All about the ancient tribes
Seminole history begins with bands of Creek Indians from Georgia and Alabama who migrated to Florida in the 1700s. Conflicts with Europeans and other tribes caused them to seek new lands to live in peace. Groups of Lower Creeks moved to Florida to get away from the dominance of Upper Creeks.
The 1770s is when Florida Indians collectively became known as Seminole, a name meaning “wild people” or “runaway.” [Excerpt from: Florida Department of State’s Division of Resources’ Seminole History Report.] The Tequesta were a small, peaceful, Native American tribe.
Now, while the majority of north and central of Florida was occupied by the mighty Timucua Tribe, the Southwest of Florida became home to the Calusa Tribe, originally called the Calos, which means Fierce People.
Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown. Native Americans inhabited the area that became known as Florida for thousands of years before any European contact.
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. There are some 2,500 registered Cherokee Nation citizens living in Florida.
The 2000 census records show that over 53,000 people in Florida claim Native American descent, and 39 different tribes from across North America are represented in Florida’s population.
Their houses were never permanent and were made similar to chickee huts. The homes were thatched together with palmetto leaves. They had a main kitchen area, known as the midden, which was used by everyone. There were shells, ashes, bones and broken pottery in the kitchen and always access to the water.
Housing, clothing and tools Briton Hammon reported that the Tequesta lived in “hutts”. Other tribes in southern Florida lived in houses with wooden posts, raised floors, and roofs thatched with palmetto leaves, something like the chickees of the Seminoles.
The Confederate states were South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Arkansas. Jefferson Davis, from Mississippi, was elected President and Montgomery, Alabama was selected as the capital, though it was soon moved to Richmond, Virginia.
About 500 years ago the native people became known as the Woodland Indians. In North Florida lived two highly organized, farming tribes the Apalachee of the Tallahassee Hills and the Timucuans, located between the Aucilla River and the Atlantic Ocean as far south as Tampa Bay.
In approximately 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez, a Spanish explorer, arrived in the Tampa Bay area. He and his men found the Tocobaga and brought disease and violence to the tribe’s peaceful existence. As a result, the Tocobaga Indians became extinct within the next 100 years.
The indigenous peoples of Florida lived in what is now known as Florida for more than 12,000 years before the time of first contact with Europeans. However, the indigenous Floridians have largely died out with some completely by the early 18th century.
The Cherokee Indians lived in villages. They built circular homes made of river cane, sticks, and plaster. They covered the roofs with thatch and left a small hole in the center to let the smoke out. The Cherokees also built larger seven-sided buildings for ceremonial purposes.
The Cherokee were southeastern woodland Indians, and in the winter they lived in houses made of woven saplings, plastered with mud and roofed with poplar bark. In the summer they lived in open-air dwellings roofed with bark. Today the Cherokee live in ranch houses, apartments, and trailers.