Discover Florida Tours has produced a new video about the Tocobaga people who lived in the Jungle for over 600 years.
Highlights of the video:
- The first humans arrived in Florida at least 14,000 years ago.
- There is no written historic record of these people until the Spanish arrived in 1513 and began documenting the New World.
- The Tocobaga occupied territory on the west coast of Florida from north of Crystal River to Charlotte Harbor to the south.
- The principal city of the Tocobaga was in current day Safety Harbor.
- The Tocobaga lived during the Mississippian cultural era from 1000 A.D. to 1600.
- They were a matrilineal society ‒ women were often leaders and property and title were passed down through the maternal line.
- They were expert fisherman who used an array of tools to catch fish.
- Tocobaga villages are characterized by large mounds of earth and shell.
- They participated in a trade network that brought gold from North Georgia and copper from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
- After the Spanish arrived, smallpox, typhoid, measles and cholera reduced the population by 90% within 100 years.
- No longer able to defend their territory, most of the remaining Tocobaga left the area. The Seminoles moved in and intermingled with the few remaining Tocobaga.
Related: The Tocobaga People Lived Responsibly and Cared for the Jungle Neighborhood for Over 600 Years
Click here to watch on You Tube.
From the video description:
The Tocobaga people controlled the Tampa Bay area for more than 600 years (1,000 - 1,600 AD). Who were they? Where did they come from, and where are they now? We attempt to answer these questions and more in this video!
You can take a 90-minute guided tour of the best-preserved Tocobaga shell mound in the Tampa Bay Area at the Jungle Prada Site in St. Petersburg. Visit our website for more information.
