I decided to write this post after visiting some ancient Indian Mounds that are within walking distance from my home at one of our local state parks called Indian Mounds that sits in a perfect spot on Lemon Bay surrounded by water over 280 degrees. The site dates as far back 1000 BC to about 1350 AD. We still don’t know which tribe built the mounds the Colusa, or the Timacua Tribe, but one thing that we do know is this spot was picked because of it’s great location that they considered sacred. After some research of my own I believe the Timacua tribe are the one’s who inhabited this area for sure, and maybe even built the mounds at the park. “Timacuan” comes from the Timacua or Timacuan Indians who once populated central and Northern Florida. They are considered by many historians to be the first Floridians. The tribe most commonly associated with Florida, the Seminoles, actually came from Georgia and did not move into the state until the 1700’s. The Timacua tribe (Pronounced Tim-Mak-Wan) was here 200 years before Seminoles arrived. The tribe consisted of several smaller groups from the area, and there were more then 13,000 of them in 1600. By 1700 their numbers were less then a few hundred, if that many due to fights, and disease. Shortly after the remaining tribe members allied them self with the Spanish to fight the British off, a fight in which they lost and the survivors were sent to Cuba with the Spanish.
Recently a satellight survey found a huge shell mound located on the Skywatcher reserve (Link). The Timacua Indians are also known today as the Timacua Speakers because they all spoke dialects of the same language, and lived from central Florida, all the way into Georgia. The tribes on the west coast of Florida grew many more crops then the ones on the east coast who most likely got thei food from plants, and the sea. The following paragraph comes from an article explaining the origin of the tribes name. When the Frenchman Laudonnier asked headchief Saturiwa where he got a silver ingot, Saturiwa pointed to the southwest and said with great anger that he had captured it from Thimagona. This word is generally believed to mean “terrible enemy,” rather than a specific person or people. He was probably referring to headchief Outina, his greatest enemy. The French mistook his meaning, and eventually, the names Thimogona, Thimogoa, Timoga, and Timucua came to stand for all the Timucua speakers in north Florida and South Georgia. These people never called themselves by this name, so there is no Timucua way to pronounce it.
The Timacua villages ranging from 50 to 400 huts, that were circular. They used almost every available item in the building of them from tree’s, plam leave, and even sand. They would build a short opening on one side, and a smoke hole into the roof, but never used mud,or clay as a building source as far as we can tell from evidence. Click here to see a French engraving of a Timucua village.
One thing that is still hard for me to believe is the way these tribes were treated by our ancestors, we came in and took their country from them, and forced them into reservations, or out of the country. Some might say we have much more respect for the now, but thats not true in some cases like the state park near my house. These shell mounds should be roped off, and clear of trees.We should be proud to have such ancient sites like this, and treat the land as they did. This is the case in some parts of the country with more well known sites, but not this one. To tell you the truth I did not know there were even burial mounds there for the first ten years I lived here. You will not find any signs on the history of them, all you see are old rotted number posts, and trials that take you right on top of the mounds. The area has been left to grow wild with trees, mud everywhere. I took my niece there a few weeks ago, and walked back through the trials to find them in this condition. Even online you can find no history of the park, just a paragraph that tell’s you whats there, and how old the site is.
I will continue researching the tribes in this area, and do my next article on the Colusa tribe. These sites sound be a place that is kept as a reminder of our past, and not left to itself. Below I will link some websites that were sources for some of the information in this article.
http://www.englewoodfl.us/History.htm
https://www.associationvoice.com/Our-History~58964~12151.htm
http://pelotes.jea.com/NativeAmerican/intimuchtm.htm
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