The Calusa are said to have been a socially complex and politically powerful tribe, and most of southern Florida was controlled by them. Hence, the Calusa are sometimes called the Shell People / Indians. 4 . The explorers soon became the targets of the Calusa attacks. The Calusa people were an important tribe of Florida. The architectural remains of the kings house were relatively easy to find, but difficult to interpret at first, Marquardt said. He had a council which may have included one or more head priests and one or two high-ranking individuals involved in political and religious decision-making. The University Museum has an exceptional collection of artifacts from the Calusa site at Key Marco, Florida. Calusa means "fierce people," and they were described as a fierce, war-like people. Archaeology, 57(5), 4650. Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Len landed on the east coast of Florida and . 10 Innovative Medieval Weapons: You Would Not Want To Be At The Sharp End Of These! Calusa beliefs included a trinity of governing spirits. Since it seems to be working, many people still believe in the legend. Slaves occupy the lowest level in Calusa society. After death only the last one remained with the body to be buried with it. Be notified when an answer is posted. 10 They believed that humans had three souls, and that souls migrated to animals after death. Figuring out how to shore up the walls of wooden buildings using a very early kind of tabby architecture is impressive and represents creative thinking and ingenuity in an unfamiliar and challenging setting, said Marquardt. The Calusas as Shell Indians The Calusas are considered to be the first "shell collectors." Shells were discarded into huge heaps. 9). Fish stored in the watercourts likely fed the workers who built the massive palace. Calusa influence may have also extended to the Ais tribe on the central east coast of Florida. After Spain ceded Florida to the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1763, the remaining tribes of South Florida were relocated to Cuba by the Spanish, completing their removal from the region. By Paul Brinkmann. The Calusa were descended from people who had lived in the area for at least 1,000 years prior to European contact, and possibly for much longer than that. A dozen words for which translations were recorded and 50 or 60 place names form the entire known corpus of the language. It is based on the Creek and Mikasuki (languages of the present-day Seminole and Miccosukee nations) ethnonym for the people who had lived around the Caloosahatchee River (also from the Creek language). The Legend of the Calusa Many people believe that the Calusa made a trip to Cuba in their canoes and traded with the Mayans. At the time of European contact in the 16th and 17th centuries, the historic Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture. The Iliad can provide new insights on the role of motherhood among the ancient Greek gods, and by extension, amongst ancient mortal Greek women themselves. The chief had many wives: one principal wife and others given to him by surrounding villages. It appears that the answer is their watercourts, which were discovered back in the 1890s. The chief also married women from subject towns and allied tribes. There were engineers. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Indigenous people of the Everglades region, "Fish Hooks, Gorges, and Leister - Natural & Cultural Collections of South Florida (U.S. National Park Service)", Evidence for a Calusa-Tunica Relationship, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calusa&oldid=1140745100, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Language articles with unreferenced extinction date, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Bullen, Adelaide K. (1965). It was not conserved and is in poor shape, but it is displayed at the nature center in Marathon. One illustration of the sophistication of the Calusa can be found in eyewitness accounts of an event in 1566. This article first appeared in the magazines fall 2020 issue. Artist's conception of town chief at the Calusa town of Tampa (present day Pineland) (Art by Merald Clark.) The Calusa king, or head chief, was an absolute ruler. Conversion would have destroyed the source of their authority and legitimacy. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The fort is the only Spanish structure built atop a shell mound in Florida. . They began preliminary investigations of the fort, which was located on Mound 2 and housed one of the first Jesuit missions established in the U.S. They believed in three superior beings, one controlled the weather, the others ruled the welfare of the tribe and warfare. The fact that the Calusa were fishers, not farmers, created tension between them and the Spaniards, who arrived in Florida when the Calusa kingdom was at its zenith, Thompson said. 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. Among other things. The Calusa tribe lived along the Gulf Coat and inner waterways; their homes were built on stilts with roofs made from Palmetto leaves; these homes had no walls. The Calusa remained committed to their belief system despite Spanish attempts to convert them to Catholicism. A reconstruction of a Calusa home and terraces, on display at the Florida Museum of Natural History. This language was distinct from the languages of the Apalachee, Timucua, Mayaca, and Ais people in central and northern Florida. It is documented that their power and influence extended over . Tamara Jager Stewart is the assistant editor of American Archaelogy and the Conservancys Southwest region projects director. The archaeology of the Calusa is important worldwide in that it illustrates the development of very pronounced hierarchy, inequality, monumentality and large-scale infrastructure by hunter-gatherer-fisher societies, said Chris Rodning of Tulane University, who was not involved with this research. Nets were woven with a standard mesh size; nets with different mesh sizes were used seasonally to catch the most abundant and useful fish available. The research team uncovered a network of post holes and foundation trenches that indicate a large structure measuring about 80 feet long and 65 feet wide covered the summit of the islands highest hill. The Calusa are said to have been the descendants of Palaeo-Indians who inhabited Southwest Florida about 12000 years ago. Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a Spaniard held captive by the Calusa in the 16th century, recorded that Calusa meant "fierce people" in their language. This lasted until about 1750, and included the historic Calusa people. Calusa ceremonies included processions of priests and singing women. They believed in three superior beings, one controlled the weather, the others ruled the welfare of the tribe and warfare. At the top of the hierarchy was the chief, who had control over the life and death of his subjects, and was believed to have the ability to communicate with the spirits. support our organization's work with endangered American Indian languages. The Calusa (/klus/ k-LOO-s) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. The process of shaping the boat was achieved by burning the middle and subsequently chopping and removing the charred center, using robust shell tools. There are probably people of Calusa descent still alive today. In 1711, the Spanish helped evacuate 270 Indians, including many Calusa, from the Florida Keys to Cuba (where almost 200 soon died). (*) denotes earlier century Calusa language records. By about 500 BC, the Archaic culture, which had been fairly uniform across Florida, began to devolve into more distinct regional cultures. AtAncient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. The Calusa (said to mean fierce people ) are a Native American tribe that once inhabited the southwestern coast of Florida. Request Answer. The Calusa Indians were originally called the "Calos" which means "Fierce People". For the purposes of this research project I will compare and contrast three specific categories for each tribe in order to show how they were either similar or different from one another. The chief's house, and possibly the other houses at Calos, were built on top of earthen mounds. The Carolinan colonists supplied firearms to the Creek and Yemasee, but the Calusa, who had isolated themselves from Europeans, had none. Archaeologists have long pondered how the Calusa could have grown to a population of some 20,000 and dominated such a vast region without relying on agriculture. He was aware, however, of the magnitude of his findings: the remains of a highly organized maritime society whose members performed elaborate rituals and whose artists possessed remarkable abilities in wood carving. What was the Calusa religion? The Tequesta Indians were a tribe of eastern Florida, closely connected with the Ais. In 1954 a dugout canoe was found during excavation for a middle school in Marathon, Florida. Large earthen mounds and ridges, accessed by canals, are believed to have been associated with Calusa ritual. 314 Palmetto Street, Jacksonville 32202. Now, there is a lot of garbage and misinformation on the Internet no matter what . Join CJ as he discusses: The origins of the Calusa Their physical description Their society, hierarchy, and religion When used for fishing or travel from one point to another, these canals must have provided protection from the wind (Blanchard 1989). They fished and hunted for their food and would catch things like: mullet, catfish, eels, turtles, deer, conchs, clams, oysters, and crabs. "Well, every indigenous group around the country has its own unique history and and accomplishments, but I guess what has interested archaeologists and anthropologists generally is that the Calusa managed to become very complex, politically complex," said Marquardt. The Penn Museum respectfully acknowledges that it is situated on Lenapehoking, the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Unami Lenape. It was during this phase of research that the team located and documented the massive kings house, showing it was indeed every bit as impressive as Spanish accounts, which claimed it was large enough to accommodate some 2,000 people. Because of their reliance on shellfish, they accumulated large shell middens during this period. The men of the Calusa are recorded to have been powerfully built, and let their hair grow long. 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. Cushings knowledge of American Indian culture, and specifically his experiences at Zuni Pueblo, helped him make rapid judgments about objects which in many cases were disintegrating before him. Marquardt, William H. (2004). [3] Some Archaic artifacts have been found in the region later occupied by the Calusa, including one site classified as early Archaic, and dated prior to 5000 BC. Many Calusa are said to have been captured and sold as slaves. Known as the "Shell Indians", the Calusa are . /* 728x15 link ad */ Despite the social complexity and political might that the Calusa attained, they are said to have eventually went extinct around the end of the 18 th century. They left 1,700 behind. One of the most popular Native American sports was lacrosse. Calusa v. Iroquois: Religious Beliefs. Native American tribes Though eschewing agriculture once. [28] Cuban fishing camps (ranchos) operated along the southwest Florida coast from the 18th century into the middle of the 19th century. This article is good but it does not provide any data related to the status of the Calusa people at the first arrival of Spaniards in 1513 leaded by Juan Ponce de Leon, its "discoverer". After suffering decimation by disease, the tribe was destroyed by Creek and Yamasee raiders early in the 18th century. In a report from 1697, the Spanish noted 16 houses in the Calusa capital of Calos, which had 1,000 residents. Cushings excavations brought to light at least 23 wooden masks and figureheads. What did the Calusa tribe believe in? THE CALUSA INDIANS OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. The "nobles" resisted conversion in part because their power and position were intimately tied to the belief system; they were intermediaries between the gods and the people. While there is no evidence that the Calusa had institutionalized slavery, studies show they would use captives for work or even sacrifice. After each meal, these shells were put to good use as building material and tools. These Indians were so unfriendly that this was one of the first tribes that Spanish explorers wrote home about in 1513. It has also been stated that the Spanish were brought into a large temple, where they saw carved and painted wooden masks covering its walls. New Moai Statue Found on Chiles Easter Island Excites Researchers. ed. They had a reputation from being a fierce, war-like people, especially among European explorers and smaller tribes. Calusa Protective Spell-Tampa This piece of folklore came from my co-worker, who grew up in Tampa, Florida. [Online]Available at: http://www.sanibelhistory.org/calusa_history.htm, Wu Mingren (Dhwty) has a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient History and Archaeology. Tools for fishing were made of shell, wood, and plant materials and included hooks and spears, nets, net floats and sinkers, cord, and anchors (Fig. Along the southwest Gulf coast lived the Calusa (Caloosa) Indians. A new study says Florida's Calusa tribe built fish enclosures to amass surplus food, allowing its society to flourish and build structures such as the king's manor on Mound Key . Marquardt, Thompson and other University of Georgia colleagues and students began fieldwork at Mound Key in 2013, funded by the National Geographic Society. "Florida Indians of Past and Present", in Carson, Ruby Leach and, Goggin, John M., and William C. Sturtevant. The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Photo by Alina Zienowicz . 2014-05-02 14:51:47. Known as the first shell collectors, the Calusa used shells as tools, utensils, building materials, vessels for domestic and ceremonial use and for personal adornment. The pelican, wolf, and deer figureheads mentioned here (Figs. It is likely there are descendants of the Calusa living among the Native American people of Florida and in Cuba today., In terms of Mound Key, much more can be learned about the Spanish fort and mission, the relations between the Calusa and the Spaniards and the earlier, pre-contact occupations of the island, Marquardt said. The canals were maintained until the mid-1700s, when the tribe disappeared from . Pine tree legends What is the origin of the legend of the Christed Son who was born of a virgin on December 25th? He struck an uneasy peace with their leader Caluus, or Carlos. 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. It's also possible that a few were absorbed into the Seminole tribe. Each human had three souls, present in his shadow, his reflection in water and in the pupil of his eye. Some of the survivors were sent to Cuba by the Spanish, while others may have merged with other Floridian Indians and eventually joined the Seminole tribe. Was this German silver mine really defended by two Roman forts and a line of "spike defenses? The Calusa leader, Calus (called Carlos II by the Spaniards), agrees to accept a Jesuit missionary among his people, but the Calusa refuse to . As Cushing noted and as more recent studies have revealed, they dug extensive waterways or canals (sometimes as large as 4 feet deep, 20 feet wide, and 3 miles long) that crossed Key Marco and the rest of the region. Julian Granberry has suggested that the Calusa language was related to the Tunica language of the lower Mississippi River Valley. We do not fully understand the complexities of what happened to them. Calusa means "fierce people," and they were described as a fierce, war-like people. They also cored sediments on and off the island to help describe and date environmental changes during the sites occupation. This class was supported by commoners, who provided them with food and other material goods. The Calusa kingdom had an estimated 20,000 people and ranks among the most politically complex groups of hunter-gatherers of the historic world. "They had an established religion. Add an answer. [5] A few leaders governed the tribe. Instead, they fished for food on the coast, bays, rivers, and waterways. Marquardt, W. H. (2014). The courtyard was drained and cleared, exposing house posts, fishing nets, shell tools, bowls and drinking vessels, weapons, canoes, pottery, and extraordinary wooden masks and animal figureheads (Fig. In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to England and surviving Calusas were taken to Cuba. There was little change in the pottery tradition after this. During Menndez de Avils's visit in 1566, the chief's wife was described as wearing pearls, precious stones and gold beads around her neck. They built massive mounds of shells and sand, dug large canals, engineered sophisticated fish corrals, held elaborate ceremonies, created remarkable works of art, such as intricately carved wooden masks and traversed the waters in canoes made from hollowed-out logs. A Spanish expedition to ransom some captives held by the Calusa in 1680 was forced to turn back; neighboring tribes refused to guide the Spanish, for fear of retaliation by the Calusa. Then, two things happened: either Chaos or Gaia created the universe as we know it, or Ouranos and Tethys gave birth to the first beings. Fowler Williams, .Lucy"The Calusa Indians: Maritime Peoples of Florida in the Age of Columbus" Expedition Magazine 33.2 (1991): n. pag. The lifestyle of the Calusa was leisurely, and they enjoyed numerous celebrations and feasts, many of which were connected to religious ceremonies at which lavish meals were prepared. For more than 200 years, South Florida's Indians resisted Spanish domination. The CalusaPeople of the Estuary. The Calusa Indians. Ivar the Boneless was likely the son of legendary Viking king Ragnar Lothbrok, and raided alongside his father and brothers, eventually becoming ruler of York in England in the 9th century AD. This site is believed to have been the capital of the Calusa, as well as its military stronghold and ceremonial center. Gainesville: University of Florida Press: Florida Museum of Natural History, 1991. By 880, a complex society had developed with high population densities. Expedition Magazine. Although we cannot be sure what values the masks and animal figureheads held for the Calusa, they may have been markers of clan affiliation, and the animals represented most likely played important roles in Calusa mythology and religion. Though questions about the Calusa and the use of some of these artifacts remain unanswered, early eyewitness accounts and ethnohistorical research, together with new archaeological developments in Florida, enhance our understanding of the cultural context within which these objects were made and used. By the early 1600s the Calusa returned to Mound Key and reestablished their capital. By contrast, at an inland site, Platt Island, mammals (primarily deer) accounted for more than 60 percent of the energy from animal meat, while fish provided just under 20 percent. The archaeologists were surprised to discover the Spanish used a primitive shell concrete known as tabby to stabilize the wall posts of their wooden structures. Favored sites were likely occupied for multiple generations. Ravaged by new infectious diseases introduced to the Americas by European contact and by the slaving raids, the surviving Calusa retreated south and east. Although his primary interest is in the ancient civilizations of the Near East, he is also interested in other geographical regions, as well as other time periods. Read More. The Calusa was a powerful, complex society who lived on the shores of the southwest Florida coast. In April of that year he made landfall and, calling this new territory La Florida, claimed it for the Spanish Crown. He was also attacked by the Calusa. The Calusa Tribe had a large population and were well-organized. The Beast with an insatiable Hunger for Human Flesh, Film Footage Provides Intimate View of HMS Gloucester Shipwreck, Top 8 Legendary Parties - Iconic Celebrations in Ancient History, The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth Behind the Black Legend (Part II), The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth behind the Dark Legend (Part I), Bloodthirsty Buddhists: The Sohei Warrior Monks of Feudal Japan, Caesars Savage Human Skewers Unearthed In German Fort, The Red Taj Mahal and the Dutch Hessings of India. No Zamia pollen has been found at any site associated with the Calusas, nor does Zamia grow in the wetlands that made up most of the Calusa environment. The watercolors illustrate the blue, black, gray, and brownish-red pigments found on many of the wooden specimens. Tracking the Calusa: A Retrospective. The two forms together may have indicated his transformation (Figs. google_ad_width = 728; Image by Pat Payne for American Archaeology. Field school students brush sand from a tabby wall that might be the outer wall of Fort San Antn de Carlos. The Spanish reported that the chief was expected to take his sister as one of his wives. Native American art,