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Focus
Florida’s Native American Heritage
Long before the Europeans arrived in the 1500s, the mighty Calusa tribe made their home in villages in Southwest Florida. They lived in round thatched structures, hunted and fished, and traveled the area’s waterways and canals in canoes made from cypress trees. Known as the Fierce People for their war-making prowess, the Calusa’s weapons included spears made from sharpened deer forelegs and carving knives created from shark teeth. Their dress included pearl and stone necklaces and gold beads, body painting and headdresses made of bark.
By the mid-1700s, warfare, slavery and disease had wiped out the tribe. Evidence of their civilization, however, survived in the form of massive mounds of conch, oyster and clam shells. Towering over these Southwest Florida middens is Mound Key State Archaeological Site, where the shell mounds rise more than 30 feet above the waters of Estero Bay. Believed to be the tribe’s ceremonial center, this 125-acre island was the site where the Calusa king received the Spanish colonial governor in 1566. Ancient artifacts here remain undisturbed. Other west coast islands inhabited by Native Americans include Marco Island, Goodland and Caxamba, sites where remnants of ancient tribes were discovered.
For a closer look into this fascinating culture, visitors can take guided tours of Mound Key, accessible only by boat. The Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium and Fort Myers Historical Museum in Fort Myers feature Calusa exhibits. In Chokoloskee, the Smallwood Store Museum is a former Indian trading post with displays of the types of items traded. In Everglades City, the Museum of the Everglades highlights habitation in the western reaches of that vast wilderness. Naples’ Collier County Museum also features Calusa artifacts. |
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