Week 1 - 8/30 Class Notes

•  Introductions- Personality Adjectives 
• Intro to Announcements
• Choice of testing or blogs
• Walk through making a blog

Calusa Tribe Podcast Notes

Calusa Tribes name literally means fierce. They were responsible for killing Ponce de Leon. History comes from Spanish documents and archeology resources. Calusa Tribe was considered Hunter and Gathers. They are usually bigger than agricultural people. Calusa men were considered over 6 feet tall. Calusa had suzerainty dominance. Their king believed he was the go between supernatural elements. He had two assistants, one of war one of religion. Sometimes the head chief is referenced as Carlos. Chiefs had many wives from different tribes. They believed every one had three souls. During death, two would leave the body. They would go into animals. Spanish sources say they never converted to Catholicism because Calusa people believed in the absolute power of the leader. Whatever the Chief required would be carried out by the people. The most interesting subject about Calusa was how they lived and survived. They lived in the SWFL region in the Marco island area. They may have lived in the keys at one point as well. They took advantage of the brackish water coming from the Everglades. Jack E Davis, top historian of Florida says, Calusa had an advantage of being in this area as Hunter and Gathers with the abundance of marine life. It supplied 90% of their diet.  Unknown marine foods were denied to commoners and only allowed for the King. The population could have been up to 50,000 people. They used plants for various medicines and teas. They did not use many agricultural resources except for some small gardens. As for weapons, Calusa used shells and bones instead of stone. They would use shark teeth for tools and weapons and the skin for sandpaper. They would use the oil for body paint and bug repellant. Nets were very important. They used fibers from cabbage palm with floats from gourds to craft them. They made large shell mounds up to 20 feet high from all the shellfish they consumed. The shell mounds provided protection from storm surge and rising waters, some still remain today. For housing, they built homes out of wood. They made canoes out of pine and were experts in the water. They wore very little clothing because of the hot weather. They did use a lot of body paint. Calusa wore a lot of body jewelry like pearls. They often traded jewelry with other tribes. Calusa were great with art by carving scribes into bone and wood. In 1513 Ponce de Leon landed in Melbourne. Eventually he found Marco island and the Calusa Tribe. Ponce was forced to leave due to a fight with the aggressive Calusa Tribe. The aggressiveness might have came from prior meetings with Spanish explorers. Years later Ponce returned to SWFL and had another run in with the Natives. In 1521, during a battle with the Calusa, Ponce was stuck with a poison arrow. He returned to Cuba and died shortly after. Pedro Menendez founded St Augustine and it became the first Spanish settlement. Pedro married a Calusa chiefs daughter. They had a short alliance until it fell apart. The Spanish constantly took food and resources from the Calusa and eventually turned into a war. While Spanish tried to convert Calusa they took Franciscans to Metecumbe key and dropped them off naked until they were rescued by Spanish ships. Many diseases and illness killed the natives. In the mid 1700 when the Spanish returned to Cuba there were only a few Natives aboard. Calusa may have mixed in with some of the Seminole Tribe.