Timucua Indians

WHO WERE THE TIMUCUA PEOPLE?  The Timucua are usually referred to as “Timucua Speakers” today, because they all spoke dialects of the same language.   These Native Americans lived in north Florida and South Georgia.  Although they shared a language, their cultures, including food gathering methods and political affiliation, varied widely.  The Timucua that lived in the center of the state or up in Georgia, had rich soils to grow crops.  They relied much more heavily on cultivation than the Timucua in Jacksonville.  The soil in NE Florida is very sandy, not particularly good for crops.  Historical records left by the French explorers tell us that the east coast Timucua rarely grew crops, but they probably needed to gather wild plants and shellfish more extensively than west Florida Timucua.  Politically, the Timucua were never united.  Individual chiefdoms were often at war with one another.  There was no single paramount chief.  Click here to see a map of Timucua territory.

WHERE DID THE NAME “TIMUCUA” COME FROM?  When the Frenchman Laudonnier asked headchief Saturiwa where he got a silver ingot, Saturiwa pointed to the southwest and said with great anger that he had captured it from Thimagona.  This word is generally believed to mean “terrible enemy,” rather than a specific person or people.   He was probably referring to headchief Outina, his greatest enemy.  The French mistook his meaning, and eventually, the names Thimogona, Thimogoa, Timoga, and Timucua came to stand for all the Timucua speakers in north Florida and South Georgia.  These people never called themselves by this name, so there is no Timucua way to pronounce it.

WHAT DID THE TIMUCUA LOOK LIKE?  Timucua men averaged 5 1/2’ to 6’ tall.  The women averaged slightly shorter.  The Timucua skin was probably a coppery brown.  Their hair was black or very dark brown and was only cut as a sign of mourning.  The men wore their hair as a ponytail or bun on top of their head.

Both genders wore ear decorations in both ears.  Ear pins could be made from bone or shell and sometimes had traded copper beaten onto the jewelry.  The French said that fish bladders were also used to make ear decorations.  Beads made of shell, wood, and pearls were also worn as necklaces, bracelets, belts, and anklets.  The men wore little clothing, usually a loincloth, probably made of deer hide.  The women also wore the equivalent of bikini bottoms.  They wove sashes of Spanish moss cloth which they wore as a girdle around their waist or as a sash from shoulder to hip.  In the winter, matchcoats (wrap-around coats without sleeves or arm holes) were made from deer skin for warmth, or from waterproof feathers to shed raindrops.   The fur side of a matchcoat was worn next to the skin, with the hide side out, bearing painted decorations.  Moccasins were worn in cold weather or for traveling only.  Babies usually went naked. 

The Timucua used tattoos as a status symbol.  These tattoos were dotted designs created by poking holes in the skin with a sharp object like a hawk talon, shark’s tooth, or bone needle.  Then a mixture of wood ashes (to prevent infection) and possibly berry juice was rubbed into the holes.  The chief and his family had more tattoos than anyone else.  Men and women were both tattooed.  The chief and possibly his advisors (Principle Men) received a blue tattoo around their lips. 

WHAT ABOUT TIMUCUA VILLAGES?  A Timucua village could range anywhere from 50 to 300 individuals.  European reports vary widely.  Their circular homes were made by setting the thick ends of small tree trunks into the ground in a circle.   The tops of the trunks were probably bent together and tied.  Then grapevines, thin pines, or some other weaver was woven over and under the poles, encircling the hut.   This weaving made a strong wall and roof that did not need nails.  Into this woven mesh, palm fronds were woven over and under from floor to ceiling, creating a waterproof thatch all the way around the hut.  A short door was left on one side and a smoke hole was left in the roof.  There is no evidence that mud or clay was used as a daub over the palm fronds.  

Benches lined the inner side of the hut walls.  These were for sleeping, perhaps with animal furs as cushions.  A small smudge fire (which burned dried corncobs) could be lit beneath the benches at night to make smoke and keep the bugs away.  A cooking fire was located inside the hut, as well as areas to store personal items and food (probably under the sleeping benches or hanging along the insides of the hut walls – they didn’t have closets.)  Most activities took place outside the hut, since these huts averaged only 25 feet in diameter and possibly housed extended families.  Click here to see a French engraving of a Timucua village.

WHAT ABOUT TIMUCUA FAMILIES?  In the Timucua family, mothers, fathers, and children lived together.  Perhaps some grandparents lived there too.  Mothers taught their daughters all the skills they would need to know as a grown woman.  This included things like making pottery, weaving baskets, mats, and cloth, sewing, cooking, where and when to find edible wild plants, pounding corn and acorns, what plants are medicinal, how to collect them, and how to make the medicines, how to cure animal hides, how to build a hut, how to dance, how to plant, harvest, and preserve crops, how to walk quietly and safely in the woods, and how to be a good wife and mother. 

Boys learned their grown-up skills from their maternal uncles.  These skills included how to hunt with several weapons.  Bow and arrow, spear, atlatl (spear thrower), bola, sling, fishing spear, traps, gigs, nets, hooks and lines, throwing rocks, and throwing sticks are some of the weapons they may have been trained in.  They had to know how to track animals and kill them.  They also had to know how to fight in battle and protect their families.  They probably did little in the way of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the house.  It may seem like the men didn’t have to do much, but their jobs were the high danger tasks that let the women and children stay safely near the village.  Click here to see a picture of a Timucua family going on a picnic.

WHAT PLANTS DID THE TIMUCUA EAT?  Groups that planted crops grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobacco (for ceremonial purposes).   All groups gathered wild plants including Grapes, Blueberries, Blackberries, Plums, Persimmons, Virginia Ground Cherry, Elderberry, Pawpaw, Sabal Palm, Saw Palmetto fruits, Carrots, Onion, Clover, Cabbage Palm heart, Prickly Pear paddles and fruit, Groundnut roots (like potatoes), Saltwort, Dandelion greens, Pickerel Weed greens, Sow Thistle greens, Yucca fruits, Greenbriar, Mushrooms, Maple tree syrup (boiled sap), Honey (after the honey bee was introduced by Europeans), Acorns, Hickory Nuts, Cattail, Chinquapin nuts, Pigweed, Wild rice.  They did NOT have bananas, apples, or oranges.

WHAT ANIMALS DID THEY HUNT?  They got most of their food from the water, but also hunted land animals.  Fish, Crabs, Shrimp, Crayfish, Oysters, Clams, Whelks, Mussels, Turtles, Terrapins, Alligators, Ducks and other water birds, Marine Mammals, Sharks, Deer, Mice Raccoon, Opossum, Bear, Turkey, Wild Pigs (after the Europeans introduced them), Snakes, Tortoises, Squirrels, Rabbit.

WHAT PARTS OF HUNTED ANIMALS DID THEY USE?  Nothing was wasted.   They used the Meat for food, the bones and antlers for tools, Sinew (tendon) for string bindings, Hide for clothes, blankets, & bow strings, Scraps for glue, Hooves, Claws, &Teeth for jewelry or awls, Brain to cure hides, Shells for containers, Stomach, Bladder, and Intestines as containers for water, fat, etc., Fat for energy, lamp fuel, and medicines (like lip balm and antibacterial salves).

HOW DID THEY MAKE MEDICINES?  Willow tree bark has salicylic acid in it - aspirin.  Goldenrod is good for coughs.  Indian Pipes help sore eyes, like Visine does.  Button Bush helps toothaches.  The Timucua would have known and utilized the medicinal value of all the plants available to them. 

HOW DID THEY MAKE POTTERY?  Clays were found in river beds then mixed with various tempers like Spanish moss or sand to make the pottery more resilient.  This clay was coiled into bowls of many kinds, but not into plates.  Designs were added by incising (scratching the marks on) or using a pottery paddle to impress a carved design onto the drying clay.

WHAT KINDS OF TOOLS DID THEY USE?  In addition to coiled pottery and woven mats and baskets, the Timucua made knives, scrapers, awls, and projectile points (arrow heads) out of a stone called chert, which is generally found in central Florida.  Because there are few local sources, bone, wood, and shell were more common tool-making materials in North Florida.  Needles and fishhooks were made of bone.  Hoes and axes could be made of shells or bones attached to a wooden handle.  Arrow and spear shafts were probably made from rivercane, which looks like bamboo.  Bows and canoe paddles were carved from hickory wood.  Choppers, used to process vegetable foods, could have been made of chert, shell, or wood. 

HOW DID THEY HUNT?   The men hunted large animals with spears, spear throwers, snares, bows and arrows, fire drives, deer cloaks, spears, nets, weirs, traps, and hooks and lines, but no poles.  They hunted fish, sharks, and marine mammals from canoes made from cypress or pine logs.  They did not have horses.

WHAT ABOUT THE TIMUCUA RELIGION?  We don’t know much about Timucua beliefs.  They believed in good and bad omens and had many practical rules of life to ensure that life would continue to be good.  For example, the first fish caught in a new trap was always thrown back.  This ensured that there would always be fish left to procreate, keeping the Timucua food source healthy.  The Europeans viewed the throwing back of the first fish as superstitious and a belief to be suppressed.  Click here to learn more about Timucua beliefs.

WHAT ABOUT EUROPEANS IN FLORIDA?  The French, Spanish, and English all sought to claim the resources of the New World for themselves.  The native people were often caught in the middle of these struggles.  However, it was a combination of diseases introduced accidentally, European attempts to Christianize the Indians, and increasing slave raids that led to the demise of Florida’s native cultures.  All of Florida’s Historic native cultures are extinct, except one village of Apalachee that escaped to Louisiana. Click here to learn more about European influences in early Florida.

WHO ARE THE SEMINOLE?  The Seminole are Creek Indians who moved into Florida from Georgia and Alabama, escaping European pressures.  They began to occupy the spaces once inhabited by the Timucua, Calusa, and other early native groups.  The name “Seminole” probably came from the Spanish word “cimarrone” meaning “Indian living away from a mission.”  To find out more about the Seminole culture, go to their official website at http://www.seminoletribe.com.

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