Timucua

One of the sketches by Le Moyne de Morgues that shows a Timucua village

The Timucua were a Native American tribe that lived in North Central Florida, mainly around the St. John's River. At the time of Columbus, Timucuan areas stretched from the Altamaha River in present-day Georgia to as far south as Orlando, Florida and from Jacksonville to the Aucilla River, yet never stretching to the Gulf of Mexico. Their name may come from the word atimoqua which means "lord" or "chief" in their own language, allegedly mistaken by the Spanish as the name of one of their chiefs. Another story is that the word Timucua comes from the word thimogona, meaning "my enemy" in the local tongue. Other names for the Timucua include Atimuca, Thimapoa, and Tomoca. The Timucuans are noted for their passiveness as compared to their neighbors, the Apalachee and Calusa as well as the successful missions that the Spanish established in their territory. The approximate population of the Timucua at the time of Columbus is estimated to be around 200,000 people. Image File history File links distribution of Timucua language info created by w:User:Ish_ishwar in 2005 released under CC-by-2. ... Image File history File links distribution of Timucua language info created by w:User:Ish_ishwar in 2005 released under CC-by-2. ... A sketch by Le Moyne that shows a Timucua village Thanks to http://www. ... A sketch by Le Moyne that shows a Timucua village Thanks to http://www. ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ... State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... The St. ... Columbus is a latinized version of the Italian surname Colombo, which means Dove. ... The Altamaha River is a major river of the US state of Georgia, and its 37,600 km (14,500 sq mi) watershed is the second largest in the eastern United States. ... Skyline of Orlando at night, from across Lake Eola The city of Orlando is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. ... The Jacksonville skyline and the Acosta Bridge. ... Gulf of Mexico. ... Apalachee were a Southeastern culture of Native Americans that lived in Florida. ... The Calusa, sometimes spelled Caloosa or Calosa, were a Native American group that lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Floridas southwest coast. ... Columbus is a latinized version of the Italian surname Colombo, which means Dove. ...

History

The pre-Colombian era is marked by a regular routine and probably small tribal wars with neighbors. The Timucuans may have been the first Native Americans to see the landing of Ponce de Leon near St. Augustine in 1513. Later, in 1528 the Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Navarez landed around Tampa Bay with the idea of establishing a permanent settlement and finding gold. Both ideas turned out to be dismal failures and his original expedition of 260 men marched to the north and west and soon withered down to just four survivors after shipwrecks off of Texas. In 1539, Hernando de Soto landed in Tampa Bay with 622 soldiers in further attempts to look for colinization opportunities and gold. Like Narvaez before him, de Soto soon marched north, meeting Timucuans along the way. However, both of these expeditions passed through Timucuan land in a few weeks and there wasn't a great deal of contact. The term Pre-Columbian is used to refer to the cultures of the New World in the era before significant European influence. ... A Sioux in traditional dress including war bonnet, circa 1908. ... See also Agueybana Hayuya Jumacao Discoverer of the Americas Categories: People stubs | 1460 births | 1521 deaths | History of Puerto Rico | Conquistadores ... Five flags have flown over St. ... Events January 20 - Christian II becomes King of Denmark and Norway. ... Events June 19 - Battle of Landriano - A French army in Italy under Marshal St. ... Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary on the western coast of Florida. ... Prior to 1821, Texas was part of the Spanish colony of New Spain. ... Events May 30 - In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal to find gold. ... Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (born 1496 or 1500, Jerez de los Caballeros, Extremadura, and died 21 May 1542, probably on a branch of the Mississippi river near present-day Lake City, Arkansas) was a Spanish navigator and conquistador; de Soto participated in the conquest of Panama at the...

The Timucuas' history changed after the establishment of St. Augustine in 1565 as the Spanish capital of their province of La Florida. From here, Spanish missionaries went out in order to convert the Timucua. A mission was built in each main town of the Timucuan chiefdoms. Unfortunately by 1595 the Timucuan population had shrunk by 75% due mainly disease and war. Five flags have flown over St. ... Events March 1 - the city of Rio de Janeiro is founded April 27 - Cebu City is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. ... La Florida (Spanish the flowery) is a populous municipality (comuna) of Chile located on the eastern part of the province of Santiago in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. ...

In 1564, French Huguenots founded Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville and attempted to establish further settlements along the St. John's River. After initial conflict, the Huguenots established friendly relations with the local natives in the area, primarily the Timucuans. One Frenchmen named Le Moyne de Morgues drew some sketches of the Timucuan peoples which have helped ethnographers in understanding these people. Meanwhile the Spanish under Pedro Menendez de Aviles sought to drive the French out and did so, killing everyone who defended. This caused a bit of a rift between the natives and Spanish, though soon Spanish missionaries were out in force. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. ... Fort Caroline was the first permanent French colony in North America, located near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. ... The Jacksonville skyline and the Acosta Bridge. ... The St. ... Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos = nation and graphe = writing) refers to the qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on months or years of fieldwork. ... Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles Pedro Menendez de Aviles (born 1519 in Avilés, Spain, dead in Santander on September 17, 1574), was the first Spanish governor of Florida. ...

By 1700 the population of the Timucuans had been reduced to just 1,000. In 1703 the British with the Creek, Catawba, and Yuchi began killing hundreds and enslaving thousands of the Timucua. Seventeen years later the number had dropped to just 250, in 1726 there were 176 and by 1752 only 26 remained. By the time of the acquistion of Florida by the United States in 1821, there were only a handful of Timucua left. They are now an extinct tribe. Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... The Creeks are an American Indian people originally from the southeastern United States, also known by their original name Muscogee (or Muskogee), the name they use to identify themselves today. ... The Catawba (also known as Issa or Esaw) are a tribe of Native Americans, once considered one of the most powerful eastern Siouan tribes, that traditionally lived in the Southeast United States, along the border between North and South Carolina. ... The Yuchi, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American Indian tribe originally living in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee, northern Georgia and northern Alabama. ... Events George Friderich Handel becomes a British subject. ... 1752 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Culture

Organization and Classes

Like most Native American tribes, the Timucua were not a unified and single tribe. Rather, they were split into a number of chiefdoms - perhaps 25-30 - with each chiefdom comprised of at least five hundred villages. Villages were divided into family clans, usually bearing animal names. Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ...

The chiefs were despotic and absolute in their power. There were three social classes - the nobles, common people and below that were prisoners-of-war who were slaves.

Customs

The Timucua were a people who had many ceremonies. There were numerous ceremonies and festivals for the harvesting season, planting season, marriages, funerals, wars, and fishing and hunting expeditions. Every ceremony had their own special rite, may it be fasting, feasting, prating or dancing. Human sacrifice was practiced among the Timucua. In some ceremonies, the first-born infant son was sacrificed to the Sun. By ancient tradition, the Sun is the light in the heavens whose presence is day and whose absence is night. ...

The Timucua played a version of the game called chunkey. In this game a concave shaped disc was rolled while a spear was thrown at it. The point was to throw the spear to the point they thought the disc would stop.

The chief had a council that met every morning when they would discuss the problems of the chiefdom and smoke. To initiate the meeting, the White Drink ceremony would be carried out. The drink was actually black in color, but the drink would purify the council members to make interaction more easy. The drink was made of holly and was highly caffinated. The council members were among the more highly respected members of the tribe.

Settlements

Settlements were quite small in the Timucua tribe and were naturally centered around a religious center. Each home was made of upright poles and circular in shape. Thatched palm leaves comprised the roof. Granaries were raised off the ground to keep them out of reach from wild animals. Each village was heavily stockaded and in the center of all of them would probably be a larger building made for religious or ceremonial purposes.

Diet

The Timucua were an semi-agricultural people and ate many foods native to North Central Florida. They planted corn, beans, squash and various vegatables as part of their diet. Archealogistss findings suggest that there may have been crop rotation. In order to plant the fields would be cleared with fire at first and then the soil would be prepared using various tools, such as the hoe. Later the women would plant the seeds using two sticks known as coa. In addition to these farming techniques the Timucua would hunt game (including alligators, manatees, and maybe even whales) , fish in the many streams and lakes in the area, collect wild fruits and berries and bake bread made from the root koonti. They also cultivated tabacco. Their crops were stored in granaries to protect them from the insects and weather. Meat would be cooked over an open fire known as the barbacoa, the origin of the word "barbeque". State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... Crop rotation is the practice of growing two (or more) dissimilar type of crops in the same space in sequence. ...

Physical Appearance

Spanish explorers were shocked at the size of the Timucua who could stand four inches or more above the Spanish. Perhaps to add to their height was the fact that Timucuan men would wear their hair in a bun on top of their heads. Everyone was heavily tatooed and such tatoos were gained by deeds. Children would begin to get their tatoos when assuming responsibility. The people of higher social class had more elaborate decorations on themselves, which were made by cutting into the skin. The Timucua had dark skin, usually brown and black hair. They wore clothes made from moss and cloth made from various animals.

Language

The Timucua langage was a language isolate, unrelated to other languages. Genetic relations have been proposed with Muskogean, Algonquian, Cariban, Siouan, Arawakan, and Chibchan languages. None of these proposals have been convincingly demonstrated. A language isolate is a natural language with no demonstrable genetic relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been proven to descend from a common ancestor to any other language. ... Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a language family of the Northern American Southeast. ... The Algonquian (also Algonkian) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic language family (others are Wiyot and Yurok of northwestern California). ... The Cariban languages are an indigenous language family of South America. ... The Siouan languages are a Native American language family of North America. ... The Arawakan languages are an indigenous language family of South America and the Caribbean. ... Chibchan languages are a language family indigenous to Colombia and Central America. ...

Most of what we know of their language comes from a Spanish-Timucuan document of 1688 and the works of Father Pareja and of Father Gregorio de Monilla who were missionaries for the Timucua. // Events A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the Immortal Seven, invite William and Mary to depose James II of England. ...

The language had 6-11 dialects:

• Timucua proper
• Potano
• Itafi
• Yufera
• Mocama
• Tucururu
• Agua Fresca
• Agua Salada
• Acuera
• Oconi
• Tawasa

Most of the documentation is from Mocoma and Potano.

Sounds

Timucua has 13 consonants: Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

Timucua has 5 vowels: Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Alveolars are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the internal side of the upper gums (known as the alveoles of the upper teeth). ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... The vocal cords, also known as vocal folds, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the human larynx. ... Labialisation is a secondary articulatory feature of phonemes in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Rhotic consonants, or R-like sounds, are non-lateral liquids. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-18, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Reference

• http://www.nps.gov/timu/indepth/foca/foca_timucua.htm
• http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians/indian.htm

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Crawford, James. (1975). Southeastern Indian languages. In J. Crawford (Ed.), Studies in southeastern Indian languages (pp. 1-120). Athens, GA: University of Georgia.
• Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-1604-8774-9.
• Granberry, Julian. (1990). A grammatical sketch of Timucua. International Journal of American Linguistics, 56, 60-101.
• Granberry, Julian. (1993). A grammar and dictionary of the Timucua language (3rd ed.). Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. (1st edition 1984).
• Milanch, Jerald T. (2004). Timucua. In R. D. Fogelson (Ed.), Southeast (p. 219-228). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 17) (W. C. Sturtevant, Gen. Ed.). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Mooney, James. (1910). Timucua. Bureau of American Ethnology, bulletin (No. 30.2, p. 752).
• Pareja, Fray Francisco. (1614). Arte y pronunciación en lengua timvquana y castellana. Mexico: Emprenta de Ioan Ruyz.
• Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978-present). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1-3, 16, 18-20 not yet published).
• Swanton, John R. (1946). The Indians of the southeastern United States. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 137). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.