Who were the pre-Colombian tribe who lived in South Florida?
1 Answer
Pre-Columbian Florida was inhabited for at least 13,500 years, and most of its peoples are only known by their artifacts. The dominant group in South Florida around 1,500 AD are known as the Calusa.
Explanation:
Asking who lived where, especially when no written records were kept, is an awkward question without reliable answers. Humans seem to have moved into Southern Florida as early as 10-12,000 BC, but most of the Paleoindian and Archaic Indian peoples are only identifiable by the tool sets and artifacts they left.
Lacking written records, Archeologists often name peoples by the artifacts they left; these are never fully established and often remain the subject of considerable debate. Nor do we have any real evidence that, for instance, the Glades Culture of the Panhandle which lasted from 550 BCE to European contact has any direct relation to the First Nations peoples who live in the area now.
People do move around, and the centuries after European contact in the Americas brought considerable turmoil as the Old World Disease set (particularly Small Pox and the Mumps) washed again and again over the Americas in a number of different epidemics. Massive depopulation destablized existing structures, often well before the first Europeans came into view, and warfare, the pursuit of new trading opportunities and much else generated a constant flux.
However, according to the written records left from the first century of contact, the largest and most influential group in Southern Florida at the time were the Calusa, who also dominated the Ais and the Mayaimi. Their pre-Columbian cultural sites suggest the Calusa had very deep roots in the region. However, they were especially hard hit by epidemics and warfare in the 17th century and the few survivors seem to have been absorbed by the Seminoles,shortly afterwards.
