All about the ancient tribes
Sharks teeth were used to carve out logs and make canoes for hunting expeditions. 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.
Housing, clothing and tools Briton Hammon reported that the Tequesta lived in huts or in 5 story houses. 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 Tequesta (tuh-KES-tuh) were a small, peaceful, Native American tribe. They were one of the first tribes in South Florida and they settled near Biscayne Bay in the present-day Miami area. They built many villages at the mouth of the Miami River and along the coastal islands.
Like other south Florida Indians, the Tequesta wore very little clothing, just breechcloths (loincloths), perhaps made of palmetto, for the men, and skirts of Spanish moss for the women.
The Europeans brought diseases with them that the Timucua easily caught and died from, since their bodies did not have natural resistance to the diseases. The Spanish taught the Indians how to live like Spanish did.
Tequesta is in Palm Beach County and is one of the best places to live in Florida. Living in Tequesta offers residents an urban suburban mix feel and most residents own their homes. In Tequesta there are a lot of restaurants and parks. Many retirees live in Tequesta and residents tend to lean conservative.
What kinds of games did Tequestas play? skit-ball, where you hit a ball and it bounces off a wall before you hit it! They also played a game with a stick called wee.
The Tequesta, who had dugout canoes, were also known to trade with neighboring tribes for exotic materials. The Tequesta had no agriculture, but gathered fruit and plant roots. They also consumed venison, Caribbean monk seal, sea turtle, manatee, shark, fish and shellfish.
Enemy Indian tribes from Georgia and South Carolina began raiding the Calusa territory. Many Calusa were captured and sold as slaves. In addition, diseases such as smallpox and measles were brought into the area from the Spanish and French explorers and these diseases wiped out entire villages.
The ” Tocobaga ” tribe was comprised of several small chiefdoms such as Ucita, Pohoy, and Mococo, that ranged from today’s Pinellas County to Sarasota County. They maintained a fishing and hunting culture for approximately 600-800 years before being encountered by the Spanish explorers in the early 1500s.
The Calusa tribe in Florida planted rows of trees near its villages to protect against hurricanes. Explanation: The Calusas were also distinct among other Native Americans because they were headed by a hereditary king.
The homes of the Native American tribes of Florida had similarities. All five tribes used wooden poles and branches for the frames of their homes. The Apalachee, Tequesta, Tocobaga, and Timucua all created walls and roofs from grass and palm leaves. The Timucua and Apalachee also used mud and clay in their walls.
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people.
The Tequesta (also Tekesta, Tegesta, Chequesta, Vizcaynos) Native American tribe, at the time of first European contact, occupied an area along the southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida. They had infrequent contact with Europeans and had largely migrated by the middle of the 18th century.
The Tocobaga Native Americans usually wore very simple clothing made of deerskin. Clothing did not play a big role in their culture. Instead, they preferred to decorate their bodies with tattoos and elaborate hand-crafted jewelry.