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The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in
Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
and North Central
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and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European contact, Timucuan speakers occupied about in the present-day states of Florida and Georgia, with an estimated population of 200,000. Milanich notes that the population density calculated from those figures, is close to the population densities calculated by other authors for
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and for Hispaniola at the time of first European contact.Milanich 2000 The territory occupied by Timucua speakers stretched from the
Altamaha River The Altamaha River is a major river in the U.S. state of Georgia. It flows generally eastward for 137 miles (220 km) from its origin at the confluence of the Oconee River and Ocmulgee River towards the Atlantic Ocean, where it empties ...
and Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia as far south as Lake George in central Florida, and from the
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west to the Aucilla River in the
Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the ...
, though it reached the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...
at no more than a couple of points. The name "Timucua" (recorded by the French as ''Thimogona'' but this is likely a misprint for ''Thimogoua'') came from the
exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...
used by the
Saturiwa The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered on the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect ...
(of what is now Jacksonville) to refer to the Utina, another group to the west of the St. Johns River. The Spanish came to use the term more broadly for other peoples in the area.Milanich 1996, p. 46. Eventually it became the common term for all peoples who spoke what is known as Timucuan. While alliances and confederacies arose between the chiefdoms from time to time, the Timucua were never organized into a single political unit. The various groups of Timucua speakers practiced several different cultural traditions.Milanich 1998a The people suffered severely from the introduction of Eurasian
infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...
s. By 1595, their population was estimated to have been reduced from 200,000 to 50,000 and thirteen chiefdoms remained. By 1700, the population of the tribe had been reduced to an estimated 1,000 due to slave raids from Carolinian settlers and their Indian allies. The local
slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
completed their extinction as a tribe soon after the turn of the 18th century.


Meaning

The word "Timucuan" may derive from "Thimogona" or "Tymangoua", an
exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...
used by the
Saturiwa The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered on the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect ...
chiefdom of present-day Jacksonville for their enemies, the Utina, who lived inland along the St. Johns River. Both groups spoke dialects of the Timucua language. The French followed the Saturiwa in this usage, but the Spanish applied the term "Timucua" much more widely to groups within a wide section of interior North Florida. In the 16th century they designated the area north of the Santa Fe River between the St. Johns and
Suwannee River The Suwannee River (also spelled Suwanee River) is a river that runs through south Georgia southward into Florida in the southern United States. It is a wild blackwater river, about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset h ...
s (roughly the area of the group known as the Northern Utina) as the Timucua Province, which they incorporated into the mission system. The dialect spoken in that province became known as "Timucua" (now usually known as "Timucua proper"). During the 17th century, the Province of Timucua was extended to include the area between the Suwannee River and the Aucilla River, thus extending its scope. Eventually, "Timucua" was applied to all speakers of the various dialects of the Timucua language.


History

The
pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...
era was marked by regular, routine, and probably small tribal wars with neighbors. The Timucua were organized into as many as 35 chiefdoms, each of which had hundreds of people in assorted villages within its purview. They sometimes formed loose political alliances, but did not operate as a single political unit. An archaeological dig in St. Augustine in 2006 revealed a Timucuan site dating back to between 1100 and 1300 AD, predating the European founding of the city by more than two centuries. Included in the discovery were pottery, with pieces from the
Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of G ...
area, indicating an expansive trade network; and two human skeletons. It is the oldest archaeological site in the city. The Timucua may have been the first American natives to see the landing of
Juan Ponce de León Juan Ponce de León (, , , ; 1474 – July 1521) was a Spanish explorer and ''conquistador'' known for leading the first official European expedition to Florida and for serving as the first governor of Puerto Rico. He was born in Santerv� ...
near
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in 1513. This notion is up for debate since most historians now agree that the Ponce de León landing point was more likely much further south in Ais territory, near what is today Melbourne Beach. If so, Timucuan contact with that particular expedition was unlikely.Datzman, Ken. "Did the famous explorer Ponce de León first hit Melbourne Beach", '' Brevard Business News'', vol 30, no. 1 (Melbourne, Florida: January 02, 2012), p. 1 and 19. Later, in 1528,
Pánfilo de Narváez Pánfilo de Narváez (; 147?–1528) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' and soldier in the Americas. Born in Spain, he first embarked to Jamaica in 1510 as a soldier. He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition to Camag� ...
's expedition passed along the western fringes of the Timucua territory. In 1539, Hernando de Soto led an army of more than 500 men through the western parts of Timucua territory, stopping in a series of villages of the
Ocale Ocale was the name of a town in Florida visited by the Hernando de Soto expedition, and of a putative chiefdom of the Timucua people. The town was probably close to the Withlacoochee River at the time of de Soto's visit, and may have later been ...
, Potano, Northern Utina, and
Yustaga The Yustaga were a Timucua people of what is now northwestern Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The westernmost Timucua group, they lived between the Aucilla and Suwannee Rivers in the Florida Panhandle, just east of the Apalachee peop ...
branches of the Timucua on his way to the Apalachee domain (see list of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition for other sites visited by de Soto). His army seized the food stored in the villages, forced women into concubinage, and forced men and boys to serve as guides and bearers. The army fought two battles with Timucua groups, resulting in heavy Timucua casualties. After defeating the resisting Timucuan warriors, Hernando de Soto had 200 executed, in was to be called Napituca Massacre. The first large-scale massacre by Europeans on what later became U.S. soil (Florida). De Soto was in a hurry to reach the Apalachee domain, where he expected to find
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
and sufficient food to support his army through the winter, so he did not linger in Timucua territory. The Acuera were one of the few Native American groups who bested the Spaniards in combat in the early part of the de Soto ''entrada'', though this is likely due to the fact that the full force accompanying Soto was not sent against Acuera as well as the expedition's relatively faster travel during this period. On-line as In 1564, French
Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster B ...
led by René Goulaine de Laudonnière founded Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville and attempted to establish further settlements along the St. Johns River. After initial conflict, the Huguenots established friendly relations with the local natives in the area, primarily the Timucua under the ''
cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a S ...
''
Saturiwa The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered on the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect ...
. Sketches of the Timucua drawn by Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, one of the French settlers, have proven valuable resources for modern ethnographers in understanding the people. The next year the Spanish under
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (; ast, Pedro (Menéndez) d'Avilés; 15 February 1519 – 17 September 1574) was a Spanish admiral, explorer and conquistador from Avilés, in Asturias, Spain. He is notable for planning the first regular trans-ocean ...
surprised the Huguenots and ransacked Fort Caroline, killing everyone but 50 women and children and 26 escapees. The rest of the French had been shipwrecked off the coast and picked up by the Spanish, who executed all but 20 of them; this brought French settlement in Florida to an end. These events caused a rift between the natives and Spanish, though Spanish missionaries were soon out in force. The Timucua history changed after the Spanish established
St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
in 1565 as the capital of their province of
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
. From here, Spanish missionaries established missions in each main town of the Timucuan chiefdoms, including the Santa Isabel de Utinahica mission in what is now southern Georgia, for the
Utinahica The Utinahica were a Timucua tribe and chiefdom in the 17th century. They lived in what is now the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. Their descendants may include the Creek Indians. A Spanish mission, Santa Isabel de Utinahica, was e ...
. By 1595, the Timucuan population had shrunk by 75%, primarily from
epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...
s of new
infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...
introduced by contact with Europeans, and war. By 1700, the Timucuan population had been reduced to just 1,000. In 1703, Governor James Moore led a force of colonists from Carolina with allied Creek, Catawba, and Yuchi and launched slave raids against the Timucua, killing and enslaving hundreds of them. A census in 1711 found 142 Timucua-speakers living in four villages under Spanish protection. Another census in 1717 found 256 people in three villages where Timucua was the language of the majority, although there were a few inhabitants with a different native language. The population of the Timucua villages was 167 in 1726. By 1759 the Timucua under Spanish protection and control numbered just six adults and five half-Timucua children. In 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain, the Spanish took the less than 100 Timucua and other natives to Cuba. Research is underway in Cuba to discover if any Timucua descendants exist there. Some historians believe a small group of Timucua may have stayed behind in Florida or Georgia and possibly assimilated into other groups such as the Seminoles. Many Timucua artifacts are stored at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
and other museums.


Tribes

The Timucua were divided into a number of different
tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...
s or chiefdoms, each of which spoke one of the nine or ten dialects of the Timucua language. The tribes can be placed into eastern and western groups. The Eastern Timucua were located along the Atlantic coast and on the Sea Islands of northern Florida and southeastern Georgia; along the St. Johns River and its tributaries; and among the rivers, swamps and associated inland forests in southeastern Georgia, possibly including the Okefenokee Swamp. They usually lived in villages close to waterways, participated in the St. Johns culture or in unnamed cultures related to the Wilmington-Savannah culture, and were more focused on exploiting the resources of marine and wetland environments.Milanich 1978. 59, 62.
Deagan. 92.
Hann 1996. 14-5.
Milanich. 1998b. 56.
All of the known Eastern Timucua tribes were incorporated into the Spanish mission system starting in the late 16th century. However, the Acuera appear to have maintained a "parallel" religious system, with traditional shamans practicing openly with numerous followers even at the height of missionization. After the Timucuan Rebellion of 1656, the Acuera left the mission system and appear to have remained in their traditional territory, and to have maintained their traditional religious and cultural practices through the beginning of the eighteenth century. They are the only known Timucuan chiefdom, among all the Timucua, to have done so.


List of associated tribes

* Acuera * Alachua * Cascangue * Ibi * Icafui * Mocoso *
Ocale Ocale was the name of a town in Florida visited by the Hernando de Soto expedition, and of a putative chiefdom of the Timucua people. The town was probably close to the Withlacoochee River at the time of de Soto's visit, and may have later been ...
* Potano *
Saturiwa The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered on the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect ...
*
Tacatacuru Tacatacuru was a Timucua chiefdom located on Cumberland Island in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of two chiefdoms of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Tim ...
* Tocobaga * Utina * Yufera *
Yustaga The Yustaga were a Timucua people of what is now northwestern Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The westernmost Timucua group, they lived between the Aucilla and Suwannee Rivers in the Florida Panhandle, just east of the Apalachee peop ...
The Western Timucua lived in the interior of the upper Florida peninsula, extending to the Aucilla River on the west and into Georgia to the north. They usually lived in villages in forests, and participated in the Alachua, Suwannee Valley or other unknown cultures. Because of their environment, they were more oriented to exploiting the resources of the forests. Earlier scholars such as John Swanton and John Goggin identified tribes around Tampa BayTocobaga, the Uzita, and the Mocoso – as Timucua speakers, classed by Goggin as Southern Timucua. However, some of these tribes appear not to have spoken Timucua.


Eastern Timucua

The largest and best known of the eastern Timucua groups were the
Mocama The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Thei ...
, who lived in the coastal areas of what are now Florida and southeastern Georgia, from
St. Simons Island St. Simons Island (or simply St. Simons) is a barrier island and census-designated place (CDP) located on St. Simons Island in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. The names of the community and the island are interchangeable, known simply as ...
to south of the mouth of the St. Johns River. They gave their name to the
Mocama Province Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout ''La Florida'' in order to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, to facilitate control of the area, and to prevent i ...
, which became one of the major divisions of the Spanish mission system. They spoke a dialect also known as Mocama (Timucua for "Ocean"), which is the best attested of the Timucua dialects. At the time of European contact, there were two major chiefdoms among the Mocama, the
Saturiwa The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered on the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect ...
and the
Tacatacuru Tacatacuru was a Timucua chiefdom located on Cumberland Island in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of two chiefdoms of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Tim ...
, each of which had a number of smaller villages subject to them. The Saturiwa were concentrated around the mouth of the St. Johns in what is now Jacksonville, and had their main village on the river's south bank. European contact with the Eastern Timucua began in 1564 when the French
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
s under René Goulaine de Laudonnière established Fort Caroline in Saturiwa territory. The Saturiwa forged an alliance with the French, and at first opposed the Spanish when they arrived. Over time, however, they submitted to the Spanish and were incorporated into their mission system. The important Mission San Juan del Puerto was established at their main village; it was here that Francisco Pareja undertook his studies of the Timucua language. The Tacatacuru lived on Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia, and controlled villages on the coast. They too were incorporated into the Spanish mission system, with Mission San Pedro de Mocama being established in 1587. Other Eastern Timucua groups lived in southeastern Georgia. The Icafui and Cascangue tribes occupied the Georgia mainland north of the Satilla River, adjacent to the
Guale Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 1 ...
. They spoke the Itafi dialect of Timucua. The Yufera tribe lived on the coast opposite to Cumberland Island and spoke the Yufera dialect. The Ibi tribe lived inland from the Yufera, and had 5 towns located 14 leagues (about 50 miles) from Cumberland Island; like the Icafui and Cascangue they spoke the Itafi dialect. All these groups participated in a culture that was intermediate between the St. Johns and Wilmington-Savannah cultures. The Oconi lived further west, perhaps on the east side of the Okefenokee Swamp. Both the Ibi and Oconi eventually received their own missions, while the coastal tribes were subject to San Pedro on Cumberland Island. Up the St. Johns River to the south of the Saturiwa were the Utina, later known as the ''Agua Dulce'' or ''Agua Fresca'' (Freshwater) tribe. They lived along the river from roughly the Palatka area south to Lake George. They participated in the St. Johns culture and spoke the Agua Dulce dialect. The area between Palatka and downtown Jacksonville was relatively less populated, and may have served as a barrier between the Utina and Saturiwa, who were frequently at war. In the 1560s the Utina were a powerful chiefdom of over 40 villages. However, by the end of the century the confederacy had crumbled, with most of the diminished population withdrawing to six towns further south on the St. Johns. The Acuera lived along the Ocklawaha River, and spoke the Acuera dialect. Unlike most of the other Timucuan chiefdoms, they maintained much of their traditional social structure during the mission period and are the only known Timucuan chiefdom to have missions in their territory for several decades, to have left the mission system, and to have remained in their original territory with much of their traditional culture and religious practices intact despite missionization.


Western Timucua

Three major Western Timucua groups, the Potano, Northern Utina, and
Yustaga The Yustaga were a Timucua people of what is now northwestern Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The westernmost Timucua group, they lived between the Aucilla and Suwannee Rivers in the Florida Panhandle, just east of the Apalachee peop ...
, were incorporated into the Spanish mission system in the late 16th and 17th centuries. The Potano lived in north central Florida, in an area covering
Alachua County Alachua County ( ) is a county in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 278,468. The county seat is Gainesville, the home of the University of Florida since 1906, when the campus o ...
and possibly extending west to Cofa at the mouth of the
Suwannee River The Suwannee River (also spelled Suwanee River) is a river that runs through south Georgia southward into Florida in the southern United States. It is a wild blackwater river, about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset h ...
. They participated in the Alachua culture and spoke the Potano dialect. They were among the first Timucua peoples to encounter Europeans. They were frequently at war with the Utina tribe, who managed to convince first the French and later the Spanish to join them in combined assaults against the Potano. They received missionaries in the 1590s and five missions were built in their territory by 1633. Like other Western Timucua groups they participated in the Timucua Rebellion of 1656. North of the Potano, living in a wide area between the Suwannee and St. Johns Rivers, were the Northern Utina. This name is purely a convention; they were known as the "Timucua" to their contemporaries. They participated in the Suwannee Valley culture and spoke the "Timucua proper" dialect. The Northern Utina appear to have been less integrated than other Timucua tribes, and seem to have been organized into several small local chiefdoms, with the leader of one being recognized as paramount chief. They were missionized beginning in 1597 and their territory was organized by the Spanish as the Timucua Province. Over time smaller provinces were merged into the Timucua Province, thereby increasing the profile of the Northern Utina substantially. They took the forefront in the Timucua Rebellion of 1656, and their society declined severely when it was put down. On the other side of the Suwannee River from the Northern Utina were the two westernmost Timucuan groups, the
Yustaga The Yustaga were a Timucua people of what is now northwestern Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The westernmost Timucua group, they lived between the Aucilla and Suwannee Rivers in the Florida Panhandle, just east of the Apalachee peop ...
and the Asile. They lived between the Suwannee and the Aucilla River, which served as a boundary with the Apalachee. The Yustaga participated in the same Suwanee Valley culture as the Northern Utina, but appear to have spoken a different dialect, perhaps Potano. Unlike other Timucua groups, the Yustaga resisted Spanish missionary efforts until well into the 17th century. They maintained higher population levels significantly later than other Timucua groups, as their less frequent contact with Europeans kept them freer of introduced diseases. Like other Western Timucua groups, they participated in the Timucua Rebellion. The Asile, living immediately east of the Aucilla River, were described in early contact accounts as "a subject of Apalachee", and held some land on the western side of the Aucilla in the territory of the Apalachee chief of Ivitachuco. Other Western Timucua tribes are known from the earliest Spanish records, but later disappeared. The most significant of these are the
Ocale Ocale was the name of a town in Florida visited by the Hernando de Soto expedition, and of a putative chiefdom of the Timucua people. The town was probably close to the Withlacoochee River at the time of de Soto's visit, and may have later been ...
, who lived in Marion County, near the modern city of Ocala, which takes its name from them. Ocale was conquered by De Soto in 1538 and the people dispersed; the town is unknown from later sources. However, both French and Spanish sources note a town named Eloquale or Etoquale in the Acuera chiefdom, suggesting that the Ocale may have migrated east and joined the Acuera. Hann has argued that the chiefdom of Mocoso, located near the mouth of the
Alafia River The Alafia River is long, with a watershed of in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, flowing into Tampa Bay. The watershed contains ten named lakes and ponds, and 29 named rivers, streams and canals. During the rainy season, excess w ...
on the eastern shore of Tampa Bay in the 16th century, was Timucuan. He suggests that the people of that chiefdom may have relocated to the village of Mocoso in Acuera province in the 17th century.


Organization and classes

The Timucua were not a unified political unit. Rather, they were made up of at least 35 chiefdoms, each consisting of about two to ten villages, with one being primary. In 1601 the Spanish noted more than 50
cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a S ...
s (chiefs) subject to the head caciques of Santa Elena (Yustaga), San Pedro (
Tacatacuru Tacatacuru was a Timucua chiefdom located on Cumberland Island in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of two chiefdoms of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Tim ...
, on Cumberland Island), Timucua (Northern Utina) and Potano. The Tacatacuru,
Saturiwa The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered on the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect ...
and Cascangue were subject to San Pedro, while the
Yufera The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...
and Ibi, neighbors of the Tacatacuru and Cascangue, were independent. Villages were divided into family clans, usually bearing animal names. Children always belonged to their mother's clan.


Customs

The Timucua played two related but distinct ball games. Western Timucua played a game known as the " Apalachee ball game". Despite the name, it was as closely associated with the western Timucua as it was with the Apalachee. It involved two teams of around 40 or 50 players kicking a ball at a goal post. Hitting the post was worth one point, while landing it in an
eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
's nest at the top of the post was worth two; the first team to score eleven points was the victor. The western Timucua game was evidently less associated with religious significance, violence, and fraud than the Apalachee version, and as such missionaries had a much more difficult time convincing them to give it up.Hann 1996, pp. 107–111. The eastern Timucua played a similar game in which balls were thrown, rather than kicked, at a goal post. The Timucua probably also played chunkey, as did the neighboring Apalachee and
Guale Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 1 ...
peoples, but there is no firm evidence of this.
Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In ...
,
running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This i ...
, and
dancing Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...
were other popular pastimes. The chief had a council that met every morning when they would discuss the problems of the chiefdom and smoke. To initiate the meeting, the White Drink ceremony would be carried out (see "Diet" below). The council members were among the more highly respected members of the tribe. They made decisions for the tribe.


Settlements

The Timucua of northeast Florida (the Saturiwa and Agua Dulce tribes) at the time of first contact with Europeans lived in villages that typically contained about 30 houses, and 200 to 300 people. The houses were small, made of upright poles and circular in shape. Palm leaf thatching covered the pole frame, with a hole at the top for ventilation and smoke escape. The houses were 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 m) across and were used primarily for sleeping. A village would also have a council house which would usually hold all of the villagers. Europeans described some council houses as being large enough to hold 3,000 people. If a village grew too large, some of the families would start a new village nearby, so that clusters of related villages formed. Each village or small cluster of related villages had its own chief. Temporary alliances between villages for warfare were also formed. Ceremonial mounds might be in or associated with a village, but the mounds belonged to clans rather than villages.


Diet

The Timucua were a semi-agricultural people and ate foods native to North Central Florida. They planted food crops such as
maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...
(corn), beans, squash and other vegetables. Archaeologists' findings suggest that they may have employed
crop rotation Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. It reduces reliance on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, and the probability of developing resistant ...
. In order to plant, they used fire to clear the fields of weeds and brush. They prepared the soil with various tools, such as the hoe. Later the women would plant the seeds using two sticks known as ''coa''. They also cultivated
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
. Their crops were stored in granaries to protect them from vermin and the elements. Corn was ground into flour and used to make corn
fritter A fritter is a portion of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables or other ingredients which have been battered or breaded, or just a portion of dough without further ingredients, that is deep-fried. Fritters are prepared in both sweet and savory v ...
s. In addition to agriculture, the Timucua men would hunt game (including alligators, manatees, and maybe even whales); fish in the many streams and lakes in the area; and collect freshwater and marine shellfish. The women gathered wild fruits, palm berries, acorns, and nuts; and baked bread made from the root ''koonti''. Meat was cooked by boiling or over an open fire known as the ''barbacoa'', the origin of the word
barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke ...
. Fish were filleted and dried or boiled. Broths were made from meat and nuts. After the establishment of Spanish missions between 1595–1620, the Timucua were introduced to European foods, including barley, cabbage, chickens, cucumbers, figs, garbanzo beans, garlic, European grapes, European greens, hazelnuts, various herbs, lettuce, melons, oranges, peas, peaches, pigs, pomegranates, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, watermelons, and wheat. The native corn became a traded item and was exported to other Spanish colonies. A black tea called "
black drink Black drink is a name for several kinds of ritual beverages brewed by Native Americans in the Southeastern United States. Traditional ceremonial people of the Yuchi, Caddo, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee and some other Indigenous pe ...
" (or "white drink" because of its purifying effects) served a ceremonial purpose, and was a highly
caffeinated Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine t ...
Cassina tea, brewed from the leaves of the
yaupon holly ''Ilex vomitoria'', commonly known as yaupon () or yaupon holly, is a species of holly that is native to southeastern North America. The word ''yaupon'' was derived from the Catawban ''yą́pą'', from ''yą-'' tree + ''pą'' leaf. Another commo ...
tree. The tea was consumed only by males in good status with the tribe. The drink was posited to have an effect of purification, and those who consumed it often vomited immediately. This drink was integral to most Timucua rituals and hunts.


Physical appearance

Spanish explorers were shocked at the height of the Timucua, who averaged four inches or more above them. Timucuan men wore their hair in a bun on top of their heads, adding to the perception of height. Measurement of skeletons exhumed from beneath the floor of a presumed Northern Utina mission church (tentatively identified as San Martín de Timucua) at the Fig Springs mission site yielded a mean height of 64 inches (163 cm) for nine adult males and 62 inches (158 cm) for five adult women. The conditions of the bones and teeth indicated that the population of the mission had been chronically stressed. Each person was extensively tattooed. The tattoos were gained by deeds. Children began to acquire tattoos as they took on more responsibility. The people of higher social class had more elaborate decorations. The tattoos were made by poking holes in the skin and rubbing ashes into the holes. The Timucua had dark skin, usually brown, and black hair. They wore clothes made from moss, and cloth created from various animal skins.


Language

The Timucua groups, never unified culturally or politically, are defined by their shared use of the Timucua language. The language is relatively well attested compared to other Native American languages of the period. This is largely due to the work of Francisco Pareja, a Franciscan missionary at San Juan del Puerto, who in the 17th century produced a grammar of the language, a confessional, three
catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adul ...
s in parallel Timucua and Spanish, as well as a newly discovered ''doctrina''. The ''doctrina'', a guide for Catholics attending
Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...
, written in Latin with Spanish and Timucua commentary, was discovered at
All Souls College Library All Souls College Library, known until 2020 as the Codrington Library, is an academic library in the city of Oxford, England. It is the library of All Souls College, a graduate constituent college of the University of Oxford. The library in its ...
in Oxford in 2019 by Dr. Timothy Johnson of Flagler College in
St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabi ...
. The last previous discovery of a lost text by Friar Pareja was in 1886.The other sources for the language are two catechisms by another Franciscan, Gregorio de Movilla, two letters from Timucua chiefs, and scattered references in other European sources. Pareja noted that there were ten dialects of Timucua, which were usually divided along tribal lines. These were Timucua proper, Potano, Itafi, Yufera, Mocama, Agua Salada, Tucururu, Agua Fresca, Acuera, and Oconi.


Recovering the Timucua Lexicon

An ongoing project to document and recover the lexicon of Timucua is being led b
George Aaron Broadwell
Elling Eide Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. There are currently about 138,000 searchable Timucua definitions listed on an online dictionary created through the University of Florida project, based almost entirely on primary source colonial documents from the seventeenth century. In an interview with the St. Johns County Public Library System, Dr. Johnson described the process of how beginning in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish and Timucua worked together to create a written version of the Timucua language, and how Friar Pareja and other Spanish priests co-wrote this particular book with a group of unnamed Timucua editors. The Spanish priests would give the Timucua pages of Spanish text and then the Timucua would put that text into their own language, sometimes expanding on the ideas or changing the ideas to fit within their own established belief systems. For example, the Spanish repeatedly introduce the Spanish word for
serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...
(serpiente), meaning snake, to describe the
Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...
, but the Timucua never use their word for snake (elatubasa), as the Timucua clearly did not associate snakes with evil.''SJCPLS Online Event: Dr Timothy Johnson's Discovery of a Rare Spanish Timucua Book! 09/08/2021''. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLKyojIhGGU Accessed October 23, 2021.


Notes


References

* Ashley, Keith H. (2009)
"Straddling the Florida-Georgia State Line: Ceramic Chronology of the St. Marys Region (AD 1400–1700)"
In Kathleen Deagan and David Hurst Thomas, ''From Santa Elena to St. Augustine: Indigenous Ceramic Variability (A.D. 1400-1700)'', pp. 125–139. New York : American Museum of Natural History * * * Boyer, Willet A. (2015). On-line as * Boyer, Willet A. (2017). On-line as * * Bushnell, Amy. (1978). "'That Demonic Game': The Campaign to Stop Indian ''Pelota'' Playing in Spanish America, 1675-1684." ''The Americas'' 35(1):1-19. Reprinted in David Hurst Thomas. (1991). ''Spanish Borderlands Sourcebooks 23 The Missions of Spanish Florida.'' Garland Publishing. * Deagan, Kathleen A. (1978) "Cultures in Transition: Fusion and Assimilation among the Eastern Timucua." In Milanich and Procter. * Granberry, Julian. (1993) ''A Grammar and Dictionary of the Timucua Language, Third Edition.'' The University of Alabama Press. * Hann, John H. (1996) ''A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions.'' University Press of Florida. * Hann, John H. (2003) ''Indians of Central and South Florida: 1513-1763''. University Press of Florida. * Hoshower, Lisa M. and Jerald T. Milanich. (1993) "Excavations in the Fig Springs Mission Burial Area." In McEwan 1993. * Hudson, Charles M. (1976) ''The Southeastern Indians''. University of Tennessee Press. . * Hudson, Charles M. (1997) ''Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun''. University of Georgia Press. * McEwan, Bonnie G. ed. (1993) ''The Spanish Missions of La Florida''. University Press of Florida. * McEwan, Bonnie G. ed. (2000) ''Indians of the Greater Southeast: Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory''. University Press of Florida. . * Milanich, Jerald T. (1978) "The Western Timucua: Patterns of Acculturation and Change." In Milanich and Procter. * Milanich, Jerald T. (1996) ''The Timucua.'' Blackwell Publications, Oxford, UK. * Milanich, Jerald T. (1998a) ''Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe''. The University Press of Florida. . * Milanich, Jerald T. (1998b) ''Florida Indians from Ancient Times to the Present.'' The University Press of Florida. . * * Milanich, Jerald T. (2000) "The Timucua Indians of Northern Florida and Southern Georgia". in McEwan 2000. * Milanich, Jerald T. (2004) "Timucua." In R. D. Fogelson (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast''. (Vol. 17) (pp. 219–228) (W. C. Sturtevant, Gen. Ed.). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. . * Milanich, Jerald T. and Samuel Procter, Eds. (1978) ''Tacachale: Essays on the Indians of Florida and Southeastern Georgia during the Historic Period.'' The University Presses of Florida. * Mooney, James. (1910) Timucua. Bureau of American Ethnology, bulletin (No. 30.2, p. 752). * Swanton, John R. (1946) ''The Indians of the southeastern United States''. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 137). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
* Worth, John. (1998) ''The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Volume I: Assimilation, Volume II: Resistance and Destruction''. University of Florida Press. * Weisman, Brent R. (1993) "Archaeology of Fig Springs Mission, Ichetucknee Springs State Park", in McEwan 1993. *


External links




More about Timucua Indians

A History of Central Florida Podcast

Indian CanoesCeltsHotoon Owl Totem

SJCPLS Video: Dr. Timithy Johnson's 2019 Discovery of a Rare Timucua Book

New-York Historical Society, Five Timucua Language Imprints, 1612-1635

Pareja, Francisco. 1628. IIII parte del catecismo, en lengua Timuquana, y castellano. En que se trata el modo de oyr Missa, y sus ceremonias. Mexico City:Imprenta de Iuan Ruyz. (In the Codrington Library, Oxford.)

Timucua Dictionary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timucua Formative period in the Americas Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Archaeological cultures of North America Pre-Columbian cultures Native American history of Florida Native American tribes in Florida History of Jacksonville, Florida Extinct Native American peoples Extinct ethnic groups