New Book Recounts Legacy, Environment of Calusa

Before there were Spanish explorers, Seminoles, Cuban fishermen or American settlers in southwest Florida, there were Calusa Indians.

Their legacy of cultural and environmental accomplishments are a useful guide for us today.

Such is the thrust of a new book – “The Calusa and Their Environment” – by Archaeologists Darcie A. MacMahon and William H. Marquardt. (University of Florida Press, Gainesville)

The authors are closely associated with the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida. It is an outstanding facility worthy of a special visit from anywhere in the country.

Dr. MacMahon is assistant director for exhibits at the museum. Dr. Marquardt is curator in archaeology for the museum and associate director of Archaeology and Paleo-environmental Studies for University of Florida.

Marquardt is better known to Sun-Herald readers as director of the Randell Research and Teaching Center on Pine Island. It is the site of the largest number of native-American mounds in Florida.

Coincidentally with public sale of “Calusa Legacy,” the Randell Center on Dec. 10 will open to the public its Calusa Heritage Trail. It comprises mounds, ancient canals, ceremonial platforms and ongoing excavations.

First Coastal Dwellers

MacMahon and Marquardt write that Indian people lived in interior Florida 12,000 years ago. However, any evidence of coastal peoples before 6,000-4,000 years ago – when sea the sea level reached its present height -- is now under the sea.

“There have been short-term variations in sea level. For example, about 1,600 years ago, a warm period may have caused waters to rise to four feet above today’s level in southwest Florida. Indian people would have moved inland in response.”

(Reviewer’s comment: a small Indian settlement discovered by archaeologists when clearing right-of-way land for I-75 – a mile east of Punta Gorda – consisted of dwellings on pilings infested with saltwater barnacles.)

Calusa Homeland

In “Legacy,” the authors deftly combine the history and environment of the Calusa before arrival of Europeans.

“The story of the Calusa cannot be told properly without understanding the coastal environment they called home,” say MacMahon and Marquardt.

“The rich blue-green waters of southwest Florida’s estuaries provided the Calusa with such abundance that they thrived for many centuries without ever needing to farm.

“The Calusa were the last, native Florida Indian people to succumb to the European invasion and colonization that followed Columbus’ first landing in the New World.

“From their homeland on the coast of southwest Florida, the Calusa exerted influence as far away as today’s Cape Canaveral, Lake Okeechobee, Miami and the Florida Keys.

“Central to the Calusa domain was Charlotte Harbor near present-day Fort Myers. Fresh water from the Peace, Myakka and Caloosahatchee rivers – mingling with sea water around coastal islands – created a shallow, grassy estuary of extraordinary seafood productivity.”

Beliefs And Practices

The Calusa constructed wood and palm-thatch houses on mounds and ridges of seashells. At least some people lived in large communal thatched houses. In the 1690’s there were 16 such houses in the main Calusa village, each accommodating several dozen people.

Both men and women wore only the briefest coverings. Black, body paint was commonplace, especially on ritual occasions.

According to European observers, the Calusa were divided into nobles (including warriors) and commoners. Nobles did not work and had access to special foods denied commoners. Spiritual leaders and healers received special treatment for their services.

The paramount leader – dubbed the Taino Indian “cacique” by the Spanish – sat on a special stool. He and his sons were fanned with incense by the chief priest.

The cacique received tribute from town chiefs. In return he distributed some of the goods salvaged from Spanish shipwrecks.

Each town provided him a bride. Spanish documents say the cacique was expected to marry his siste4 and that the cacique’s son generally succeeded him.

It is possible that the Spaniards misunderstood the Calusa and he was only expected to marry within his own clan – that is, marry a cousin or “clan sister.” In any case, he had numerous wives.

Calusa people believed their paramount leader mediated between the secular and sacred realms, so they equated his health and prosperity with their own.

The Great Captain military leader waged war and commanded a militia that could be mobilized at the request of the paramount.

The spiritual leader maintained the temple and its idols. He was believed to have power to summon storms and conduct important rites – including human sacrifice.

Calusa buried their dead in mounds or cemeteries. They feared the dead and placed food, herbs, and tobacco offerings when consulting ancestors to foretell the future.

Living with Nature

MacMahon and Marquardt emphasize the importance of estuarine ecology in Calusa times and today.

Archeologists spend as much effort collecting associated animal remains, plants and pollen as well as artifacts and human burials.

“The context provide an understanding of the past and how it has influenced the present to help us make better decisions for the future,” say the authors.

A large part of their book – beautifully and copiously illustrated – outlines the close relationship of nature with Calusa life. That relationship is still crucial today with modern Floridians.

Harvesting of fish and mollusks was the principal food source. Teeth of sharks, spines of rays, shells of all kinds and turtle carapaces were primary tool sources.

Decorative shells were traded as far away as Oklahoma, North Dakota, Missouri, Kentucky and New York for galena (lead) ore, the ingredient of black paint treasured by the Calusa, and for raw materials for useful and decorative purposes.

The Calusa carved wood for masks and animal images. They worked shell and bones for tools, fired pottery, and wove plant fibers into fishnets, baskets and clothing.

They built large meeting-houses and villages of thatched homes. They were adept at constructing -- and using – dugout canoes, spears, bows and poison-tipped arrows.

Their food chain included wild fruits and roots as well as seafood.

They built long canals to provide short cuts from sea and rivers to lakes and passages through the Everglades.

Exit Calusa

“When Juan Ponce de Leon encountered the Calusa Indians in southwest Florida in 1513 (and 1521), he was not hospitably received,” say MacMahon and Marquardt.

“The Calusa already knew that Spaniards had enslaved and murdered Caribbean Indians – having allowed refugees from Cuba to settle in south Florida.”

Pedro Menendez D’Aviles, admiral of Spain’s West Indies fleet, came to Florida to drive out the French at Fort Caroline – now Jacksonville -- and pacify the native Americans throughout Florida.

He made contact with the Calusa in 1566 and established a mission-fort near Carlos Bay. Despite earnest efforts, the Spaniards and Calusa became bitter enemies. Subsequent missionaries also failed there.

In 1704, the English occupied St. Augustine. They and their Creek Indian allies destroyed Spanish missions and captured South Florida Indians for slaves.

By the 1760s, state the authors, the Calusa had disappeared from Florida. However, the fishing tradition continued – first with Spanish Cubans working with Indian people, later with American fisherfolk.

“In the mid-1700s, Spanish fisherfolk fromCuba arrived in southwest Florida and set up seasonal fish camps called ranchos. They were joined by Indian people (Seminoles) moving into the area from present-day Georgia.”

When the American’s arrived in 1821, they edged out the Cubans and Indians. Such was the bounty of the estuary that it continued to provide commercial quantities of fish until after World War II.

Concluding chapters of “Calusa Legacy” feature south Florida Indians today.

Of particular interest are 32 pages of full-color photographs of Calusa artifacts and the fish and plants that still constitute and outstanding estuarine ecosystem.

Author: Lindsey Williams

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Cutlines

1 – 4 col. LEAD ART – Indians in canoes

Illustration courtesy Florida Museum Natural History

A Calusa chief glides by in his shaded double canoe – accompanied by nobles -- while commoners bring in the daily catch of fish.

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2 -- -- 4 col. Children at excavation

Photo courtesy Randell Center

A guide at the Calusa Heritage Trail at Pineland, Pine Island, Fla., explains archaeological excavations to elementary school students at the Randell Research and Teaching Center. The Trail will be open to the Public starting Dec. 10.

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3 – 3 col. – Man and woman

Photo courtesy Florida Museum Natural History

Authors of “Calusa And Their Legacy” are, from left, Dr. William A. Marquart and Dr. Darcie A. MacMahon. Both are closely connected to the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida.

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4 – 3 col. – low building

Photo courtesy Florida Museum Natural History

Florida Museum of Natural History -- on University of Florida campus, Gainesville – is open to the public and exhibits several life-size dioramas of Calusa life as well as collections of actual artifacts.