Their houses are made of wood, fitly and closely set up, and covered with reeds, the most part after the fashion of a pavilion. But there was one house among the rest very long and wide, with seats around about made of reeds nicely put together, which serve both for beds and seats, two feet … Read more

Timucua Indians Clothing

Ribault describes the Timucua as “of good stature, well shaped of body as any people in the world; very gentle, courteous, and good-natured, of tawny color, hawked nose, and of pleasant countenance.” They were good swimmers and could climb trees with agility. The only invariable article of apparel worn by males was the breechclout, which we are informed consisted of a painted deerskin. Le Moyne represents this as if it were in one piece, passed about the privates, and carried round and tied at the back. If his representation might be relied upon the Florida Indians would be set off … Read more

Utina Indians

Utina Indians or Timucua Indians. The first name, which probably refers to the chief and means “powerful,” is perhaps originally from uti, “earth,” while the second name, Timucua, is that from which the linguistic stock, or rather this Muskhogean subdivision of it, has received its name. Utina Connections. As given above. Utina Location. The territory of the Utina seems to have extended from the Suwannee to the St. Johns and even eastward of the latter, though some of the subdivisions given should be rated as independent tribes. (See Timucua under Georgia.) Utina Towns Laudonniere (1586) states that there were more … Read more

Timucua Tribe

Timucua Tribe, Timucua Indians. The principal of the Timucuan tribes of Florida. The name is written Timucua or Timuqua by the Spaniards; Thimagoa by the French; Atimaco, Tomoco, etc., by the English. They seem to be identical with the people called Nukfalalgi or Nukfila by the Creeks, described by the latter as having once occupied the upper portion of the peninsula and as having been conquered, together with the Apalachee, Yamasee, and Calusa, by the Creeks. When first known to the French and Spanish, about 1565, the Timucua occupied the territory along middle St John River and about the present … Read more

Timucua Indian Tribe

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, … Read more

Middle Slave Raid Period 1684-1706

Stark changes occurred during the mid-1680s in the Southeast. There were many movements of population as the intensity of attacks on the Spanish mission by the Westo, Chickmawka’s, Yamassee and pirates intensified. The Rickohockens were completely pushed out of their stronghold at the Peaks of the Twin Otter by Iroquois raids. The Iroquois had obtained firearms first from the Dutch, and now from the English. Many minor ethnic groups and villages in the Carolina’s had disappeared during the previous twenty years due to Rickohocken and Westo slave raids. Now African slaves were much more available, so the emphasis of the … Read more

Timucua Indian Bands, Gens and Clans

Many tribes have sub-tribes, bands, gens, clans and phratry.  Often very little information is known or they no longer exist.  We have included them here to provide more information about the tribes. Apohola (buzzard). A Timucua phratry which included the Nuculaha, Nuculahaqus, Nuculaharuqui, Chorofa, Usinaca, Ayahanisino, Napoya, Amacahuri, Hauenayo, and Amusaya clans. They were prohibited from marrying among themselves. Pareja (ca. 1612) quoted by Gatschet in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., xvii, 492, 1878. Arahasomi (‘bear gens’, from ara ‘black bear’, hasomi ‘family’). A Timucua clan of the Chulufichi phratry. Pareja (ca. 1612) quoted by Gatschet in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., … Read more