Prehistoric Peoples of South Florida

Bibliography

THE ROAD TO EXTINCTION (Goggin 1950:230). Marquardt (1987b:9) says contacts between Florida and the Bahamas may have been established in the last century before European contact and probably increased thereafter . All in all, the European influence on the basic aboriginal cultures in South Florida seems to have been minimal, aside from the demographic effects of disease. And even here, later accounts suggest the depopulation was not as great as has been reported for other areas. Covington (1959:116) says the Indians who visited Havana were little affected by Cuban culture, and Elizabeth S. Wing (1978:7) says animal remains excavated at the McLarty site in Indian River County do not reflect any differences in subsistence before and after European contact. Goggin (m.s.:56) reports 44a suggestion that the Calusa developed a form ofpictographic or other writing in the 17th and 18th centuries," but the matter apparently has not been explored further. The Calusa seem to have maintained their power for a century and a half after Menendez. In fact, they may have expanded their influence in the decades immediately afterward. Swanton (1922:343) quotes Woodbury Lowery as saying they controlled 70 towns in 1612, and Mooney says they numbered 3,000 as late as 1650 (Fairbanks 1957:44). Marquardt (1987a:108, 1988b:185) sees a reconsolidation ofthe Calusa following the decentralizing influences ofSpanish wealth during the Menendez era. Michael Gannon (1965:69) speaks of continued hostility in 1678, Swanton (1922:343) says the Calusa still were strong in 1680, and Andres Gonzales de Barcia Carballido y Ztiniga (1951:344) says they drove off friars in 1697. Newly discovered documents give more detail about this lastmentioned episode. uAccording to one document, there were about 14,000 Indians in the Calusa province in 1692, some 2,000 ofwhom lived on the island where the chief's village was located. The chiefs village itself had 16 houses" (Marquardt 1988a:4). The story of these clergymen and their short-lived 'attempt to establish a new mission among the Calusa has a familiar theme. The clergymen, here identified as four Franciscan priests, ran afoul ofthe Indians when they first refused to distribute food and clothing and then tried to supplant the Indian religion. They 110 AFTER THE MENENDEZ PERIOD were given a canoe and two small boats and sent on their way, finally being found naked and starving after being robbed by other Indian groups along the way toward Havana (Marquardt 1988a:4). The 1697 experiences sound a lot like those ofRogel 130 years earlier. The cacique told one priest that Uif he was not going to give clothing and food, it was not good to become a Christian and no one would want to become one." The priests were beaten when they persisted in going to the Indian temple (Friars, as translated in Hann 1991:166-167). In speaking of the temple, Feliciano Lopez describes Ila sort of room (aposento) (made) of mats (esteras)" upon a lIvery high flat-topped mound.... The walls are entirely covered with masks, one worse than the other" (Feliciano Lopez, as translated in Hann 1991:159-160). Similar cultural persistence is evident among the Ais and Jeaga, on the basis of Dickinson's 1696 experiences. As for their relations with the Spanish, there is a difference ofopinion here. Lyon (1967:11) says the Ais remained continually hostile, and Hale G. Smith and Mark Gottlob (1978:8) tell ofa Jeaga uprising in 1618, while Irving Rouse (1951:55) says relations were generally amicable after 1605. Perhaps Lyon and Rouse are looking at intermittent hostilities in two different ways. Still, there were indications ofdisruption. Calderon says that as of 1675 no South Florida group, not even the Calusa, had year-round villages (Wenhold 1936:11), and Swanton (1922:343) says Guale Indians from Georgia had settled among the Calusa in 1681. After about 1700 the situation changed quickly with the advent of raiding southward from English territory, by both the English themselves andby Indians. Feliciano Lopez says the son ofthe Calusa chief in 1697, who apparently held the real power, spoke Ilhalf in Timucua and half in Apalachee," both languages of North Florida (Feliciano Lopez, as translated in Hann 1991:160). In this light, it is understandable why the Indians met by the Dickinson party disliked the English so muc4. Such Anglophobia also was noted in the accounts ofshipwreck victim Briton Hammon (1760) and of Charlevoix (1966). The new Indians, some of them ancestors of today's Seminoles...