Spanish missions in Georgia

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A plaque showing the locations of a third of the missions between 1565 and 1763 St Aug Nombre de Dios missions plaque02.jpg
A plaque showing the locations of a third of the missions between 1565 and 1763

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 what is now southeastern Georgia.

Contents

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 Christianity, to facilitate control of the area, and to prevent its colonization by other countries, in particular, England and France. [1] 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, [2] 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, [3] around the Florida peninsula, and in the interior of Georgia and Alabama. [4]


Missions

This table includes doctrinas, missions that normally had one or more resident missionaries, but does not include visitas, which never had a resident missionary, and had less substantial church buildings where services were conducted by visiting missionaries.


Spanish missions in the present-day US state of Georgia
Mission NameLocationProvince
or Region		Documentation of when missions were active is incomplete. Years listed in this column may not represent either the earliest or the latest year in which a mission was in use.}}References
Espogache [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 2] Guale 1605–? [5]
Guale [lower-alpha 1] Guale1568–1570 [6]
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato [lower-alpha 2] [lower-alpha 3] Guale1587–1597, 1605–? [7]
Ospo or Talapo [lower-alpha 1] Guale1595–1606 [8]
San Augustín de UrihicaNorthern Utina1630-1657 [9]
San Buenaventura de Guadalquini (moved to St. Johns River
as Santa Cruz de Guadalquini)		 31.13393, -81.39363 [10] Guale/Mocama1606-1684 [11]
San Diego de Satuache 31.89, -81.20083 [12] Guale1616–1675 [13]
San Felipe de Alabe [lower-alpha 4] Guale1616–1655 [14]
San Felipe (on Cumberland Island)Mocama1675–1678 [15]
San Joseph de Sapala or San José de Zapala
( Sapelo Island)		 31.51544, -81.24218 [16] Guale1616–1684 [17]
San Lorenzo de Ibihica Ibi 1612–1630 [18]
San Pedro de Atulteca
or San Felipe de Athulteca [lower-alpha 5] 		Guale1616–1695 [19]
San Pedro de Mocama (Cumberland Island) 30.75415, -81.47263 [20] Mocama 1587–1655(?) [21]
San Pedro y San Pablo de Puturiba(to)Guale1597(?)–1604(?) [22]
Santa Catalina de Guale (St. Catherines Island,
Sapelo Island and Amelia Island, in succession)		 31.62534, -81.17348 [23] Guale1595–1597,
1602–1702		 [24]
Santa Catalina or Santa María de GualeMocama1689–1702 [25]
Santa Clara de Tupiqui (Sapelo River)Guale1595–1597 [26]
Santa Cruz de Cachipile 30.66337, -83.20622

[27]

Arapaha 1655–1657 [28]
Santa Cruz de Guadalquini
Moved from San Buenaventura de Guadalquini		Mocama1684–1695 [29] [30]
Santa Isabel de Utinahica Unknown [lower-alpha 6] 1616 [31]
Santa María de los Angeles de ArapahaArapaha1630–1657 [32]
Santa María de los Yamasee
or Santa María de Guale		Mocama1675 [33]
Santiago de Oconi
(near the Okefenokee Swamp)		 Oconi Early 16th century - 1655 [34]
Santo Domingo de Asao [lower-alpha 7]
or Santo Domingo de Talaje [lower-alpha 8] 		31.36433, -81.41751 [35] Guale1595(?)–1680s [36]
Santo Domingo (Napa or Napoyca)Mocama1602 [37]
Tupiqui [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 2] Guale1569–1570 [6]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Place name. Mission name unknown.
  2. 1 2 3 Espogache, Tolomato, and Tupiqui were neighboring towns in Guale which seem to have merged, or to have hosted the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in sequence.
  3. ↑ Some residents of the mission may have moved to La Natividad de Nuestra Señora de Tolomato near St. Augustine.
  4. ↑ San Felipe may have merged with San Pedro de Atulteca.
  5. ↑ The Atulteca mission had moved to Cumberland Island by 1675, then to Amelia Island by 1695.
  6. ↑ Santa Isabel was located somewhere in the southern part of the Altamaha River basin, northeast of the mission at Santa Cruz de Tarihica.
  7. ↑ Originally by the Altamaha River on the mainland, Santo Domingo moved to St. Simon's Island by 1675.
  8. ↑ Asao and Talafe were distinct towns that were later merged. Both names of the mission were used at various times.

Related Research Articles

The Yamasees were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. The Yamasees engaged in revolts and wars with other native groups and Europeans living in North America, specifically from Florida to North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utinahica</span> Timucua town and people in Georgia, U.S.

Utinahica was a town that was the site of a Spanish mission, Santa Isabel de Utinahica. It may have been the chief town of a Timucua tribe and chiefdom in the 17th century, but Hann says there is not enough known about it to be sure. The name means "lord's village". Utinahica, was called a "province" in one Spanish report. It was 30 leagues east of Arapaha, and 50 leagues northeast of the town of Tarihica in the Northern Utina Province. It was at or near where the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers join to form the Altamaha River. The people of Utinahica apparently practiced a regional variant of the Lamar regional culture, unusual for a Timucuan-speaking people. Worth identifies the province of Utinahica with archaeological sites, including the Lind Landing site, Coffee Bluff site, and Bloodroot site, that have yielded artifacts of the Square Ground Lamar culture from before the 15th century until the middle of the 17th century. The Square Ground Lamar culture is otherwise associated with sites occupied by speakers of Muskogean languages. Archaeological sites identified with all other known Timucuan-speakers, with the possible exception of Guadalquini, do not have affinities with the Square Ground Lamar culture.

Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mocama</span> Indigenous people of Florida and Georgia, US

The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. 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. 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.

<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.

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.

Mission San Pedro de Mocama was a Spanish colonial Franciscan mission on Cumberland Island, on the coast of the present-day U.S. state of Georgia, from the late 16th century through the mid-17th century. It was built to serve the Tacatacuru, a Mocama Timucua people.

<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">Saturiwa</span> Timucua chiefdom in Spanish Florida

The Saturiwa were a Timucua chiefdom centered on the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. They were the largest and best attested chiefdom of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Timucuan and lived in the coastal areas of present-day northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. They were a prominent political force in the early days of European settlement in Florida, forging friendly relations with the French Huguenot settlers at Fort Caroline in 1564 and later becoming heavily involved in the Spanish mission system.

Tacatacuru was a Timucua chiefdom located on Cumberland Island in what is now the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of two chiefdoms of the Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama, who spoke the Mocama dialect of Timucuan and lived in the coastal areas of southeastern Georgia and northern Florida.

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

The Ibi, also known as the Yui or Ibihica, were a Timucua chiefdom in the present-day U.S. state of Georgia during the 16th and 17th centuries. They lived in southeastern Georgia, about 50 miles from the coast. Like their neighbors, the Icafui tribe, they spoke a dialect of the Timucua language called Itafi.

San Buenaventura de Potano was a Spanish mission near Orange Lake in southern Alachua County or northern Marion County, Florida, located on the site where the town of Potano had been located when it was visited by Hernando de Soto in 1539. The Richardson/UF Village Site (8AL100), in southern Alachua County, has been proposed as the location of the town and mission.

San Buenaventura de Guadalquini or San Buenaventura de Boadalquivi was a Spanish mission located on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, United States from between 1597 and 1609 until 1684, when pirates burned the mission and its town. The mission moved to the north side of the St. Johns River near its mouth, in present day Duval County, Florida under the name of Santa Cruz de Guadalquini or Santa Cruz y San Buenaventura de Guadalquini for a few years before merging with the mission San Juan del Puerto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asistencias</span>

Asistencias or visitas were smaller sub-missions of Catholic missions established during the 16th-19th centuries of the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Philippines. They allowed the Catholic church and the Spanish crown to extend their reach into native populations at a modest cost.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato was a Spanish Catholic mission founded in 1595 in what is now the state of Georgia, located north of the lands of the southernmost Native American Guale chiefdom, Asao-Talaxe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocute</span> Native American paramount chiefdom

Ocute, later known as Altamaha or La Tama and sometimes known conventionally as the Oconee province, was a Native American paramount chiefdom in the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries. Centered in the Oconee River valley, the main chiefdom of Ocute held sway over the nearby chiefdoms of Altamaha, Cofaqui, and possibly others.

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 Oconi or Ocone were a Timucua people that spoke a dialect of the Timucua language. They lived in a chiefdom on the margin of or in the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia. The Oconi first appeared in Spanish records in 1602, but a mission was not established until at least a decade later, with the first record of a mission in 1630. The Spanish twice attempted to relocate the Oconi people to other missions, in 1645 and 1655. The Oconi disappeared from Spanish records after 1655.

References

  1. ↑ Cassanello & Stapleton 2013.
  2. ↑ "El Camino Real – Division of Historical Resources". dos.myflorida.com. Florida Department of State. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
  3. ↑ Childers 2004, pp. 24–32.
  4. ↑ Worth, John E. (2007). The Struggle for the Georgia Coast. The University of Alabama Press. pp. 10, 19. ISBN   978-0-8173-5411-4.
  5. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 447–449.
  6. 1 2 Hann 1990, p. 429.
  7. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 445.
  8. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 449–450.
  9. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 470.
  10. ↑ "Early History of St. Simons Island Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved 2024-08-25.
  11. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 442.
  12. ↑ "Guale Village at Seven-Mile Bend Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  13. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 466–467.
  14. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 467–468.
  15. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 498–499.
  16. ↑ Jeffries, Richard W.; Moore, Christopher (2009). In Search of Mission San Joseph de Sapala: Mission Period Archaeological Research on Sapelo Island, Georgia 2003-2007. pp. 52–53.
  17. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 456–458.
  18. ↑ Hann 1996, pp. 153–154.
  19. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 464–466.
  20. ↑ Hellman, Robert (2007). Archaeological Investigations at Dungeness Historical District: Cumberland Island National Seashore (PDF) (Report). Southeastern Archaeology Conference. p. 33. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  21. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 437–438.
  22. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 438.
  23. ↑ https://www.sas.usace.army.mil/Portals/61/SCI_CAPStudyInitiationReport08Aug17.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  24. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 440.
  25. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 498.
  26. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 446.
  27. ↑ "Borderland Conferences". Aucilla Research Institute. Retrieved 2024-08-24.
  28. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 471.
  29. ↑ Hann 1996, pp. 270–71.
  30. ↑ Milanich 1999, p. 174.
  31. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 463.
  32. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 470–471.
  33. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 497–498.
  34. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 463–464.
  35. ↑ "Site of Early Spanish Mission Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved 2024-08-24.
  36. ↑ Hann 1990, pp. 443–445.
  37. ↑ Hann 1990, p. 452.

Sources



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