Description
The Mayaimi were Native American people who lived around Lake Mayaimi (now Lake Okeechobee) in the Belle Glade area of Florida from the beginning of the Common Era until the 17th or 18th century. In the languages of the Mayaimi, Calusa, and Tequesta tribes, Mayaimi meant "big water." The current name, Okeechobee, is derived from the Hitchiti word meaning "big water". The Mayaimis have no linguistic or cultural relationship with the Miami people of the Great Lakes region. The city of Miami is named after the Miami River, which derived its name from Lake Mayaimi. The Mayaimis have no linguistic or cultural relationship with the Miami people of the Great Lakes region. The city of Miami is named after the Miami River, which derived its name from Lake Mayaimi.
Language
The language of the Calusa, Mayaimi and Tequesta people is related to the Tunica language.
Culture
Living on the Atlantic coast, the Mayaimi were a fishing community with fighting villages all along the coast. Unlike the northern tribes, the Mayaimi were coastal mound builders who built large mounded villages near modern day Lake Okeechobee. The Mayaimis built ceremonial and village earthwork mounds around Lake Okeechobee similar to those of the Mississippian culture and earlier mound builders. They dug many canals as other earthworks, to use as pathways for their canoes. The dugout canoes were a platform type with shovel-shaped ends, resembling those used in Central America and the West Indies, rather than the pointed-end canoes used by other peoples in the southeastern United States.