Where

• One of the first tribes in South Florida that settled near Biscayne Bay, was the Tequesta Tribe. In the 16th Century they had a village on Cape Sable and were known to occupy some of the Florida Keys. A village was found at the mouth of the Miami River dating back to 1200 A.D.

 

Community/Culture

• Tequesta means “Central Town.” This was also the name of the chief who lived in the main village in central town.

• Their language was closely related to the Calusa's and Mayaimi's. There are only tens words that have been recorded from their language.

• The men of the tribe hunted sharks, porpoises, sea cows, and sailfish in the waters. The women and children collected conchs, oysters, clams and turtle eggs. Men went to the Everglades to hunt wild boar, deer, small mammals and bear.

• The sea cow was considered a delicacy and was only served to the chief and other prominent leaders.

• During the three months of mosquito season, they moved their inhabitants to the barrier islands or Florida Keys.

• In one historic account, it said that during a chief's burial, the tribe members would bury his small bones and put the big bones in a box. The box would then be put it in the middle of the village for the people to adore, cherish, and worship like a God. 

• Another account said that they burned their chiefs flesh and gave their bones to their relatives and the larger bones to their closest relations.

 

Crops

• They gathered coco plums, palmetto berries, palm nuts and sea grapes.

• Flour was made by grinding up roots of certain plants. Unfortunately, the geographic location didn't make growing plants easy for the tribe. Therefore, they never became a large and powerful tribe like the Calusa.

 

Homes/Tools

• Shells and shark's teeth were used for a variety of tools. Hammers, fishhooks, chisels, spear heads, and drinking cups are a few examples.

• Sharks teeth were used to carve out logs and make canoes for hunting expeditions.

• Their houses were never permanent and were made similar to chickee huts. The homes were thatched together with palmetto leaves.

• They had a main kitchen area, known as the midden, which was used by everyone. There were shells, ashes, bones and broken pottery in the kitchen and always access to the water.

 

Clothes

• They wore very little clothing.

• The men wore a loin cloth that was from dear cloth or palmetto leaves.

• The women wore skirts from moss or plant fiber hanging from a belt.

 

General Information

• During the 1500s, European settlers started coming to the area.

• The tribe did not welcome the Europeans at first, but then befriended them after many gifts including colored clothes, knives and rum.

• The tribe started with 800 members. The tribe started to die out as a result from settlement battles, slavery and disease.

• By the 1800s, there were only a few Tequesta survivors.