Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.
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Indigenous tribes left behind the large shell mounds in the areas that we now know and love. But what were these middens used for and who were the people who left them? Today, we'll revisit several local stories about the mounds and their meanings. Native Americans lived in Florida for more than 13,000 years, where they hunted, gathered, and fished for generations. They lived predominantly in camps near the water and created nets of palm fiber to trap and catch the plentiful sea life. When native people consumed their catches, nothing went to waste. Their refuse from crustaceans and other animals was utilized to create large shell middens, which they utilized for different purposes.
Thousands of years passed and these shells, fish skeletons, and bones from small game grew. The tribes began to mold the structures into walls, piles, and circular shapes that were used for ceremonial purposes, communal gatherings, and community forums, according to the Florida State Parks website.
As time passed the Native Americans that inhabited Florida grew in number and their cultures became more complex. Some of the tribes began farming and using agriculture around 1,000 years ago.
In the area that now makes up Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte counties, the Calusa reigned, however, tribes like Ais and Mayaimi may also have inhabited the southwestern Florida region. Each Ais village had a leader called a ""cacique,"" which translates to ""casseekey"" in English, according to the website Florida's Lost Tribes.
Ais and Mayaimi people lived in stick and log huts with thatched roofs. Many of these were located on top of shell mounds. The men and women wore long hair and often painted their bodies with black and red paint. The men wore buns on the tops of their heads and often sported beards.
The Calusa were deeply rooted in Estero Bay, Charlotte Harbor, and other neighboring areas. Their villages were large and served as political, spiritual, and economic hubs. The Calusa used mounds for different purposes and nurtured a diverse and complex arrangement of shell mounds, sand mounds, canals, and other features. The Calusa tribe was a chiefdom that protected neighboring families cultivating the outskirts of the main village.
It was the Calusa tribe that vehemently resisted Spanish exploration. In fact, Juan Ponce de Leon was fatally wounded by a Calusa arrow in 1521, according to Florida's Lost Tribes.
In Tampa Bay, the Tocobaga tribe lived
near the water's edge. They were extremely religious, building tall pyramid-shaped
mounds for the chiefs and priests and burying their dead in large mounds made
of sand. Asa Pillsbury, a boatbuilder that resided in today's Palma Sola in West Bradenton, had one such mound on his property. In an interview with the Manatee Historical Society, he said archeologists from the University of Florida excavated over 147 skeletons from the site, much more than was thought to be there. The bodies were in the fetal position, with their heads faced up or down and lying on either side with knees flexed.
The burial mound on Pillsbury's property was a companion to the midden mound now located at DeSoto National Memorial, and at one time a causeway or ridge connected the two. A ridge meandered 100 to 200 feet off the beach and along his walkway joined many smaller mounds. Canals flowed underneath the edifices. Until his death in 1969, Asa lobbied for his mound to be included in Desoto National Memorial, but it was never added to the preserve.
This mass burial could have been the result of mass disease brought over by Spanish explorers. These widespread diseases, combined with warfare and slavery eventually decimated the indigenous populations.
When Spanish Explorers
moved through the area, they described the Tocobaga as fierce warriors adept in
the skill of archery. They were also farmers, growing crops of corn inland. This
tribe was not as organized as the Calusa and would often feud with other
Tocobaga raiding supplies and taking captives from the opposing village. They also
were known to salvage supplies from European shipwrecks according to Florida s
Lost Tribes. Several journals mention the surprise on the explorers faces when
their cargo mysteriously arrived in the Tocobaga village before they did.
Most of the shell middens in Florida were used by pioneer families to construct roads. The few that are left remain important archeological relics of Florida's indigenous tribes.
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