Timucua
Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American tribe that lived in North Central Florida, mainly around the St. John's River. At the time of Columbus, Timucuan areas stretched from the Altamaha River in present-day Georgia to as far south as Orlando, yet never stretching to the Gulf of Mexico. Their name may come from the word atimoqua which means "lord" or "chief" in their own language, allegedly mistaken by the Spanish as the name of one of their chiefs. Another story is that the word Timucua comes from the word thimogona, meaning "my enemy" in the local tongue. Other names for the Timucua include Atimuca, Thimapoa, and Tomoca. The Timucuans are noted for their passiveness as compared to their neighbors, the Apalachee and Calusa as well as the successful missions that the Spanish established in their territory. The approximate population of the Timucua at the time of Columbus is estimated to be around 200,000 people.
History
The pre-Colombian era is marked by a regular routine and probably small tribal wars with neighbors. The Timucuans may have been the first Native Americans to see the landing of Ponce de Leon near St. Augustine in 1513. Later, in 1528 the Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Narvaez landed around Tampa Bay with the idea of establishing a permanent settlement and finding gold. Both ideas turned out to be dismal failures and his original expedition of 260 men marched to the north and west and soon withered down to just three survivors after shipwrecks off of Texas. In 1539, Hernando de Soto landed in Tampa Bay with 622 soldiers in further attempts to look for colinization opportunities and gold. Like Narvaez before him, de Soto soon marched north meeting Timucuans along the way. However both of these expeditions passed through Timucuan land in a few weeks and there wasn't a great deal of contact.
The Timucua's history changed after the establishment of St. Augustine in 1565 as the Spanish capital of their province of La Florida. From here, Spanish missionaries went out in order to convert the Timucua. A mission was built in each main town of the Timucuan chiefdoms. Unfortunately by 1595 the Timucuan population had shrunk by 75% due mainly disease and war.
In 1564, French Huguenots attempted to establish settlements along the St. John's River and made friends with the local natives in the area, primarily the Timucuans. One Frenchmen named Le Moyne de Morgues drew some sketches of the Timucuan peoples which have helped ethnographers in understanding these people. Meanwhile the Spanish under Pedro Menendez de Aviles sought to drive the French out and did so, killing everyone who defended. This caused a bit of a rift between the natives and Spanish, though soon Spanish missionaries were out in force.
By 1700 the population of the Timucuans had been reduced to just 1,000. Seventeen years later the number had dropped to just 250, in 1726 there were 176 and by 1752 only 26 remained. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Spain had to withdraw from Florida and by the time this happened a single Timucuan was left. They are an extinct tribe.
Culture
Organization and Classes
Like most Native American tribes, the Timucua were not a unified and single tribe. Rather, they were split into a number of chiefdoms - perhaps 25-30 - with each chiefdom comprised of at least five hundred villages. Villages were divided into family clans, usually bearing animal names.
The chiefs were despotic and absolute in their power. There were three social classes - the nobles, common people and below that were prisoners-of-war who were slaves.
Customs
The Timucua were a people who had many ceremonies. There were numerous ceremonies and festivals for the harvesting season, planting season, marriages, funerals, wars, and fishing and hunting expeditions. Every ceremony had their own special rite, may it be fasting, feasting, prating or dancing. Human sacrifice was practiced among the Timucua. In some ceremonies, the first-born infant son was sacrificed to the Sun.
The Timucua played a version of the game called chunkey. In this game a concave shaped disc was rolled while a spear was thrown at it. The point was to throw the spear to the point they thought the disc would stop.
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. The drink was actually black in color, but the drink would purify the council members to make interaction more easy. The drink was made of holly and was highly caffinated. The council members were among the more highly respected members of the tribe.
Settlements
Settlements were quite small in the Timucua tribe and were naturally centered around a religious center. Each home was made of upright poles and circular in shape. Thatched palm leaves comprised the roof. Granaries were raised off the ground to keep them out of reach from wild animals. Each village was heavily stockaded and in the center of all of them would probably be a larger building made for religious or ceremonial purposes.
Language
The Timucuan langage - of which only a few words are known today - was of the Taino family, who originally came from Amazonia. However the Timucua, although a Taino language, had strong North American Indian influences due to trade and cultural exchange. Most of what we know of their language comes from a Spanish-Timucuan document of 1688 and the works of Father Pareja and of Father Gregorio de Monilla who were missionaries for the Timucua.
Diet
The Timucua were an semi-agricultural people and ate many foods native to North Central Florida. They planted corn, beans, squash and various vegatables as part of their diet. Archealogistss findings suggest that there may have been crop rotation. In order to plant the fields would be cleared with fire at first and then the soil would be prepared using various tools, such as the hoe. Later the women would plant the seeds using two sticks known as coa. In addition to these farming techniques the Timucua would hunt game (including alligators, manatees, and maybe even whales) , fish in the many streams and lakes in the area, collect wild fruits and berries and bake bread made from the root koonti. They also cultivated tabacco. Their crops were stored in granaries to protect them from the insects and weather. Meat would be cooked over an open fire known as the barbacoa, the origin of the word "barbeque".
Physical Appearance
Spanish explorers were shocked at the size of the Timucua who could stand four inches or more above the Spanish. Perhaps to add to their height was the fact that Timucuan men would wear their hair in a bun on top of their heads. Everyone was heavily tatooed and such tatoos were gained by deeds. Children would begin to get their tatoos when assuming responsibility. The people of higher social class had more elaborate decorations on themselves, which were made by cutting into the skin. The Timucua had dark skin, usually brown and black hair. They wore clothes made from moss and cloth made from various animals.