Mocama

Last updated
Mocama
Map of the Mocama People.svg
Total population
Extinct as tribe
Regions with significant populations
North Florida and southeastern Georgia
Languages
Mocama dialect of the Timucua language
Religion
Native
Related ethnic groups
Timucua

The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. [1] A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Their heartland extended from about the Altamaha River in Georgia to south of the mouth of the St. John's River, covering the Sea Islands and the inland waterways, Intracoastal. and much of present-day Jacksonville. [2] [3] At the time of contact with Europeans, there were two major chiefdoms among the Mocama, the Saturiwa and the Tacatacuru, each of which evidently had authority over multiple villages. The Saturiwa controlled chiefdoms stretching to modern day St. Augustine, but the native peoples of these chiefdoms have been identified by Pareja as speaking Agua Salada, which may have been a distinct dialect. [4]

Contents

The Spanish came to refer to the entire area as the Mocama Province, and incorporated it into their mission system. The Mocama Province was severely depopulated in the 17th century by infectious disease and warfare with other Indian tribes and the English colonies to the north. Surviving Mocama refugees relocated to St. Augustine. Together with Guale survivors, 89 "mission Indians" evacuated with the Spanish to Cuba in 1763, after they ceded the territory to Great Britain.

Terminology

The Mocama spoke a namesake dialect of Timucua, the most well attested form of the language. [5] Mocama literally translates to "the sea" or "of the sea" (Timucua: moca ("sea") + -ma ("the" or "of")). [6] Some modern writings employ the term Mocamo; however, linguist Julian Granberry asserts this spelling to be erroneous, being neither present in historical writings nor grammatically possible in Timucua. [7]

History

Archaeological research dates human habitation in the area eventually known as the Mocama Province to at least 2500 BC. [8] The area has yielded some of the oldest known pottery from what is now the United States, uncovered by a University of North Florida team on Black Hammock Island in Jacksonville, Florida's Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. [2] The team also excavated more recent artifacts contemporary with the Mocama chiefdoms and some that indicate a Spanish mission. [9] [10] Around AD 1000 peoples of the area were engaged in long-distance trading with Mississippian culture centers, including Cahokia (in present-day Illinois) and Macon, Georgia. [11] Before and during European contact, the peoples of the region spoke the Mocama dialect of the Timucua language and participated in similar cultures, for instance in their use of distinctive grog-tempered pottery known as San Pedro pottery. [12]

The Mocama dialect is the best attested dialect of the Timucua language. Some scholars, including Jerald T. Milanich and Edgar H. Sturtevant, consider the dialect known as Agua Salada, spoken in an unspecified stretch of the Florida coast south of the Mocama Province, to be identical. However, other evidence suggests that Agua Salada was distinct, and more closely related to the western dialects like Potano than to Mocama. [13]

The French Huguenot explorers, who first arrived in Florida in 1562, recorded two major chiefdoms in the Mocama region at that time, the Saturiwa and the Tacatacuru. The Saturiwa, whose main village was on Fort George Island, were friendly towards the French and aided them in establishing Fort Caroline in their territory. Huguenot leader René Goulaine de Laudonnière records that their chief, who was known as Saturiwa, had sovereignty over thirty villages and their chiefs, ten of whom were his "brothers". [14] These villages were located around the mouth of the St. Johns River and nearby inland waterways. Other Mocama-speaking groups lived in the coastal areas to the north, from Amelia Island in Florida to St. Simons Island in Georgia. The Tacatacuru chiefdom was centered on Cumberland Island and evidently controlled villages on the coast. [14]

When the Spanish destroyed the French stronghold of Fort Caroline, both the Saturiwa and the Tacatacuru aided the French and opposed the Spanish, but they eventually made peace. As Mocama was spoken across the area, the Spanish came to refer to it as the Mocama Province, and incorporated it into their mission system. It was one of the four provinces that made up the bulk of the Spanish mission effort in the region, the others being the Timucua Province (covering the Timucua groups to the west of the St. Johns River), the Guale Province, and the Apalachee Province. The Spanish founded three major missions in the Mocama Province: San Juan del Puerto at Saturiwa on Fort George Island, San Pedro de Mocama at Tacatacuru on Cumberland Island, and Santa Maria de Sena between them on Amelia Island. [15] [16]

Due to severe population losses from infectious disease and warfare with northern Indian tribes and the English from South Carolina, the Mocama polity disintegrated in the 17th century. After that, the Spanish and later settlers used the term "Mocama" to refer to the land where the chiefdoms had been. Between 1675 and 1680, the Westo tribe, backed by the English colonies of South Carolina and Virginia, along with attacks by English-supported pirates, destroyed the Spanish mission system in Mocama.

The few remaining "refugee missions" were destroyed by South Carolina's invasion of Spanish Florida in 1702 during Queen Anne's War. By 1733, the Mocama and Guale chiefdoms had become too depopulated and helpless to resist James Oglethorpe's founding of the English colony of Georgia.

In their colonial period, the Spanish established a missionary province at the Guale chiefdom just north of Mocama, on the Georgia coast between the Altamaha River and the Savannah River. Its history was similar to that of Mocama, and its fate was the same. Remnants of both chiefdoms retreated south to St. Augustine. In 1763, their descendants were among the 89 "mission Indians" evacuated to Cuba with the Spanish.

See also

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The Icafui people were a Timucua people of southeastern Georgia, who were closely related if not synonymous with the Cascangue people. Exceptionally little is known about the Icafui, other than their general location and the fact that they spoke a dialect of Timucua called "Itafi" along with the Ibi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timucua language</span> Extinct language in Florida and Georgia (U.S.)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saturiwa (chief)</span>

Saturiwa was chief of the Saturiwa tribe, a Timucua chiefdom centered at the mouth of the St. Johns River in Florida, during the 16th century. His main village, also known as Saturiwa, was located on the south bank of the river near its mouth, and according to French sources he was sovereign over thirty other village chiefs. Chief Saturiwa was a prominent figure in the early days of European settlement in Florida, forging friendly relations with the French Huguenot settlers, who founded Fort Caroline in his territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish missions in Florida</span> Catholic religious outposts

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish missions in Georgia</span> Catholic religious outposts

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.

San Lorenzo de Ibihica was a Spanish Franciscan mission built in the early 17th century in the southeast of the present-day U.S. state of Georgia. It was part of Spain's effort to colonize the region of Spanish Florida and convert the Timucua to Catholicism. It served the Ibi people, also known as the Yui or Ibihica, a Timucua group of the area.

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Santa Catalina de Guale (1602-1702) was a Spanish Franciscan mission and town in Spanish Florida. Part of Spain's effort to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism, Santa Catalina served as the provincial headquarters of the Guale mission province. It also served various non-religious functions, such as providing food and labor for the colonial capital of St. Augustine. The mission was located on St. Catherines Island from 1602 to 1680, then on Sapelo Island from 1680 to 1684, and finally on Amelia Island from 1684 to 1702.

Acuera was the name of both an indigenous town and a province or region in central Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The indigenous people of Acuera spoke a dialect of the Timucua language. In 1539 the town first encountered Europeans when it was raided by soldiers of Hernando de Soto's expedition. French colonists also knew this town during their brief tenure (1564–1565) in northern Florida.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timucua</span> Native American people

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saturiwa</span> Timucua chiefdom in Spanish Florida

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Utina</span> Extinct Native American people in Florida

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References

  1. ↑ Charles M. Hudson; Carmen Chaves Tesser (1994). The Forgotten Centuries: Indians and Europeans in the American South, 1521-1704. University of Georgia Press. p. 280. ISBN   978-0-8203-1654-3.
  2. 1 2 Soergel, Matt (October 18, 2009). "The Mocama: New name for an old people". The Florida Times-Union . Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  3. ↑ Milanich, Jerald T. (1996-08-14). Timucua. VNR AG. ISBN   978-1-55786-488-8.
  4. ↑ Hann, John H. (1996). A history of the Timucua Indians and missions. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN   0-8130-1967-2. OCLC   44956479.
  5. ↑ Julian Granberry, A Grammar and Dictionary of the Timucua Language, 3rd ed. (University of Alabama Press, 1993), 7.
  6. ↑ Julian Granberry, A Grammar and Dictionary of the Timucua Language, 3rd ed. (University of Alabama Press, 1993), 145-146, 148.
  7. ↑ Julian Granberry, A Grammar and Dictionary of the Timucua Language, 3rd ed. (University of Alabama Press, 1993), 6.
  8. ↑ Keith Ashley (September–December 2008). "Refining the Ceramic Chronology of Northeastern Florida". Florida Anthropologist. 61 (3–4). Florida Anthropological Society: 125.
  9. ↑ Keith Ashley (2006). "Colorinda and its Place in Northeastern Florida History". The Florida Anthropologist. 59 (2). The Florida Anthropological Society: 94.
  10. ↑ John E. Worth (4 February 2007). The Struggle for the Georgia Coast. University of Alabama Press. p. 12. ISBN   978-0-8173-5411-4.
  11. ↑ Thomas E. Penders (2005). "Bone, Antler, Tooth, and Shell Artifacts From the Shields Mound Site". The Florida Anthropologist. 58 (3–4). Florida Anthropological Society: 251.
  12. ↑ Ashley, p. 127.
  13. ↑ Granberry, p. 6.
  14. 1 2 Milanich 1996, pp. 48–49.
  15. ↑ David Hurst Thomas (1993). Historic Indian Period Archaeology of the Georgia Coastal Zone. University of Georgia, Department of Anthropology. p. 23.
  16. ↑ Ashley, p. 135.

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