The traditional Timucua territory in northern Florida extended from the Suwannee River to the St. Johns River. Like the other Indian nations of the American Southeast, the Timucua were skilled farmers who lived in permanent villages.
Subsistence
With regard to subsistence (i.e., the sources of food), anthropologist Kathleen Deagan, in her chapter in Cultures in Contact: The European Impact on Native Cultural Institutions in Eastern North America, A.D. 1000-1800, reports:
“The economy of the Timucuan Indians was based on a combination of corn agriculture, hunting, and fishing.”
Throughout the Southeast, the primary crops were maize (corn in American English), beans, pumpkins, squash, and tobacco. Crop yields were increased with multiple cropping which involves the planting of two successive crops in the same field. Thus, early corn was planted first. It ripened early and was picked green. Then the field would be cleared, and a second crop was planted. In his book Their Numbers Become Thinned: Native American Population Dynamics in Eastern North America, Henry Dobyns reports:
“Timucuan double-cropping would have drained soil fertility even more rapidly than single-cropping if some means of restoring nutrients to the plant root zone had not been employed. It would have produced more maize for human consumption than a single crop only if soil fertility had been maintained during the longer growing season.”
In order to obtain a maximum yield from their fields and to maintain soil fertility, the Southeastern Indians practiced both intercropping and multiple cropping. Intercropping involved planting several different kinds of plants together in the same field. By planting corn and beans together, for example, the bean vines could twine themselves around the corn stocks. Planting beans with corn offset the latter’s great consumption of nitrogen.
One of the crops raised by the Timucua was Zamia. Henry Dobyns reports:
“The Zamia plant may, in fact, have been introduced into Florida by the ancestors of the historic Calusa from a source area in the Caribbean islands.”
Fields were cultivated with handled implements that the first Europeans described as hoes.
In addition to farming, the Timucua also hunted and fished. In hunting alligators, the Timucua would ram a log into the animal’s open jaw, flip it over on its back, and then kill it with arrows and clubs.
Trade
Long before the arrival of the Europeans, the Indian nations of the southeast had extensive trading networks. Folklorist George Lankford, in his book Native American Legends: Southeastern Legends: Tales from the Natchez, Caddo, Biloxi, Chickasaw, and Other Nations, reports:
“They were participants in an exchange network which included the Caribbean, Mexico, the Southwest, the Upper Mississippi Valley, and the Northeast.”
This trade included raw materials – salt, marine shells, flint, copper – as well as manufactured goods – pottery, embossed copper plates, sculptured human figures, catlinite pipes, shell gorgets.
Archaeologist Jerald Milanich, in his book The Timucua, reports:
“Copper, a prized metal, was traded south into Florida from the Appalachian Mountains. Most likely, it was not raw copper which was traded, but objects made of copper.”
Large dugout canoes were used in trading along the coast. In his book Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Carl Waldman (1988: 226) reports: “They traveled along the Atlantic coast of Florida to trade with other tribes, sometimes even crossing the open sea as far as Cuba.”
Settlements
Timucua villages were generally laid out around a central plaza and ballcourt area. The villages often contained a larger communal structure and a chief’s house. Some villages contained as many as 250 houses, but many consisted of only 20-30 houses with a population of 200-300 people. Carl Waldman reports:
“The Timucua villages were surrounded by walls of thick, upright logs about twice the height of a men. The log walls overlapped at one point to form a narrow entranceway with a gatehouse at each end, one just outside the palisades and one just inside.”
One of the features of Timucua villages was the communal warehouse. These storehouses contained foods intended to serve the entire chiefdom and were located on or near the banks of steams which could be navigated by canoes. Henry Dobyns writes:
“They dried large quantities of fish, alligators, snakes, deer, and other game on wooden rakes over smoking fires. They also dried maize, beans, and no doubt squash and amaranth/chenopod seeds, plus nuts, berries, fruits, such as plums, and other foodstuffs.”
The early Spanish explorers described the Timucuan houses as looking somewhat like pyramids. They were built by using flexible wall posts which were anchored in the ground. Their tops were then bent together and secured. Smaller branches were then interwoven among the support posts and the structure was covered with palm thatch.
While most of the houses in the village were circular in shape, the chief lived in a rectangular house which was in the center of the village.
Clothing and Adornment
Timucua men generally wore a deerskin breechclout. Some women would wear a wraparound skirt of deerskin, but the usual garment was made of Spanish moss. The breasts were left bare. Both men and women went barefoot at all times.
With regard to adornment among the Timucua, Josephine Paterek, in her book Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume, reports:
“Since clothing was minimal, there was great emphasis placed on ornamentation. Women, especially, wore great quantities of pearls—in necklaces or in strings fastened around the wrists, ankles, or elbows; some wore stands of beads over one shoulder and under the opposite arm.”
Among the Timucua, both men and women wore their hair long. The women would allow their hair to be loose, but the men often dressed their hair on top of their heads. Men’s hair was often entwined with grasses or moss.
Throughout the Southeast, tatooing and body painting were common forms of adorning the body. Among men, tattoos were often a form of war medals. Women would sometimes have tattoos of animals or abstract designs on their legs, arms, and breasts. Writing about the Timucua, archaeologist Jerald Milanich reports:
“Chiefs and members of their families were painted and tattooed with designs in azure, red, and black.”
Body decorations were one mark of rank. Josephine Paterek reports:
“The Timucua were probably the most extensively tattooed of any tribe of American Indians, the chief men and their wives more so than others, so it was indicative of social status.”
Designs on men were often geometric patterns and animals were not represented. The designs used on women were different than those used on men.
Political Organization
The Timucua villages were organized into a series of simple chiefdoms. Each of the Timucua chiefdoms was centered on a main village whose chief (utina) received homage from two to ten other villages. Each of these other villages had its own chief (holata). Timucuan chiefs generally belonged to the White Deer clan.
Among the Timucua, the chiefs were aided in their governing by chiefly officials who were usually village elders and/or high-status individuals. Village council houses were round buildings which could hold 100 people or more.
It was not uncommon for a Timucua village to have a woman chief. Some villages regularly had women chiefs. Women chiefs had the same powers as male chiefs.
At the time of initial Spanish contact (1520-1570) there were nine Timucua-speaking chiefdoms in what is now Florida: Yustega, Utina, Potano, Tocobaga, Saturiwa, Aqua Dulce, Acuera, Ocali, and Mocozo.
The alliances among the various Timucuan village clusters were made for a variety of reasons. In some instances, alliances were formed for defensive reasons, such as protection against the Apalachee. At other times, the alliances were formed to insure food distribution. In these alliances, if one area had a poor food harvest, the shortfall could be made up by food provided by the other villages. A powerful chief might force less powerful village chiefs to enter into alliance in which the vassal chiefs were forced to pay tribute.
According to Archaeologist Jerald Milanich:
“Chiefs and villages who tried to break away from the alliance were forced back in line with actual or threatened military reprisal.”
Curers and Shamans
Among the Timucua there were both curers (isucu) and shamans (yaba). Curers were native doctors who used various herbs, while shamans performed rituals associated with gathering food, foretelling the future, finding lost items, and many more activities.
As with other American Indian tribes, the Timucua recognized more than two genders. Some people, known as Two Spirits or berdaches in modern terminology, took on the cultural roles of the opposite gender. Among the Timucua, these individuals were often healers. In addition, they played an important role in funerals by carrying the dead for burial.
Black Drink
One of the important features of Southeastern ceremonialism is the Black Drink. According to archaeologist Jerald Milanich:
“The black drink ceremony has a long history in the southeastern United States.”
The Black Drink ceremony involved drinking a black beverage which was made from the leaves of the cassina shrub. Drinking the beverage -- a strong purgative -- gave special purification to the drinker. It was used to cleanse the minds of village leaders for debate and to cleanse and strengthen the bodies of warriors for battle. According to Jerald Milanich:
“The taking of the tea was intended to remove bodily impurities and restore the drinker to a state of equilibrium within the world, allowing them to successfully complete or participate in another task.”
Indians 101
Twice each week this series presents American Indian topics. More tribal profiles from this series:
Indians 101: A Very Brief Overview of California's Achumawi Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Caddo Indians
Indians 201: A very short overview of the Chickasaw Indians
Indians 101: A very short overview of California's Chumash Indians
Indians 201: A short overview of the Duwamish Indians
Indians 101: A very short overview of the Hualapai Indians
Indians 201: A very short overview of the Kiowa Indians
Indians 101: A Very Short Overview of the Ottawa Indians