Yufera people

Last updated
Yufera
Total population
Extinct as tribe
Regions with significant populations
Southeastern inland Georgia
Languages
Timucua language, Yufera dialect
Religion
Native
Related ethnic groups
Timucua

The Yufera were a Timucua people located in the present day US state of Georgia. They spoke a distinct dialect of Timucua. [1] Little is known about the Yufera. They lived on or near the coast of Georgia near the mouths of the Satilla (called Iranaca by the Timucua) and St Marys Rivers. [2] They likely participated in the Savannah or St Johns archaeological cultures. [3]

In 1560, French explorer Rene de Laudonnière encountered the Yufera who were currently being ruled by Queen Cubicani following the death of her husband King Hioacaia. Cubicani supplied Laudonnière's men with food and cassina. Laudonnière described the Yufera province as wealthy and Cubicani as "the most beautiful of all Indians, and who they make the most account." [4]

Yufera is listed among the towns that allied with French explorer Dominique de Gourgues against the Spanish in 1567. In the 17th century, Yufera was allied to the chiefdom of Tacatacuru on Cumberland Island and under the influence of the Spanish mission of San Pedro de Mocama, but appears to have retained independence. There are no mentions of the Yufera past 1610, suggesting that they may have been among the first Timucua groups to be destroyed by Anglo-Muskogee slave raids. [3]

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<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.

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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.

<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.

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">Northern Utina</span> Extinct Native American people in Florida

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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.

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St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the continental United States, was founded in 1565 by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. The Spanish Crown issued an asiento to Menéndez, signed by King Philip II on March 20, 1565, granting him various titles, including that of adelantado of Florida, and expansive privileges to exploit the lands in the vast territory of Spanish Florida, called La Florida by the Spaniards. This contract directed Menéndez to explore the region's Atlantic coast and report on its features, with the object of finding a suitable location to establish a permanent colony from which the Spanish treasure fleet could be defended and Spain's claimed territories in North America protected against incursions by other European powers.

References

  1. Milanich, Jerald (1999). The Timucua. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Blackwell Publishers Inc. p. 42. ISBN   1557864888.
  2. Swanton, John Reed (1952). The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 152. ISBN   0874740924.
  3. 1 2 Deagan, Kathleen (1994). Tacachale. University of Florida Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN   1947372114.
  4. Hakluyt, R. (1810). A Selection of Curious, Rare and Early Voyages .. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXtQAAAAYAAJ