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[Solomon]

Calusa

The Calusa, sometimes spelled Caloosa or Calosa, were a Native American group that lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast. At the time of European contact, the Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture. Calusa territory reached from Charlotte Harbor to Cape Sable, and may have included the Florida Keys at times. Calusa influence and control also extended over other tribes in southern Florida, including the Mayaimis around Lake Mayaimi (now Lake Okeechobee), and the Tequestas and Jaegas on the southeast coast of the peninsula. Calusa influence may have also extended to the Ais tribe on the central east coast of Florida. Calusa is pronounced "ka LOOS a" and means "fierce people". The Calusa tribe is described as warlike.


Approximate Calusa core area (red) and political domain (blue)
The Spanish began exploring southwest Florida early in the 16th Century and quickly encountered resistance. The explorer and discoverer of Florida, Juan Ponce de Leon, died of a wound received from a Calusa arrow in 1521. However, the best information about the Calusas comes from the Memoir of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda. Fontaneda was shipwrecked on the east coast of Florida, likely in the Keys, about 1550, when he was thirteen years old. Although many others survived the shipwreck, only Fontaneda was spared by the tribe in whose territory he had been shipwrecked. He lived with various tribes in southern Florida for the next seventeen years before being found by a Spanish expedition.

The Calusa were not agricultural. Their diet included a lot of seafood. Net sinkers have been found in archeological sites, and shell middens and shell mounds of large size are found throughout Calusa territory. Such mounds can still be seen on Mound Key, in Estero Bay near Fort Myers, and near Everglades City, Florida. Deer, turtle and other animal bones have also been found in the mounds. Projectile points of stone have been found, as well as tools of bone, shell, and turtle shell. The Calusa built their homes on stilts without any walls and used woven palmetto leaves for the roofs. A number of wooden objects have been found in Calusa archaeological sites, mainly of cypress and pine. Artifacts of wood that have been found include dugout canoes, bowls, both plain and adorned with carvings of animals, masks, plaques, "ornamental standards," and a finely carved deer head. The plaques were often painted.

Calusa society had two levels, and possibly a slave class. The chief was powerful (the Spanish called Carlos, leader at the time of contact, the "king"). Kings were supposed to marry their sister, and would take other wives, as well.

KEY MARCO PROJECT
In the Summer of 1995 Dr. Randolph Widmer was invited by the Marco Island Chapter of the Collier County Historical Society to undertake some salvage excavate in one of the few remaining empty lots on the Key Marco site which was scheduled for the erection of a condominium. The above map shows the present housing division with its streets, lots, and canals associated with the outline of the original site map which was produced by Sawyers for the Cushing expedition in 1896.This site is one of the most important sites in the United States. In 1895 Frank Hamilton Cushing undertook a comprehensive excavation in a muck pond located in the southwest corner of the site. He called this muck pond the Court of the Pile Dwellers. In this muck pond he over 1000 wooden artifacts, the largest number ever recovered from a prehistoric archaeological site in the eastern United States. The original location of this muck pond is indicated by the magenta shaded area in the left map. You can click on this area to visit this page This muck pond was completely excavated in 1896 and has since been filled in and is the site on three house lots. These artifacts are some of the finest examples of prehsitoric native american art in North America. Among these artifacts are the famous Key Marco cat, a carved wooden feline/human figurine. My excavations were located in the red shaded area also on this map. Click on this area of the map to go directly to the site maps or continue reading and visit there later. The goal of the project was to determine if there was any of the site remaining intact and to see if dwellings, structures, or othe archaeological features could be located to provide a residential and settlement context for the impressive inventory of artifacts recovered from the muck pond. Although we could not directly link the artifacts from the muck pond to our excavations, we would nonetheless have an general understanding of the the context of these artifacts. This was particularly inportant in light of the fact that no excavation was done by Cushing to make this association. Cushing This project was to be completely volunteers. The Southwest Florida Archaeological Society provided both field and laboratory personel for the washing and initial sorting of the artifacts collected in the excavations. The processing of the artifacts was undertaken at the Craighead Laboratory at the Collier County Museum. Numerous individuals worked at the site. Dr. Rebecca Storey, was the field director and organized the training of volunteers, the assignment of excavation crews, and overseeing the excavation crews. Graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Houston acted as crew chiefs for the projects. volunteers from the Marco Island Chapter of the Collier County Historical Society served as personel for unsite registration of visitors and also participated as volunteer archaeologists. They also provides logistic support such as ice, fencing, and supplies. The Marco Island Boy Scout Troop 234 loaned us the use of the trailer for storing our field equipment.

Two mounds, labeled mound A and Mound B, although now leveled, were located in the area of our excavations. These mounds where originally 13 and 14 feet high respectively. We wanted to concentrate our excavations in the area of these two mounds and hopefully find intact areas containing features and structures. We initially placed a backhoe trench to evaluated the stratigraphy.


This structure is hypothesized based on the size and height of the platforms uncovered in our excavations. The elevated pile structure is suggested by the clustering of post molds in the interior floor area of the hypothesized structure. This suggests that the living surface was elevated above the surface of the platform summit on pilings. This hypothesis is supported by the lack of fire hearths, artifact concentrations, or other features in the area of the mound summit. These features would have been situated on an elevated wooden floor with debris being swept out of the structure onto the apron of the mound.


Marco Island Florida
The Mysterious Calusa

What attracted a tribe of Paleo-Indians to Marco Island? That is a question that remains shrouded in mystery, as relatively little is known about this group of fishermen and skilled artisans who lived on Marco for perhaps more than a thousand years.

As tourists and residents of today, the Calusa were likely drawn to the island for its tropical, sheltered, almost mystical atmosphere. They were thought to have considered Marco a sacred place, as storm clouds rolling towards it often seemed to stop mysteriously and travel north or southward.

The Calusa were accomplished fishermen and artisans. They made brightly painted clay masks to resemble animals, they carefully wove fishing nets, they were known as fierce warriors and they wore jewelry and clothing - albeit very little in such a climate!

The Calusa also practiced an early form of recycling. They build giant mounds using clam shells, fish bones and other discarded items. The shell mounds located in what is today the Indian Hills area of the Estates are still today the highest area in Collier County. A new generation of twentieth century homes occupy the area.

It was believed that the plight of the Calusa was unfortunately similar to that of so many other Indian groups. European explorers such as Ponce de Leon, who may have died close to Marco after a battle with native people, brought disease and weapons with them. The result was decimation


Calusa Artifacts: Remnants of a Vanished Culture
 As the head of the Pepper-Hearst Expedition, Cushing was in search of artifacts of the Calusa Indians who inhabited southwest Florida perhaps as early as 1450 B.C. Excavations on Key Marco (next to Marco Island) revealed an amazing quantity of tools, weapons, utensils, masks and wood carvings preserved in a layer of organic mud within a Calusa Indian shell mound.

Although more than 100 wooden ceremonial masks, statuettes, batons, and heads of animals such as a wolf, sea turtle, pelican, and alligator were found, the article that most fascinated Cushing was a wooden deer head. He wrote:

    "This represents the finest and most perfectly preserved example of combined carving and painting that we found .... In form ... it portrayed with startling fidelity and delicacy, the head of a young deer or doe .... [The ears] were also relatively large ... fluted, and their tips were curved as in nature ... they were painted inside with a creamy pink-white pigment ... and the black hair tufts at the back were neatly represented by short black strokes of paint .... The muzzle, nostrils and especially the exquisitely modeled and painted lower jaw, were so delicately idealized that it was evident the primitive artist who fashioned this masterpiece loved, with both ardor and reverence, the animal he was portraying...."


The detailed carvings reveal the artistic and spiritual elements of the Calusa culture. According to Cushing, the three forks radiating from behind the eye of the panther statuette indicate a fierce or predatory animal. In contrast, timid or tame animals, such as the rabbit or the deer, bore a crescent shape carved on the forehead. There is some indication that the panther statuette may have been a fetish or perhaps a god of war or of the hunt.

The Shell People
NOBODY LEFT
The most obvious way might be to stop in and say hi, but the Calusa are profoundly, disturbingly gone. Extinct. No more. DNA work might be interesting to pursue, but the last mention of surviving Calusa is in the mid 1700s. There still are Native Americans in Florida today, the Seminole, though they make up less than half a percent of the 17 million people in the state. But even the Seminole migrated historically from further north, and are unrelated to the Calusa.


Calusa Canal on Josslyn Island

GONE AND FORGOTTEN
Coming from the Pacific Northwest, where First Nations are still a visible and important part of society, I find it disconcerting to realize how completely gone the Calusa are. Arriving in the region for a paddle now, you could easily be forgiven for missing the evidence entirely. Tens of thousands of people lived here for centuries, even millennia, yet it takes a trained eye to find any evidence of them whatsoever. How did these people and their culture disappear so completely? Why are so many Floridians barely aware of the complex society that preceded them?


Calusa mound on Josslyn Island

Spanish soldiers, missionaries, slavery and germs were largely responsible for the eradication of the Calusa. Then the Spanish were replaced by English and American settlers. The migration and remarkable history of the Seminoles further obscured the Calusa and every other Florida First Nation. Three bitter Seminole Wars and the subsequent forced migration west have supplanted the earlier native societies in the minds of most Floridians.


Calusa Island Preserve

Not a single dugout canoe remains from the culture that ruled South Florida, built extensive canals, inhabited villages and sailed from Tampa to Cuba. Getting into a kayak and trying to visit with them is a humbling and difficult journey.


A real Calusa Indian mound from Island of Bones

The Calusa Indians of Florida May Not Have Been Entirely Wiped Out
Researchers have discovered the first birth records of the Calusa Indians outside Florida, providing evidence that the once-mighty South Florida tribe might not have been wiped out as previously thought.

Anthropologist John Worth said new information his search of records shows several dozen members of the tribe, which lived in southwest Florida from 100 A.D. to the early 1700s, escaped to Cuba after invading Native American tribes, Spanish soldiers and foreign diseases overran their region.

Though most of the band of Calusa who escaped to Cuba died from typhus or small pox within three months of arriving, records show at least one Calusa woman survived and gave birth, said Worth, the director of the Randell Research Center, which is located at the site of one of the Calusa?s largest Florida settlements.

The woman, who arrived in Cuba in 1711 as an infant, was baptized in the Catholic church, and gave birth to two daughters in 1729 and 1731, Worth said.

No records have been found to show what happened to the girls, though Worth said he?s now trying to trace their paths to determine whether Calusa descendants may still be alive.

[Bart]

Calusa Indian History

     Calusa,  an important tribe of Florida, formerly holding the southwest coast from about Tampa Bay to Cape Sable and Cape Florida, together with all the outlying keys, and extending inland to Lake Okeechobee. They claimed more or less authority also over the tribes of the east coast, north to about Cape Canaveral. The name, which can not be interpreted, appears as Calos or Carlos (province) in the early Spanish and French records, Caloosa and Coloosa in later English authors, and survives in Caloosa village, Caloosahatchee river, and Charlotte (for Carlos) harbor within their old territory.

     They cultivated the ground to a limited extent, but were better noted as expert fishers, daring seamen, and fierce and determined fighters, keeping up their resistance to the Spanish arms and missionary advances after all the rest of Florida had submitted. Their men went nearly naked. They seem to have practiced human sacrifice of captives upon a wholesale scale, scalped and dismembered their slain enemies, and have repeatedly been accused of being cannibals. Although this charge is denied by Adair (1775), who was in position to know, the evidence of the mounds indicates that it was true in the earlier period.

     Their history begins in 1513 when, with a fleet of 80 canoes they boldly attacked Ponce de Le?n, who was about to land on their coast, and after an all-day fight compelled him to withdraw. Even at this early date they were already noted among the tribes for the golden wealth which they had accumulated from the numerous Spanish wrecks cast away upon the keys in passage from the south, and two centuries later they were regarded as veritable pirates, plundering and killing without mercy the crews of all vessels, excepting Spanish, so unfortunate as to be stranded in their neighborhood.

     In 1567 the Spaniards established a mission and fortified post among them, but both seem to have been discontinued soon after, although the tribe came later under Spanish influence. About this time, according to Fontaneda, a captive among them, they numbered nearly 50 villages, including one occupied by the descendants of an Arawakan colony from Cuba. From one of these villages the modern Tampa takes its name. Another, Muspa, existed up to about 1750.

     About the year 1600 they carried on a regular trade, by canoe, with Havana in fish, skins, and amber. By the constant invasions of the Creeks and other Indian allies of the English in the 18th century they were at last driven from the mainland and forced to take refuge on the keys, particularly Key West, Key Vaccas, and the Matacumbe keys. One of their latest recorded exploits was the massacre of an entire French crew wrecked upon the islands. Romans states that in 1763, on the transfer of Florida from Spain to England, the last remnant of the tribe, numbering then 80 families, or perhaps 350 souls, was removed to Havana. This, however, is only partially correct, as a considerable band under the name of Muspa Indians, or simply Spanish Indians, maintained their distinct existence and language in their ancient territory up to the close of the second Seminole war.

     Nothing is known of the linguistic affinity of the Calusa or their immediate neighbors, as no vocabulary or other specimen of the language is known to exist beyond the town names and one or two other words given by Fontaneda, none of which affords basis for serious interpretation. Gatschet, the best authority on the Florida languages, says: "The languages spoken by the Calusa and by the people next in order, the Tequesta, are unknown to us. They were regarded as people distinct from the Timucua and the tribes of Maskoki origin" (Creek Migr. Leg., 1, 13, 1884).

     There is a possibility that some fragments of the language may yet come to light, as boys of this tribe were among the pupils at the mission school in Havana in the 16th century, and the Jesuit Rogel and an assistant spent a winter in studying the language and recording it in vocabulary form. Fontaneda names the following among about 50 Calusa villages existing about 1570:

Calaobe
Casitoa
Cayovea
Comachica
Cuchiyaga
Cutespa
Enempa
Estame
Guarungunve
Guevu
Jutun
Metamapo
Muspa
Ňo (explained as meaning 'town beloved') Quisiyove
Sacaspada
Sinaesta
Sinapa
Soco
Tampa (distinguished as 'a large town')
Tatesta
Tavaguemue
Tequemapo
Torno
Tomsobe
Tuchi
Yagua

Of these, Cuchiyaga and Guarungunve were upon the keys.

     Onathaqua (possibly intended for Ouathaqua). A tribe or village about Cape Canaveral, east coast of Florida, in constant alliance with the Calusain 1564 (Laudonniere). Probably identical in whole or in part with the Ais tribe. Not to be confounded with Onatheaqua.

Handbook of American Indians, 1906

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/calusa/calusahist.htm

[Solomon]

Handbook of American Indians, 1906: I like that, Bart. Very good  :thumbup:

Solomon

[Bart]

It is a good source for history and information, and up to date as far as I could tell. Here are some specifics of what they have available.

- Bart

" We have endeavored to bring the reader the most information possible on all Indian Tribes of North America. Through links and books we have provided history, clans, location, customs and more specific to each of the tribes listed below. 
     In reading the history you will notice each author use different spelling of some of the names of the tribes, we have attempted to link them together through out the pages.  "

Genealogy Records
Biographies
Cemetery Records
Census Records
Free Family Tree Website
History Books Online
Military Records
Native American Records
Surnames
United States Genealogy
Vital Records
World Genealogy

Free Indian Records
Index and Database of Rolls
Indian Cemeteries
Indian Census Records
Indian Chiefs
Indian History
Indian Stories, Myths and Legends
Indian Tribe Listings
Indian Tribes and Nations, 1880
Indian Tribes by Location
Native American Books
Native American Land Patents
Native American Queries
South East Research
Treaties with the Indians
Tribal Mailing Lists
How to Search
How to Register

Native American Research
Dawes: Getting Organized
Indian Tribes of the Frontier
Your American Indian Ancestors
Indian Reservations, 1840
Indian Reservations, 1875
Indian Reservations, 1900
Indian Reservations, 1930
Early Native American Tribes and Culture Areas

Indian Tribes and Nations ~ 1906

Indian Chiefs

Indian History

Indian Reservations 1908

Indian Reservations 2003

Canadian Tribes

$ Ancestry.com Indian Records $
1900 Indian Territory Census
Dawes Commission Index, 1896
The Dawes Commission Allotment
Cherokee Connections
History of the Cherokee Indians
Indian Deeds: In Plymouth Colony
The Indian Tribes of North America
Henry Schoolcraft, With the Indians
Minnesota Native Americans, 1823
Minnesota Native Americans, 1851
Nebraska Pawnee Scouts, 1861-69
Oklahoma Osage Tribe Roll, 1921
B. D. Wilson, Report on CA Indians 
Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/

[Baja Bush Pilot]

MIAMI -- Officials said ancient human remains from an extinct American Indian tribe have been unearthed near a downtown Miami condominium construction site.

According to the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, fragmented bones belonging to five or six members of the extinct Tequesta tribe or its ancestors were found in recent weeks at the Brickell Avenue site.

Officials said the fragments were surrounded by pottery shards, animal bones and an arrowhead, most of which appear to be 2,000 to 3,500 years old. 

The Tequesta tribe met explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 when he claimed the land for Spain.

Officials said the bones will be reburied on the site about 150 feet from the place of discovery, a 50-square-foot-wide natural depression.

http://www.wpbf.com/news/12897822/detail.html

[Bart]

Low Lake Okeechobee Water Uncovers Ancient Site

BY KELLY WOLFE - The Palm Beach Post (Florida)

   The lake kept its secret as long as the rain fell. The remains rested in the soft, black muck for hundreds of years -- buried beneath the water of Lake Okeechobee.

   But the drought tore open the ancient grave, and a local man happened upon it. The bodies have been discovered. But the mystery is just beginning.

   ''It's a mixed blessing,'' State Archaeologist Ryan Wheeler said. ``The lower lake levels give us a chance to learn . . . but the site was probably better-protected under water.'' Little is known about this uncovered archaeological site of boats and bodies.

   Wheeler said he has issued Palm Beach County a research permit to begin a county study. The artifacts at the site will be exposed only as long as the water levels are low, Wheeler said.

   In the meantime, he has contacted Indian tribes, hoping to locate descendants. Wheeler guessed the remains could date to the early 16th century. Wheeler is mum on the site's exact location, fearing vandals. Someone and some storms have already caused damage.

   The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is patrolling the area, he said. The site was discovered about two months ago by a Belle Glade man named Boots Boyer.

   Boyer, 36, said he's been fishing on Lake Okeechobee for more than three decades. He said he discovered the site while exploring a clump of trees where the land normally is under water. Boyer said he's run across Indian artifacts from time to time.

   ''But never this quantity,'' he said. He made a series of phone calls, he said to report the human remains and hand-carved fishing boats. Since then, Boyer said he's conducting his own patrols. ``The site really means a lot to me. I'm a watchdog.''

   Christian Davenport, an archaeologist in Palm Beach County's planning division, visited the site last week, having marched through waist-high muck. Davenport said the materials found predate the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes' arrival in Florida.

http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/123884.html

[Bart]

Jun. 27, 2007

Shallow Okeechobee reveals pool of artifacts
BY AUDRA D.S. BURCH AND KATHLEEN McGRORY


BELLE GLADE -- The epic drought gripping Lake Okeechobee has opened a mud-spattered window into Florida's prehistoric past.

Since March, falling water levels have exposed 21 archaeological sites -- for now, the locations a secret to the public. Thousands of artifacts have been unearthed, including pieces of pottery, shell pendants, candleholders, arrowheads and fishing weights.

Human bones, too.

   Archaeological teams from the state and Palm Beach County are hunting for still more relics before the rains take hold and they are lost to the lake again.

   ''It isn't exactly Indiana Jones,'' said Briana Delano, a state archaeologist. And yet, the endeavor evokes just that image.

   The journey to the sites starts in an airboat. Outfitted with backpacks and small computers, the team -- airboat captain, archaeologist, intern and consultant -- ventures forth from a small dock near Belle Glade. They encounter otters, flamingos and the occasional bald eagle.

   Sometimes, when the water level is too low, they take ATVs instead.

   The sites are seven miles from shore. By midday, team members say, the sun is blazing. The mosquitoes are relentless. Archaeologist and crew wear high boots to protect their legs from cottonmouths and sawgrass, all the while hoping to avoid confrontations with gators.

   For this muddy, mosquito-ridden labor of love, they can thank Boots Boyer. Almost all his life, Boyer has cherished this great lake, and even as a boy from nearby South Bay, he fished and water-skied and camped at Lake Okeechobee.

   One Friday a few months back, just as the sun began to fall, Boyer scoured the lake's southern shoulders -- normally under water -- for pond apple seeds. He's in the tree business. Boyer was under a canopy of trees and a thick coat of moonvine when he saw what appeared to be a shallow grave for gator and perhaps panther bones and broken brown pots, chunks as big as his hands.

   Curious, he drew closer. What he discovered were layers of history: a double-framed, 16-foot, catfish boat from the early 1900s; human bones and 2,000-year-old American Indian pottery and tools.

   ''Awesome. Just awesome to find this kind of treasure,'' said Boyer, 36, a grower who specializes in tree restoration. ``I had seen bits of pots before, but nothing like this. It didn't take long before I realized I had happened on something significant.''

   Experts believe the lake was seven- or eight-feet deep in prehistoric times, as compared with the 16-foot depth the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District try to maintain now.

   Palm Beach County archaeologist Chris Davenport says there was a large village of indigenous people in the area. They built earthen mounds on the water -- little artificial islands -- as fishing platforms and burial sites.

''They died off from diseases long before the area was colonized,'' Davenport said of the early lake dwellers. ``We're hoping this will provide some insight.''

   The discoveries have piqued the interest of the shore-dwellers, many of whom have watched the archaeologists' daily trips with curiosity and bemusement.

   Fearing that the sites would be disturbed, leaders of the project have kept their location a secret and refused to let reporters look over their shoulders. And still, within days of Davenport's initial trip, several sites had been pillaged.

   At one site alone, someone dug more than 30 gaping holes into the earth. It wasn't clear what, if anything, was stolen.

   Since then, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been charged with guarding the sites. Officers now patrol the lake bed from the sky and ground level.

   It is illegal in Florida to take any ancient artifact from a historic site. At least three people have been arrested, said Jorge Pino, a conservation commission spokesman.

   ''Some people have showed up at the site with shovels and pails,'' Pino said. ``Looking is one thing. Stealing is another.''

   As the airboat captain, Boyer plays a pivotal role in the daily excursions. He is also an unofficial watchdog, patrolling the lake in an airboat, rifle in hand, ready to chase away thieves, vandals and the plain curious.

   ''The lake is so special to me,'' said Boyer, who earned his nickname lumbering about in his daddy's rubber work boots. ``I didn't want to see anything happen to the artifacts.''

   Palm Beach County is the lead government in the archaeological mission. The state's role, in addition to issuing permits, is to safeguard any human remains and plot their whereabouts.

   The state also informs local American Indian tribes when graves are found.

   ''We like things to stay where they are,'' said Delano, the state archaeologist who specializes in human remains. ``When you excavate a site, you're actually destroying it. What you have on paper becomes your only record.''

   Davenport and his team are taking GPS readings at each of the sites. When they spot an artifact, they remove only a small sample and bring it to their West Palm Beach office for analysis. They don't dig. The clock is ticking, and they want to get to as many of the sites as possible.

   ''We have to survey as much as we can before Mother Nature raises the level of the lake again,'' Davenport said. ``It's like a race against time to document what we can with the people that we have. Once the lake level rises, these artifacts will be lost again.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/153522.html