Columbus Day Wasn't Happy: the Timucua of Florida and the Spanish

For many people today, Columbus Day is more of an Italian pride day, or maybe Spanish pride day.  But for Native people, October 12, 1492, when Columbus first landed on what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic marked the beginning of the end of their way of life.  We've already discussed the meeting of de Soto's expedition with pre-contact Choctaw under Tuscaloosa (Tuskaloosa), but they weren't the first tribe to feel the wrath of the Spanish.  The Timucua had that dubious honor first.

The Timucua were a pre-contact Native tribe who inhabited northeast and north-central Florida and Southeast Georgia.  They were a loose alliance of about 35 chiefdoms, larger towns interconnected with smaller towns, many of whom spoke several different dialects of their language.  Their population would be decimated by contact with Europeans, primarily disease.  Sources estimate that by the end of the 16th century, their population was reduced from 200,000 to less than 50,000 by disease alone.  By 1700, they had been reduced to about 1,000 people and were extinct as a tribe by the beginning of the 19th century.  Like many later Native inhabitants of Florida, their culture included forms of ball-play and an emphasis on rituals with the Black Drink.  Sources dispute whether Juan Ponce de Leon and/or Panfilo de Narvaez made contact with the Timucua or not.  One explorer who did make contact with them was Hernando de Soto.

As we found out in the post about Tuscaloosa, Hernando de Soto was convinced that what is now Florida was actually a large island, not a peninsula connected to the continent of North America.  He had been appointed as Governor of Cuba and was charged by Spain with exploring and determining the extent of the land mass that lay just above Cuba on the map.  His methods were predictable, find Native tribes who would cooperate by supplying interpreters, bearers, camp women and other services to his men, as well as corn and other foodstuffs.  For tribes who chose not to cooperate, he was willing to take what he wanted by force.  In 1539, when his men encountered the Timucua, they were not initially interested in them other than what they could provide in the way of getting him to his next destination, the Apalachee.  De Soto had heard that the Apalachee possessed gold and he was eager to verify that for himself.  The Timucua were just a means to an end.  He stopped at a series of their villages, Ocale, Potano, Northern Utina, and Yustaga during his progress toward the Apalachee domain. 

His methods in each village were abrupt.  Take the corn stores by force, seize men who could serve as guides or bearers, and force women to perform other services besides cooking and camp cleaning.  In one village where he encountered resistance, Napituca, his men killed 200 warriors and seized supplies and hostages.  This was the first recorded massacre of Whites against Natives recorded in North America.  Nor was de Soto's behavior any better at any of the other Timucuan villages.  Finally, a village leader in Acuera had had enough and organized resistance.  In a series of guerilla raids his men took fourteen of de Soto's men alive and beheaded them, convincing de Soto to move on quickly.  The Timucua were the first, but would not be the last of his victims.