CALUSA

The Calusa were cannibals, pirates, and master builders and carvers. Or were they? Were they a Muskogean-speaking people from the north or some unknown people, perhaps even migrants from the Caribbean or South America?

The people known as Calusa (pronounced cuh-LOO-suh) lived along the Gulf Coast of the Florida peninsula from present-day Tampa Bay southward to the Florida Keys. One mystery surrounding these people is their origin. It is thought that they were related linguistically to other Muskogeans of the Southeast Culture Area, but this connection is not known for certain. Since the Calusa had as many cultural traits in common with native peoples across the Gulf of Mexico as with other SOUTHEAST INDIANS, for example the use of blowguns for hunting and fighting and the use of poison for fishing, it has even been theorized that they arrived in Florida from the sea. In any case, it is known that the Calusa had seaworthy dugout canoes and communicated with the ARAWAK (taino) of the Caribbean.

The Calusa perhaps had another trait typical of native peoples to their south—human sacrifice, along with cannibalism. Some North American tribes practiced cannibalism, but it was usually for ritualistic purposes, such as eating an enemy’s heart to gain his strength. Eating human flesh for survival, as some South American tribes did, was rare. The exact extent of the Calusa cannibalism is unknown, however. Early explorers sometimes exaggerated the extent of the practice in their writings about

Indians. (A captive among them in the mid-1500s, the Spaniard Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, claimed their name means “fierce people,” although others assert it was derived from the Spanish name Carlos after Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain).

It is known that the Calusa had a class system similar to that of both Caribbean and Southeast tribes, with nobles, commoners, and slaves. Slaves were for the most part captives from other tribes.

The Calusa have been referred to as pirates. By the time the Spanish had contact with them in the 1500s, the Calusa already had quantities of gold and silver. Some Calusa might have raided Spanish galleons on treasure runs from Mexico to Spain. Others perhaps attacked shipwrecked crews. In any case, it is known for certain that the Calusa were beachcombers who gathered the cargos of ships destroyed in the tricky waters off their coast.

One other tantalizing mystery surrounds the Calusa. Were they the Indians of Key Marco? In 1884, an archaeologist by the name of Frank Hamilton Cushing found on this small island the remains of a highly developed culture, including human-made seawalls, jetties, and drainage basins; shell, bone, and tooth tools; and exquisitely carved wooden masks and wooden animal figures with movable parts. These complex structures and beautifully crafted objects may have been the work of early Calusa.

What is known about the Calusa comes from the writings of early Spanish explorers as well as from those

Made contact with them in 1516; and so did Hernandes de Cordoba in 1517. Ponce de Leon again landed among them in 1521, with intentions of founding a settlement. But he offended his hosts, who attacked him and his men, fatally wounded him with an arrow, and forced his expedition back to Cuba. Another Spaniard by the name of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda was shipwrecked on Calusa shores and held captive from 1551 to 1569. He wrote about his experience, recording details of Calusa lifeways.

Calusa (probably) wooden statue of a puma

Of later Euroamerican military men and settlers. Other tribes have also passed on information about the Calusa through their own oral traditions.

It is known that Juan Ponce de Leon, the man who claimed Florida for Spain and gave that part of North America its name (florida is the Spanish word for “flowery”), visited the Calusa Indians in 1513; Diego Miruelo

The Spanish again tried to establish a mission among the Calusa about this same period, but they abandoned the post before very long without having converted the tribal members to Catholicism. Because of their trade relations with the Spanish, the Calusa were later subject to attacks by the British and their Indian allies. By 1745, many Calusa, along with APALACHEE and TIMUCUA, had been taken to the Carolinas as slaves. Other Calusa went to the West Indies to escape the raids.

Descendants of those Calusa who stayed behind fought alongside the SEMINOLE in the Second Seminole War of 1835-42. In 1839, a band of Calusa, calling themselves Muspa after a village name, attacked the camp of Colonel William Harney, killing 18 of his men. What happened to the Calusa after this period is not known. Perhaps remaining tribal members traveled west with the Seminole or disappeared into the Everglades with them. Perhaps survivors followed their ancestors to Cuba. Their ultimate fate is a mystery, like so much else about this tribe.