Hernando De Soto and the Indians of Florida

by Milanich, Jerald T.; Hudson, Charles M.

• ISBN13: 9780813011707
• ISBN10: 0813011701
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-01-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

"An important achievement. Hudson and Milanich have collaborated on determining the route of de Soto in Florida for several years and this book represents their current conclusions. . . . The world became whole five hundred years ago and Florida was at center stage."--Dan F. Morse, University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University Hernando de Soto, the Spanish conquistador, is legendary in the United States today: counties, cars, caverns, shopping malls, and bridges all bear his name. This work explains the historical importance of his expedition, an incredible journey that began at Tampa Bay in 1539 and ended in Arkansas in 1543. De Soto's exploration, the first European penetration of eastern North America, preceded a demographic disaster for the aboriginal peoples in the region. Old World diseases, perhaps introduced by the de Soto expedition and certainly by other Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, killed many thousands of Indians. By the middle of the 18th century only a few remained alive. The de Soto narratives provide the first European account of many of these Indian societies as they were at the time of European contact. This work interprets these and other 16th century accounts in the light of new archaeological information, resulting in a more comprehensive view of the native peoples. Matching de Soto's route and camps to sites where artifacts from the de Soto era have been found, the authors reconstruct his route in Florida and at the same time clarify questions about the social geography and political relationships of the Florida Indians. They link names once known only from documents (e.g., the Uzita, who occupied territory at the de Soto landing site, and the Aguacaleyquen of north peninsular Florida) to actual archaeological remains and sites. Peering through the mists of centuries, Milanich and Hudson enlarge the picture of native groups of Florida at the point of European contact, allowing historians and anthropologists to conceive of these peoples in a new fashion. Jerald T. Milanich is curator of archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville. He is coeditor of First Encounters: Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and the United States, 1492-1570 (UPF, 1989) and cocurator of the "First Encounters" exhibit that has traveled to major museums throughout the United States. He is the author or editor of a number of other books, including Florida Archaeology. Charles Hudson is professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia. He is the author or editor of nine books, including The Southeastern Indians, The Juan Pardo Expeditions, and Four Centuries of Southern Indians. In 1992 he was awarded the James Mooney Award from the Southern Anthropology Society.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
The Search	3	(16)
Reconstructing the Route	7	(12)
Prelude to the Expedition	19	(20)
Hernando de Soto, Conquistador	26	(2)
De Soto's Charter	28	(11)
The Landing	39	(32)
The Harbor	39	(9)
The Landing and the Camp	48	(13)
Archaeological Evidence	61	(10)
North to Ocale	71	(40)
The Location of Urriparacoxi	73	(3)
The River of Mocoso	76	(5)
From the River of Mocoso to Ocale	81	(6)
The Crossing of the Swamp and River of Ocale	87	(4)
Ocale	91	(5)
Acuera	96	(2)
Archaeology in the Cove of the Withlacoochee and Ocale	98	(13)
Native Peoples of Southern and Central Florida	111	(22)
The Tequesta of Southeast Florida	114	(3)
The Calusa of Southwest Florida	117	(4)
Indians of the Tampa Bay Region	121	(6)
Inland Native Groups	127	(2)
Archaeological Correlations	129	(4)
Ocale to Agile	133	(36)
To the River of Discords	134	(14)
Trails and Sites in North Florida	148	(6)
Aguacaleyquen	154	(4)
To the River of the Deer	158	(8)
Agile	166	(3)
Native Peoples of Northern Florida	169	(42)
Potano	170	(7)
Northern Utina: Aguacaleyquen, Uriutina, Napituca	177	(6)
Uzachile/Yustaga	183	(3)
Eastern Utina and the St. Johns River	186	(19)
Saturiwa and Other Northeast Florida Indians	205	(6)
To Apalachee	211	(26)
The March to Iniachia	212	(4)
Winter Camp	216	(6)
The Governor Martin Archaeological Site	222	(4)
The Apalachee	226	(4)
North from Apalachee	230	(7)
After De Soto: Spain in Sixteenth- and Seventeent-Century La Florida	237	(18)
More Failed Settlements: Luna and Villafane	237	(4)
Menendez, St. Augustine, and Santa Elena	241	(2)
The Mission System	243	(2)
Timucuan Missions	245	(3)
Apalachee Missions	248	(2)
Demise of the Missions	250	(5)
Afterword	255	(4)
Notes	259	(4)
Bibliography	263	(18)
Index	281