All about the ancient tribes
The Tequesta used shells and sharks’ teeth for a variety of tools. These included hammers, chisels, fishhooks, drinking cups, and spearheads. Sharks’ teeth were used to carve out logs to make canoes.
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 Tequesta Indians were a tribe of eastern Florida, closely connected with the Ais. Their language was never recorded. Like the Calusa, the Tequesta were devastated by European diseases.
The Tequesta also gathered palmetto berries, coco plums, sea grapes, and palm nuts to eat. In the Everglades, they hunted bear, deer, wild boar, and small mammals. The Tequesta made flour by grinding up the roots of certain plants.
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.
Customs. By one account, when the Tequestas for a tradition buried their chiefs, they buried the small bones with the body, and put the large bones in a box for the village people to adore and hold as their gods. The Tequesta also believed that humans have three souls.
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.
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 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.
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. These people were latecomers to Florida and brought with them farming skills beyond those tribes of the South.
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.
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.
Because of their proximity to both the bay and freshwater streams, the Tocobaga fished and gathered shellfish as their primary source of food. They also ate manatees, which were abundant in the nearby waters. During this time, the Tampa Bay area was rich with animals such as deer, rabbits, armadillo, and squirrels.
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 Calusas didn’t wear much clothing. Just like today, the weather in southwestern Florida was always warm. Calusa men wore only a breechcloth, and Calusa women wore short skirts made of palm leaves. Shirts were not necessary in Calusa culture, and people usually went barefoot.