Audio
Saturiwa Trail Tour Stop 17
Transcript
MARKER #17 – CHIEF SATURIWA
As mentioned, each period of occupants that lived on Fort George Island altered the landscape: (the middens, the plantations, the missions, the mosquito ditches, the cooling towers and other construction). Miraculously, the Island has accommodated to the impacts and still retained the amenities that attract us: the climate, the luxurious flora, the location, and the surrounding water.
The native people that greeted Jean Ribault in 1562 were members of the Saturiwa tribe.
The European were probably the first to refer to the native people as “The Timucua”. The people on San Juan Island spoke the Mocama dialect of Timucuan.
Much of what we assume about the Timucua today is really due to the interpretation of the people by the Europeans, and thus may in some cases have a European slant to it, or be misrepresented. As a result of their interpretation and the passage of time, a number of different pronunciations of the word Timucua and its derivatives are commonly used today.
I would like to tell you a little bit about how we believe the Timucua people lived. The Europeans reported that the Timucua were a very tall people, the men wore loin cloth made of animal skin (similar to bathing suit material today) and the women wore clothes made from Spanish moss. It was draped across their body diagonally. The clans were traced across Maternal lines.
Their houses were circular inverted cone shaped structures with thatched roofs. They had a low door on the side and a chimney hole at the top. They kept warm with fires, and used smaller smudge fires to keep the bugs away. The walls did not come all the way down to the ground, but they probably had some type of sleeping benches made of river cane. They built small “pahas” nearby for storage which were small areas sealed with mud.
The Timucua are reported to have grown corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, used herbal medicines and used fires as a hunting tactic. Although they ate mainly fish and shellfish, they did do some hunting. They made what they needed from nature. Portions of tools, dishes, fishhooks, shell axes, and shell bowls have been found in the middens.
Follow the rest of this dirt road and take your next left at the stop sign just after the road turns to pavement and proceed to Marker # 18
Description
Chief Saturiwa
Credit
Florida Park Service/NPS
Date Created
12/21/2021
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