The Chatots (also Chacatos) were a Native American people who lived in the upper Apalachicola River and Chipola River basins in what is now Florida in the 17th century. The Spanish established two missions in Chatot villages in 1674. As a result of attempts by the missionaries to impose full observance of Christian rites and morals on the newly converted Chatots, many of them rebelled, trying to murder one of the missionaries. Many of the rebels fled to Tawasa, while others joined the Chiscas, who had become openly hostile to the Spanish. Other Chatots moved to missions in or closer to Apalachee Province, abandoning their villages west of the Apalachicola River.
In the late 17th century, one village of Chatos moved from the center of Apalachee Province to near where the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers join to form the Apalachicola River, close to a Sabacola village and mission. That village was abandoned after it was attacked by Apalachicolas and others. Other Chatots lived in small settlements scattered across the Florida panhandle, and in Tawasa and Tiquepache villages in Alabama.
After the destruction of the Apalachee Province missions by the English of the Province of Carolina and their Native American allies in 1704, the surviving Chatots moved west with Apalachees and other peoples of the province, settling in the vicinity of Pensacola and Mobile bays. Some of those Chatots may have been absorbed into the Choctaw nation. When West Florida was transfered to Great Britain in 1763, other Chatots moved west to Louisiana.
Name
"Chatot" is the name commonly used in English sources through the 20th century, although scholars have recently used "Chacato". In the 17th and earliest 18th centuries, when they lived in the eastern panhandle of Florida, the Spanish usually called the people "Chacato", and less often, "Chacta", "Chacto", "Chata", and "Chato".[1][lower-alpha 1] After they moved west to the area around Mobile Bay, and later to west of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, they were often also called "Chactoo", "Chacchou", "Chaetoo" and "Chattoo". Other forms of the name have included "Chacâto", "Chaqto", and "Chactot".[3] Galloway notes that chato is Spanish for "flat" or "roman-nosed", and speculates that the Spanish called the people "Chatots" because they practiced artificial cranial deformation.[4]
Milanich notes that confusion of the names "Chatot" and "Chactato" with the Choctaw of Mississippi may have been responsible for the name of Choctawhatchee Bay.[5] Galloway says that the Chatots and Choctaws should not be confused, that the names are phonetically distinct, and were consistently used to refer to distinct peoples in the 18th century.[4] Swanton states that the Choctawhatchee River in Florida and Bayou Chattique, Choctaw Point, and Choctaw Swamp near Mobile are probably named after the Chatot.[6]
Language
The Chatot spoke a Muskogean language, which may have been the same as that of several other peoples in western Florida, including the Amacano, Chine,[lower-alpha 2] Pacara, and Pensacola peoples.[9] Swanton states that the language of the Chatot is "undoubtedly" a member of the southern division of the Muskogean stock.[10] While it has been suggested that the Chatot were part of the Apalachee people, Hann notes that the Spanish used interpreters to translate from Chatot to Apalachee, and other interpreters to translate from Apalachee to Spanish.[11] Martin states that suggestions that the Chatot language is related to Choctaw are unreliable.[12]
Origin
The Chatot may have lived along one or more rivers flowing into Choctawhatchee Bay.[13] A map in Martin shows the Chatot occupying an area along the Gulf Coast of Florida between the Apalachicola and Choctawhatchee rivers.[14] At the time of first contact with the Spanish, the people they called Chatot lived in the upper part of the Chipola River basin and the adjacent section of the Appalachicola River in the area of the Fort Walton culture, primarily in what is now Jackson County, Florida.[lower-alpha 3] A number of archaeological sites in the area, including the Waddells Mill Pond Site, a fortified village site with two mounds, may have been occupied by the ancestors of the historic Chatot. Pottery found in the historic Chatot settlement area is more closely related to that of Apalachee Province than to that of the peoples of the Pensacola and Mobile bays. The subsistence economy of the Chatots also resembled that of the Apalachees, rather than the peoples to their west.[5][16]
The Chatots appear to be an exception to their neighbors in that inheritance of the chieftainship did not necessarily pass to the offspring of the previous chief's eldest sister. The Chatot, along with the Apalachees and Muscogees, applied the title usinulo (beloved son) to one of the chief's sons. The Chatots also shared use of the leadership titles inija (second-in-command) and chacal (assistant to an inija) with the Apalachee and the Timucua peoples. [17]
Spanish contact and early missions
The first mention of the Chatot in Spanish records was in 1638, when a representative of the Spanish governor of Florida was able to stop a war between the allied Chatot, Apalachicola, and Yamassee peoples, and the Apalachees. The next governor visited the Chatot and Apalachicola Province in 1646, when both peoples requested missionaries. The Chatots requested missionaries again in the 1660s.[18][19]
There are isolated Spanish reports of people migrating into the Chatot and Apalachee provinces in the 1660s and 1670s. They were described as "warrior Indians, their faces striped, and who use firearms". The Spanish called some of the invaders "Chichimecos" (probably Westos). Hann suggests that most of the migrants were Tama and Yamasee.[20]
Two missions were established among the Chatot in June 1674. The first mission, San Carlos Borromeo, was in the principal Chatot village of Achercatane (later listed as Yatcatane), four days journey northwest of Apalachee Province. A second mission, San Nicolás de Tolentino, was established in the village of Atanchia.[21][lower-alpha 4] A third village, with a visita[lower-alpha 5] called San Antonio by the Spanish,[23] may have been located in what is now Houston County, Alabama.[24]
In the winter of 1675, Bishop Gabriel Díaz Vara y Calderón estimated San Carlos's population to be just over 100, and San Nicolas's just over 30. Later that year, acting deputy governor Andrés Pérez estimated San Carlos's population to be about 300, and that of San Nicolas, about 100. Hann suggests that the differences may be due to many of the people of the villages being on hunting or fishing trips at the time of the bishop's visit. Another report places about 80 men at San Antonio in that year.[25]
The missionaries at the two missions claimed to have converted more than 300 Chatots, including the chiefs of the settlements, to Christianity by late September. Three warriors complained that they were being pressured to convert, and threatened to have Chiscas[lower-alpha 6] living in the Chatot villages and in their own nearby village make trouble for the missionaries and converts. The Spanish lieutenant-governor in Apalachee Province took some soldiers and 25 Apalachees armed with harquebuses to the Chatot missions. The three reluctant warriors were nominally converted to Christianity and the Chiscas were expelled from the Chatot villages while the Spanish-Apalachee party was there.[27]
Conspiracy
In the summer of 1675, three Chatot warriors, who may have been the same as those who threatened trouble the previous year, conspired against the missionaries. They initially claimed only to want to expell Fray Barreda, the missionary at San Carlos and the sole missionary in the Chatot lands at the time, but it was soon revealed that the plan was to kill Fray Barreda. One of the conspirators, Juan Fernández de Diocsale, was the son of a Chisca woman and had been chief of the village where San Carlos was located. He resented being forced by Barreda to attend mass and to give up three of his four wives. Another conspirator, Ubabesa, had been scolded by Barreda in Sunday mass for having an affair with a Christian woman while her husband was away. Other alleged conspirators including Chatots and Chiscas were later named in a Spanish inquiry.[28]
The conspiracy quickly gained support in the community. Hann notes that this may partly be because of discontent over pressure on the Chatot from the missionaries to strictly adhere to Christian standards. Another factor was threats from the conspirators to have their Chisca friends kill anyone who did not support the conspiracy. Diocsale also falsely claimed to be supported by the Apalachicola. The Spanish found little evidence, however, that any Chisca had been involved in the conspiracy.[lower-alpha 7] The conspirators planned to seek refuge at Tawasa after killing Barreda.[30]
Attack on a missionary
The conspirators spoke to Chatot leaders about expelling Barreda, but the leaders supported Barreda. When the conspirators then revealed that they intended to kill Barreda, the Chatot leaders placed guards to protect Barreda. Barreda sent a plea for help to the Spanish authorities in San Luis, the capitol of Apalachee Province. Some of the loyal Chatots defected to the conspirators and those remaining loyal advised Barreda to flee to the mission of Santa Cruz de Sabacola, on the Apalachicola River. Barreda's guides were chosen by an official who had secretly joined the conspirators, and he told them to kill Barreda after they had left San Carlos. The attack failed, although Barreda was wounded. Barreda killed one of the attackers with his musket and escaped to Santa Cruz.[31]
In the absence of the deputy governor for Apalachee Province, the acting deputy governor, Andrés Pérez, sent a few Spanish soldiers and Apalachees to help guard Barreda. On hearing that the number of loyalists guarding Barreda was shrinking, Pérez sent 26 archers after the first group. Later the same day word reached San Luis that Barreda had fled to Sabacola. Pérez sent 11 gunmen after the earlier party with orders to bring Barreda and Fray Juan Ocon, the missionary at Sabacola, back to San Luis.[32] After the failed attempt on Barreda's life, many Chatot, including essentally all of San Antonio, most of the population of San Nicolás, and an unknown number of people from San Carlos, fled to Tawasa.[33]
Amnesty and punishment
The deputy governor for Apalachee, Juan Fernandez de Hita y Salazar, soon returned to San Luis, and the governor of Florida, Pablo de Hita y Salazar sent a few more soldiers to Apalachee. Before the Spanish could decide on a course of action, Fray Juan de Paiva, the missionary assigned to San Nicolás de Tolentino, persuaded Pérez to spare the lives of the conspirators who had fled to Tawasa if they returned to San Carlos. Some of the exiles returned to San Carlos, but others rejected the amnesty and remained in Tawasa.[34]
The Spanish conducted inquiries into the revolt is late 1675 and again 1676. At the first inquiry, the Spanish honored the promise to spare the lives of the conspirators, but Diocsale and two others were taken to San Luis for further trial. Diocsale was exiled from San Carlos for life and held in house-arrest in St. Augustine while the other two were sentenced to four years of labor for the colonial government.[35]
The Chisca threat
In 1676, the Chisca moved their village from near the eastern mouth of the Apalachicola River to the Choctawhatchee River. After the move, the Chisca began openly raiding missions in Apalachee and Timucua provinces.[36] While the Chatot conspirator Diocsale was held under house arrest in St. Augustine, he was allowed visitors. Informants told Spanish officials that he had sent messages by those visitors inciting the Chisca to attack Spanish missions. Apalachees were killed in raids on Ivitachuco, Patale, Bacuqua, Escambé, and Ayubale, although some of the raids may have been carried out by Yamassees.[37]
In an inquiry in 1676 into recent attacks on missions, Diocsale finally admitted to inciting the Chiscas to make war on Christians, and was sentenced to exile in Mexico. Testimony was also given that the Chiscas had conducted the attacks on the missions, and were fortifying their village on the Choctawhatchee River in preparation for further warfare against the Spanish missions.[38] In that inquiry, Miguel, chief of San Nicolás, had been accused of being one of the principal conspirators in the 1675 revolt, and of going to St. Augustine to help Diocsale escape from arrest, but was released because of lack of credible witnesses.[39] On being released from custody. Miguel returned to his village, recruited some of his men, and joined the Chiscas. He was also accused of helping recruit some Pensacolas to join the Chiscas.[40]
There is no record of the missionaries returning to the Chatot missions after the revolt. Chatots were still living at San Carlos in early 1676, but the Chisca attacked the village soon after, and both San Carlos and San Nicolas were abandoned before September 1677. At least part of the Chatot people had moved into Apalachee Province, settling half a league west of the Apalachee capitol at San Luis.[37] Chatots were among the first people to take refuge in Apalachee Province. They were incorporated into Apalachee society as tributaries.[41] The mission of San Carlos de los Chatacos was still located near San Luis in 1683. It was reported to have a population of 216 in 1681, apparently not including children; most of the adults were Christians.[42] Chatots from that settlement were drafted by the Spanish as guides for an expedition in 1677 that destroyed the Chisca settlement on the Choctawhatchee River.[37]
Beyond Apalachee Province
Sometime between 1683 and 1685, the Chatot left the site near San Luis and moved to the Apalachicola River, near a Sabacola village and mission, Santa Cruz de Sabacola. The Sabacola of that village had recently moved downriver to be closer to Apalachee Province, so that a missionary could be placed with them.[43] The mission of San Carlos de los Chacatos was in the vicinity of the Sabacola mission, but was listed as being in Apalachee Province.[44]
In 1686, the chief of Tawasa visited Apalachee, bringing 24 Christian Chatots who had been in Tawasa since 1675. Other Chatots may have returned to Apalachee from Tawasa after that. Marcos Delgado, a Spanish soldier who traveled to Tawasa that year, reported that Chatots lived in a village called Okchai in Tiquepache Province, beyond Tawasa.[42] Such returning Chatots may have made up the 350 people in the mission of San Nicolás de los Chacatos that appeared around that time. Some Chatots may also have been among the some 150 people at the Sabacola mission of San Carlos de Çabacola. The Sabacola mission was listed as Çabacola Chuba (Big Savacola) in 1690. The Sabacola mission was gone by 1693, when the Chatot village on the Apalchicola was mentioned as the "most outlying mission" in the region.[45]
Just as Chatots had sought refuge at Tawasa in 1675, Tawasa sought refuge with the Chatots in the mid-1690s, and stayed until the Chatots abandoned Apalachee Province.[46] The Tawasa remained west of Apalachee Province, and were not converted to Christianity. They dispersed after the destruction of the Apalachee Missions.[47]
In 1693, Laureano de Torres y Ayala, waiting to take up his post of governor of Spanish Florida, led the land portion of an expedition to assess Pensacola Bay for a new settlement. Five Chatots and five Apalachees went to Pensacola with Torres y Ayala to care for 100 horses he bought in Apalachee Province.[lower-alpha 8] At Pensacola Bay, the expedition found 20 Chatots living in two small camps, but no Pensacolas.[48]
In 1701, the Spanish established a lookout post on St. Joseph Point on the end of the St. Joseph Peninsula, with a small settlement on the mainland opposite the point to support the lookout post, where some Chatots lived. Two churches were established, with one named "Our Lady of Guadaloupe" serving the Chatots. The lookout post and settlement were shortly abandoned, perhaps within months, but certainly by 1704.[49]
Attacks
Sabacolas participated with Apalachicolas and Tiquepaches in an attack on the Chatot mission in 1694, killing five Chatots and taking 42 Chatots to the Province of Carolina to sell as slaves.[lower-alpha 9] After the attack, the Chatots retreated to Escambé in Apalachee Provice.[45] The Chatots requested that they be allowed to return to the site near San Luis where they had lived from 1676 until after 1683. A contract with the Apalachee chief to allow that was drawn up, but there is no record that the Chatots returned to that place. Chatots did remain in Apalachee Province until 1704, however.[51]
Chatots and Apalachees worked for the Spanish on building the new settlement at Pensacola Bay in 1698. They may have also helped drive cattle from Apalachee Province to Pensacola Bay.[52] In the winter of 1698–1699, 40 Chatots led by a Spaniard were on a buffalo hunt when they encountered 24 men from Tasquique travelling with goods to trade at San Luis. The Chatots attacked the Tasquiques while they slept, killing 16, and taking the trade goods.[52] Chatots joined a force of 800 Spaniards and Apalachees that intended to attack the former Apalachicola Province towns (the English called them the Ochise Creeks) in central Georgia in 1702. The Apalachicola towns ambused the Spanish-Apalachee force in the Battle of Flint River, killing or capturing 500 of them.[52]
Attacks by the English from the Province of Carolina and their Indian allies in 1704 destroyed many of the Spanish missions in Apalachee Province, with the attackers killing or taking away many of the people living at those missions. Residents of other missions survived the attacks, but soon abandoned their villages.[53] Immediately after Ayubale was attacked in 1704, Apalachicolas in the attacking group demanded that Chatots be turned over to them in exchange for Spaniards captured in the raid, but the Spanish refused to do so. Dubcovsky says the demand by the Apalachicolas was in retaliation for the incident in which 40 Chatots killed 16 Tasquiques five years earlier. Dudcovsky also says the raiders struck Ayubale first because that is where the Chatots had returned after the killings.[41]
Following the attack on the missions, the province was low on supplies. In early June 1704, Solano sent a delegation of Chatots and Apalachees to Pensacola seeking help. Chatots were included because they knew the land between Apalachee and Pensacola Bay and had connections in that area. Hearing about the delegation from a spy, the Alabamas sent a party to intercept them, but the delegation reached Pensacola safely. When they reached Pensacola, rather than asking for supplies for Apalachee Province, they asked for permission to continue to Mobile. The governor of Pensacola, Andrés de Arriola, refused them permission to go to Mobile, but allowed them to stay in Pensacola rather than returning to Apalachee.[54] More of the Chatot, Tawasa, and Apalachee people who had survived the attacks on the missions soon moved to Pensacola.[53] Some of the Apalachees and Chatots drove cattle with them to Pensacola in July 1704.[55]
Refuge at Mobile and dispersal
Most of the Chatots and the Apalachees from San Luis and Escambe who had fled to Pensacola continued on to the French settlement at Mobile. Between 200 and 250 Chatots arrived in Mobile in 1704.[56] Some of the Chatot seeking refuge at Mobile were reported to be from St. Joseph Bay.[13] The French placed the Chatots on a site called "Oigonets"[lower-alpha 10] at the mouth of the Mobile River. In 1711, the French moved their settlement from its original site at Old Mobile to Oigonets, and moved the Chatots to Dog River on Mobile Bay. The French regarded the Chatots as warriors and good Catholics. They understood that the Chatots and Apalachees spoke different languages, but noted that both had adopted many Spanish words. Some Chatots may have lived with Apalachees.[58] Swanton repeats population estimates of 250 Chatot men when they were first settled at Mobile, but only 40 men in 1725-1726, and 30 men in 1817.[6]
Some Chatots and Apalachees stayed at Pensacola for another year or two, with 80 or more workers receiving rations from the Spanish presidio in 1707. That year food shortages resulted in a reduction in the ration and another 150 Chatots and 100 Apalachees left for Mobile.[59]
When the British took over West Florida in 1763, most of the Chatots, along with other small tribes that had settled around Mobile, moved to Spanish Louisiana. The Chatots, Pensacolas, Capinans, Washas, Chawashas, and Pascagoulas living near Mobile had a total of 251 men at that time.[60] Some Chatots may have remained near Mobile. A small tribe known as "Chatos" was reported to have lived on the Mississippi coast and been absorbed into the Six Towns division of the Choctaws.[61] A Chatot was reportedly mentioned in a Mobile newspaper in the early 1850s.[58] Chatots, Biloxis, and Pascagoulas totaled about 100 men after the move to Louisiana.[62] Chatots were reported at Rapides in 1773, on the Red River in 1796, at Bayou Boeuf in 1803–1805, and on the Sabine River in 1817.[57] Some groups from the tribes that had taken refuge in Louisiana settled in the Red River area and survived there into the 20th century.[63]
↑ At least one Spanish source referred to "cacique (chief) Chine" as a Chatot. Swanton took that to mean that the Chine people were Chatot.[7][8]
↑ Swanton states that some of the Chatot lived in southwestern Georgia.[15]
↑ A Spanish account indicates that the site of the San Nicolás mission was close to a cave, which may have been Rock Arch Cave in Florida Caverns State Park.[22]
↑ A visita typically was a church that did not have a resident missionary.
↑ The Chisca chiefdom was located in southwestern Viriginia and southeatern Tennessee in the middle of the 16th century when the Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo expeditions passed through the area. By the end of the century, Chiscas had migrated into Florida. A Chisca settlement was at the mouth of the Apalachicola River by 1661.[26]
↑ The Spanish, believing that the Chiscas were friendly, had asked them to not support the Chatots in their dispute with the Spanish.[29]
↑ Chatots had a reputation for being skillful with horses.[46]
↑ The English were buying Chatot slaves from the Shawnee by 1684.[13] In 1681, three Indians captured by the English of the Province of Carolina and sent to the West Indies as slaves were identified as "Chattoee".[50]
↑ Oigonots was later known as "Choctaw Point".[57]
Related Research Articles
Ponce de Leon Springs State Recreation Area is a Florida State Park in Holmes County, Florida, USA. It is located in the town of Ponce de Leon. The park, which was created to provide public outdoor recreation and other park-related uses, was initially acquired on September 4, 1970, using funds from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund. Its self-proclaimed purpose is to develop, operate and maintain the property for outdoor recreation, park, historic, and related purposes, offering abundant opportunity for nature appreciation and wildlife viewing. Its primary recreational activities include swimming in the spring and hiking along the park's nature trails.
The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River, at the head of Apalachee Bay, an area known as the Apalachee Province. They spoke a Muskogean language called Apalachee, which is now extinct.
Tocobaga was the name of a chiefdom of Native Americans, its chief, and its principal town during the 16th century. The chiefdom was centered around the northern end of Old Tampa Bay, the arm of Tampa Bay that extends between the present-day city of Tampa and northern Pinellas County. The exact location of the principal town is believed to be the archeological Safety Harbor site. This is the namesake for the Safety Harbor culture, of which the Tocobaga are the most well-known group.
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the northeastern border of Mexico, that share common cultural traits. This classification is a part of the Eastern Woodlands. The concept of a southeastern cultural region was developed by anthropologists, beginning with Otis Mason and Franz Boas in 1887. The boundaries of the region are defined more by shared cultural traits than by geographic distinctions. Because the cultures gradually instead of abruptly shift into Plains, Prairie, or Northeastern Woodlands cultures, scholars do not always agree on the exact limits of the Southeastern Woodland culture region. Shawnee, Powhatan, Waco, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Karankawa, Quapaw, and Mosopelea are usually seen as marginally southeastern and their traditional lands represent the borders of the cultural region.
Hitchiti was a tribal town in what is now the Southeast United States. It was one of several towns whose people spoke the Hitchiti language. It was first known as part of the Apalachicola Province, an association of tribal towns along the Chattahoochee River. Shortly after 1690, the towns of Apalachicola Province moved to the central part of present-day Georgia, with Hitchiti joining most of those towns along Ochese Creek. In 1715, most of the towns on Ochese Creek, including Hitchiti, moved back to the Chattahoochee River, where the town remained until its people were forced to move to Indian Territory as part of the Trail of Tears.
The Fort Walton culture is the term used by archaeologists for a late prehistoric Native American archaeological culture that flourished in southeastern North America from approximately 1200~1500 CE and is associated with the historic Apalachee people.
The Apalachee massacre was a series of raids by English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their Indian allies against a largely peaceful population of Apalachee Indians in northern Spanish Florida that took place in 1704, during Queen Anne's War. Against limited Spanish and Indian resistance, a network of missions was destroyed; most of the population either was killed or captured, fled to larger Spanish and French outposts, or voluntarily joined the English.
Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout La Florida in order to convert the Native Americans to Roman Catholicism, to facilitate control of the area, and to obstruct regional colonization by other Protestants, particularly, those from England and France. Spanish Florida originally included much of what is now the Southeastern United States, although Spain never exercised long-term effective control over more than the northern part of what is now the State of Florida from present-day St. Augustine to the area around Tallahassee, southeastern Georgia, and some coastal settlements, such as Pensacola, Florida. A few short-lived missions were established in other locations, including Mission Santa Elena in present-day South Carolina, around the Florida peninsula, and in the interior of Georgia and Alabama.
The Chisca were a tribe of Native Americans living in present-day eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia in the 16th century. Their descendants, the Yuchi lived in present-day Alabama, Georgia, and Florida in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, and were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s.
The Spanish missions in Georgia comprised a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholics in order to spread the Christian doctrine among the Guale and various Timucua peoples in southeastern Georgia.
Apalachicola Province was a group or association of towns located along the lower part of the Chattahoochee River in present-day Alabama and Georgia. The Spanish so called it because they perceived it as a political entity under the leadership of the town of Apalacicola. It is believed that before the 17th century, the residents of all the Apalachicola towns spoke the Hitchiti language, although other towns whose people spoke the Muscogee language relocated among the Apalachicolas along the Chattahoochee River in the middle- to later- 17th century. All of the Apalachicola towns moved to central Georgia at the end of the 17th century, where the English called them "Ochese Creek Indians". They moved back to the Chattahoochee River after 1715, with the English then calling them "Lower Creeks", while the Spanish called them "Ochese".
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 language. At the time of European contact, Timucuan speakers occupied about 19,200 square miles (50,000 km2) in the present-day states of Florida and Georgia, with an estimated population of 200,000. Milanich notes that the population density calculated from those figures, 10.4 per square mile (4.0/km2) is close to the population densities calculated by other authors for the Bahamas and for Hispaniola at the time of first European contact. The territory occupied by Timucua speakers 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 Gulf of Mexico at no more than a couple of points.
The Indigenous peoples of Florida lived in what is now known as Florida for more than 12,000 years before the time of first contact with Europeans. However, the indigenous Floridians living east of the Apalachicola River had largely died out by the early 18th century. Some Apalachees migrated to Louisiana, where their descendants now live; some were taken to Cuba and Mexico by the Spanish in the 18th century, and a few may have been absorbed into the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.
The Battle of Flint River, also called the Spanish-Indian Battle (1702) or the Battle of the Blankets , was a failed attack by Spanish and Apalachee Indian forces against Creek Indians in October 1702 in what is now the state of Georgia. The battle was a major element in ongoing frontier hostilities between English colonists from the Province of Carolina and Spanish Florida, and it was a prelude to more organized military actions of Queen Anne's War.
The Pensacola were a Native American people who lived in the western part of what is now the Florida Panhandle and southwestern Alabama for centuries before first contact with Europeans until early in the 18th century. They spoke a Muskogean language. They are the source of the name of Pensacola Bay and the city of Pensacola. They lived in the area until the mid-18th century, but were thereafter assimilated into other groups.
Damián de Vega Castro y Pardo was the governor of the Spanish province of La Florida from November 26, 1638 to April 10, 1645.
Sabacola was a Native American tribal town in what is now the Southeastern United States of America during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. Usually regarded as belonging to Apalachicola Province, Sabacola had poorly understood connections to the Apalachee people. Although usually described as speaking the Hitchiti language, at least one source stated that the Sabacola spoke another, unidentified language. The town moved to several locations along the Chattahoochee River, sometimes with more than one town including Sabacola in its name at the same time. The town of Sabacola moved to the Ocmulgee River area of central Georgia for about 25 years, before returning to the Chattahoochee River. Sabacola was the only Apalachicola town to have a mission established by the Spanish. The Apalachicola towns, including Sabacola, evolved into the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy.
Apalachicola was a tribal town in the Apalachicola Province in the 17th century, located on the lower part of the Chattahoochee River in what is now Alabama and Georgia. The residents of the town spoke the Hitchiti language. The town of Apalachicola moved to the Savannah River in the early 1690s, when the other towns in Apalachicola Province moved to central Georgia, primarily to sites along the Ocmulgee River. In 1715, Apalachicola moved back to the Chattahoochee River along with the towns that had been on the Ocmulgee River, with the English then calling them "Lower Creeks", while the Spanish called them "Ochese". The town of Apalachicola continued as part of the Lower Towns through the 18th century.
The Amacanos were a native American people who lived in the vicinity of Apalachee Province in Spanish Florida during the 17th century. They are believed to have been related to, and spoken the same language as, the Chacato, Chine, Pacara and Pensacola peoples. The Amacano were served, together with other peoples, by a series of Spanish missions during the last quarter of the 17th century.
The Chine people were a group of Native American people living in Apalachee Province in Spanish Florida from the early 1670s until the end of the 17th century. They are believed to have spoken the same language as the Chatot, Amacano, Pacara, and Pensacola people, and have been described as a band of the Chatot people. They were served by a series of Spanish missions in the last quarter of the 17th century.
Goddard, Ives; Galloway, Patricia; Jeter, Marvin D.; Waselkov, Gregory A.; Worth, John E. (2004). "Small Tribes of the Western Southeast". In Fogelson, Raymond D. (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 14 Southest. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp.174–190.
Gregory, Hiram F. (2004). "Survival and Maintenance Among Louisiana Tribes". In Fogelson (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians Volume 14 Languages (Raymond D.ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp.653–658. ISBN978-0160723001.
Lankford, George E. (2004). "Chacato, Pensacola, Tohomé, Naniaba, and Mobila". In Fogelson, Raymond D. (ed.). Handbook of North American Languages, Volume 14 Southeast. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp.664–668.
Martin, Jack B. (2004). "Languages". In Fogelson (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians Volume 14 Languages (Raymond D.ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p.68–86. ISBN978-0160723001.
McEwan, Bonnie G. (2004). "Apalachee and Neighboring Groups". In Fogelson (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians Volume 14 Languages (Raymond D.ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp.669–676. ISBN978-0160723001.
Milanich, Jerald T. (1995). Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe (paperbacked.). University Press of Florida. ISBN978-0-8130-1636-8.
Swanton, John R. (1969) [1952]. The Indian Tribes of North America (Reprinted.). Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution. ISBN978-0-874-74179-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
