Timucua Indians

The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the Timucua. At the time of European first contact, the territory occupied by speakers of Timucuan dialects occupied about 19,200 square miles (50,000 km²), and was home to between 50,000 and 200,000 Timuacans. It stretched from the Altamaha River and Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia as far south as Lake George in central Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Aucilla River in the Florida Panhandle, though it reached the golf of Mexico at no more than a couple of points.

The name “Timucua” (from Thimogona) came from the exonvm used by the Saturiwa (of what is now Jacksonville) to refer to the Utina, a related people living to the west of the St. Johns River. The Spanish came to use the term more broadly for other peoples in the area. Eventually it became the common term for all peoples who spoke what is known as the Timucuan language.

While alliances and confederacies arose between the chiefdoms from time to time, the Timucua were never organized into a single political unit. The various groups of Timucua speakers practiced several different cultural traditions. The people suffered severely from the introduction of Eurasian infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity. By 1595, their population was estimated to have been reduced from 200,000 to 50,000 and only thirteen chiefdoms remained. By 1700, the population of the tribe had been reduced to 1000. Warfare against them by the English colonists and native allies completed their extinction as a tribe soon after the turn of the 19th century.

The word “Timucua” may derive from “Thimogona” or “Tymangoua”, an exonym used by the Saturiwa tribe for their enemies, the Utina. Both groups spoke dialects of the Timucua language. The French followed the Saturiwa in this usage, but the Spanish applied the term “Timucua” much more widely to groups within a wide section of interior North Florida. In the 16th century they designated the area north of the Santa Fe River between the St. Johns River and the Suwannee River (roughly the area of the group known as the Northern Utina) as the Timucua province, which they incorporated into the mission system. The dialect spoken in that province became known as “Timucua” (now usually known as “Timucua proper”). During the 17th century, the Province of Timucua was extended to include the area between the Suwannee River and the Aucilla River, thus extending its scope. Eventually, “Timucua” was applied to all speakers of the various dialects of the Timucua language.

History

One of the engravings based on Jacques le Moyne’s drawings, depicting Athore, son of the Timucuan chief Saturiwa, showing Rene’ Laudonnie’re a monument placed by Jean Ribault

The pre-Colombian era was marked by regular, routine, and probably small tribal wars with neighbors. The Timucua were a large and powerful group, made up of as many as 35 chiefdoms, each of which had hundreds of people in assorted villages within its purview. They sometimes formed loose political alliances, but did not operate as a single political unit.

The Timucua may have been the first American natives to see the landing of Juan Ponce de Leon near St. Augustine in 1513. Later, in 1528, Panfilo de Nevarez ‘s expedition passed along the western fringes of the Timucua territory.

In 1539, Hernando DeSoto led an army of more than 500 men through the western parts of Timucua territory, stopping in a series of villages of the Ocale, Potano, Northern Utina, and Yustaga branches of the Timucua on his way to the Apalachee domain. His army seized the food stored in the villages, took women for consorts, and forced men and boys to serve as guides and bearers. The army fought two battles with Timucua groups, resulting in heavy Timucua casualties. De Soto was in a hurry to reach the Apalachee domain, where he expected to find gold and sufficient food to support his army through the winter. He did not linger in Timucua territory. De Soto quick departure from Timcuan territory was prompted by an effective guerrilla defense organized by the warrior chieftain Acuera, whose people beheaded fourteen of the invading conquistadors while suffering relatively few casualties compared to the massacres unleashed by the Spaniards in other places.

In 1564, French Huguenots led by Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere founded Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville and attempted to establish further settlements along the St. Johns River. After initial conflict, the Huguenots established friendly relations with the local natives in the area, primarily the Timucua under the cacique Saturiwa. Sketches of the Timucua drawn by Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, one of the French settlers, have proven valuable resources for modern ethnographic in understanding the people. The next year the Spanish under Pedro Menéndez D Aviles surprised the Huguenots and ransacked Fort Caroline, killing everyone but 50 women and children and 26 escapees. The rest of the French had been shipwrecked off the coast and picked up by the Spanish, who executed all but 20 of them; this brought French settlement in Florida nearly to an end. These events caused a rift between the natives and Spanish, though Spanish missionaries were soon out in force.

The Timucua history changed after the Spanish established St. Augustine in 1565 as the capital of their province of Florida. From here, Spanish missionaries established missions in each main town of the Timucuan chiefdoms, including the Santa Isabel de Utinahica mission in southern Georgia, for the Utinahica. By 1595, the Timucuan population had shrunk by 75%, primarily from epidemics of new infectious diseases introduced by contact with Europeans, and war.

By 1700, the Timucuan population had been reduced to just 1000. In 1703 the British with the Creek, Catawba, and Yuchi began killing and enslaving hundreds of the Timucua. Seventeen years later their number had dropped to just 250. In 1726 there were 176, and by 1752 only 26 remained. By the time the United States acquired Florida in 1821, only five or fewer Timucua remained. They became extinct as a people.

Tribes

The Timucua were divided into a number of different tribes or chiefdoms, each of which spoke one of the nine or ten dialects of the Timucua language. The tribes can be placed into eastern and western groups. The Eastern Timucua were located along the Atlantic coast and on the Sea Islands of northern Florida and southeastern Georgia; along the St. Johns River and its tributaries; and among the rivers, swamps and associated inland forests in southeastern Georgia, possibly including the Okefenokee Swamp. They usually lived in villages close to waterways, participated in the St. Johns culture or in unnamed cultures related to the Wilmington-Savannah culture, and were more focused on exploiting the resources of marine and wetland environments. All of the known Eastern Timucua tribes were incorporated into the Spanish mission system starting in the late 16th century.

The Western Timucua lived in the interior of the upper Florida peninsula, extending to the Aucilla River on the west and into Georgia to the north. They usually lived in villages in forests, and participated in the Alachua, Suwanee Valley or other unknown cultures. Because of their environment, they were more oriented to exploiting the resources of the forests.

Earlier scholars such as John Swanton and John Goggin identified tribes around Tampa they – Tocobaga, the Uzita, and the Mocoso – as Timucua speakers, classed by Goggin as Southern Timucua. However, some of these tribes appear not to have spoken Timucua.

Eastern Timucua

The largest and best known of the eastern Timucua groups were the Mocama, who lived in the coastal areas of what are now Florida and southeastern Georgia, from St. Simons Island to south of the mouth of the St. Johns River. They gave their name to the Mocama province, which became one of the major divisions of the Spanish mission system. They spoke a dialect also known as Mocama (Timucua for “Ocean”), which is the best attested of the Timucua dialects. At the time of European contact, there were two major chiefdoms among the Mocama, the Saturiwa and the Tacatacuru, each of which had a number of smaller villages subject to them.

The Saturiwa were concentrated around the mouth of the St. Johns in what is now Jacksonville, and had their main village on Fort George Island. European contact with the Eastern Timucua began in 1564 when the French Huguenots under Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere established Fort Caroline in Saturiwa territory. The Saturiwa forged an alliance with the French, and at first opposed the Spanish when they arrived. Over time, however, they submitted to the Spanish and were incorporated into their mission system. The important Mission San Juan Del Puerto was established at their main village; it was here that Francisco Pareja undertook his studies of the Timucua language. The Tacatacuru lived on Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia, and controlled villages on the coast. They too were incorporated into the Spanish mission system, with Mission San Pedro D Mocama being established in 1587.

Other Eastern Timucua tribes lived in southeastern Georgia. The Icafui and Cascangue tribes occupied the Georgia mainland north of the Satilla River, adjacent to the Guale. They spoke the Itafi dialect of Timucua. The Yufera tribe lived on the coast opposite to Cumberland Island and spoke the Yufera dialect. The Ibi tribe lived inland from the Yufera, and had 5 towns located 14 leagues (about 50 miles) from Cumberland Island; like the Icafui and Cascangue they spoke the Itafi dialect. All these groups participated in a culture that was intermediate between the St. Johns and Wilmington-Savannah cultures. The Oconi lived further west, perhaps on the east side of the Okefenokee Swamp. Both the Ibi and Oconi eventually received their own missions, while the coastal tribes were subject to San Pedro on Cumberland Island.

Up the St. Johns River to the south of the Saturiwa were the Utina, later known as the Agua Dulce or Agua Fresca (Freshwater) tribe. They lived along the river from roughly the Palatka area south to Lake George. They participated in the St. Johns culture and spoke the Agua Dulce dialect. The area between Palatka and downtown Jacksonville was relatively less populated, and may have served as a barrier between the Utina and Saturiwa, who were frequently at war. In the 1560s the Utina were a powerful chiefdom of over 40 villages. However, by the end of the century the confederacy had crumbled, with most of the diminished population withdrawing to six towns further south on the St. Johns.

The Acurea lived along the Ocklawaha River, and spoke the Acuera dialect.

Western Timucua

Three major Western Timucua groups, the Potano, Northern Utina, and Yustaga, were incorporated into the Spanish mission system in the late 16th and 17th centuries.

The Potano lived in north central Florida, in an area covering Alachua County and possibly extending west to Cofa at the mouth of the Suwanee River. They participated in the Alachua culture and spoke the Potano dialect. They were among the first Timucua peoples to encounter Europeans, suffering an attack by Hernando DeSoto ‘s expedition in 1538. They were frequently at war with the Utina tribe, who managed to convince first the French and later the Spanish to join them in combined assaults against the Potano. They received missionaries in the 1590s and five missions were built in their territory by 1633. Like other Western Timucua groups they participated in the Timucua Rebellion of 1656.

North of the Potano, living in a wide area between the Suwanee and St. Johns Rivers, were the northern Utina. This name is purely a convention; they were known as the “Timucua” to their contemporaries. They participated in the Suwanee Valley culture and spoke the “Timucua proper” dialect. The Northern Utina appear to have been less integrated than other Timucua tribes, and seem to have been organized into several small local chiefdoms, with the leader of one being recognized as paramount chief. They were missionized beginning in 1597 and their territory was organized by the Spanish as the Timucua province. Over time smaller provinces were merged into the Timucua Province, thereby increasing the profile of the Northern Utina substantially. They took the forefront in the Timucua Rebellion of 1656, and their society declined severely when it was put down.

On the other side of the Suwanee River from the Northern Utina were the westernmost Timucua group, the Yustaga. They lived between the Suwanee and the Aucilla River, which served as a boundary with the Apalachee. They participated in the same Suwanee Valley culture as the Northern Utina, but appear to have spoken a different dialect, perhaps Potano. Unlike other Timucua groups, the Yustaga resisted Spanish missionary efforts until well into the 17th century. They maintained higher population levels significantly later than other Timucua groups, as their less frequent contact with Europeans kept them freer of introduced diseases. Like other Western Timucua groups, they participated in the Timucua Rebellion.

Other Western Timucua tribes are known from the earliest Spanish records, but later disappeared. The most significant of these are the Ocale, who lived in Marion County, near the modern city of Ocala, which takes its name from them. Ocale was conquered by De Soto in 1538 and the people dispersed; the town is unknown from later sources. However, both French and Spanish sources note a town named Eloquale or Etoquale in the Acuera chiefdom, suggesting that the Ocale may have migrated east and joined the Acuera. Hann has argued that the chiefdom of Mocoso, located near the mouth of the Alafia River on the eastern shore of Tampa Bay in the 16th century, was Timucuan. He suggest that the people of that chiefdom may have relocated to the village of Mocoso in Acuera province in the 17th century.

Culture