Council House & Family Huts 

What is a Council House?  The center of Timucua government, community, and entertainment was the council house.  This large circular hut was big enough to seat everyone in the village and in all of the surrounding villages.  Some council houses could hold 2000 people!  While some villages may have had 50-60 family huts surrounding the council house, other villages had no council house at all.  These smaller villages might have only a few (10) huts, and the people would travel to a nearby council house for meetings and dances.  In some cases, a few families would move away from their village to live close to the fields they were planting.  These small groups of people also depended on the nearest council house for government and entertainment.  All of the people in nearby villages would help to build and maintain the council house for their headchief.   There is a French drawing that shows a rectangular council house and a big fence (palisade) around the village.  (Click here to see this picture.)  We know today that Timucua council houses were round, and most Timucua villages were not protected by fences. 

What were family huts like?  Timucua family huts were circular and much smaller than the council house – only 20 feet wide with just one room.  (Measure out 20 footsteps to get an idea of how big that is.)  The mother, father, brothers, sisters, and maybe even a grandparent would live together in this small place.  The inside walls of the hut had benches covered with animal fur for beds.  The hut’s support frame was made of small tree trunks and grape vines.   Roofs and walls were made by weaving palm fronds over and under the vines.  These palm leaves would keep out the wind and rain.  Some Timucua families had a summer house, with open walls to let the breeze through AND a winter house, with palm fronds covering it completely, to keep the cold air out.  Other huts were built to store dried corn and other foods.  Small round guard huts may have been built on the edges of the village and near the gardens to protect the people and the crops. 

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