Information about Timucua

The Timucua were an American Indian people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. The various groups of Timucua spoke dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European first contact, the territory occupied by speakers of Timucuan dialects stretched from the Altamaha River in present-day Georgia as far south as Orlando in the interior, and from the Atlantic coast to the Aucilla River, yet never reaching the Gulf of Mexico. During the 17th century, however, the Spanish mission Province of Timucua was a territory across northern Florida, north of the Santa Fe River between the St. Johns River and the Aucilla River. This was the area of the Timucua proper dialect of the Timucuan language.^[1]

Their name may come from the word atimoqua which means "lord" or "chief" in their own language, allegedly mistaken by the Spanish as the name of one of their chiefs. Another story is that the word Timucua comes from the word thimogona, meaning "my enemy" in the local tongue. Other names for the Timucua include Atimuca, Thimapoa, Tomoca and Utina.

The population of the Timucua people at the time of European contact was around 50,000 people by one estimate, around 200,000 by another.^[2] The Timucua were organized into at least 35 chiefdoms at the time. While alliances and confederacies arose between the chiefdoms from time to time, the Timucua were never organized into a single political unit.^[2] The various groups of Timucua speakers practiced several different cultural traditions.^[3]

History

The pre-Colombian era was marked by regular, routine, and probably small tribal wars with neighbors. The Timucua may have been the first American Indians to see the landing of Juan Ponce de León near St. Augustine in 1513. Later, in 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez' expedition passed along the western fringes of the Timucua territory.^[3]

In 1539, Hernando de Soto led an army of more than 500 men through the western parts of Timucua territory, stopping in a series of villages of the Ocale, Potano, Northern Utino and Uzachile (or Yustaga) branchs of the Timucua on his way to the Apalachee domain. His army seized the food stored in the villages, took women for consorts and forced men and boys to serve as guides and bearers. The army fought two battles with the Timucua, resulting in heavy Timucua casualties. De Soto was in a hurry to reach the Apalachee domain, where he expected to find gold and sufficient food to support his army through the winter, and did not linger in Timucua territory.^[3]

In 1564, French Huguenots led by René Goulaine de Laudonnière founded Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville and attempted to establish further settlements along the St. John's River. After initial conflict, the Huguenots established friendly relations with the local natives in the area, primarily the Timucuans under the cacique Satouriona. Sketches of the Timucua drawn by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, one of the French settlers, have proven valuable resources for modern ethnographers in understanding these people. The next year the Spanish under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés surprised the Huguenots and ransacked Fort Caroline, killing everyone but 50 women and children and 26 escapees. The rest of the French had been shipwrecked off the coast and picked up by the Spanish, who executed all but 20 of them; this brought French settlement in Florida nearly to an end. These events caused somewhat of a rift between the natives and Spanish, though Spanish missionaries were soon out in force.

The Timucua's history changed after the establishment of St. Augustine in 1565 as the Spanish capital of their province of Florida. From here, Spanish missionaries established missions in each main town of the Timucuan chiefdoms, including the Santa Isabel de Utinahica mission in southern Georgia, for the Utinahica. By 1595, the Timucuan population had shrunk by 75%, primarily from disease and war.

By 1700, the Timucuan population had been reduced to just 1000. In 1703 the British with the Creek, Catawba, and Yuchi began killing and enslaving hundreds of the Timucua. Seventeen years later their number had dropped to just 250. In 1726 there were 176, and by 1752 only 26 remained. By the time the United States acquired Florida in 1821, there were only a handful of Timucua left. They are now an extinct tribe.

Culture

Organization and classes

The Timucua were not a unified political unit. Rather, they were made up of at least 35 chiefdoms, each consisting of about two to ten villages, with one being primary.^[2] Villages were divided into family clans, usually bearing animal names. Children were always in their mother's clan.

Customs

The Timucua had many ceremonies. The chief gods were the Sun and the Moon, the Deer and other animals. There were numerous ceremonies and festivals for the harvesting season, planting season, marriages, funerals, wars, and fishing and hunting expeditions. Every ceremony had its own special rite, such as fasting, feasting, praying or dancing. An act of supernatural power, such as a sacrifice or prayer can actually generate a kapemni. The double helices that we see in the Micmac petroglyph and at Gottschall are nothing more nor less than a series of connected kapemni. The kapemni certainly appears to have evolved out of what is called a "power line". This term is found in the literature on plains pictography, of which there are numerous Lakhota examples. Sometimes, though less frequently, it is represented by several straight lines emanating from the head of a supernaturally powerful person, such as a medicine man. More usually, however, the rays take on the form of sine waves, as we see in the Lakhota pictographic symbol meaning "medicine man". The term "rays" is appropriate, since such depictions attempt to capture an invisible power, a supernatural force, that radiates outwards from a sacred nodal point. It is a person's or object's holiness expressed as an invisible field of supernatural potency. The sine wave is the two-dimensional representation of a twisting motion, since it is of the nature of radiating supernatural power to configure itself in this circular form, the circle being an exemplar of perfection. We see such a "power line" emanating from a star in the Micmac pictograph above. More importantly, we have relatively modern pictorial evidence of both the power line and the kapemni double helix that are reified in the form of concrete ritual artefacts. A rather late survivor of the Mississippian culture, the Timucua tribe of Florida, was visited in 1564 by a French expedition under Laudonnière that had the foresight to bring an artist with them, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. He painted numerous scenes of Timucuan life which found themselves published in engravings done by the Flemish artist Theodor De Bry in 1591. The inset shows part of De Bry's engraving of Le Moyne's "Trophies and Ceremonies after a Victory". Illustrated are three of the poles upon which "trophies" were suspended. Flanking a pole with a scalp at its top is a pole with an arm tied to it and another with a leg fastened to it in the same way. Of particular interest are rigid strands (vines?) that spiral down the poles, connecting the top of the trophy to the ground. The "trophies" are meant to be the surviving physical attachments to which the souls of the slain warriors remain fixed. The arm, scalp, and leg probably represent respectively, executive power, spirit, and motion. The two poles with limbs attached have single helices or power lines that send down the spiritual power possessed by the slain warrior in these appendages to the sacred earth of the victorious tribe. The scalp, which is a kind of synecdoche for the head as a whole, may be taken to represent the spirit of the departed warrior, whose powers now redound to the victors. Being the chief artefact of the slain warrior's soul-stuff, his hair's spiritual power is transmitted in entwined power lines in the form of a double helix kapemni. The top knot, as can be seen, has been untied, and the long strands of hair have been allowed to spread out like wings. The result is strikingly like a caduceus (see below for the caduceus). This double helix looks very similar indeed to that portrayed in the Gottschall pictographs. The discharge of power is also in the same direction, from above to below. In the case of the Gottschall Twins pictures, the discharge of the force isn't a deposit of supernatural power into the earth, but a violent expression of its power to destructive ends. This kind of kapemni power is hinted at in rituals from the Mississippian cultures in the context of war: "... they strike with fury and vengeance the spiral-striped war pole -- a symbolic axial conduit between the Sun and the sacred fire." [28.5] There the spiral strips are a surface counterpart to the strands seen in the 1564 painting. The painting illustrates the ideal representation, which is three-dimensional. This three-dimensionality can only be suggested in the two-dimensional medium used at Gottschall. Nevertheless, among the Timucua we have a clear example of the spiritual power of the sun expressing itself through the rotating vortex of the kapemni, which appears to be what is happening in an equally warlike context with the Children of the Sun at Gottschall.

The Timucua played a version of the game called chunkey. In this game a concave shaped disc was rolled while a spear was thrown at it. The point was to throw the spear to the point where the disc would stop.

The chief had a council that met every morning, when they would discuss the problems of the chiefdom and smoke. To initiate the meeting, the White Drink ceremony would be carried out. The drink was actually black in color, but the drink was thought to purify the council members to make interaction more easy. The drink was made of holly and was highly caffeinated. The council members were among the more highly respected members of the tribe.

Settlements

Settlements were quite small in the Timucua tribe and were naturally centered around a religious center. Each home was made of upright poles and circular in shape. Thatched palm leaves comprised the roof. Granaries were raised off the ground to keep them out of reach from wild animals the huts had no windows and were efficient in keeping cool or warm. Each village was heavily stockaded, and in the center of all of them would probably be a larger building made for religious or ceremonial purposes. Timucua cooked and ate meals together in a public area of the village.

Diet

The Timucua were a semi-agricultural people and ate many foods native to North Central Florida. They planted corn, beans, squash and various vegetables as part of their diet. Archaeologists' findings suggest that they may have employed crop rotation. In order to plant, the fields would be cleared with fire at first and then the soil would be prepared using various tools, such as the hoe. Later the women would plant the seeds using two sticks known as coa. In addition to these farming techniques the Timucua would hunt game (including alligators, manatees, and maybe even whales), fish in the many streams and lakes in the area, collect wild fruits and berries and bake bread made from the root koonti. They also cultivated tobacco. Their crops were stored in granaries to protect them from the insects and weather. Meat would be cooked over an open fire known as the barbacoa, the origin of the word "barbecue".

Physical appearance

Spanish explorers were shocked at the size of the Timucua, who could stand four inches or more above them. Perhaps adding to their perceived height was the fact that Timucuan men would wear their hair in a bun on top of their heads. Everyone was heavily tattooed, and such tattoos were gained by deeds. Children would begin to get their tattoos when assuming responsibility. The people of higher social class had more elaborate decorations on themselves, which were made by poking holes in the skin and rubbing ashes into the holes. The Timucua had dark skin, usually brown, and black hair. They wore clothes made from moss and cloth created from various animals.

2006 discovery

An archaeological dig in St. Augustine, Florida in 2006 yielded a Timucuan site dating back to between 1100 and 1300 A.D., predating Pedro Menéndez. Included in the discovery were pottery and two human skeletons.^[4]

Notes

References

• http://www.nps.gov/timu/indepth/foca/foca_timucua.htm
• http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians/indian.htm
• Hann, John. (1996) A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions. University Press of Florida.
• Milanich, Jerald T. (2004). "Timucua." In R. D. Fogelson (Ed.), Southeast (p. 219-228). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 17) (W. C. Sturtevant, Gen. Ed.). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.
• Milanich, Jerald T. The Timucua. Blackwell Publications, Oxford, UK, 1996.
• Mooney, James. (1910). Timucua. Bureau of American Ethnology, bulletin (No. 30.2, p. 752).
• Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978-present). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1-3, 16, 18-20 not yet published).
• Swanton, John R. (1946). The Indians of the southeastern United States. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 137). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
• Worth, John. (1998) The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Volume I: Assimilation, Volume II: Resistance and Destruction. University of Florida Press.