They were descendants of Paleo-Indians who inhabited Southwest Florida approximately 12,000 years ago. Spanish admiral Pedro Menndez de Avils (1519-1574) by Francisco de Paula Mart (1762-1827) ( Public Domain ). The leaders included the paramount chief, or "king"; a military leader (capitn general in Spanish); and a chief priest. What language did the Calusa speak? The first recorded contact between the Calusa and Europeans was in 1513, when Juan Ponce de Len landed on the west coast of Florida in May, probably at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River, after his earlier discovery of Florida in April. On Key Marco, among numerous mounds and ridges of earth and shell, he discovered a courtyard submerged in mud and bound by walls of conch shells. They believed in three superior beings, one controlled the weather, the others ruled the welfare of the tribe and warfare. Large earthen mounds and ridges, accessed by canals, are believed to have been associated with Calusa ritual. For hundreds of years, the Calusa built a society that had its own government, a religion, and adaptation to the environment that is quite impressive. The Calusa gathered a variety of wild berries, fruits, nuts, roots and other plant parts. The shell mounds are an example of these remains. Salvaged goods and survivors from wrecked Spanish ships reached the Calusa during the 1540s and 1550s. Circumstantial evidence, primarily from Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, suggests that all of the peoples of southern Florida and the Tampa Bay area, including the Tequesta, Mayaimi, and Tocobaga, as well as the Calusa, spoke dialects of a common language. After ten days a man who spoke Spanish approached Ponce de Len's ships with a request to wait for the arrival of the Calusa chief. This site is believed to have been the capital of the Calusa, as well as its military stronghold and ceremonial center. The Calusas were one of the few North American Indian tribes who were ruled by a hereditary king. ln 2017, funded by the National Science Foundation, the research team began a systematic investigation of these structures, the largest of which is about 36,000 square feet, with a surrounding berm of shell and sediment that stood about three feet high. One ritual was witnessed in which a large procession of masked men came down from a mound accompanied by hundreds of singing women (Goggin and Sturtevant 1964). Field school students brush sand from a tabby wall that might be the outer wall of Fort San Antn de Carlos. There are probably people of Calusa descent still alive today. 4-8). (1964). Calusa ceremonies included processions of priests and singing women. Man in Peru Caught Out Drinking With an 800-year-old Mummy! Are there any Calusa people left? The Calusa were a Native American tribe that lived hundreds of years ago on the island that is now Mound Key Archaeological State Park. By the early 1600s the Calusa returned to Mound Key and reestablished their capital. The architectural remains of the kings house were relatively easy to find, but difficult to interpret at first, Marquardt said. Water World. Or, were the Romans protecting something even more valuable than silver? One of the most popular Native American sports was lacrosse. The Carolinan colonists supplied firearms to the Creek and Yemasee, but the Calusa, who had isolated themselves from Europeans, had none. Many of them are trying to do this on the Internet. The Calusa kingdom was eventually devastated by European diseases as well as slave raids by enemy tribes. When Pedro Menndez de Avils visited the capital in 1566, he described the chief's house as large enough to hold 2,000 without crowding, indicating it also served as the council house. This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 15:27. The chief's house, and possibly the other houses at Calos, were built on top of earthen mounds. During the Calusa's reign the Florida coastline extended roughly 60 miles further into the Gulf of Mexico. google_ad_height = 15; Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a Spaniard held captive by the Calusa in the 16th century, recorded that Calusa meant "fierce people" in their language. The Calusa people were an important tribe of Florida. Openings in the berms likely allowed the Calusa to drive fish into the enclosures for short-term storage, and then they closed those openings with nets and wooden gates. [Online]Available at: http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/calusa/calusa1.htm, Florida Museum of Natural History, 2016. The Calusa Indians. The Calusa wove nets from palm-fiber cord. Historical documents indicate that by the mid-1700s, the dwindling Calusa population had fled to Cuba, or the Florida Keys. While estimates vary, their population probably numbered between 4,000 and 10,000. But the Spanish not only refused to fight Caalus rivals, they also wanted to convert his people to Catholicism, which eventually led to conflict between the Spanish and the Calusa. 10 They believed that humans had three souls, and that souls migrated to animals after death. The plaques and other objects were often painted. It was during this time that the team located the Spanish fort Fort San Antn de Carlos, named for the Catholic patron saint of lost things that historic documents said was built near Caalus house in 1566. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. Despite having no real agriculture, they developed a dense, sedentary, complex society, with all the good & bad that entails. Menndez married Carlos' sister, who took the baptismal name Doa Antonia at conversion. The Chilling Mystery of the Octavius Ghost Ship, What is a Wendigo? The Southeast is one of 10 culture areas that scholars use to study the Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada. The two forms together may have indicated his transformation (Figs. The Calusa have long fascinated archaeologists because they were a fisher-gatherer-hunter society that attained unusual social complexity, said William Marquardt, curator emeritus of South Florida Archaeology and Ethnography at the Florida Museum of Natural History. This was made with clay containing spicules from freshwater sponges (Spongilla), and it first appeared inland in sites around Lake Okeechobee. Instead, they fished for food on the coast, bays, rivers, and waterways. The Calusa also made fish traps, weirs, and fish corrals from wood and cord. Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, an early chronicler of the Calusa, described "sorcerers in the shape of the devil, with some horns on their heads," who ran through the town yelling like animals for four months at a time. The walls were covered entirely with masks colored red, white, and black (Hann 1991). The Calusa king, or head chief, was an absolute ruler. One example of a shell mound can be found at a site known as Mound Key at Estero Bay in Lee County. The Calusa are said to have been a socially complex and politically powerful tribe, and most of southern Florida was controlled by them. The Calusa (/klus/ k-LOO-s) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. What is the origin of the legend of the Christed Son who was born of a virgin on December 25th? Mound Key Archaeological State Park is a shell midden mound in the Estero Bay that is estimated to have been inhabited over 2,000 years ago. Marquardt, Thompson and other University of Georgia colleagues and students began fieldwork at Mound Key in 2013, funded by the National Geographic Society. Different tribes and regions had their own games and traditions. The explorers soon became the targets of the Calusa attacks. 5,8,4) traveled this year, in an unprecedented loan of the Key Marco material, to the National Gallery of Art where they were exhibited as part of the Columbian Quincentenary exhibition, Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. These figureheads will be on display in Philadelphia through 1992 in the Main Entrance of The University Museum. They arrived in seven vessels and climbed to the peak of Mound Key, a 30-foot-high, human-made island of shells and sand, to greet the king. They believed in three superior beings, one controlled the weather, the others ruled the welfare of the tribe and warfare. The priests wore carved masks, which were at other times hung on the walls inside a temple. In his second voyage, Ponce de Leon received a poisoned arrow that hounded his tight and he died in Cuba the same year in 1521.His decease is attributed to Calusa people. The Calusa Indians were descendants of Paleo-Indians who inhabited Southwest Florida approximately 12,000 years ago. The site of the excavation appears to be linked with Calusa ceremonialism and was one location at which wooden carvings, probably used in ritual, were housed. In addition, elaborate rituals with synchronized singing and processions of masked priests were also carried out on that occasion. The Calusa knew of the Spanish before this landing, however, as they had taken in Native American refugees from the Spanish subjugation of Cuba. Calusa Tribe. Slaves occupy the lowest level in Calusa society. A new tribe that entered Florida either from the islands or the north at the start of the Christian Era, the Calusa dominated South Florida with their statute, skills, and brutality. When used for fishing or travel from one point to another, these canals must have provided protection from the wind (Blanchard 1989). Different tribes had different names for the sport including . google_ad_slot = "7815442998"; "Florida Indians of Past and Present", in Carson, Ruby Leach and, Goggin, John M., and William C. Sturtevant. They determined that the enclosures, which were built on a foundation of oyster shells, walled off portions of the estuary, serving as traps and short-term holding pens for fish before they were eaten, smoked, or dried for later consumption. The men and boys of the tribe made nets from palm tree webbing to catch mullet, pinfish, pigfish, and catfish. Calusa v. Iroquois: Religious Beliefs. The first Spanish explorers found that these Indians were not very friendly. One of the most notable traditions of the Calusa was their use of shell mounds. Gainesville: University of Florida Press: Florida Museum of Natural History, 1991. Pine tree legends Re-entering the area in 1614, Spanish forces attacked the Calusa as part of a war between the Calusa and Spanish-allied tribes around Tampa Bay. 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