"Outstanding. . . . Brings to life the Apalachee and their Spanish conquerors. In clear, concise prose it paints a picture of the Apalachee and their society and shows how their interactions with Spanish explorers, missionaries, and colonists shaped the history of their society."--John F. Scarry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The Apalachee Indians of northwest Florida and their Spanish conquerors come alive in this story -- lavishly illustrated with 120 color reproductions -- story of their premier community, San Luis. With a cast of characters that includes friars, soldiers, civilians, a Spanish governor, and a diverse native population, the book portrays the dwellings, daily life, religious practices, social structures, and recreation activities at the mission. From their prehistoric ancestors and first contact with Europeans in the 1500s to their dispersal following attacks by the English and by their Native American allies in the early 1700s, the Apalachee played important roles in the history of Florida and of native peoples throughout the Southeast. The San Luis community near Tallahassee, the most thoroughly investigated mission in Florida, served as Spain's provincial capital in America. From 1656 to its conquest by the English, it flourished as the only significant Spanish settlement in Florida outside of St. Augustine. Written by the two foremost authorities on the Florida Apalachee, this full-color volume offers general readers a compelling combination of archaeology and history. John H. Hann is a research historian at the San Luis Archaeological and Historic Site and a leading scholar on the missions of Spanish Florida. He is the author of Apalachee: The Land Between the Rivers (UPF, 1988), Missions to the Calusa (UPF, 1991), and History of the Timucua Indians and Missions (UPF, 1996). Bonnie G. McEwan, director of archaeology at the San Luis site in Tallahassee, has conducted research in the Southeast, California, Spain, and the Caribbean. She is the editor of The Spanish Missions of La Florida (UPF, 1993). Financed in part with historic preservation grant assistance provided by the Bureau of Historic Preservation, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, assisted by the Historic Preservation Advisory Council.

Discusses the history, language, customs, and daily life of the Timucua Indians who lived in northern Florida and southern Georgia. Includes activities to reinforce information presented.

Timucua indians inhabited northern Florida and southern Georgia for 13 millenia before coming into contact with Europeans in 1513 with the arrival of Ponce deLeon. 250 years later, they were extinct. This book attempts to answer questions regarding who they were and how they lived.

The Timucua Indians lived in the Northeast and Central part of Florida. They are the Indian tribe that gave curious Europeans their first picture of Native Americans. These were paintings done by artist Jacques LeMoyne, who came with a French expedition to North Florida in 1564. His assignment was to map the coast and to portray the natives. The Timucua Indians were a tall, handsome people, noted for their heavily tattooed bodies. They survived living with French and Spanish explorers for many years, but their numbers slowly dwindled. The Timucua Indians, who once had numbered 15,000, became a vanished tribe by the mid-eighteenth century. In their 2,000 years of occupation, the Timucua Indians did little to alter the natural landscape. Their remaining burial and ceremonial mounds and shell middens are like an unwritten book about the people who lived here. In addition to introducing the reader to Florida's Timucua Indians, this book describes the importance of anthropology and archaeology, identifies important documenters of Timucua Indian history, and describes several historical Timucua Indian mounds and middens that exist today.

Taken from surviving contemporary documentary sources, the author describes the grammar and lexicon of the extinct 17th-century Timucua language of Central and North Florida.

"Author is the premier historian of Native American groups that lived in Florida during period of European colonization. This work - a solid, ground-breaking, in-depth study of the Timucua - is as scholarly and illuminating as his previous works"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Learn how the Timucua Indians lived, including unique fishing traps, the arrival of Europeans, and sports they played.