Pohoy

Last updated

Pohoy was a chiefdom on the shores of Tampa Bay in present-day Florida in the late sixteenth century and all of the seventeenth century. Following slave-taking raids by people from the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy (called Uchise by the Spanish and "Lower Creeks" by the English) at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the surviving Pohoy people lived in several locations in peninsular Florida. The Pohoy disappeared from historical accounts after 1739.

Contents

Alternate names

The Spanish variously recorded the name of the chiefdom and people as Pohoy, Pojoy, Pojoi, Pooy, Posoy, [1] and Pujoy. [2] Jerald Milanich states that the name "Pohoy" is a form of Capaloey, the name of a chiefdom on Tampa Bay in the first half of the sixteenth century.. [3]

Sixteenth century

Tampa Bay was the heart of the Safety Harbor culture area. People in the Safety Harbor culture lived in chiefdoms, consisting of a chief town and several outlying communities, controlling about 15 miles (24 km) of shoreline and extending 20 miles (32 km) or so inland. Ceremonial earthwork mounds were built in the chief towns. Chief towns were occasionally abandoned and new towns built. There are fifteen or more Safety Harbor chief town sites known, most of which are located on a shoreline. [4]

When the Spanish reached Tampa Bay early in the sixteenth century, they found four chiefdoms on the shores of the bay. The town of Tocobago was at the northern end of Old Tampa Bay (the northwest arm of Tampa Bay). Uzita controlled the south shore of Tampa Bay, from the Little Manatee River to Sarasota Bay. Mocoso was on the east side of Tampa Bay, on the Alafia River and, possibly, the Hillsborough River. Capaloey, was on Hillsborough Bay (the northeast arm of Tampa Bay), which may have included the Hillsborough River. Historian Jerald Milanich states that the name Pohoy is a form of Capaloey. [5] [3]

The de Soto expedition landed in Uzita territory in 1539. It passed through Mocoso territory, and further north along the Withlacoochee River. It noted the inland towns of Guacozo, Luca, Vicela, Tocaste, all of which may have been Safety Harbor culture settlements. The de Soto expedition is not known to have entered Capaloey territory. The Utiza and Mocoso chiefdoms disappeared within 35 years after the encounter with the de Soto expedition, and Tocobago dominated Tampa Bay when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés visited there in 1567. [6]

Seventeenth century

The name Pohoy first appears in historical accounts early in the seventeenth century. In 1608, an alliance of Pohoy and Tocobago may have threatened those Potano who had been converted to Christianity. In 1611 a raiding party from the two chiefdoms killed several Christianized Indians carrying supplies to the Spanish mission (Cofa) at the mouth of the Suwannee River. In 1612, the Spanish launched a punitive expedition down the Suwannee River and along the Gulf coast, attacking Tocobago and Pohoy; they killed many of the native people, including both chiefs. [7]

The Spanish of that expedition referred to Tampa Bay as the "Bay of Espiritu Santo and Pojoy", Espiritu Santo being the name Hernando de Soto gave it in 1539. "Bay of Pohoy" or "Bay of Pooy" apparently was applied to the southern part of Tampa Bay. The Tocobago were weakened by the Spanish attack, and the Pohoy became the dominant power in Tampa Bay for a while. [8]

By 1634 Pohoy was allied with or subject to the Calusa chiefdom. (That year the Spanish referred to the "province of Carlos, Posoy, and Matecumbe", i.e., Calusa, Pohoy, and the Florida Keys.) Pohoy and Calusa were described as hostile to the Spanish in 1675. [9] At that time the town of Pohoy was said to be on a river six leagues from Tocobago, perhaps on the Hillsborough River or Alafia River. [10]

A Spanish expedition down the coast from the mouth of the Suwannee River in 1680 sought to reach the Calusa domain. The Spanish were warned by the Pohoy chief to turn back. Due to increasingly strident warnings in the next few villages on the way to Calusa, the Spanish did retreat. This expedition described the Pohoy, but not the Calusa, as "docile". A Spanish expedition in 1699 that traveled overland from San Francisco de Potano (near present-day Gainesville) found the Tampa Bay area to be largely deserted. While the Spanish were told that there were many people in villages in the area, they did not see them. The expedition's report mentioned Pohoy several times, but the Spanish apparently did not visit the town. [11]

Alafay people

The Alafay people (also known as Alafaes, Alafaia, and Elafay) were associated with the Pohoy, probably as a sub-group. In the seventeenth century Pohoy territory included the area along the Alafia River. [12] The Spanish expedition of 1680 reported that Elafay was the next town beyond Pohoy, with 300 people in Pohoy, and 40 in Elafay. [13] The 1699 Spanish expedition reported having passed through an abandoned village named Elafay near Tampa Bay. [14] In 1734 Don Antonio Pojoi was identified as the leader of the Alafaias Costas nation. [15]

Eighteenth century

Early in the eighteenth century, Pohoy and Tocobago Indians were living together in a village near the Spanish colonial town of St. Augustine. Alafae people were also recorded as living with other refugee groups here by 1717. Between 1718 and 1723, 162 Alafae were baptized there. In 1718 Pohoy people attacked a village of Tocobago at the mouth of the Wacissa River in the Province of Apalachee. In the 1720s and 1730s, Pojoy Indians were living together with Jororo, Amacapira (possibly related to the Pohoy) and later, Alafae people, in villages south of St. Augustine. [16]

Many Native American people were reported to have died in an epidemic in 1727, with the survivors leaving the area. A new village of Pohoy, Alfaya and Amacapira, and a neighboring village of Jororo, had been established by 1731. Most of the Pohoy, Alafae, Amacapira, and Jororo Indians moved away again in 1734, in response to an attempt by the new governor of Florida to re-settle Indians in villages closer to St. Augustine and extract unpaid labor from them. [17]

By the early eighteenth century, all of the indigenous groups in peninsular Florida were working with and looking to the Spanish authorities for protection from Uchise raiders. (The Uchise were the Muscogee people known as "Lower Creeks" by the British colonists.) The Spanish hoped that the Indians would help protect St. Augustine and Florida from encroachment by British colonists in the Southern Colonies.

Warfare broke out in 1738 among several of the native groups. In the 1730s the Pohoy held a number of Jororo slaves, and were being paid tribute by the Bomto or Bonito, who had ties to the Mayaca and Jororo. In 1739 the Bomto attacked a camp of the Pohoy and Amacapira, killing more than 20 people. Only one Pohoy man escaped. The Bomto spared the Jororo slaves in the camp.

The Pohoy were still allies or subjects of the Calusa, and the Calusa retaliated for the attack on the Pohoy by attacking the Bomto-allied Mayaca people living near Lake Okeechobee. The Spanish received reports that more than 300 people died in that battle. Surviving Pohoy ambushed a Bomto party headed to St. Augustine, killing several. Several of those Pohoy were in turn killed or carried off by Uchise warriors. The Pohoy and Amacapira (and the Bomto) disappeared from history after that. [18]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Hann 2003, p. 16.
  2. ↑ Hann 2003, p. 134.
  3. 1 2 Milanich 1998, p. 73.
  4. ↑ Milanich 1995, pp. 28, 71–73.
  5. ↑ Milanich 1989, p. 299.
  6. ↑ Milanich 1998, pp. 72–73, 157.
  7. ↑ Hann 2003, pp. 120–121.
  8. ↑ Hann 1995, pp. 187–8; Hann 2003, pp. 120–121, 131; Milanich 1989, pp. 295, 299; Milanich 1995, p. 73; Milanich 1998, p. 110.
  9. ↑ Hann 2003, pp. 125–126.
  10. ↑ Childers 2002, pp. 517–518.
  11. ↑ Childers 2002, pp. 515, 517–518; Hann 1995, p. 188; Hann 2003, pp. 122, 125–126, 128–129, 131; Milanich 1995, p. 73; Milanich 1998, p. 111.
  12. ↑ Hann 2003, p. 131.
  13. ↑ Hann 2003, p. 125.
  14. ↑ Hann 2003, p. 150.
  15. ↑ Hann 2003, p. 102.
  16. ↑ Hann 2003, p. 99.
  17. ↑ Hann 1995, pp. 186–187; Hann 2003, pp. 99, 130–133; Milanich 1995, p. 73; Milanich 1998, p. 111.
  18. ↑ Hann 1995, pp. 184–185, 194, 199; Hann 2003, pp. 133–134.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calusa</span> Historic Indigenous people in Florida, United States

The Calusa were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years.

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.

Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda was a Spanish shipwreck survivor who lived among the Native Americans of Florida for 17 years. His c. 1575 memoir, Memoria de las cosas y costa y indios de la Florida, is one of the most valuable contemporary accounts of American Indian life from that period. The manuscript can be found in the General Archive of the Indies. In all, he produced five documents describing the peoples of native Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potano</span> Native American chiefdom in Florida, US

The Potano tribe lived in north-central Florida at the time of first European contact. Their territory included what is now Alachua County, the northern half of Marion County and the western part of Putnam County. This territory corresponds to that of the Alachua culture, which lasted from about 700 until 1700. The Potano were among the many tribes of the Timucua people, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language.

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

Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout Spanish 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.

Mayaca was the name used by the Spanish to refer to a Native American tribe in central Florida, to the principal village of that tribe and to the chief of that village in the 1560s. The Mayacas occupied an area in the upper St. Johns River valley just to the south of Lake George. According to Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, the Mayaca language was related to that of the Ais, a tribe living along the Atlantic coast of Florida to the southeast of the Mayacas. The Mayacas were hunter-fisher-gatherers, and were not known to practice agriculture to any significant extent, unlike their neighbors to the north, the Utina, or Agua Dulce (Freshwater) Timucua. The Mayaca shared a ceramics tradition with the Freshwater Timucua, rather than the Ais.

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.

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

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uzita (Florida)</span>

Uzita (Uçita) was the name of a 16th-century native chiefdom, its chief town and its chiefs. Part of the Safety Harbor culture, it was located in present-day Florida on the south side of Tampa Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mocoso</span> 16th-century chiefdom in Florida

Mocoso was the name of a 16th-century chiefdom located on the east side of Tampa Bay, Florida near the mouth of the Alafia River, of its chief town and of its chief. Mocoso was also the name of a 17th-century village in the province of Acuera, a branch of the Timucua. The people of both villages are believed to have been speakers of the Timucua language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safety Harbor culture</span> Archaeological culture practiced by Native Americans living on the central Gulf coast Florida

The Safety Harbor culture was an archaeological culture practiced by Native Americans living on the central Gulf coast of the Florida peninsula, from about 900 CE until after 1700. The Safety Harbor culture is defined by the presence of Safety Harbor ceramics in burial mounds. The culture is named after the Safety Harbor site, located close to the center of the culture area. The Safety Harbor site is the probable location of the chief town of the Tocobaga, the best known of the groups practicing the Safety Harbor culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agua Dulce people</span> Timucua tribe in Spanish Florida

The Agua Dulce or Agua Fresca (Freshwater) were a Timucua people of northeastern Florida. They lived in the St. Johns River watershed north of Lake George, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language also known as Agua Dulce.

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

The Northern Utina, also known as the Timucua or simply Utina, were a Timucua people of northern Florida. They lived north of the Santa Fe River and east of the Suwannee River, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language known as "Timucua proper". They appear to have been closely associated with the Yustaga people, who lived on the other side of the Suwannee. The Northern Utina represented one of the most powerful tribal units in the region in the 16th and 17th centuries, and may have been organized as a loose chiefdom or confederation of smaller chiefdoms. The Fig Springs archaeological site may be the remains of their principal village, Ayacuto, and the later Spanish mission of San Martín de Timucua.

The Yustaga were a Timucua people of what is now northwestern Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The westernmost Timucua group, they lived between the Aucilla and Suwannee Rivers in the Florida Panhandle, just east of the Apalachee people. A dominant force in regional tribal politics, they may have been organized as a loose regional chiefdom consisting of up to eight smaller local chiefdoms.

Ocale was the name of a town in Florida visited by the Hernando de Soto expedition, and of a putative chiefdom of the Timucua people. The town was probably close to the Withlacoochee River at the time of de Soto's visit, and may have later been moved to the Oklawaha River.

Urriparacoxi, or Paracoxi, was the chief of a Native American group in central Florida at the time of Hernando de Soto's expedition through what is now the southeastern United States. "Urriparacoxi" was a title, meaning "war leader". There is no known name for the people he led, or for their territory.

Luis de Rojas y Borja was the governor of Spanish Florida from October 28, 1624, to June 23, 1630.

Juan Ortiz was a Spanish sailor who was held captive and enslaved by Native Americans in Florida for eleven years, from 1528 until he was rescued by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539. Two accounts of Ortiz's eleven years as a captive, differing in details, offer a story of Ortiz being sentenced to death by a Native American chief two or three times, saved each time by the intervention of a daughter of the chief, and finally escaping to a neighboring chiefdom, whose chief sheltered him.

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.

References

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.