Description
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European contact, Timucuan speakers occupied about 19,200 square miles in the present-day states of Florida and Georgia, with an estimated population of 200,000. Milanich notes that the population density calculated from those figures.
Language
Timucua
Culture
The Timucua grew much of their own food and stayed in relatively the same places from year to year. Important crops to Timucua farmers were pumpkins, cucumbers, peas, gourds, maize, and beans, as well as other fruits and starches. The Timucua primarily gathered hickory nuts, berries, and acorns, which grew plentifully on vines and trees. They fished and hunted, as well as gathered things like Spanish moss from the nature around them. Fish and seafood, as their primary source of protein, were incredibly important to the Timucua diet. The Timucua were skilled at building canoes to catch fish.